Archive

One of the best productivity tools I had when I used Microsoft Windows was a collection of portable applications. I missed those tools when I migrated to Linux. Now several open source projects could make portable apps available to mainstream Linux users. Three websites are trying to create that fun...

Verizon Wireless unveiled the much-anticipated Motorola Droid X on Wednesday. The device, which Motorola variously describes as a touch tablet and a pocket-sized home theater, runs Android version 2.1. It will be updated over the air to run on Android 2.2 later in the year. When that happens, the Dr...

Rhythmbox, an integrated music management application, was originally inspired by Apple's iTunes. This open source app works on the Gnome Desktop and is based on the powerful GStreamer media framework. If you have read recent Linux Picks columns, you know that the Linux world of apps gives you sever...

Crowdsourcing may be killing a lot of jobs. True, it's still a nascent business strategy that works well only in certain scenarios, and it can't be lumped in with outsourcing as the cause of mass layoffs. As is the case with outsourcing, though, it can be particularly difficult to quantify crowdsour...

In our age of instant gratification, no one likes waiting for anything. That's why the sluggish launch time of a typical personal computer can make a consumer irritable. It's also why instant-on computing has become a sort of Holy Grail for hardware and software makers in the industry. The pursuit o...

The Open Solutions Alliance, a federated community of open source business and developer communities, opened in early December a community portal built upon technology from one of its newest member organizations, Essentia. The company develops software platforms and solutions for online communities ...

The Open Solutions Alliance, a federated community of open source business and developer communities, opened in early December a community portal built upon technology from one of its newest member organizations, Essentia. The company develops software platforms and solutions for online communities ...

Enterprise application whitelisting company Bit9 launched an attention-getting press release last week, a document which merely bubbled for a few days until the recent Internet Explorer flaw took center stage and Mozilla pushed out a few Firefox updates. Eventually, the heat under the issue boiled o...

Mozilla released an update Thursday that corrects several vulnerabilities in the Firefox Web browser. Firefox 2.0.0.12 patches critical flaws that could result in Web browsing history and forward navigation stealing; privilege escalation that could allow cross-site scripting exploits; and crashes wi...

Zonbu, maker of the Zonbu Mini desktop, unveiled a new addition to its line of hassle-free, affordable and green PCs -- the Zonbu Notebook computer. The inexpensive, Linux-based laptops include a service contract, billed monthly, that takes over the tasks of backing up data and monitoring the system...

The Linux-based mobile device marketplace is growing and thriving, and Nokia is but one beneficiary, though a strong one indeed. As a sign of the times, Nokia's Thursday launch of the "Internet Tablet" device N810 represents a move away from phones and into new opportunities in mobile devices where ...

London-based Openads, the developer of a free, open source adserver used by more than 20,000 publishers in 140 countries, announced on July 5 the appointment of James Bilefield as CEO. Bilefield brings more than 15 years of entrepreneurial, management and media experience to Openads from his work at...

For some time there has been a drive to smooth the process of building applications over existing call platforms. Also, more and more PBX operators have been moving platforms to open source -- Cisco Call Manager 5.0, for instance, is Linux based. Now the next step in developing robust open source un...

Japan's Turbolinux began shipping its Wizpy digital media devices on Friday. The Flash-based, USB device includes a version of the Linux operating system that can be used to run the open source OS on nearly any computer. According to Turbolinux, the idea behind the device is "to turn all the world's...

TurboLinux last week announced the release of a palm-sized USB device that comes with the firm's FUJI operating system embedded in its 4 GB flash memory. Called "Wizpy," the device will allow users to load Linux on any computer. The company plans to first distribute Wizpy in Japan in February. An En...