Spotlight Features

Your next operating system move could be to one of the half-dozen most popular free Linux desktop versions instead of to Microsoft Windows Vista. With these versions, you would not have to perform a risky software upgrade, nor would you have to settle for a watered-down Vista option if your new comp...

Open source is thriving, with over 1.4 million registered users on SourceForge.net and with startups sprouting around every part of the software stack. The big question is, can companies really make enough money when the software is often downloaded for free? If Red Hat is any indication, the answer...

The open source market is decidely hot right now, from software to support and services. Recently, venture capital firms have upped the ante, investing millions in open source-focused companies with the hopes of cashing in like JBoss did, when Red Hat scooped it up for a tidy US$350 million in June....

One of the original leaders of the open source movement, Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media, kicked off a blogosphere firestorm in late May by sending a cease-and-desist letter over the use of the term "Web 2.0," as his technical conference is trademarked by that name. The complaint has since been withd...

Virtualization -- the use of multiple instances of operating systems, applications, or other software running on single hardware devices -- comes in many different forms and flavors, but among the most often mentioned of late is XenSource and its open source Xen virtualization technology. While stil...

Novell is evangelizing its Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, but the company is not looking for an all-out war with software giant Microsoft. Rather, it is looking to find its niche on the business user's desktop. Novell has already gained Linux desktop momentum with transaction and fixed-function a...

Florian Mueller is at it once again. The founder of the NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign that led to the European Union's landslide vote against a proposal for a software patent directive is ready for the next battle. The same forces that supported the software patent directive he successfully defeate...

Open source development has always been an international phenomenon. After all, the killer app of the movement -- Linux -- was born in Finland, and the quintessential dual licensing business was started in Sweden with mySQL. Companies like Red Flag have stepped up in Asia to take Linux into double...

Richard Stallman is a free software pioneer. As president of the Free Software Foundation and founder of the GNU Project, he is also an evangelist of a free society in which people have inaliable rights to run, study, copy and distribute software. As such, Stallman is often grieved when he reads new...

Open source technologies may not be taking over the world, but they are finding a niche and a large one at that. To be sure, companies large and small are becoming more comfortable deploying open source technologies on the server. Now, an an increasing number of firms are looking into the possibilit...

Open-source database deployments rose dramatically in the last half of 2005, and as one might expect, as more IT pros get acquainted with these non-proprietary systems, security is a chief concern. Open-source database makers like MySQL and PostgreSQL simply must answer some of the most prevalent se...

Linux has come a long way from its hobbyist roots. The open-source operating system has certainly gotten the attention of enterprises, governments -- and mighty Microsoft. This year saw the typical backbiting between proprietary and open software camps as Linux continued pushing its agenda. It also ...

Whether it is software, standards or architectures, people tend to think -- and argue -- about technological openness in individual silos. Harvard University's Open ePolicy Group, in its recently released Roadmap for Open ICT Ecosystems urges people to apply and manage openness across an entire ICT...

Much the same as any other open-source debate, opinions about the future of Linux on the desktop are about as varied as they come. On one side you've got the Desktop Linux Consortium with its mission to advance the open-source operating system on desktops everywhere. On the other side you've got sof...

Our system of law in the United States is what is called a "common law" system. When judges make decisions in such a system, they rely on what is called case law -- the written opinions on matters of law that are previously published by other judges. The other legal principal that lucky non-lawyer...