Archive

What differentiates a Mac user from a PC user, assuming the usage decision is uncoerced by an employer? My wife answered that question with a list straight from Jeff Foxworthy: You think virus protection is what you get a flu shot for; You actually make a conscious choice in selecting your Web brows...

The independent, open-source KDE Project today announced the availability of KDE 3.3.2, a maintenance release for its latest, most advanced free desktop suite for GNU/Linux and other UNIX systems. KDE 3.3.2 ships with a basic desktop and eighteen other packages including administration, network, edu...

PalmSource, the separate company that develops the palmOne mobile operating system, announced today it would buy China MobileSoft, whose Linux technology will give PalmSource an instant foothold in the open-source market. Analysts praised the move. "PalmSource will greatly extend its reach in both t...

Industry analysts say the fastest growing operating system in the world -- Linux -- could be experiencing growing pains as growth outpaces the supply of IT professionals with expertise in this area. "Linux is increasing its market share so rapidly that, in consequence, some companies find it difficu...

Riding on the Firefox 1.0 fanfare that saw more than 9 million users download the open-source Web browser, the Mozilla Foundation today announced the launch of its Thunderbird 1.0 mail client. Thunderbird focuses on new features and settings to help stop spam and prevent viruses, the two biggest pro...

Every four years, the fall sport becomes following U.S. presidential politics. As any sports fan knows, you have to know the lingo to understand the talking heads. I take politics seriously, so after hearing the expressions "red-state" and "blue-state," I did my research and learned that red is th...

Microsoft and Sun Microsystems say that eight months into their 10-year cooperative alliance, dividends are already being paid in the form of increased interoperability of their products. The companies, which reached a groundbreaking deal in March that settled years-old lawsuits and brought the two ...

A coalition of over 60 European open-source service providers earlier this week united to form an organization dubbed the Open Source Consortium (OSC). The group's stated purpose is to act as an independent reference point to give an unbiased "proprietary-vendor free" voice for all organizations dep...

If a couple of guys build a company from scratch and then do a billion dollar IPO, where does the market value come from? More importantly, what does the valuation process mean to the typical business employee? I got to thinking about this during a review of online gaming a couple of weeks ago becau...

The same group that said that free and open-source software was a bigger security risk than commercial software and also claimed that Linus Torvalds ripped off the Linux kernel plans to release a new report in a few weeks. Ken Brown, director of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution's technology pro...

Sybase said today that it has struck a deal with IBM in which Big Blue will market and distribute Sybase's Linux database management software. IBM will market the Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) solution from Sybase for use on its eServer OpenPower platform. The customized version of the software i...

Linux solutions developer Xandros today announced that Wal-Mart's online store is carrying a full range of Linux desktop computers with the pre-installed Xandros Desktop Operating System. Built by Microtel and available at Walmart.com, the offerings provide a range of inexpensive home, school and sm...

When Elvis sang "Don't be Cruel," he certainly wasn't referring to contracts. But contracts, like love affairs and other personal relationships, can often make the parties involved behave harshly to each other. When the rivalry involves money, as the old saying goes, business is business. I have s...

It's nice to know someone is reading my column. According to some of your letters, it seems my recent column on the GPL touched a nerve. To my critics who referred to me by names other than Phil, I can only respond with an equally mature "Same to you!" For those who prefer a more reasoned discussion...

I recently had the opportunity, as part of a review of what works in systems security, to look closely at a couple of massively multi-user online games including "EverQuest" and "Star Wars Galaxies." Several of these now support up to half a million registered users and go beyond simple player co-op...