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Microsoft on Tuesday announced that it has signed a patent agreement with HTC covering the phone maker's Android-based devices, and it's talking with other phone vendors as well about its "concerns" regarding Google's mobile operating platform. The deal with HTC provides broad coverage under Microso...

Gnome Commander, an advanced twin-panel graphical file manager for the Linux OS, brings back memories of my pre-Windows days. That is an era when graphical shell programs were popular before the Microsoft DOS desktop gave way to the Windows 95 GUI. If that sounds like a put-down for Gnome Commander,...

The Linux world is filled with numerous capable packages for just about every computing category. Graphics manipulation applications are no exception. In any list of able-bodied graphics candidates, GIMP 2.6 should be one of the top three contenders. GIMP is Linux Speak for GNU Image Manipulation Pr...

Apple's newly launched iPad may be taking up the majority of consumer mindshare in the tablet category following its launch earlier this month, but Google is furtively working on a device of its own that will be powered exclusively by Android. That's according to reports of comments made by Google C...

Changes impacting storage are taking place at every layer of the network architecture: Disk drives are continuing on a Moore's law-like cost/capacity curve, yet concurrently we are also seeing the growth of solid-state technology to overcome the inherent performance limitations of mechanical disk; v...

Advocates of free and open source software were on the warpath Wednesday following the eruption of a bitter legal battle between IBM and a tiny French firm. IBM has asserted that Hercules -- an open source mainframe emulator from Paris-based TurboHercules -- infringes on numerous IBM patents, and it...

A new tool developed at the University of Washington has the potential to make all software effectively open source -- in a way. Rather than manipulating the software's code, however, the application -- dubbed "Prefab" -- hijacks what it displays and makes it customizable. "Microsoft and Apple aren'...

Samsung has given the audience at the International CTIA Wireless trade show a sneak preview of its forthcoming Galaxy S smartphone. At less than 10 millimeters, it is expected to be the thinnest Android phone on the market. It also has a 1-Ghz processor and sports a 4-inch, 800 by 480-pixel AMOLED ...

Word processing is perhaps one of the most essential uses for a computer on any platform. The Linux OS offers more obscure word processors than other OSes; however, few of these apps offer users the staying power of AbiWord. The closest competitor to AbiWord is OpenOffice Writer, and AbiWord, like m...

New York hedge fund Elliott Associates is in hot pursuit of Novell, and developments have left some worrying that an acquisition, if successful, would mean the end of Suse Linux. On Monday, Novell's board of directors turned down a March 2 offer of $2 billion for the company from Elliott Associates....

I am an avid user of open source software and a firm believer in the benefits of FOSS. I have a choice of operating systems at my disposal, but I now cringe whenever I have to work in the Microsoft world. I much prefer the vast array of Linux apps. Why? They are bloat-free problem solvers. Take, for...

Microsoft and Amazon have entered into a patent cross-licensing deal that covers, among other things, Amazon's Kindle and its use of Linux-based servers. The agreement calls for Amazon to pay Microsoft an undisclosed amount of money. Microsoft has forged similar deals with other companies that marke...

To be really useful, a note-taking program needs more than the ability to simply put letters on the screen. It requires a database mentality with a quick and simple user interface. NoteCase Manager is designed with all the features needed to be a true digital note-processing system. I tend to be fin...

Smartphone manufacturing giant HTC on Tuesday unveiled three new smartphones and announced upgrades to its Sense user interface at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Two of the smartphones -- the Legend and the Desire -- run the Sense UI on top of Android. The third, the HD mini, runs Sense on ...

Google has updated the beta version of its Chrome for Linux with a variety of fixes designed to make the browser more reliable, the company announced Thursday. Version 5.0.307.7 of Chrome for Linux addresses several bugs that were problematic in the previous version. One fix, for example, changes an...