Monthly Archive:: July 2004

The proposed operating-system migration of the City of Munich's 14,000 desktops from Microsoft to Linux was placed in jeopardy Friday, when a Munich alderman petitioned the Bavarian city's mayor to examine the status of software patents in the European Community. The issue was raised by Green Party Alderman Jens Muehlhaus, who warned that patent issues could grind some of the city's departments to a halt in the future. The issue involves a proposed directive on software patents that is being considered by various European governments, including Germany, France, and the U.K.

From games to the desktop itself, 3D graphics will be everywhere in the new Windows Longhorn OS. Take a sneak peek at Microsoft's forthcoming WGF architecture that will make it happen.

If you're a programmer who's become fed up with software bloat, then may you find herein the perfect antidote. This document explores methods for squeezing excess bytes out of simple programs.

While spyware protection on single home machines is quite easy using today's removal tools like AdAware or Spybot Search & Destroy, deploying and managing such tools in corporate networks is still a problem. AdAxis promises to ease both deployment and managability of AdAware in such environments. It provides a facility for pushing reference file updates to corporate network workstations, executing AdAware on workstations remotely without user interaction and monitor the spyware contamination degree of machines.

Much of the attention commanded by computer security issues focuses on threats from external sources. Firewalls and perimeter defense tools are deployed to deny unauthorised entry to the network. Experts look for vulnerabilities and ways to ensure that the perimeter cannot be breached. Administrators monitor network traffic for unusual activities and anomalies, and it is common for users to be warned against suspicious email attachments. Read more.

When AT&T balkanized its Unix holdings in 1993, two different companies ended up walking away with pieces of the original Unix. Novell originally bought it all, then decided to keep the Unix source code and sell the Unix trademark -- the name, in other words -- and the Single Unix Specification standards to the X/Open Company. The Open Group, as it is now called, has since learned to use these assets profitably by offering qualification testing and certification for operating systems. If your OS meets certain requirements, passes the qualification tests, and you pay the fees, you get to call it Unix. Should GNU/Linux get certified?