In the News Archive

Cooperation between Sun Microsystems and Microsoft probably won't drastically alter the information technology landscape, analysts and IT pros say, but it should eliminate some integration headaches.

Open source presents a large potential competitive advantage for hardware and software vendors, and vendors of complementary or substitute services. Linux has contributed greatly to the adoption and success of OSS. In this article, ITManagersJournal examines seven open source strategies that can give your company a competitive advantage.

"People tend to develop strong ties to a specific computer, even if it means waiting to use their favourite machine, say researchers. A team at Pennsylvania State University found that people were drawn to a PC because of their tendency to assign human attributes to machines." Read the article here.

An ancient e-mail message embarrasses Microsoft in a key legal case. A leaked memo has Linux antagonist SCO Group scrambling to explain apparently secret Microsoft connections. A leaked message from RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser reveals his behind-the-scenes maneuvering to get a stake in Apple Computer's booming iPod business. Read the analysis at C|Net News.com.

Microsoft is paying Sun Microsystems $1.95 billion as part of a deal signed Friday--but Sun could gain as much as $450 million more over the next 10 years through a patent provision in the agreement.

Paul Murphy writes for the LinuxInsider: "Personally, I'd put DEC's failure to recognize that commercial VMS users weren't remotely like mainframers in solid second place, although I can think of some other contenders too -- including AT&T's purchase of NCR, the Defense Department's choice of staff and criteria in the development of ADA, and Intel's decision to continue 64-KB block addressing in the i80286."

Curt Brune writes: "Inside are the gems I discovered at this year's Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco, including current directions in embedded Linux development, progressive silicon art, robots for science and entertainment, public transportation and the relentless drive of the economy."

If the U.S. Postal Service delivered mail for free, our mailboxes would surely runneth over with more credit-card offers, sweepstakes entries, and supermarket fliers. That's why we get so much junk e-mail: It's essentially free to send. So Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates, among others, is now suggesting that we start buying "stamps" for e-mail (paid in cpu cycles that we rent to others).

The French government will install open source software on the desktop as part of Project ADELE, a plan to computerize much of the country's administration by 2007, a government official says. The administration will migrate a significant number of its desktops to open source operating systems and application software, Jacques Sauret, director of the French Agency for the Development of the Electronic Administration, said at a recent meeting of the French IT and Telecoms Press Club.

Munich is struggling with its planned migration from proprietary software to open-source applications, according to news stories in the German press that paint an increasingly gloomy picture of what had originally been widely described as a shining success story for Linux.

According to recently-released market data, retail software sales have decreased by 4%, or by 10% by units sold. That difference in numbers is a telling fact. Though demand is slackening, prices are rising. And this does not include mail order or download sales. Should it be any surprise that people are not buying software at their local Wal-Marts anymore? And the growing disaffection with the upgrade treadmill and the increasing availablity of free alternatives may be having an effect too.

People sometimes stare when Microsoft executive Tim McDonough opens his laptop in meetings. But that's probably normal when someone uses a Mac PowerBook in the center of the Windows world.

Software industry executives sparred at Harvard Business School this weekend over open source procurement policies being adopted by some governments that could leave Microsoft in the cold. These key open source advocates also pointed to databases, security and storage as the next big categories ripe for commoditization.

There is now an Exposé-clone available for Windows-users to purchase. Exposé is a new function of managing open windows on Mac OS X Panther.