Developers

Novell announced yesterday the availability of its latest offering targeting experienced Linux home computing users. SuSE Linux Professional 9.3 boasts a complete Linux operating system, over 3,000 open-source packages, and hundreds of open-source applications, productivity software and home network...

At this stage, very few people question the power of open source to transform the dynamics of a technology market. Just look at Apache's rapid rise to dominance in Web servers. What's less clear, however, is what's next. Which sectors of the IT industry represent the next wave for open source? Whic...

Linux software vendor Trolltech says 20 mobile phone and hand-held device manufacturers are working on products that use its version of the open-source platform. Trolltech said some 50 vendors are using the Qtopia platform and other embedded Linux programs that it offers in a range of devices, inclu...

In response to high double-digit growth in 2004 in the number of customers deploying IBM collaboration software on the Linux platform, IBM today announced plans to invest US$100 million over three years to expand Linux support and technology across its Workplace software portfolio. Big Blue said the...

Sun is expected to take a step forward next week with its plan to release the code for its Solaris 10 operating system. The company has scheduled a news conference on Tuesday where John Loiacono, Sun's executive vice president of software, will give an update on the issue. Sun's Common Development a...

Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) is calling reports that it is leading a revision of the Linux kernel to remove code that might infringe on software patents "horse puckey." OSDL, which promotes the adoption of the Linux operating system, debunked a Linux Business Week report based on anonymous "i...

Two weeks ago, I asked for reader aid in getting documentation on early 1990s System VR4 Unix to help understand what things can be done with Linux today but could not be done with AT&T System VR4. The question was naive and I need more help (and aspirin) in struggling toward a better answer tha...

A developer of security software for Linux had some harsh words yesterday for what he sees as a lax attitude toward security in the operating system's community. "Linux is being presented by commercial vendors as a professional, enterprise-ready product," Brad Spengler, of grsecurity, said. "When it...

In a move that illustrates an emerging trend in the mobile market, Japanese wireless operator NTT DoCoMo yesterday announced a US$3 million investment in MontaVista Software, a U.S. developer of Linux software for telecommunications equipment and mobile handsets. DoCoMo will obtain an equity stake i...

I've been rereading David Brin's first Uplift series -- as astonishingly self-consistent a vision of galactic life as any science fiction writer has ever offered and quite appropriate to the Christmas season. In Brin's imaginary universe, a mysterious and long-gone race known as the progenitors set ...

The non-profit Mozilla Foundation has placed a pricey ad in today's edition of the New York Times. The open-source advocacy organization is pleading its alternative case with a two-page spread that asks readers the direct question: "Are you fed up with your Web browser?" Spread Firefox, a voluntee...

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...

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...

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 ...