Archive

Most of us are afraid of getting infected with a virus, whether it comes from a common cold or an attachment in our e-mail. Are open-source licenses viral in nature? Can they infect downstream users? The question is the subject of considerable debate. Companies refer to open-source software as "pote...

The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a consortium dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Linux in the enterprise, today announced its support for enhancements to the Linux kernel submission process to improve the tracking of contributions to the kernel and ensure developers receive credit for...

Sun Microsystems is attaching itself to Linux's growth in the retail market with today's announcement that it has made inroads into five chain stores by teaming up with Tomax Corporation. There's a good reason Sun has been porting its Solaris server to the Linux operating system. Tomax predicts that...

Renowned computer scientist Andrew "Andy" Tanenbaum said he doesn't believe the conclusions of a draft report on the origins and legality of open-source software, particularly the allegation that Linus Torvalds didn't write Linux, as is commonly believed, but copied much of it from Minix, a Unix-lik...

Red Hat's new Linux product, Fedora Core 2, has been playing well with cutting-edge enthusiasts and adventurous developers since its release on Tuesday. But some in this target audience wonder whether the company's strategy of providing different products for personal and enterprise use is a sound o...

What would your answer be if a selection team charged with hiring a new CIO to develop and implement an organization-wide "strategic systems architecture" were to ask you what management considerations most differentiate use of Windows from use of Linux? The right answer, I think, is that the more f...

The author of a study accusing Linus Torvalds and others in the open-source movement of "stealing code" and of taking credit where it wasn't due nevertheless says he is pro-open source and is calling for a $5 billion government initiative to develop more of it. The study, written by Kenneth Brown, p...

If I write a novel about a boy wizard attending a wizarding school, and I never read or heard about someone else's copyrighted novel about a boy wizard attending a wizarding school, does my novel infringe on the copyright of that other novel? Not if I can prove that somehow I missed the Harry Potter...

My server has been getting a lot of hits lately from searches that request things like "windows vs. Unix term paper." On the one hand, I suppose this reflects increased academic interest in Unix. On the other, it does make me wonder about the marking keys used to judge a student's success in differe...

In the United Kingdom today, HP unveiled a new round of desktop PCs, offering customers a choice between Mandrake Linux 9.2 and Microsoft Windows XP as default operating systems. The company described the new HP Compaq Business Desktop dx2000 as a simple, inexpensive business computer designed to me...

New research once again confirms that Linux and open-source acquisition costs are a "fraction" of the cost of comparable proprietary options -- but the research adds a new caveat, noting that costs will be driven lower in coming years. Today, savings from Linux are often "offset by high integration,...

What is the safest advice an intellectual property attorney can give clients concerned about potential litigation? "Do absolutely nothing." The truth is that making or selling any products might get you sued for patent infringement. Advertising might get you sued for trademark infringement. And don'...

Tokyo-based VA Linux Systems last week launched a collaborative development project with NTT Data to develop a crash-analysis tool for Linux. According to the companies, this tool will provide crash-related data and crash analysis for IT departments. The project aims to have the tool in circulation ...

Developers this week have released the new Linux Kernel 2.6.6 -- a development that observers and participants in the open-source process are calling good news. "The 2.6.6 release is a very good maintenance release, which takes in a lot of the maintenance that has come in from the 2.6.1 kernel all t...

Novell this week released the first public beta version of its Mono 1.0 software -- the company's planned alternative to Microsoft's .NET platform. Novell took over the Mono project when it acquired open-source software vendor Ximian in August 2003, and the issues inherent in the merger were said to...