Developers

"Free software" is a term that's often used interchangeably with "open source," and often understood simply to mean software that is obtained without charge. However, the idea of free software is neither about openness nor about price; it is a matter of freedom, and its implications extend into the ...

While Linux has come a long way in the past 10 years, I think it's safe to say that it hasn't yet taken over the world -- nor has Linux reached its full potential. Linux continues to become more mainstream every day -- we now see Linux hosting mission-critical servers in the enterprise, large financ...

Firefox creator Mozilla is "serious" about creating a version of its browser for use on mobile phones, according to a company official who said the company's goal is to "rock" the mobile Web. Mozilla is constantly being asked about its plans for a mobile browser, Mozilla engineering vice president M...

Heavy construction is under way to create an open playing field of interoperable technologies for users to navigate the so-called 3D Internet of the future. Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life, and IBM announced Tuesday that they will work with other partners to drive open standards and tools wh...

The worldwide open source community shares a common overall goal: better software through collaboration and peer review. It's difficult enough to achieve this task even when most of the participants share a common language. Building bridges between different parts of the world -- especially between ...

Microsoft has the best products money can buy -- at least, that's what they would have you believe. However, remove money from the equation so MS buyers can't brag on the size of investment, and OpenOffice fans can't gloat about a freebie, who would win in an OpenOffice vs MS Office 2007 face-off? "...

The reaction to ISO's recent rejection of Microsoft's Office Open XML ranged from triumphant: "Microsoft trounced in document format vote," to cautious: "not so fast." Lost amid the complex ISO process and reports of Microsoft's ballot-stuffing is a clear understanding of just what the fuss at ISO i...

Research forecasts that Linux will be the top operating system for mobile computing began to look a little more fully baked with the announcement by ARM that it will collaborate with six vendors to finesse a standards-based, Linux-based platform for next-generation mobile devices. The company, known...

Adobe this week released its Flex Builder for Linux in alpha mode at the sold-out Adobe Max show in Chicago. "Judging by the applause in the auditorium when they announced it during the 'Sneak Peeks' session at Max, Adobe made a lot of developers happy campers," said Forrester analyst Jeffrey S. Ha...

A long-simmering debate among top Linux developers has boiled over recently, resulting in a flame war of sorts on a kernel forum. Linux creator Linus Torvalds and kernel developers working to harden Linux systems with security modules have been exchanging heated words over a security application sla...

What's a poor, lonely Linux developer to do? Where are all the good support sites? How am I going to fix that troublesome bug? These are questions that even novice code writers no longer have to ask. The classic view of a lonely, isolated programmer writing code for some obscure open source project ...

The Mozilla Foundation is spinning off its open source e-mail client, Thunderbird, into an independent company. The new company, MailCo, plans to develop Internet communications software "based on the Thunderbird product, code and brand," Mozilla said. David Ascher, CTO of ActiveState, will lead th...

When entrepreneur and Second Life real estate mogul Ailin Graef sat down to an interview with a technology news Web site in December, she, no doubt, did not expect to be caught in a downpour of digital phallic symbols. Yet, considering the interview took place in the virtual world Second Life, perha...

Sun Microsystems is stepping up its rebranding mission as the Java company, throwing off its workstation cloak in exchange for an identity as the vendor of powerful systems and tools for developers. Sun on Monday announced the immediate availability of its GlassFish V2 application server, an open so...

When a Web surfer clicks on an icon to launch his or her favorite Web browser, only the geekiest of the geeky pay any thought to which engine layout is at work. The typical Web user has no clue that a different browser choice may also include a different browser layout engine. If anything, most Inte...