Well, the snow continues to fall here in the Linux blogosphere, and Linux Girl is beginning to wonder if it will ever end. Bread and milk are still in short supply at the local FOSS-y-Mart; children are getting cabin fever; and the snow drifts are getting taller than many netizens. Down at the Broken Windows Lounge, in fact, the snow now blocks out most of the light that would be shining through, making it seem as if there are no windows there at all. Such, perhaps, was the inspiration behind a recent conversation that’s come close to fisticuffs.

In this business climate, the road to striking a venture capital deal is difficult for both funder and fundee. Small startups with big ideas obviously have a harder time finding VC firms willing to take a chance on them, but those VC firms themselves are under added pressure to make the correct decisions regarding where to put their limited resources. In the case of Sierra Ventures, one of its latest bets is on a firm called “webappVM.” WebappVM is attempting a next-generation approach to application management that leverages cloud architecture.

It’s a well-known fact that humans love lists, and the media are generally all too happy to oblige. Recently, however, mixed in among the many “Top 10″ lists and “10 Ways to …” articles out there was one that seemed worthy of attention. “10 Characteristics of a Linux Guru?” was the title of the post, which came from DaniWeb’s Ken Hess. “I’ve known many knowledgeable people over the years but never have I met an actual guru,” Hess began. “I’ve worked with Linux since 1995 and still wouldn’t call myself a guru,” he added.

Oracle announced on Wednesday the completion of its $7 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems. At a briefing on its plans, Oracle pledged to reenergize Sun’s brand name, products and other assets. Further, Oracle said it will continue its commitment to open systems and Java. “We’ll invest in Java One; it’ll just go global,” Oracle Copresident Charles Phillips told an audience at the Oracle conference center in Redwood Shores, Calif. “It’ll be colocated with Oracle Open World, and we’ll add Brazil, Russia, India and China. We can afford to invest in things that Sun couldn’t.”

Linux inched ahead in the operating-system arena during the final month of 2009, even as Windows and Mac gave up some ground. That’s according to research firm Net Applications, which recently released its Market Share report covering operating systems in December. Linux accounted for 1.02 percent of the market in December, up from an even 1 percent the month before, Net Applications reported. Windows fell from 92.52 percent in November to 92.21 percent in December, while Mac fell from 5.12 percent to 5.11 percent during the same time.