Showing all newswire headlines

Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect, Bill Gates, has labelled pirated software as a "tougher competitor" to his company than open-source software.

Geeks tend to eschew computer eye candy -- all those cutesy animations and bouncy icons that litter so many programs and operating systems -- opting for enhanced computer performance over memory-using and processor-draining amusement. But Sun Microsystems is betting that a lot of Linux coders will soon have dazzling 3-D desktops even snazzier than the ones currently sported by Mac users.

Should a company that sells software with licenses that restrict what can be done with the code use "open" in its name? Ned Lilly doesn't see why not. The founder and president of OpenMFG says his company's approach of combining open source development with licensed selling is the right way to handle the complex and changing world of business applications.

Open source has expanded into the political world, with open software powering the online operations of the Democratic National Committee and Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign. The DNC has embraced open source to run its online operation, including outreach and fund raising, and has been working on this front since 2001 with New York-based consultant Plus Three LP.

The Eclipse Foundation, along with Instantiations, Inc., and BEA Systems, today announced the creation of "Pollinate," a new open-source incubator project focused on creating an Eclipse-based development environment and toolset to be named Eclipse Pollinate. Eclipse Pollinate, which will be designed to integrate with Apache Beehive, the industry's first easy-to-use, cross-container, open-source application framework for building service-oriented architectures (SOAs) and enterprise Java applications is being developed to help enable developers to more easily develop and deploy service-based and J2EE-based applications.

RealNetworks announced that Red Hat and Novell would ship Real's software; GPLs Helix player.

Used to be that nobody got fired for buying IBM. Big Blue's Linux general manager Jim Stallings, whose job it is to champion Linux use in the enterprise, seems to think times are changing. In this interview, he explains that IT departments worldwide are having to defend the presence of proprietary technology and explain why Linux and open source aren't being used in-house.

When a National Security directive became effective, this DoD team took the initiative with open-source software.

In a move that reflects the growing power of the open-source programming movement, Sun Microsystems plans Monday to share a modest chunk of Java source code, an experimental user interface for desktop computers called Project Looking Glass.

Computer giants IBM and Microsoft are both strengthening their relationship and cooperation with Taiwanese software developers, which suggests a strong competition for leadership in the Taiwanese market, according to today's Economic News.

Sun has launched an all out offensive today against Red Hat Linux, putting Solaris x86 at the tip of its bayonet. "We are a big supporter of the open source movement and have been forever," said Larry Singer, SVP of global market strategies at Sun, in an interview. "We think Linux is a huge movement that is pretty good for the industry and that for some implementations Linux makes sense. We also think there are a lot of people that consider Red Hat for the wrong reasons."

Novell and IBM have joined forces to offer IT professionals a series of one-day Linux technical workshops across Australia and New Zealand. Open source training seems a hot topic at the moment with other training roadshows taking place across both countries in the coming weeks.

User-Mode Linux was merged into the 2.5 Linux development kernel back in September of 2002. Since that time, Jeff Dike has continued to provide patches to keep the project up to date, but the code within the stable 2.6 kernel has gotten stale and no longer even properly compiles. A request was sent to thelkml asking 2.6 maintainer Andrew Morton what would be required to get the latest patch merged into his -mm tree.

GNU Linux, the free computer operating system, has won far more converts in corporate data centers than on desktop personal computers. But as more user-friendly software makes its way onto the Linux desktop, the free operating system is starting to make progress in its David-versus-Goliath competition against Microsoft, the dominant power in PC software.

Yet, the misperception about Windows persists despite the fact that last year, there were far more "patches" from competitors such as Mandrake (which had 119), Debian (184) and even Sun Microsystems (68). "Microsoft is producing far more secure products than Linux but the question is why don't we read about 'another hole in Linux?'" asks Mr Pickup.

Five months after completing its US$31 million (AU$44.4 million) acquisition of Sistina Software, Red Hat released the source code for all of Sistina's proprietary software last Thursday, including its Global File System, under an open source license.

The latest version of Always Current Lineox Enterprise Linux includes packages built from Red Hat Global File system sources, the firm said.

The results of the second annual ITtoolbox IT Spending Survey demonstrate that IT budgets have increased over 2003. The survey, which was sponsored by Hewlett-Packard, was conducted by ITtoolbox, the leading provider of information for professionals in the IT workplace. The purpose of the survey was to provide insight into current and future purchasing trends of corporate IT departments worldwide.

These new products specifically address the growing market for clusters in the range from hundreds to thousands of host computers. They reduce the cost of the switch network, and simplify the installation and operation of large clusters.

Oracle, the leading enterprise solutons provider, and open source and Linux operator Red Hat have further strengthened their partnership with the launch of an Oracle-Red Hat 'Linux Enterprise Applications Porting' (LEAP) center in Singapore.