Showing headlines posted by Sander_Marechal

Are open source security tools really as secure as those available for sale? Yes, say a growing number of enterprises. While some are understandably hesitant to employ solutions that are openly available to hackers and users alike, many organizations are finding that open source tools not only cost less, they are at least as secure as commercial products, if not more so.

I had lunch with a friend today that is making me reconsider some of my previous comments on Oracle's Unbreakable Linux moves. I still think the company went about it in the wrong way, but it makes more sense to me now. What If Oracle's move against Red Hat was not about Red Hat at all? What if it was in response to the Microsoft threat?

Microsoft's announcement last week that it will sell a $3 software bundle to students in developing countries is a positive move that won’t hurt the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) effort, according to Michael Evans of the non-profit group’s board.

MontaVista Software has bought two UK-based companies, MontaVista Limited and Liberte, in a move that strengthens its ability to meet exploding demand in Europe for commercial Linux products and services.

Carnegie Mellon University researchers say building robots doesn't have to be rocket science. They've unveiled a set of recipes for building Internet-controlled robots with off-the-shelf parts. The Telepresence Robot Kit (TeRK) features one key piece of Linux-based hardware called a Qwerk controller, but otherwise calls on would-be robot builders to use off-the-shelf parts.

A few weeks ago, MEPIS released SimplyMEPIS 6.5. The latest version of the Ubuntu-based desktop distribution offers a number of interesting new features, including a 64-bit release and Beryl for 3-D desktop effects. After spending a fair amount of time with the release, I found it to be a worthy update to earlier versions of MEPIS.

Dissatisfied with their existing smartcard setup, a group of Japanese fanboys rigged up their, um, FreeBSD door controller (doorputer?) to accept Bluetooth input from Wiimotes. We see only two problems with this setup: first, it's far less secure than, you know, keys; and second, everyone knows Linux runs a doorputer like, so much better than BSD.

OpenLogic, Inc., a provider of enterprise open source software solutions encompassing hundreds of open source packages, today announced a strategic partnership with CareBrains Inc., a leading Japanese provider of open source software application consulting, training, implementation, and support.

So what’s good about a monoculture, and why does Microsoft win so often when people make a decision about platforms? Largely because what the open source community sees as a strength, people trying to get a job done in the real world see as a weakness. We celebrate the diversity of choices available to solve a problem and call it freedom. IT managers and CIOs look at it and call it chaos, confusion and uncertainty.

The agreement calls to develop software that will make MySQL compatible with programs that run IBM's System i line of business computers, including IBM's i5 operating system DB2 database

[Not really about Linux, but still interesting. — Sander]

Gelato 2.1 (NVIDIA’s final-frame rendering software) is out. Bryan Hoff tests the new features and goes under the hood to see what improvements have been made.

[100% closed source and not very exciting, but it's interesting to see that the Linux version of a major vendor's product is released well ahead of the Windows version. — Sander]

Novell is once again trying to finish off The SCO Group's court cases by proving that Novell is the company that actually owns Unix's intellectual property rights. What makes this latest attempt different, is we finally see an explanation of how SCO ended up owning Unix without owning its copyrights.

Leave it to Bill Gates. There’s a reason he’s the richest man in the world. The software isn’t great, but it’s good enough to do the job. Unfortunately, the “job” isn’t just personal productivity, it’s technology lock-in. It’s all about creating a new generation of computer users who are hooked on Windows and programs that run under the proprietary operating system.

Hugh MacLeod is at it again. He asks the question, if open source is so great, where are all the open source billionaires (as if that is the right way to gauge the success of the software)? Never mind that we could ask the same question of proprietary software: "Where are all the proprietary billionaires?" There just aren't that many.

Red Hat has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the business of MetaMatrix, a provider of data management and integration software. Once the transaction is completed, in approximately 60 days, MetaMatrix will be integrated into Red Hat's JBoss division

Oracle's venture into the Linux market was called "a bit disingenuous" by a Red Hat executive speaking at the MySQL Conference & Expo in Santa Clara, Calif. on Tuesday. The executive, Michael Evans, Red Hat vice president of corporate development, speculated that Oracle wants to contain open source.

Speaking to consumer PC mag PC Pro, security guru Eugene Kaspersky said that the lukewarm reception of Vista will result in defections to Mac OS and Linux, thus making them more attractive targets for malware writers.

[FUD of the week candidate? They've been saying this for years and it hasn't happened yet. — Sander]

OpenBusiness took the opportunity at MiniBar to interview Mark Shuttleworth and he took us on a space ride through the Ubuntu galaxy Open Source land. Mark told us about Ubuntu’s unique business model - being absolutely free to use - but making a revenue in the surrounding ecology. Listen to our first TechTalk.

The VAR Guy is choosing his words carefully for this blog entry. He doesn’t know for certain if Dell plans to pre-load Red Hat Linux on desktop PCs. But circumstantial evidence pointing to that possibility is mounting. Here are the facts.

GNU/Linux includes a beautifully simple way of creating self-extracting archives, and "self-installing" archives. This article explains how.