Archive

Large patent portfolio owners seem to be in a particularly generous mood these days. A few weeks after IBM announced it was giving away 500 patents, Sun jumped on the bandwagon by announcing that it is releasing more than 1,600 patents associated with the Solaris OS, a move they describe as eclipsin...

Sun Microsystems officially started down the path to an open-source version of Solaris on Tuesday with a partial release of source code which ultimately will be OpenSolaris. Being released under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL), which was reviewed and approved by the Open Sourc...

IBM is set to tackle the entry-level server market next month with the release of its two-way OpenPower 710. The RISC-based open-source server is designed to compete head-to-head with Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems servers for Unix and Linux, but Illuminata analyst Gordon Haff told LinuxInside...

Pervasive Software has recently joined a burgeoning field of database vendors looking to capitalize on the open-source boom by way of commercial solutions. Best known as a seasoned veteran of database infrastructure management solutions, Pervasive is now looking to take advantage of PostgreSQL's sol...

Sun is expected to take a step forward next week with its plan to release the code for its Solaris 10 operating system. The company has scheduled a news conference on Tuesday where John Loiacono, Sun's executive vice president of software, will give an update on the issue. Sun's Common Development a...

Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) is calling reports that it is leading a revision of the Linux kernel to remove code that might infringe on software patents "horse puckey." OSDL, which promotes the adoption of the Linux operating system, debunked a Linux Business Week report based on anonymous "i...

Last week's announcement that Big Blue was giving away patents was viewed as uncommonly good news in open source circles. When IBM decided to contribute 500 of its patents to a "patent commons" for the benefit of open-source software developers and end users, it conjured up visions of a city commons...

Red Hat is getting ready to roll against rival Novell with the latest version of its Linux Enterprise server. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 will feature the 2.6 kernel complete with enhanced features that Novell SuSE is already peddling. The Linux community is speculating that Red Hat will release the ...

As Linux increasingly hits the enterprise and consumer mainstream, a growing number of security threats are emerging which prey on holes in applications and files managed by desktop users. On Wednesday of this week, Linux vendors Red Hat, Novell and Mandrakesoft released patches for several vulnerab...

Two weeks ago, I asked for reader aid in getting documentation on early 1990s System VR4 Unix to help understand what things can be done with Linux today but could not be done with AT&T System VR4. The question was naive and I need more help (and aspirin) in struggling toward a better answer tha...

As the new year begins, the experts agreed that the big story for 2004 in the open-source world -- and one of the biggest in the larger realm of IT -- has been the growth of Linux and its acceptance as a mainstream choice for business. It's a trend that industry analysts expect to continue, even acc...

International Business Machines announced today that it plans to provide free access to the information in 500 company patents to individuals and groups working on open-source software. The company said this could be the largest pledge of patents of any kind and applies to any individual, community ...

A developer of security software for Linux had some harsh words yesterday for what he sees as a lax attitude toward security in the operating system's community. "Linux is being presented by commercial vendors as a professional, enterprise-ready product," Brad Spengler, of grsecurity, said. "When it...

On the heels of a Windows product introduced two weeks ago, Opera Software on Friday released an unnamed beta version of its Linux browser with a range of new usability tools. The back-to-back releases illustrate the strategy of what some analysts said is perhaps the most diverse browser company in ...

Enrico Pesatori knows a thing or two about business strategy. He has been admired for his self-sustaining executive track record at Digital Equipment, Compaq and BlueArc. Now, as chairman and CEO of Penguin Computing, he's out to make the company a leader in high-performance computing servers, syste...