ZDNet has published the second part (part I) of its special report on the use of open source in governments around the world. This time it's looking at what's driving open source takeup in developing markets, with a particularly close look at projects and the driving forces behind them in China, India and Brazil.

"What will the Internet look like 10 years from now? Will it look more like one big pay-per-view channel, or more like an open street fair, or will it be somewhere in between? The answer will be heavily influenced, of course, by the competition between the King of Search and the current desktop market leader. On November 2, 2005, Microsoft announced its most major new initiative in 10 years, and although the announcement was vague, it is clear that Microsoft intends to directly take on Google on Google's own terms: search, services and advertising."

We were pleasantly surprised when we discovered (by snooping on its firmware files) that the Pontis MX2020 multimedia device that Geeks.com sent us for a review actually uses Linux (embedded distribution uCLinux, kernel 2.4.19). If it's video, audio, pictures, recording or even basic PDA functionality via its touch screen, the Pontis MX2020 can do it all. And for very cheap too.

Sun and Microsoft engineers continue to work on up-the-stack interop between Java and .NET. Sun pledged to enable Java interop to Microsoft’s Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) by developing and distributing open source implementations of key WS-specs.

Intel is expected to launch new processors on Monday starting with its Pentium line that have the ability to subdivide tasks in a hardware feature called Virtualization Technology--or VT.

PalmSource, France Telecom's Orange and several other companies plan on Monday to announce an effort to standardize aspects of Linux running on mobile phones. More info here.

Five weeks after the formal release of Mandriva Linux 2006 to members of the Mandriva Club, the CD and DVD images of the "Free" edition (GPL software only) are now also available for free download.

OpenSync is a synchronization framework that is platform and distribution independent. It consists of several plugins that can be used to connect to devices (e.g. phones, PDAs etc), a sync-engine and the framework itself. It is capable of synchronizing any type of data, including contacts, calendar, tasks, notes and files. Version 0.18 was released a few days ago and its team and KDE's have joined forces.

This is part two of a head-to-head comparison of the Sony PSP and the iPod with video. The first installment was a hands-on comparison of the technical specifications.

The Linux kernel is a multitasking kernel, which means that many processes can run as if they were the only process on the system. The way in which an operating system chooses which process at a given time has access to a system’s CPU(s) is controlled by a scheduler. This chapter covers the Linux scheduler, preemption in Linux, and the Linux system clock and timers.

KVO? KVC? Say what? Key-Value Observing and Key-Value Coding, that's what. As an introduction to Apple's new Cocoa/Objective-C API called Core Data, Marcus Zarra shows you why KVO/KVC is an incredibly useful feature in its own right and deserves the attention of any developer new to the Cocoa/Objective-C arena.

Unsustainable development is an all-too common situation today in the software industry. Unsustainable development is a development pace that is typified by stress, frustration, and a sense of not being in control. It is most evidenced by a continually increasing cost of change and defect rate and a corresponding decreasing ability to respond to changing conditions. This chapter explains how unsustainable development begins, and how to head it off before it spirals out of control.

This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions on how to install Xen on a Debian Sarge (3.1) system. It should apply to Ubuntu systems with little or no modifications.

This guide contains the practical security measures to secure your Windows desktop at home. This guide is not necessarily intended for business or enterprise use, but it might come in handy for some.