Archive

One of the most common security challenges Linux and Unix IT administrators face is how to effectively manage the root or super-user account. In an age of regulatory compliance and data privacy laws -- and as more and more organizations elect to run mission-critical financial, customer relationship ...

Dell's new IdeaStorm Web site, which invites the public to post ideas and product suggestions to Dell, has exploded with interest in desktop Linux. Thousands of site community members have asked Dell to preinstall several different versions of Linux on desktop and laptop computers, prompting Dell to...

IBM is offering no guarantees that its Linux-based applications are compatible with Oracle's new version of the Linux operating system. As a result, users of the recently released Oracle Enterprise Linux OS who have problems integrating IBM applications will have to call on Oracle -- or sort out the...

Japan's Turbolinux began shipping its Wizpy digital media devices on Friday. The Flash-based, USB device includes a version of the Linux operating system that can be used to run the open source OS on nearly any computer. According to Turbolinux, the idea behind the device is "to turn all the world's...

Eric Raymond, a key figure behind the Red Hat Linux distribution, has sparked a storm of controversy by shifting his allegiance to the rival open source platform Ubuntu. The influential developer and cofounder of the Open Source Initiative used a popular Linux mailing list as his platform this week ...

IT management firm Kace released this week an enhanced version of its Kbox 1000 series systems management appliances. While previous versions of the Kbox supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and 4, a key component of the latest Kbox release is enhanced support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0, which...

The South African government announced Thursday it is ditching proprietary software for a new policy and strategy based on free and open source software. Under the new plan, all new software developed for or by the government of South Africa will be based on open standards -- which in itself doesn't...

For the first time ever, Wikipedia last month cracked into comScore's top 10 hottest properties on the Web, largely due to the exposure the online encyclopedia receives from search engines like Google. During January, comScore reported that Wikipedia and its affiliated sites garnered 42.9 million un...

A new vulnerability in Snort, an open source intrusion-detection system, enables hackers to inject hostile code into exposed systems. Sourcefire, the company behind the Snort package, said hackers could remotely gain control of systems running the software and execute malicious code, as well as gain...

The software industry isn't what it used to be. Open source software, globalization and outsourcing have irrevocably changed the sector and the skills needed by those who choose to work in it. That's the reason Carnegie Mellon West announced last week a new degree program that it maintains will give...

Open source is experiencing unprecedented growth, according to OpenLogic CEO Steve Grandchamp. His company maintains a library of several hundred certified open source projects that it integrates into customers' computer configurations. Customers can combine these projects or use them individually. ...

Open source solutions provider Red Hat has joined the Interop Vendor Alliance in an effort to make its products more interoperable with Microsoft's extensive environment. The move makes Red Hat the latest in a growing line of Linux distributors cozying up with Redmond by joining the alliance -- a gr...

IBM unveiled three new offerings this week designed to consolidate Web-tier Linux servers in increasingly complicated IT environments. The new offerings, a trio of machines running Linux or IBM's AIX Unix operating system, will help businesses consolidate more than 1.6 million Linux servers that are...

Sun Microsystems announced this week the release of an optimized AMP stack for its Unix-based Solaris 10 operating system and an expansion of its open source developer tools. Sun released a new distribution of its Solaris Express, Developer Edition and announced an expanded pricing structure for its...

Following Wednesday's announcement of the formation of the Open Solutions Alliance by a group of 10 vendors, Unisys said it would join the nonprofit consortium. The OSA, which was announced at the LinuxWorld OpenSolutions Summit in New York, is dedicated to promoting comprehensive open source busine...