With financial backing from the likes of Michael Dell and other venture capitalists, open source upstart Nginx has edged out Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Server) to hold the title of second-most widely used Web server among all active websites. What's more, according to Netcraft's January 2012 Web Server Survey, Nginx over the past month has gained market share among all websites, whereas competitors Apache, Microsoft, and Google each lost share.

Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister sees a glaring omission among the proposed plans for the new Application Developers Alliance for mobile app developers: any clear focus on easing cross-platform mobile development. 'Currently, the leading mobile operating systems are all vertically integrated "walled gardens," and developing versions of the same app for multiple platforms is both challenging and costly,' McAllister writes. 'That's where an organization like the Application Developers Alliance could help. By organizing app developers from all across the mobile OS market, it could act as a unified voice to put pressure on Apple, Google, and others to lower barriers to entry for their platforms. ... But as long as it's being underwritten by leading proponents of the status quo, it seems unlikely that the Application Developers Alliance would rock the boat by taking a stand against walled-garden-style mobile platforms.'

Hold on to your panties, because this should come as a surprise: I'm actually agreeing that Samsung is copying Apple. The Korean company just released a new entry-level Android smartphone, and it's called the Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus. While Apple's previous complaints regarding Samsung's supposed copying were obviously nonsense, this Galaxy Ace Plus, on the other hand... It's almost as if Samsung is giving Apple the finger by copying the iPhone 3G(S) almost verbatim.

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Web site, Google acquired 188 patents and another 29 patents pending from IBM in a deal recorded December 30.The newest batch of patents from IBM have only a handful of mobile telephony applications. Instead, they are rich in database intellectual property.

InfoWorld's Galen Gruman provides an in-depth comparison of the four major smartphone platforms in business environments. Vetted for business connectivity, application support, Web browsing, and security and management are the Apple iPhone 4S (iOS 5), Samsung Focus S (Windows Phone 7.5), Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Android 4), Motorola Photon 4G (Android 2.3), and RIM BlackBerry Bold 9900 (BlackBerry OS 7). And while the iPhone 4S leads the way based on the test bench's criteria, organizations can re-weight criteria to find which smartphone best meets their distinct needs.

So, this one slipped by completely undetected late last year (no, I don't grow tired of saying that). CNet reported that Google, Amazon, Facebook, and similarly large, anti-SOPA companies are mulling over the option of taking their websites off the air to replace them with an anti-SOPA message, asking users to contact their elected officials.

InfoWorld's Neil McAllister takes a look at 10 cutting-edge programming languages, "each of which approaches the art of software development from a fresh perspective, tackling a specific problem or a unique shortcoming of today's more popular languages. Some are mature projects, while others are in the early stages of development. Some are likely to remain obscure, but any one of them could become the breakthrough tool that changes programming for years to come - at least, until the next batch of new languages arrives."

"Of all the ways you might have imagined Microsoft screwing up, 'making something fantastic' is probably last on the list. As every business student will tell you, the first and most important step to success is making a quality product. Yet, Microsoft seem to have found themselves in the very strange situation of making something very good - their mobile platform, Windows Phone - and actually doing worse than before. Even more confusing, however, is that it might be Microsoft's commitment to finally get it right this time that has hurt them. And somewhere in this mess, there are a number of lessons for some very new challenges to businesses."

Late last year, president Obama signed a law that makes it possible to indefinitely detain terrorist suspects without any form of trial or due process. Peaceful protesters in Occupy movements all over the world have been labelled as terrorists by the authorities. Initiatives like SOPA promote diligent monitoring of communication channels. Thirty years ago, when Richard Stallman launched the GNU project, and during the three decades that followed, his sometimes extreme views and peculiar antics were ridiculed and disregarded as paranoia - but here we are, 2012, and his once paranoid what-ifs have become reality.

We're looking at two alternative operating systems hitting updates. MenuetOS, the operating system written entirely in assembly, hit version 0.98.27. Meanwhile, FreeDOS 1.1 has hit final.

Columbia University researchers claim millions of HP printers could be open to remote attack via unsecured Remote Firmware Updates. Cybercriminals could steal personal information or attack otherwise secure networks. HP agrees there is a theoretical security problem but says no customer has ever reported unauthorized printer access. The company denies some of the claims and is still investigating others.

In the world of alternative OS development, portability across multiple architectures is a challenging goal. Sometimes, it may be intrinsically hard to come up with hardware abstractions that work well everywhere, but many times the core problem is one of missing information. Here, I aim at learning more about the way non-x86 architectures deal with CPU IO ports, and in particular how they prevent user-mode software from accessing them.

Good news for owners of HTC's Android devices - HTC has expanded its official bootloader unlock utility to cover all HTC Android devices launched after September 2011, no matter the carrier. Older models will also be added to the tool, but this will take a little longer.

There are two main kernel architectures for large operating systems; monolithic and micro. While these architectures are well thought out, well implemented (usually), and well understood, they have their faults. Mainly, the loading of modules and executables, management of memory, and interfacing between the kernel and software cause these architectures to be vastly complex. With this complexity comes a loss of speed and increased difficulty for the developer. There are other kernel architectures, such as the exokernel, that are vastly different from traditional architectures, but they still have performance issues caused by userland processes.