Showing headlines posted by dcparris

Still, even the worst products deserve recognition (or deprecation). So as we put together our list of World Class winners for 2006, we decided also to spotlight the 25 worst tech products that have been released since PC World began publishing nearly a quarter-century ago.

[Readers should note who had the most "products" on the list - dcparris]

Compliance regulations and rising open source software consumption made growth in the worldwide relational database management systems (RDBMS) market surge in 2005, according to research from Gartner and IDC.

(FORTUNE Magazine) - In the early morning hours of May 3, a dramatic piece of news out of Geneva began caroming through the online world: At long last, Microsoft's lock on the $9 billion office-application business was facing a challenge. The development? An esoteric international standards body had approved a new file standard--called OpenDocument format, or ODF--for saving office documents.

A vulnerability has been reported in the Linux Kernel, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service).

As the world of software consolidates and open-source programs become more popular, some observers think MySQL is the company most likely to be acquired by a software giant.

It’s official – Linux clusters are the new hotbed of enterprise computing. According to analyst firm IDC, in 2005 deployments of Linux-based clusters for high-performance computing surpassed those of traditional SMP machines, a sure sign that cluster computing is rapidly becoming an enterprise reality. But as Linux clusters move from high performance computing (HPC) and academic environments into enterprise datacenters, the price/performance benefits of commodity computing can be quickly eroded by the snowballing cost of cluster lifecycle management. Not only is cluster deployment still too difficult, but also the ongoing management of multiple clusters throughout their entire lifecycle is often not addressed. To extend and optimize the investments enterprises are making in Linux clusters, a new management approach is required.

[Article is noted as being contributed by a marketing vice-president, so just use your good, old-fashioned critical thinking cap. - dcparris]

A group of South African game developers is planning to develop an open source computer game, styled on African folklore yet in the spirit of the Sierra classic, Quest for Glory. <i>Tectonic</i> catches up with project leader Henti Smith to find out why.

The acquisition delivers "on Red Hat's commitment to continued global expansion into international markets," said Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik.

Open Source is changing the way that Gartner Group measures the application development market. The big loser as a result may well be proprietary Java application development tools.

[Here's some news that ought to be fairly well-received - dcparris]

The One Laptop Per Child project achieved what it's referring to as a major milestone this week, combining the hardware and software for the $100 laptop for the first time. It also showed off alternative designs and colour schemes.

LXer Feature: 26-May-06

Now, because of your aversion to learning the least little thing about your computer, those that make them operate are taking that ability away from you. Some would say you deserve it. In fact, a good number of them are Linux Users...they say it's the price you pay for staying ignorant. Some have went as far as to say you are stupid, therefore you deserve to be led around by the nose.

Picasa is a photo organizing and editing tool from Google that does most of what most people need to do with their digital pictures. Now Picasa, previously a Windows-only program, has binaries available for most popular GNU/Linux distributions. The Linux version of Picasa is still a beta release, but it's ready to handle photo storage, organizing, and light photo editing on your Linux computer.

As Microsoft developers gathered in Seattle to hear Bill Gates's keynote speech on the future of Microsoft and the coming release of its updated operating system Vista, protesters wearing bright yellow Hazmat suits swarmed the entrance of the city's convention center, delivering an unsettling message to the corporation: your product is defective and hazardous to users.

Our community has been abuzz with the rumor that Sun has made its implementation Java free software (or "open source"). Community leaders even publicly thanked Sun for its contribution. What is Sun's new contribution to the FLOSS community?

This Week, From LWN - 25-May-06

One of the comments posted on last week's article about the Java license change asked: how can Debian distribute Sun's Java under the new license?
[...]
Since Debian does very few things without enduring a public brawl first, the addition of Java without discussion raised some eyebrows.

[LXer presents this access to LWN's normally subscriber-only content in full cooperation with Jonathan Corbet, Executive editor, LWN.net. This new feature is offered on a weekly basis. LXer hopes you enjoy this free peek at LWN's excellent community magazine and thanks Mr. Corbet for his cooperation.]

  LXer Feature: 25-May-06

Steven Titch responded to yesterday's article with a single question: "If this is simply an issue of Microsoft's willingness to commit to open standards, what is your take on Open XML?" Thus, I find myself dealing with yet another missed point.

Freescale and Axentra say their collaborative design targets an emerging class of CPE (customer premises equipment) that lets users manage digital content from networked equipment through the home, and access it from anywhere.

Open-source company Trolltech follows recent successes by filing for a stock exchange listing. (LinuxDevices.com)

Businesses still stick with proprietary technology, although Mozilla offers customization kit for business customers.

While there is a vast technology-neutral environment, yet most of the new applications and e-governance talks on using programs make little or no use of them. Most of the top-level officials are aware of the benefits of using a technology-neutral environment, yet without any firm policies in place.