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New research once again confirms that Linux and open-source acquisition costs are a "fraction" of the cost of comparable proprietary options -- but the research adds a new caveat, noting that costs will be driven lower in coming years. Today, savings from Linux are often "offset by high integration,...

Tokyo-based VA Linux Systems last week launched a collaborative development project with NTT Data to develop a crash-analysis tool for Linux. According to the companies, this tool will provide crash-related data and crash analysis for IT departments. The project aims to have the tool in circulation ...

SCO Group is laying off employees at its Santa Cruz office, prompting speculation as to the real motive for the move throughout the Linux industry, LinuxInsider has learned. Competitors queried by LinuxInsider said they had not heard of the layoffs previously and found them "interesting." A report i...

Major vendors, like HP and IBM, are embracing Linux. Does that mean that Linux is no longer, practically speaking, free? Some technology experts -- even those keen on Linux -- have widely differing opinions. In an interview with the Australian IT press, Steve Vamos, the managing director for Microso...

Making good on a marketing promise uttered late last year, Red Hat today is ending support for the final version of its Linux 9 product. The Raleigh, North Carolina, Linux vendor in January stopped supporting its other legacy versions of Linux, hoping that customers would switch to the Red Hat Enter...

In my recent commentary on the role dishonest and incompetent IT textbooks play in education, I used the acronym PHB (pointy-haired boss) to refer to people who just don't get it with respect to systems. Unfortunately, that also demonstrated that I don't get the global nature of the LinuxInsider rea...

Tokyo-based Turbolinux this week disclosed that it has developed a new Linux operating system for home PC users -- Turbolinux 10F. Turbolinux is said to be the best-selling Linux distributor in the Asia-Pacific region. "Japanese consumers are moving in large numbers to Linux," said Koichi Yano, pres...

A Philippines-based software developer this week released software that enables Windows-based programs to run on computers using archrival Linux. In a statement, Peter Valdes, CTO of SpecOps Labs, said the software ultimately will help users migrate from Windows machines to the open-source Linux pla...

Two weeks ago, I wondered out loud about the top 10 worst IT business decisions ever made and nominated HP's decision to follow DEC down the road to oblivion for top spot. Today I'd like to suggest that the U.S. Defense Department's continued use of Microsoft's software is likely to top a future lis...

The developer of one of the world's most high-profile, open-source databases, Sweden's MySQL AB, this week launched MySQL Cluster, a new open-source database clustering technology for applications that need continuous availability. The MySQL Cluster combines a clustering architecture with the MySQL ...

Listening to some Linux critics, you might think that the open-source operating system is more of a threat to U.S. national security than a gaggle of Islamic jihadis lugging rocket-propelled grenade launchers around Fallujah, or mad Pakistani nuclear scientists selling secrets to rogue states. At ye...

About a month ago we had some people over for dinner, and the discussion drifted to top-10 lists of the Letterman variety. As part of that conversation, I got challenged to name the top 10 worst IT decisions ever -- something I couldn't do then and still can't do now, which is why I'm asking for you...

Want to know why most business analysts and venture capitalists simply don't get it with respect to Unix? Take a look at the computer books they study while working toward their MBA, financial analysis certificate or accounting designation, and you'll understand that their ignorance isn't entirely t...

The standard chip-making process, based on using lithography to etch circuits in silicon and other materials, has been in use since the mid-1970s, with change expressed mainly in increased manufacturing precision as decreases in the wavelengths used allowed the development of ever smaller components...

A week after announcing it was putting Linux on more of its desktop machines for the Asian market, HP made bigger waves this week, disclosing a deal with Novell to put SuSE Linux on the entire HP portfolio of business desktops and notebooks in North America, to be followed by other markets later. An...

Recent acquisitions have helped Novell rise to higher prominence as a vendor of Linux and nonproprietary software, but the company now is touting a wholehearted move toward a total, open platform. Novell's end-to-end, desktop-server Linux play and integration with its NetWare server technology was e...

One way or another, anti-outsourcing legislation seems likely to pass both houses of the U.S. Congress relatively soon. Whether this comes about through the House initiative led by Bernard Sanders or through other routes isn't important. What is important is that most of the proposals being discusse...

What really are the most fundamental differences between Windows variants like 2003/XP and Unix variants like Linux? From a practical perspective, cost is an obvious differentiator, as are access to source and the ability to run outside the Intel processor environment. But it's possible to argue tha...

Silicon Graphics on Wednesday touted as a breakthrough and industry first its achievement of support for as many as 256 Intel Itanium 2 processors with a single instance of the Linux operating system. In addition to immediate availability of its Advanced Linux Environment with ProPack 2.4 for Altix ...

Want to know why most business analysts and venture capitalists simply don't get it with respect to Unix? Take a look at the computer books they study while working toward their MBA, financial analysis certificate or accounting designation, and you'll understand that their ignorance isn't entirely t...