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Bill Gates was recently quoted as saying, "You know what my toughest competitor is? It's pirated software.... If you really look around, you'll find way more pirated Windows than you'll find open-source software. Way more." Gates couldn't be more wrong. At least in China, his tough stance against pi...

Developers at last week's JavaOne conference got a chance to check the progress that tools vendors have made in their long quest to ease Java programming so they can better compete against Microsoft. For starters, conference sponsor Sun Microsystems tried to reassert itself as a major player with th...

Novell has announced availability of the first full-point release of Mono, an open-source development platform based on Microsoft's .NET framework. The software is designed to help developers build cross-platform applications that are compatible with .NET services. "Even as Linux grows on enterprise...

Two weeks ago I looked at IBM's forthcoming cell processor architecture and last week speculated about the impact it might have on the x86 desktop. This week, I want to go beyond that and look at the impact the cell architecture will have on the battle for server dominance over the next five years. ...

To kick off its big JavaOne party for its software developers in San Francisco this week, Sun Microsystems made a flurry of announcements aimed at rekindling enthusiasm for the once high-flying company's future prospects. But some critics of the Santa Clara, California enterprise remained unimpresse...

There is a classic scene in the movie "Casablanca" where Claude Raines attempts to close down Rick's Cafe. When Humphrey Bogart demands to know why, Raines says, "I'm shocked! Shocked to think that gambling is going on in this establishment!" Meanwhile, the casino employee walks up and hands him his...

Red Hat and Novell announced Monday that they will start bundling RealNetwork's Helix Player with their operating system products. The companies also noted that they will offer upgrades to RealPlayer 10 for Linux when that application is launched later this year. Helix is a free, open-source media p...

Two astronauts working outside the international space station hit a snag Thursday when an oxygen leak in one of their space suits forced them to abort their mission. The head of the International Space Station's Russian sector said engineers are currently looking into why oxygen leaked out of an as...

Last summer, Microsoft began testing an inexpensive version of Windows in Thailand, and on Wednesday confirmed that its official name is now "Windows XP Starter Edition." The Starter Edition is included in a cheap Windows bundle that is partly designed to combat Linux in Thailand, say some analysts....

Last week, I talked about the cell processor expected from Sony and IBM. This week I want to think out loud about what happens in the industry if Toshiba launches a PC based on this processor into the Asian market and IBM promptly follows suit with a series aimed at the American and European markets...

TransGaming Technologies on Tuesday announced the release of version 4.0 of its flagship product, WineX. The product, which allows Windows games to run under Linux, has also been renamed Cedega. Cedega 4.0 includes support for Microsoft DirectX 9.0, which significantly broadens the scope and availab...

In a decision that could have far-reaching implications -- from the fate of free software to the technology used in developing countries -- the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted the Public Patent Foundation (PubPat) a reexamination of a recently granted patent (number 5,579,517) o...

Fujitsu today announced a new version of the company's fifth-generation Sparc64 processor. The new Fujitsu Sparc64 V is fabricated using 90-nanometer process technology, a first for Unix-based servers, and operates at 1.89 GHz. According to Fujitsu, the enhancements offer a significant performance b...

The latest edition of the TOP 500 Fastest List, which measures the speed and dominance of the world's supercomputers, has indicated that Linux systems are now represented on more than half of the list. The list creators use the Linpack benchmark to measure performance of the world's machines, and ha...

Everyone is talking about open source, even presenters at BIO 2004, the international biotechnology conference recently held in San Francisco. As the argument goes, if open-source software can be developed in centralized communities of interested parties less expensively than proprietary software, c...