Showing headlines posted by dcparris

Klaus-Dieter Laidig and Richard Seibt Bring Invaluable Experience to Aid Company Expansion

We're now hearing more about Microsoft embracing open-source and Linux, with soon the launching of a website that will get feedback from existing customers who use both Microsoft and open-source solutions.

I think open source software is a good thing, but I've never bought into the religious fundamentalist fervor of a lot of the circles I move in as an IT reporter. Condemning people for not using Linux instead of Windows, and the strong-arm tactics of some proprietary software makers that try to lock people into a certain product, are just two sides of the same coin. But open standards that make real choices possible? Now, that's something I can get behind.

The law of unintended (or maybe intended?) consequences applies in spades to open-source operating systems. Open source drives innovation and choice, but too much choice drives enterprises back into the arms of what they know best—namely Windows.

Google's plan to provide free wireless Internet access in San Francisco is raising concerns among privacy advocates.

Hmmm... Google spying on people as usual, eh? I thought all search engines did that.

"At a company level, is any publicity good? Yes and no," said Marc Fleury, JBoss CEO. "We've been smart, shrewd, aggressive and in-your-face. We're growing in spite of the rest of the industry trying to kill us from Day 1. That bad boy image actually gave us a lot of traction in the beginning."

Simula was started by Winston Damarillo, founder of Gluecode, which he sold to IBM last year. Simula is working on helping put together a collection of ventures that build software based on a shared stack of open-source components.

"Red Hat has been supporting a free Linux distribution for over ten years, and Red Hat will *always* support a free Linux distribution," wrote Fedora project leader Max Spevack in a posting to the Fedora Project listserv last week. In the detailed posting he wet in to outline that Red Hat was "restructuring" the Project...and disbanding the Fedora Foundation.

Sometimes our vision is seen differently by others. Gee, you don't suppose it might be the name of the foundation, do you?

Sybase ASE was named 'Best Linux Database,' triumphing by a wide margin over offerings from MySQL, Oracle and Ingres/Computer Associates. SYS-CON, the parent publishing company for LinuxWorld Magazine, tallied votes from over 17,000 of its readers and announced the winners.

I'D LIKE to say a big thank you to all of those of you who wrote in with praise for my recent analysis of Apple’s Boot Camp and its prospects for changing the business computing landscape.

Portable GIMP is the popular the GIMP image editor packaged as a portable application, so you can take your images with you and do your editing on the go.

In this eWEEK Labs TestRun podcast, Technical Analyst Michael Caton discusses open-source portal products with Labs Director Jim Rapoza. (Podcast #61)

atsec information security is proud to announce completion of its Common Criteria evaluation of Red Hat Linux 4 Update 2 at evaluation assurance level (EAL) 3 in just six months. The accomplishment adds to atsec's unparalleled reputation for timely completion of Linux evaluations; since December 1, 2004, atsec has initiated and completed five Linux evaluations at EAL3+ and EAL4+ for three different customers. The timely completion of evaluation projects is critical if sponsors are to reap maximum benefit from their investment. atsec's proven success in timely evaluation of Linux products is attributable to the extensive experience of its Linux product evaluators, its ongoing working partnerships with Linux product sponsors, and its excellent relationships with the Common Criteria certifying and validating bodies.

Akibia is a 20-year-old, $100 million traditional IT services provider that cast a net into the shallow waters of Linux two years ago. And even though it has brought in only between $2 million and $4 million in revenue from its Linux practice over the past 12 months, the Westborough, Mass., firm—which was selected as Novell’s Linux Partner of The Year for 2005—sees a wave of service opportunities crashing in as Linux and open-source use expands in the data center.

OpenSUSE, Open Enterprise Server and Mono Honored at LinuxWorld Events for Innovation

When considering a migration to open-source software, IT users should keep in mind the mistakes of those who tried before and avoid falling into the same traps experienced by others.

"What do you think of the show?" This is the question I heard all week at LinuxWorld here. It turns out that many of my journalist peers, a few speakers and a number of vendors weren't as impressed by the show as I was.

Google has released the second version of Google Toolbar for the Firefox operating system, which includes support for RSS feeds and new Safe Browsing tools.

Since when did Firefox become an OS? Had they said that about Emacs, well I could understand. But Firefox? The only reason I linked to this article was for the funny factor. Guess we all know which tech magazines not to read for serious tech news. - dcparris

Redmond (WA) - In a very strange way, Microsoft pioneered the concept of open-source software. While you're still swallowing hard after that last sentence, take a few moments and some deep breaths, and just think about my explanation for a moment: Microsoft's cornerstone product was its BASIC interpreter. To have learned to program in BASIC during the 1970s, as many of us did using TRS-80 Level II BASIC, or Applesoft BASIC - both of which were made by Microsoft, and co-authored by Bill Gates himself - you printed out program listings on an old Centronics dot-matrix printer, and you shared them with your friends and colleagues. The first microcomputers were sustained by the earliest form of an open-source initiative.

While I think Microsoft and FOSS are still largely incompatible, it is difficult to tell what's going on in Redmond. Fact is, I remain doubtful that they intend to play "nice". - dcparris

Every year, Debian developers are asked to choose one of their own to serve as Debian Project Leader (DPL). It's that time again, and once again it's a crowded field. Seven developers are running this year: Jeroen van Wolffelaar, Ari Pollak, Steve McIntyre, Anthony Towns, Andreas Schuldei, Jonathan (Ted) Walther, and Bill Allombert. Retiring DPL Branden Robinson is not running for re-election.

It sounds a little like the Debian community is debating whether to remain Baptist, or convert to a Presbyterian polity. Actually, the "council of elders" is a good thing. - dcparris