Search

Chinese-language consumers unwilling or unable to pay the cost of a legitimate copy of Microsoft's Windows XP now have a new alternative: a clone of the operating system that's based on Ubuntu. Dubbed "Ylmf OS," the software is available from Rain Forest Wind Guangdong Computer Technology as a free ...

Motorola appears to be gearing up to release its Android-powered Sholes handset in China, kicking into high gear the many rumors that have been circulating in the U.S. about the device. Dubbed the "Moto XT701," Sholes appeared alongside the previously announced Motorola MT710 on the company's Chines...

With the rumor mill still in overdrive following reports of a new, Google-branded Android phone going on sale directly to consumers as early as Jan. 5, it's not yet clear what effect it may have on the broader cellphone market. Widely referred to as the "Nexus One," the HTC-manufactured phone will l...

Everyone makes mistakes now and then; the hard part is admitting it. Yet that seems to be just what Google did on Saturday following its acquisition of AppJet, maker of the EtherPad collaborative word processor. The news first broke last Friday, when it was announced on the EtherPad blog that Google...

Less than a week after Google released the code for its Chrome OS, Dell announced that it has succeeded in getting the operating system up and running on its Mini 10v netbook. "Without a network connection, ChromiumOS is not very interesting," company blogger and technology strategist Doug Anson wro...

It's not every brand new operating system that gets open sourced a year before it hits the retail shelves. Then again, Chrome OS isn't just any OS, and Google isn't just any company. Indeed, that's just what Google did last week, making its brand new Chrome OS freely available for download by develo...

Microsoft will soon release the source code and binaries for a Windows 7 tool that was recently found to contain code licensed under the GNU General Public License. The tool in question is the company's free Windows 7 USB / DVD Download Tool, which enables consumers to create bootable USB drives or ...

The Android army gained yet another recruit Monday with the release of Samsung's Galaxy Spica phone in Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, or former Soviet republics. Equipped with an 800 MHz application processor and DivX support, the new device -- also known as the "I5700" -- report...

It was exactly five years ago Monday that Mozilla released version 1.0 of its open source Firefox Web browser, and fans around the globe marked the occasion with a multitude of special events held as part of the "Light the World with Firefox" campaign. "We've vastly improved the browsing experience ...

Promising faster performance and a bevy of new features, Mozilla on Friday released the first beta version of its Firefox 3.6 browser. Built on the Gecko 1.9.2 Web rendering engine, the new version contains numerous improvements for developers and users, Mozilla said, including support for what it c...

Following a spate of rumors, leaked specifications, and an ad campaign explicitly challenging the iPhone, Verizon and Motorola on Wednesday officially announced Droid, the first smartphone based on Android 2.0. Featuring high-speed Web browsing, voice-activated search, a customizable large screen, p...

Free and open source software just got a major boost: The Obama administration announced that it has adopted open source content management system Drupal for the Whitehouse.gov Web site. Though it may look much the same to visitors, the newly revamped Web site went live on Saturday with the goal of ...

With more than 200 Linux distributions currently listed at Linux Online, it's perhaps an understatement to say that newcomers to the field face a broad array of choices. In addition to considering their own goals for Linux, however, potential users may also need to take other factors into account. H...

IBM and Canonical have launched a Microsoft-free desktop software suite for U.S. companies, claiming the package will offer substantial cost reductions compared to a Windows 7 migration. The IBM Client for Smart Work package was launched late last month in Africa as part of the company's "Microsoft-...

There's a pieced-together monster shaking up the campus of Stanford University this fall, and it's named after the legendary, lumbering creature that Halloween nightmares are made of. Rather than parts of human corpses, however, this monster was cobbled together from a Texas Instruments system on a ...

There are many compelling reasons to switch to Linux. Excellent security and low -- or nonexistent -- costs, to name just two, have already persuaded countless organizations and individuals around the globe to eschew the world of end-user license agreements and opt for the freedom and openness of Li...

Two security flaws recently uncovered in Android 1.5 could have enabled malicious denial of service attacks on users of the mobile platform, according to an advisory released last week by the Open Source Computer Emergency Response Team. The first of the flaws, which affected Android's handling of S...

A strategic partnership between Google and Verizon Wireless will yield two new Android phones in the coming weeks, the companies' chiefs jointly announced Tuesday. Speaking in a conference call, Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt and Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam said that their first two And...

Apple's iPhone may have legions of enthusiastic followers, but there's no denying that fans of Google's competing Android platform already have more options. Case in point: Samsung and T-Mobile on Monday announced the Samsung Behold II, the latest of many Android handsets to come to market in recent...

After nearly two years of anticipation, Garmin and AT&T announced Tuesday that the long-awaited Garmin Nuvifone G60 will become available in the United States starting Oct. 4. Billed as "the navigation phone" for its integration of phone capabilities with GPS functionality, the Linux-based devic...