Archive

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...

Is the legal strategy embraced by SCO Group a "good faith" effort to protect its intellectual property? Or a project to boost the share price on the Lindon, Utah, software firm? A new article, in the current issue of Fortune Magazine, one of the leading business publications in the United States, ra...

SCO Group is laying off employees at its Santa Cruz office, prompting speculation as to the real motive for the move throughout the Linux industry, LinuxInsider has learned. Competitors queried by LinuxInsider said they had not heard of the layoffs previously and found them "interesting." A report i...

Is Linux suitable for mission-critical applications at large firms? A recent report by Forrester Research says so. So do other experts. But there are still some skeptics. This spring, Forrester surveyed 150 IT decision-makers at North American companies about their open-source software strategies. H...

In going through a stack of resumes last week, I came across one from a person, certified as expert by both Microsoft and Cisco, who claimed to have "architected secure network solutions" at a previous employer. When I recovered from the consequent daydream about flying lead balloons, I decided to s...

Major vendors, like HP and IBM, are embracing Linux. Does that mean that Linux is no longer, practically speaking, free? Some technology experts -- even those keen on Linux -- have widely differing opinions. In an interview with the Australian IT press, Steve Vamos, the managing director for Microso...

Red Hat chose London as the location to launch its new Linux software that is bundled with security and management features. The new product, Red Hat Desktop, is targeted at organizations that are looking to upgrade their PCs but don't want all the features that ship with the latest version of Micro...

The SCO Group is amending its federal lawsuit against IBM, changing its legal tactics in the ongoing public drama over Linux software. But contrary to some reports in the press, the company didn't claim earlier in a letter that the Linux General Public License (GPL) was "unconstitutional." Rather, D...

Making good on a marketing promise uttered late last year, Red Hat today is ending support for the final version of its Linux 9 product. The Raleigh, North Carolina, Linux vendor in January stopped supporting its other legacy versions of Linux, hoping that customers would switch to the Red Hat Enter...

In my recent commentary on the role dishonest and incompetent IT textbooks play in education, I used the acronym PHB (pointy-haired boss) to refer to people who just don't get it with respect to systems. Unfortunately, that also demonstrated that I don't get the global nature of the LinuxInsider rea...

Tokyo-based Turbolinux this week disclosed that it has developed a new Linux operating system for home PC users -- Turbolinux 10F. Turbolinux is said to be the best-selling Linux distributor in the Asia-Pacific region. "Japanese consumers are moving in large numbers to Linux," said Koichi Yano, pres...

A Philippines-based software developer this week released software that enables Windows-based programs to run on computers using archrival Linux. In a statement, Peter Valdes, CTO of SpecOps Labs, said the software ultimately will help users migrate from Windows machines to the open-source Linux pla...

Sun Microsystems on Thursday revealed it has forged 21 deals with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) during the last four months. The massive announcement provides an objective sign of growth in open-source technologies, according to the company. But is demand for alternative, open-source compu...

Two weeks ago, I wondered out loud about the top 10 worst IT business decisions ever made and nominated HP's decision to follow DEC down the road to oblivion for top spot. Today I'd like to suggest that the U.S. Defense Department's continued use of Microsoft's software is likely to top a future lis...

Joining the ranks of Linux distributors HP, Novell and Red Hat, a company named Open Source Risk Management (OSRM) has launched a program to protect large and small users from legal entanglements arising from adoption of the open-source operating system. Unlike some other indemnification programs, u...