Software

Solid Information Technology on Monday announced an open source strategy to create a solidDB Storage Engine for MySQL. The high-end database company is adapting its proven online transaction processing (OLTP) storage engine to work with MySQL Server. Businesses can adopt open source relational datab...

Mozilla on Thursday made it easier for Mac users to browse the Web with Firefox. The open source software developer released a new version of its browser with more Mac support and several security fixes. Firefox 1.5.0.2 adds native support for Apple's Mac OS X running on Intel's processors, accordin...

Xandros, a provider of easy-to-use Linux alternatives to Windows, announced that retail giant CompUSA is now selling the Xandros desktop product in all of its stores across the United States. The Xandros product line offers home and business users a complete, stable, and secure alternative to costly...

The concept of virtualization is set to take center stage at this week's LinuxWorld conference in Boston. Among the competitive players are industry veterans Red Hat and Novell and startups XenSource and Virtual Iron. Virtualization is a technique for deploying technologies. It allows multiple virtu...

In a move to extend the growth of its Linux-based products, IBM on Thursday announced a new initiative designed to help customers migrate from Microsoft Exchange to IBM Lotus Notes and Domino on Linux. Big Blue will sink US$300 million into an ad campaign to woo customers away from its industry riva...

As the dust settles on BrainShare 2006, Novell executives are hoping the launch of its Platform for Open Enterprise will bring new converts knocking on its doors. Open Enterprise is an architecture of software and services from Novell and its partners designed to help customers benefit from open sou...

The Mozilla Foundation is preparing to launch yet another version of its open-source Web browser -- ahead of Internet Explorer 7. The Mozilla development team freezed the code for Firefox 2.0a1 last Thursday, according to the minutes of a March 14 Firefox 3 status meeting at the foundation's headqua...

Red Hat on Tuesday announced details of its integrated virtualization strategy. The timing is a preemptive strike against rival Novell, which comes only a week before that company's annual Brainshare conference. Red Hat plans to work with AMD, Intel, Network Appliance and XenSource to make virtualiz...

Taking aim at rival Microsoft, its Windows platform and its Office suite, Novell on Thursday unveiled SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 at CeBIT 2006 in Hanover, Germany. The new Linux desktop software suite features enhanced power management, integrated desktop search, graphical interfaces and numer...

IBM on Monday announced a new open-source initiative meant to boost security and give consumers more control over their personal online identity information. Code-named "Project Higgins," the initiative is a collaborative effort by Big Blue, Novell and Parity Communications to develop security softw...

Novell has unveiled what it calls "significant enhancements" to the Xgl graphics subsystem. Xgl is new core rendering technology for the Linux desktop that takes advantage of now widely available accelerated 3D rendering hardware. These enhancements are designed to let developers create richer graph...

Pushing forward with a plan to set aside Microsoft Office productivity and document management tools in favor of an open format, Massachusetts has hired a chief information officer to oversee the switch. Since the announcement halfway through 2005 that the commonwealth would favor software programs ...

Open-source license compliance is a sensitive topic. Lawyers and technicians have devoted endless hours, lengthy blog postings and much mental energy to questions like, "What is a derivative work?" and "What is distribution?" Very interesting stuff indeed, and grist for meaty discussions. However,...

Imagine a world where you could run both Linux and Apple operating systems on the same high-performance Mac laptop. That day may be coming sooner than Mac fans think. Red Hat has confirmed it is pursuing the development of a Linux distribution for the new Intel-based Macs. Red Hat is no stranger to ...

Microsoft on Wednesday announced a decision to license all the Windows Server source code for technologies covered by the European Commission's legal decision of March 2004. The voluntary move is designed to address categorically all of the issues raised by the Commission's December 22, 2005, Statem...