Archive

In a momentous move to end a long-standing rivalry, Intel and One Laptop per Child announced Friday that the chip giant has climbed on board the nonprofit group's effort to produce low-cost laptop computers for developing nations. OLPC aims to bring laptops and learning opportunities to the most rem...

It's probably safe to say that most Americans, at one time or another, have felt they could do a better job of governing the nation than their elected officials. It may even be safe, in fact, to say that that has never been more true than it is today. "Bush's approval ratings are as low as it's poss...

Information security firm OpenLogic on Wednesday began letting users download its Discovery application, a free software tool that scans Windows, Linux and Solaris machines for all installed open source software. OpenLogic Discovery identifies more than 5,000 versions of the top 900 open source pack...

In an interesting twist on browser-based security issues, security researchers said they have found a flaw in which Microsoft's Internet Explorer can cause Mozilla's Firefox to execute remote malicious code. Security firm Secunia released an advisory Tuesday, ranking the flaw as highly critical. The...

The Federal Communications Commission is working out the rules for what could be the most important radio spectrum auction for years to come. At stake is the right to use spectrum in the coveted 700 MHz bands, which are characterized by the ability to travel long distances and go through the walls o...

Remember back when the primary use for the VCR was recording television shows playing at one time to watch them at a more convenient hour? Time-shifting has long been a technique of gadget lovers, and open source software advocates are no exception. "Open source participants are spread around the wo...

Microsoft has issued a statement about its position in regard to the Free Software Foundation's version 3 of the GNU General Public License, which was crafted in part to protect users from possible Microsoft patent infringement lawsuits. Microsoft's stance? The company, in four paragraphs of text, e...

Sure, you can walk into any big-box bookstore and see several shelves full of volumes about open source software. Likewise, the Web sites of Linux-related companies and organizations are chock-full of white papers and articles analyzing one or another's position on open source hot topics. However, t...

PHP developer Zend Technologies announced July 2 the release of version 1.0 of Zend Framework, an open source application framework for PHP. Zend Framework 1.0, pre-released in beta versions since last year, is the result of collaboration from 230 contributors comprised of individual developers and ...

In what could be a victory for Microsoft and a blow to the open source community, the state of Massachusetts has added Microsoft's Office Open XML standard to its list of potential standards it will allow for government use. The inclusion of Office Open XML came in the latest version of Massachusett...

After an unprecedented development process that brought four drafts in eighteen months, the Free Software Foundation has released the third version of the GNU General Public License, the world's most popular free software license. "Since we founded the free software movement over 23 years ago, the f...

In addition to its versions for Windows and Mac, Google has launched a Linux version of Google Desktop. The application lets users search both the Web and their own PC hard drive for Gmail, Web history, music, photos and other files. "Since some Linux users are program developers, Google Desktop was...

Untangle launched on Tuesday an open source network gateway platform to stop spam, spyware and virus attacks for small and medium-sized businesses. The Untangle Gateway Platform is based on technology that virtualizes the network stream. It is built around more than 30 best-of-breed, open source pro...

It's often said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Nothing could be more applicable to IT management. IT managers are in a constant fire drill, responding to some "unbeatable fire" when they are desperate to correct an ensuing dis...

As Microsoft's saber-rattling patent infringement claims continue to resound throughout the open source world, Linux distributor Mandriva is the latest player to stand up to Microsoft and draw a line in the sand. Last fall, Microsoft and Novell signed a multi-faceted patent-protection agreement, whi...