Archive

Industry observers yesterday took differing outlooks on rumors that Sun Microsystems might buy Novell. "I don't find the speculation credible," analyst Dan Kusnetzky, vice president of operating systems at International Data Corporation, said. Kusnetzky said such a merger would face problems from po...

The Messenger spacecraft lifted off on time aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, at 2:15 a.m. EDT. Messenger has successfully begun its mission to unravel the mysteries of planet Mercury. Messenger is a scientific investigation of the planet Mer...

Last year, the SCO Group spent most of its annual conference focused on its intellectual property litigation. This year the company is working to emphasize its products and boost enthusiasm for the future of Unix. In an interview with LinuxInsider, the company's CEO Darl McBride noted that 90 percen...

In Diamond vs. Chakrabarty, the United States Supreme Court ruled that patents could be granted for "anything under the sun that is made by the hand of man." That includes software. Law practice tip: If you need to argue in court that software is not patentable, point out that Chakrabarty does not a...

The SCO Group kicked off its annual technology summit with a dual focus on launching new products and fighting IBM through litigation. Because it is being held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the company used several movie clips to introduce its two key speakers, senior VP of worldwide marketing Jeff...

The Japanese government is partnering with 19 companies, including NEC, Fujitsu and IBM Japan, to encourage Linux use in the country's school system. The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, also known as METI, is spearheading the project and has expressed a desire to limit the dominance of Microso...

Silicon Graphics (SGI) announced that NASA has chosen the company's Altix as the foundation of Project Columbia, a collaboration between SGI and Intel that is expected to foster scientific breakthroughs in space exploration, global warming research and aerospace engineering. For the project, NASA pl...

At a working lunch last week I had the misfortune of being seated next to some guy from Boston whining about the misery and risk introduced into his life by Sarbanes-Oxley. I kept wanting to ask him what he thought his job was as a CFO, since all Sarbanes-Oxley really does is establish a basis for l...

Evans Data today released survey results showing that 90 percent of Linux systems have never been infected by a virus, and nearly 80 percent have never been hacked. The survey of 500 Linux developers worldwide was conducted earlier this month. The respondents' answers were compared to another survey...

After a growth surge that contributed to the decline in market share of Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) for the first time in six years, usage of the Mozilla browser flattened out during much of this month. "The general trend over the last two weeks, at least, seems to have mostly flattened out," G...

There is a line Jack Kerouac used to describe the independent, nonconformist nature of the Beat movement during the 1950s. He said, "Imagine explaining to 10,000 raving Tokyo snake dancers in the street that you are looking for peace but you won't join the parade." That may not be exactly the explan...

According to SCO, the main sticking point in the debate is the SCO source program, a vehicle for selling intellectual property. BayStar feels that SCO has made inconsistent statements about the licensing opportunities available in SCO source, while SCO has said that its disclosures were accurate.

A man in Florida has been indicted on 144 charges of conspiracy, unauthorized access to a protected computer, device fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice, after hacking into the database of a high profile marketing company. Scott Levine, 45, is accused of breaking into systems at Acxio...

Novell has announced that it has acquired Salmon, a British IT services company, in a deal that will link Salmon with Cambridge Technology Partners, another Novell acquisition. The company also revealed some efforts that it will be making through its earlier acquisition of SuSE Linux. It noted that ...

The Webmin enterprise has been helping to promote the corporate use of Linux, and cottage industries are emerging to assist in the use of open source through risk management tools and indemnification insurance, research shows. Yankee Group senior analyst Laura DiDio confirmed research shows Linux is...