This week we open with some good news for Builder AU members (and if you are receiving this newsletter then you surely are). You’re eligible to receive a $100 discount for the upcoming Web Directions South conference starting August 31 in Sydney’s Darling Harbour.

Citrix has come out of nowhere to snap up XenSource for a cool half billion dollars. This is the latest large company to purchase an open source software company, and this time the cries of foul play or concern for the fate of the source code were strangely absent. Is that because there is an open source backup, so to speak, with KVM? We shall see.

Google featured in stories quite a lot this week. There was the announcement of the local version of Google Maps closing the feature gap with the US version of the service. Next we have the announcement of StarOffice being incorporated in the Google Pack, and lastly Microsoft deployed its lobbyists to oppose Google’s purchase of Doubleclick.

On the Microsoft side of the fence, Matt Asay took a swipe at Sharepoint and how it could be used as new tool for lock-in in the enterprise. Here at Builder AU we don’t exactly see eye-to-eye with Asay’s argument that open source solutions are a better fit because of code control.

Builder AU were on hand at Tech.Ed last week and tracked down Local user experience evangelist for Microsoft, Shane Morris, who declared that a new role known as the “diviner” is rising in the gap between developer and designer. The video is good viewing as it provides a point of view from the designer’s frame of reference.

Finally we have a decision in one of the most drawn out cases of recent times — Novell vs SCO. A judge has ruled that Unix is the copyright property of Novell. Hopefully now the other cases will be put to bed rather quickly and that will be the end of the matter; until the appeals start.