In the News Archive

Linux to Ring up $35 Billion by 2008

Submitted by Dhanesh R. 2004-12-19 In the News 21 Comments

For a theoretically free operating system, Linux is -- and will continue to be -- a cash cow, a research firm said Wednesday as it predicted the OS will bring in more than $35 billion in revenues by 2008. Framingham, Mass.-based IDC said that overall revenue for servers, desktops, and packaged software running on Linux will reach $35.7 billion in the next four years. Currently, IDC pegs Linux's global total take at just under $15 billion.

Music Download Service Targets Linux Desktops, Eases DRM

David Adams 2004-12-19 In the News 42 Comments

According to an article at DesktopLinux.com, TheKompany.com today formally launched Mindawn, a music download service that, unlike iTunes and Napster, targets Linux desktops. Mindawn is claimed to provide CD-quality song files and "virtually no" digital rights management (DRM) restrictions, offer full previews of the entire songs, and provide downloads in Ogg Vorbis and FLAC, and other formats. Update: Deleted some extraneous text outlining which formats are "lossy" and which aren't.

Symantec to Buy Veritas

Submitted by B 2004-12-17 In the News 12 Comments

Symantec Corp., the top global security software maker, on Thursday said it will buy Veritas Software Corp for $13.5 billion, expanding into the data storage and recovery business. More can be found just about everywhere.

Top 10 Software Innovations of 2004

Submitted by Frank Rizzo 2004-12-13 In the News 57 Comments

The year is almost over, now it's time to tally up the best and most ground-breaking software innovations of 2004. Here is a Top 10 list to that effect.

Dell bashes ‘big iron’; Says Red Hat needs to lower prices

Eugenia Loli 2004-12-08 In the News 37 Comments

Top Dell executives disparaged the "big iron" approach of building large, powerful servers on Tuesday--a dig at rivals IBM, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard. Red Hat needs to lower its prices, or risk losing customers to free versions of the open-source operating system, the Dell executive who oversees the partnership with the Linux seller said Tuesday.

Red Hat, Novell To Package Xen

Eugenia Loli 2004-12-03 In the News 15 Comments

Xen, an open-source project with growing ties to Red Hat, Novell and Hewlett-Packard, is emerging as the leading contender for providing open-source virtualization for the Linux environment.

Sun, Microsoft to flesh out pact

Eugenia Loli 2004-11-29 In the News 17 Comments

Microsoft and Sun Microsystems on Wednesday plan to provide details about their six-month-old alliance for the first time.

LWN on Fedora and Solaris 10

Submitted by TTF 2004-11-28 In the News 36 Comments

The Fedora project was urged to be more community oriented and the editor showed an example of how community involvement helps to reduce Fedora boot time. Also, some intro on Sun's Solaris 10 over at LWN.

CrossOver Office 4.0 Released

Submitted by Jeffrey Fredericks 2004-11-17 In the News 41 Comments

Codeweavers has released v4 of its Wine implementation with the addition of support for iTunes.

IT Morale is in the Dumps

David Adams 2004-11-09 In the News 98 Comments

A recent survey found that 3/4 of IT managers surveyed reported having morale problems among their staffs. Layoffs, uncertainty, high stress, and incompetent management all contribute to a feeling of malaise among tech workers today. Layoffs have left firms understaffed, and workers feel growing resentment towards their bosses, the survey suggests. How are you feeling about your job?

Adobe dipping toes into desktop Linux waters

Eugenia Loli 2004-11-03 In the News 49 Comments

Adobe Systems, maker of major desktop software products such as Photoshop and Acrobat Reader, has begun a quiet effort to become more involved with desktop Linux.

Be’s Gassée Appointed Chairman of the PalmSource Board

Submitted by Kian Duffy 2004-11-02 In the News 40 Comments

PalmSource today announced Jean-Louis Gassée has been appointed Chairman of the PalmSource Board of Directors. JLG was the CEO of Be in the '90s and an Apple executive in the '80s.

Search wars hit desktop computers

Submitted by Tudy 2004-10-26 In the News 48 Comments

Another front in the on-going battle between Microsoft and Google is about to be opened. By the end of 2004 Microsoft aims to launch search software to find any kind of file on a PC hard drive. The move is in answer to Google's release of its own search tool that catalogues data on desktop PCs. The desktop search market is as Google, AOL, Yahoo and many smaller firms tout programs that help people find files.

Network Computing Asia articles

Submitted by TTF 2004-10-23 In the News 7 Comments

Some FreeBSD and Linux coverage in Aug and Oct issues of Network Computing Asia: FreeBSD still Packs a Wallop, Inside Linux, Where Does Linux Work?.

CherryOS Sparks Talk of Virtualization Wars

Eugenia Loli 2004-10-21 In the News 64 Comments

Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit launched Virtual PC for Mac Version 7. Then, a Hawaiian company specializing in streaming video introduced CherryOS, a virtual PC that mimics the hardware of a G4 Mac. CherryOS inventor Arben Kryeziu, a software developer who got tired of carrying both a Mac and a PC all over Hawai, is confident the computing world will find value in his innovation. However, questions remain if his CherryOS is simply a modified PearPC. Update: An interesting conspiracy theory has been posted here.

Cross-platform packaging facility OpenPKG 2.2 released

Submitted by Ralf S. Engelschall 2004-10-20 In the News 2 Comments

The OpenPKG project released version 2.2 of their unique RPM-based cross-platform Unix software packaging facility. OpenPKG 2.2 consists of 528 selected (from a pool of 800) packages, all carefully packaged for easy deployment on 18 different Unix platforms. Focusing on portability and isolation, OpenPKG 2.2 places greater emphasis on reducing underlying Unix system requirements.

Perpetual vs Subscription Licensing

David Adams 2004-10-19 In the News 25 Comments

Software vendors have been moving toward the subscription-type license over the past few years, and away from the perpetual license that had been the norm. Software firms note that companies generally upgrade regularly anyway, so subscription pricing spreads out the payment more easily. A win-win right? But companies don't like the feeling of bing on the hook for payments forever when they once felt like their fee was capped at a certain amount. Read more at PCWorld

Google Desktop Search Tool Goes Beta

Adam Scheinberg 2004-10-14 In the News 39 Comments

Google has released a beta version of their desktop search tool which runs on Windows XP and 2000 SP3+. Details can be found here and more in depth reviews here and here. Its release is amid more concerns of privacy, many of which began when Google's Gmail system was introduced. Update: AOL wishes the same.

Third Parties Fill ‘Longhorn’ Void

Eugenia Loli 2004-10-12 In the News 27 Comments

With Microsoft Corp.'s recent announcements that it will separate WinFS from the next major release of Windows and the release of Visual Studio 2005, not due for another six months, developers are looking to third-party vendors for certain functionality support now.

Legendary file manager, Directory Opus, new version

Guest post by Damien McKenna 2004-10-05 In the News 61 Comments

GP Software have released the latest edition of Directory Opus, aka DOpus. In skipping revision numbers from v6 to v8, DOpus has gained a vast amount of flexibility for viewing and managing different document types. Some of the highlights include: