Spotlight Features

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? "...

Yahoo, Google and MSN hold a huge lead in search engine technology over open source alternatives. These search giants are competing in a battle among themselves to be a computer user's default search site for search. Where can a computer user go to find an adequate open source alternative to mainstr...

The open source model of developing software is making a significant impact, not only in the software development and broader high-tech community, but more generally within corporations, other types of businesses and organizations around the world, as Part 1 of this series describes. Whether it's on...

Open source software -- think Linux, Firefox, Wikipedia, Apache, Ajax and a host of other projects -- has introduced a radically different development model -- and mindset -- to the stream of high-tech innovation. It is one that is having repercussions in the corporate world that go beyond how softw...

While the Free Software Foundation's GNU General Public Licenses are used in nearly three-quarters of all free and open source software, GPL-based licenses not the only game in town. There are dozens of free and open source-focused software licenses, and while most aren't used -- or aren't even usef...

The continuing rise in popularity of Linux applications has become a boon to job opportunities for software programmers. However, the working culture of the open source industry is different from that of proprietary software developers. Code writers looking for a job as Linux developers need a uniqu...

There's no doubt that the technologies have arrived to make it possible for individual citizens to participate in the legislative process. "We've already seen a shift in both software and the media where individual content is key and any one very talented coder or blogger can impact an industry," Am...

It's probably safe to say that most Americans, at one time or another, have felt they could do a better job of governing the nation than their elected officials. It may even be safe, in fact, to say that that has never been more true than it is today. "Bush's approval ratings are as low as it's poss...

Databases have been a tool for business and research analysis since computers replaced typewriters in the workplace. Once the domain of proprietary database management programs, database development is now seeing more influence from open source programming. Several industry surveys show a trend amon...

Although virtualization seems to be the newest catch phrase, the concept has actually been around since the '60s when IBM created a research system that was designed to explore new computing concepts focused on resource time sharing and hard drive partitioning. Today, businesses are increasingly tur...

As the cost of equipping classrooms with everything from chalk to chairs continues to escalate, many school districts are turning to open source solutions as a viable alternative to expensive software for in-class computers. School IT managers are discovering not only that Linux-based distributions ...

In Part 1 of this series, I talked a bit about how COBOL is everywhere. From telephones to credit cards to supermarket checkouts to ATMs -- sometime during the day, just about everyone touches COBOL. They don't see it directly, but drivers don't see under the hood while they're driving either. COBOL...

It's no secret that Linux at the server level is growing fast in the business world. It's stable, it's infinitely customizable, it has the kind of support that an enterprise demands and its return on investment is amazing to people more accustomed to the costs of other approaches. So, you find it ev...

XenSource wants its open source Xen virtualization technology to win over large enterprise customers, and now the company is eyeing smaller, wider markets with new virtualization products aimed at Windows and more mainstream IT users. On the heels of last month's release of XenEnterprise, XenSource ...

Linux is fast becoming my operating system of choice because it lacks the software bloat and high overhead plaguing both Microsoft and Apple computing. Those words do not come easily to me. I have been a devout Windows user from the early days. Each Linux distribution offers a distinct flavor of the...