Summary: Google has just pledged that it won't sue other companies over open-source patents if they don't sue Google first, but this is actually a long established policy. Now, if only it could stop the patent wars!

Google's Open Patent Non-Assertion (OPN) Pledge in which Google promises "not to sue any user, distributor or developer of open-source software on specified patents, unless first "attacked" sounds good. Indeed, it is good. But, this is far from the first time that Google has made such a pledge. Indeed, open-source companies have long banded together to protect themselves and their patents from outside attackers.

The most important protector of open-source patents is the Open Invention Network (OIN). The  OIN was formed in 2005 by IBM, Sony, Philips, Red Hat, and Novell. Google joined the OIN in 2007.

Summary: The Linux Foundation's latest enterprise survey shows Linux is continuing to grow by leaps and bounds.

The Linux Foundation and Yeoman Technology Group surveyed 355 IT staffers who work for enterprises with sales of more than $500 million and/or 500+ employees. Guess what? They found — as the foundation reveals in its 2013 Enterprise End User Report, Linux Adoption: Third Annual Survey of World's Largest Enterprise Linux Users in the most recent quarter (4Q12) — that big business loves big Linux.

That shouldn't come as any surprise. IDG, for example, found in the last quarter of 2012 that while overall server revenue is only growing at 3.1 percent year over year, Linux experienced 12.7 percent year-over-year growth for the quarter, while Windows only increased 3.2 percent and Unix was down 24.1 percent.

Summary: One of the best-known Android developers is leaving Samsung for a new, as yet unknown, project.

Lots of users love Samsung's take on Android. But, will they continue to love it now that Steve Kondik, the well-regarded founder of the CyanogenMod alternative Android firmware, has left the company?

In a Google+ posting about the new Samsung Galaxy S4, Kondik mentioned in passing that he had left Samsung: "I got to spend some quality time with the S4 (final hardware) before I left Samsung."

Summary: Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt actually did not say that Chrome OS and Android would remain forever apart.

Numerous news stories, based on a single Reuters report, state that Eric Schmidt, Google's Executive Chairman had said that Android and Chrome OS would remain separate products with possibly some overlap, appear to be incorrect.

Schmidt actually did not rule out the new Linux-based operating systems eventually merging. Joe Wilcox of BetaNews found a video of Schmidt's question and answer session at the Google Big Tent Summit in New Delhi India. In the video, we see Schmidt answering a question about whether or not Google might put an end to Android or Chrome OS now that one person, Sundar Pichai, will lead both Android and Chrome groups.

Summary: Chromebooks are now on sale in more places around the world than ever. In part, that may be because Google's high-end Chromebook Pixel has a very well-known and enthusiastic fan: Linux's inventor, Linus Torvalds.

Google's already popular Chromebooks are getting more popular than ever.

Not only has HP recently joined in selling these Linux-based, lightweight netbooks, but now Acer, HP and Samsung Chromebooks are available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. Part of the reason behind this broader availability may because the Chromebook, especially the high-end Chromebook Pixel, has a very well-known and enthusiastic fan: Linux's inventor, Linus Torvalds.

Summary: While the Linux-based operating system wasn't really cracked at Pwnium, Google has decided to award a hacker $40,000 for finding an unreliable Chrome OS exploit.

As computer security guru Bruce Schneier likes to say, "Security is a process, not a product." He was proven right again when Google announced that, while its Linux-based Chrome OS hadn't been cracked in its Pwnium Chrome OS contest, one hacker was successful in creating an an unreliable exploit.

Specifically, the hacker known as Pinkie Pie, who cracked the Chrome Web browser on Windows last year in Google's security contest, "submitted a plausible bug chain involving video parsing, a Linux kernel bug and a config file error. The submission included an unreliable exploit demonstrating one of the bugs."

Summary: We still don't know where Google is going with Android and Chrome OS, but putting Chrome's top executive in charge of Android is a big, honking hint.

So, will Google call it hybrid Android/Chrome operating system? Will it be Chromezoid? Android OS? ChromeDroid OS? ChromeAndrogeny!?

We still don't know that Google will be marrying Chrome OS and Android into one operating system. But Sundar Pichai, the head of all things Chrome at Google is replacing Andy Rubin, Android's founder, as Android's top dog. I think that says a lot.

Summary: After much heated discussion, Mark Shuttleworth has a new proposal on how Ubuntu Linux should handle rolling releases.

Canonical, Ubuntu Linux's parent company, has an ambitious plan with a short time-frame: One operating system for computers, smartphones, tablets and TVs by early 2014. One problem with this is how do you get there fast enough and one answer, rolling releases, has got developers upset. Now, Canonical and Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has a new proposal on how to handle rolling releases.

This issue of rolling releases, where major changes and improvements are released to users as soon as possible, combined with Canonical focusing on these forthcoming platforms and on the Unity interface, has really annoyed some Ubuntu programmers. Still as Jonathan Riddell, the team lead of Kubuntu, the Ubuntu version that uses KDE for its interface, said In a Muktware interview, "Canonical has upset quite a few contributors to Ubuntu Desktop by moving away from integrating community-made software like Gnome and developing their own.  While that has less of a warm fuzzy feeling for those of us who love community-made software, I don't blame them. Apple and Google have solved Bug No. 1 (Microsoft has a majority market share) while nobody yet has gotten near using community-made software. So it's quite reasonable to move to a new model."

Summary: Linux, once again, proved to be far more secure than most other operating systems as Google's Linux-based Chrome OS shrugged off its attackers at the $3.14-million Pwnium cracking competition.

The Chrome Web browser on Windows is breakable, but its little brother, the Linux-based Chrome OS, proved to be essentially uncrackable at the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver, Canada,

In a separate security contest from the HP Zero Day Initiative's (ZDI) Pwn2Own competition, Microsoft's IE 10, Google's Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox Web browsers were all cracked. In addition, Java was also cracked multiple times.

Google's Chrome OS, thanks to the growing popularity of Chromebooks, is being used by more and more people. Many people know that Chrome OS has a Linux foundation. But how Chrome OS developed from Linux, and exactly what is in Chrome OS today, has been something of a mystery -- until now.

The actual origin of Chrome OS, even now, is unclear. Jeff Nelson, a former Google engineer, claimed that he created a "a new operating system" that "was originally code-named 'Google OS' and since 2009 has been released to the public under the product names, Google Chrome OS, Chromebook, and Chromebox." For proof, Nelson points to his patent, granted later, for network-based operating system across devices.

Nelson added that this "bare-bones Linux distribution," created in 2006, "was initially rejected by Google management" because you couldn't "use it on an airplane." Its interface was also the Firefox Web browser instead of the yet-to-be-invented Chrome Web browser.