Red Hat CEO Says Innovation Trumps Cost Savings
In a keynote address, Jim Whitehurst explains why open source has become more valuable as an enabler of innovation in the enterprise than a means to cheaper software.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 08:11:36 PM EST

10 Great Linux Apps You Might Not Have Discovered Yet
The world of Linux applications continues to expand and improve, so check out Eric Geier's roundup of ten great Linux applications you might not have discovered yet: media players, Web page designer, video creation, run Linux on Windows, Windows apps on Linux, and more.
Monday, March 15, 2010 11:51:40 AM EST

Window Maker Desktop: Lightweight Linux Minimalism
In this ongoing series on lightweight Linux desktops, Juliet Kemp takes us on a tour of Window Maker, the popular fast, clean, lightweight window manager based on the look and feel of the NeXTStep interface. How does Window Maker measure up in this era of fancy special effects GUIs?
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 12:40:51 PM EST

The 7 Attractions of Gnome and KDE
GNOME and KDE have long had features that Windows lacked. In the last few years, both major free desktops have added features that show not only an interest in usability, but, at times, an effort to anticipate what users might actually want.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 11:25:21 AM EST

The 7 Irritations of GNOME and KDE
Bruce Byfield is already grumpy from the Olympics invasion of his hometown, and now KDE and GNOME are causing vexation. They both have many wonderful abilities, but some things leave users scratching their heads and wondering "why."
Friday, March 5, 2010 04:32:39 PM EST

Ubuntu's Linux Retail Strategy Gears Up for 2010
Linux at retail has been a hit-and-miss proposition for more than a decade. Canonical's new CEO explains her company's strategy for getting desktop Linux into more customers' hands.
Thursday, March 4, 2010 05:32:20 PM EST

Microsoft and I-O Data Sign Linux Patent Deal
Microsoft extends its successful run of extracting a patent "tax" from vendors who distribute Linux-based products.
Thursday, March 4, 2010 12:11:08 PM EST

Linux Management and Monitoring Lacking
I admit it: I'm slightly jealous of Microsoft server administrators. You see, in the Linux world, we have the power to create crazily robust and creative systems, but we're often reinventing the wheel.
Monday, March 1, 2010 10:31:33 AM EST

Where is Mozilla Ubiquity?
One of the most interesting Mozilla Labs projects has now stagnated. Is the project dead? Does it have a future? The Mozilla developer who led the project tells all.
Thursday, February 25, 2010 04:12:12 PM EST

Linux 2.6.33 Boosts Graphics, Dumps Android
A new kernel release makes its debut, with Nvidia and without Android, and top Red Hat and Novell kernel developers share their inside views.
Thursday, February 25, 2010 12:41:03 PM EST

Fedora Splits and Goes Faster
Red Hat's community Linux has undergone a major development change, with the bleeding edge Rawhide splitting off to become its own branch. A look at what this means, and why it matters.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 12:26:26 PM EST

Edubuntu is Ubuntu for the Classroom
Edubuntu is Ubuntu customized for the classroom, with a wealth of educational applications for different age groups. Eric Geier reveals some of the many treasures in Edubuntu.
Monday, February 22, 2010 10:57:49 AM EST

PHP Devs Prefer Windows
What operating systems are PHP developers using to develop and deploy their applications? A new survey gives some surprising answers.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 04:49:27 PM EST

IBM Stores Petabytes in Samba
IBM unveils its entry in the growing market for clustered network-attached storage (NAS) systems, the Samba-based SONAS, capable of handling billions of files and petabytes of data.
Friday, February 12, 2010 11:20:51 AM EST

Xfce Desktop: Less Lard, Less Bling, More Usability
KDE and GNOME pile on the eye candy and grow ever-larger and hungrier of system resources. Thankfully, Linux users who prefer a lightweight desktop environment have a number of great choices. Today Juliet Kemp takes us on a tour of the attractive, nimble, and functional Xfce desktop.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 11:25:09 AM EST

The Linux Desktop Evolves With KDE 4.4
The latest KDE4 desktop release sports thousands of new features and bugfixes, and includes the best integration yet of semantic technology.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 06:25:46 PM EST

GNOME's Evolution Gets a New Face for Netbooks
Linux's adaptability is serving netbooks and smartphones well, as a multitude of adaptations for the small screen are flowing into user's hands. Anjal is a sleek, modern interface for Evolution that is well-suited to the small screen.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 12:01:45 PM EST

What Happened to Red Hat Exchange?
Three years ago Red Hat launched an effort to sell partners open source solutions -- it didn't work out as well as they had originally planned, proof that an open source app store doesn't actually work.
Friday, February 5, 2010 06:20:21 PM EST

Nokia Goes Even More Open Source, Opens Symbian
Nokia, the new steward of Qt, and Linux kernel contributor, says it has has completed the largest transition from proprietary code to open source in software history.

Thursday, February 4, 2010 03:25:27 PM EST

SUSE Studio Leaves the Cloud and Comes Home
SUSE Studio is a slick, easy-to-use online software "appliance" builder. Novell has listened to customer demand, and released a standalone, customer-premise version.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 12:43:17 PM EST

Linux Motherboard Follies
It all started with upgrading a CPU. It should have been a simple, inexpensive task, but it has taken on a life of its own, resulting in battles with warranty service and shopping for yet more new parts. Will the madness ever end?
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 01:33:17 PM EST

Firefox 3.6 Boosts Speed, Tabs, HTML 5 and CSS
Six months after the last big Firefox release, Mozilla today is rolling out Firefox 3.6. The new browser, which began its life under the codename Namaroka", includes numerous enhancement over its predecessor, Firefox 3.5.
Thursday, January 21, 2010 12:03:24 PM EST

Free Ubuntu Linux, Only $26!
Ubuntu is the greatest thing since world peace, and for only $26 you can have it for free!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 04:34:37 PM EST

Mozilla Firefox 3.6 and Its Multiple Personas
Why one add-on will become part of the next Firefox release, while others sit on the sidelines.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 05:04:53 PM EST

5 Great OEM Linux Servers
Linux has long been popular in the datacenter, and various Tier 1 vendors have extensive server product lines mostly based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or SUSE Enterprise Linux. There are more OEM options than ever; here is a roundup of 5 distinctly different OEM Linux servers.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 02:47:02 PM EST

Linux and USB 3.0
The newest, fast interface, USB 3.0, is finally out, but only one operating system has native support for it: Linux.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 12:44:21 AM EST

A Decade's Worth of Linux Goodness: Top 10 Linux Planet Stories 2009
The top 10 most popular stories on Linux Planet covered a range of topics, and even included some very old stories that were published long before 2009. Is there value in that old mold? You bet there is!
Friday, January 15, 2010 02:13:08 PM EST

Will Linux and Price Cutting Revive System Z Mainframes?
Smaller, less-expensive but capable servers have been nibbling away at mainframe market share for some time. So IBM is doing the unthinkable: cutting prices. Will it be enough to interest customers?
Thursday, January 7, 2010 03:55:58 PM EST

The Small Business Owner's Guide to Desktop Linux
Linux offers substantial advantages for the small business, and comes in many flavors, from free to commercially-supported. Drew Robb is your tour guide to options for the small enterprise.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 12:47:59 PM EST

Freescale and Hearst Challenge Apple's iSlate Tablet
Apple's rumored upcoming tablet PC, supposedly called the iSlate, is already a big success in the minds of many analysts. Freescale and Hearst-- yes, the newspaper publisher Hearst-- have entered the tablet PC wars. Are they competing against vapor? Do customers even want tablet PCs?
Tuesday, January 5, 2010 12:14:24 PM EST

The Web Browser Wars-- They're Back
First came Netscape. Then came Internet Explorer. Then Netscape was reborn as Firefox, the new star of Web browsers. Now there is Chrome, a completely new browser from Google. The Web is the new battleground for 2010.
Monday, January 4, 2010 03:56:14 PM EST

AMD Builds RAID Into Server CPUs
Can't decide between software RAID or a hardware RAID controller? You may not have to, now that AMD has release its "RAID on CPU" server processors.
Monday, December 28, 2009 03:37:40 PM EST

Red Hat Grows by Taking Windows, UNIX Share
Once again, Linux vendor Red Hat has beat expectations and defied the gravity of a down economy.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009 12:09:39 PM EST

Dreamwidth's Diversity is its Strength
Dreamwidth, the community-based open-source blog service, has been highlighted for the diversity of its developer community, and its newbie-friendly dev culture. Juliet Kemp talks to founders Mark Smith and Denise Paolucci about how the project has taken off.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009 09:34:28 AM EST

MySQL 6 Features Roll Into MySQL 5.5 Milestone
Waiting around for MySQL 6? You may not have to anymore.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 04:15:38 PM EST

Shuttleworth Steps Down as Canonical Restructures
Mark Shuttleworth steps aside as CEO, though he remains 'dictator for life.'
Thursday, December 17, 2009 03:45:07 PM EST

Novell Moonlight 2.0 Gets Microsoft's Blessing
The new version of Moonlight is out, and with it, an expanded patent covenant enabling any Linux user to run Novell's open source Silverlight implementation.
Thursday, December 17, 2009 11:45:41 AM EST

TurboPrint for Linux Saves the Day-- Again
Even though our friends the giant globalcorps are often not very Linux-friendly, fine people like the TurboPrint developers make it possible to do high-quality Linux printing.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009 01:35:59 PM EST

Red Hat Settles Five-Year-Old Shareholder Lawsuit
At long last, the Linux vendor ends a dispute stemming from its 2004 earnings restatement.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 05:39:28 PM EST

Canonical Launches Bazaar Commercial Support
Ubuntu's lead commercial backer expands its revenue stream by adding paid support services for its open source code-versioning software.
Thursday, December 10, 2009 01:22:00 PM EST

GNOME 3: The Future of the Linux Desktop Revealed
Top Red Hat GNOME hackers show off the new shell and why it's superior to GNOME 2 (and maybe Chrome OS too).
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 07:10:20 PM EST

7 Fabulous Gifts For Your Favorite Linux/FOSS Geek
Tis the season to go shopping and to treat your favorite Tuxperson to something nice. Especially if it's you. Carla Schroder seeks out that perfect melding of fun and practical geektoys.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 01:23:13 PM EST

The State of Fedora: We're Not Just for Fanboys
At FUDCon, Fedora's project leader outlines the vision for growing Red Hat's community Linux effort.
Monday, December 7, 2009 06:06:03 PM EST

Linux 2.6.32 Kernel Brings Virtual Memory Improvements
The final Linux kernel release of the year takes aim at virtual memory deduplication and other performance enhancements.
Thursday, December 3, 2009 01:18:54 PM EST

'Ubuntu Needs a Longer Release Schedule!'
Every six-month Ubuntu release is greeted with a predictable barrage of praise, complaints, and solemn pundits calling for a slower release schedule. Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu Community Manager, reveals the whys and wherefores of Ubuntu's two-pronged release strategy.
Thursday, December 3, 2009 10:32:30 AM EST

Nokia Targets Open Source Qt 4.6 at Symbian
It's not just for Linux users anymore, as the open source UI framework gets broader mobile platform support.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009 05:45:16 PM EST

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Clone CentOS Gets Commercial Support
CentOS, a popular free clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, has long been a favorite of admins and users who want RHEL for free. Now with commercial support offered by OpenLogic, does this make CentOS a direct RHEL competitor?
Wednesday, December 2, 2009 12:31:13 PM EST

Fedora 12 Pushes Bleeding Edge of Linux Networking
Fedora 12 promises seamless, reliable Bluetooth tethering, great support for 3G, mobile USB networking devices, and a very improved Network Manager. Plus a raft of other improvements, as Sean Michael Kerner reports.
Monday, November 23, 2009 10:21:26 PM EST

Linux is Best for PHP Development
Development in PHP is always a tricky road to follow, with many elements outside of your control. (Server, browser, operating systems). In this article we'll discuss the two most important things we should try to remember when developing in PHP.
Saturday, November 21, 2009 02:31:04 PM EST

Linux Bug #1: Bad Documentation (part 2)
In Part 1 I talked about the messy state of Linux documentation, and how telling users to rely on Google is not documentation. Good documentation is equally important as good code. Today we look at the different types of documentation, from man pages to glossy books.
Thursday, November 19, 2009 04:52:41 PM EST

Linux Powers Giant Database: 400TB of Climate Data and Counting
A Linux-powered cluster holds one of the world's largest distributed databases. Juliet Kemp reports on the CERA-2 (Climate and Environmental Retrieving and Archiving) database system, which fuels a vast international archive and data distribution center for climate research data.
Monday, November 9, 2009 11:18:33 AM EST

Editor's Note: Making Multi-Channel Firewire Music With Linux
Firewire recording interfaces are needed for good multi-channel recording on Linux, so your fearless editor leaps into the deep end with the Focusrite Saffire Pro 26. Will it work? Will it blow up? Will it sit there like a bump on a log?
Friday, November 6, 2009 10:15:30 PM EST

Where is Linux's Answer to Microsoft's Small Business Server?
It's funny isn't it? By default, any Linux distribution comes with business server functionality like an e-mail, file, and print serving, but Microsoft still gets the lion's share of the small business server world. Steve J. Vaughan-Nichols wonders what's going on here?
Monday, November 2, 2009 01:19:33 AM EST

Red Hat's KVM Surpasses Xen, Aims at VMWare
Xen made a big splash when it was introduced, and VMWare has long dominated the virtualization space. But Red Hat's KVM promises to leave Xen in the dust, and challenge VMWare. At least that's what Red Hat says will happen.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 11:32:36 PM EST

White House Goes Open Source With Drupal
WhiteHouse.gov, the official website for the President of the United States is now based on open source technology: the Drupal content management system.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 01:31:24 AM EST

Is It Free Software if You Pay For It?
We all know we can use open source software without paying, but the real question is: what compels people to buy free stuff? Most widely used free and open source software can also be purchased. So what do you get for the money?
Friday, October 23, 2009 12:09:48 AM EST

5 Ways to be a Great Linux Server Admin
There are easy ways to manage Linux servers, and there are hard ways. Charlie Schluting shows how to go from hard to easy.
Friday, October 16, 2009 11:22:10 AM EST

Nanny Linux: Parental Controls on Little Tuxes
The World Wide Web is more like the Wild Wild West, and there are Linux programs to help parents steer their children away from the bad neighborhoods. Matt Hartley looks at a number of programs that put control in parent's hands.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 10:42:58 AM EST

Green Computing is More Than Sleep Mode
There is more to "green" computing than turning things off when you're not using them-- Juliet Kemp exposes the total energy cost of computing, from manufacturing to disposal.
Monday, October 12, 2009 10:37:20 AM EST

NetIQ Carves Out Cross-Platform Net Management Niche
Deployed on over 450,000 servers, NetIQ enterprise systems and application management products provide IT managers with rich heterogeneous systems management and monitoring solutions.
Thursday, October 8, 2009 04:52:47 PM EST

Linux Radio Ads a Success, Not a Failure
Ken Starks reported on his experiment with running Linux radio ads. Ken sounds a bit discouraged, but he shouldn't be-- it was a success and it proves that advertising Linux works. Let's take a closer look at what happened, and what the goals of any advertising campaign should be.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 04:24:09 PM EST

Can the x86 Just Keep Going?
Few technologies last 30 years, let alone become more dominant with each passing one, but the x86 architecture has done just that.
Monday, October 5, 2009 04:23:12 PM EST

Mark Shuttleworth's Radical Vision
Mark Shuttleworth delivered the closing keynote at this year's inaugural Linuxcon. He delivered an enticing vision of the future of Linux and Free software, with a catch-- it means breaking drastically from the old ways. Carla Schroder reports on the highlights of his keynote, and readers can view the keynote as well.
Thursday, October 1, 2009 04:49:57 PM EST

Tech Companies: Don't Forget the Touchscreens
There's little debating that touchscreens are the future. So what's keeping the industry?
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 04:39:45 PM EST

Gnome and KDE Wrestle With Menus
Your Linux computer may have hundreds of applications installed. How can any system menu be organized sanely? How can anyone find anything? Bruce Byfield examines the different approaches taken by the Gnome and KDE teams to deal with this.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 04:04:46 PM EST

RAID's Days May Be Numbered
The long-running data storage technology could be headed for trouble. We look at the problem -- and potential solutions.
Monday, September 28, 2009 01:07:28 PM EST

Learn Asterisk with a Fast Start Course
While it can't make you an instant Asterisk expert, Digium's Asterisk Fast Start training course will give you a grounding in this popular open source PBX running on Linux.
Friday, September 25, 2009 12:12:55 PM EST

Like it or Not, The Cloud is Here to Stay and Red Hat's Jumping In
Despite warnings about loss of privacy, security, reliability, and accountability, vendors are in a headlong rush into the "cloud" and reduce computing to something like the old-fashioned telephone network: smart network, dumb user interfaces. Red Hat is positioning itself to jump on the cloud bandwagon; is it any better when it's an open source company?
Friday, September 25, 2009 12:04:21 PM EST

The Linux Desktop is More Than Ready
The Linux desktop is highly-polished and functional, but still isn't making a dent in the mainstream. Matt Hartley looks at some of the roadblocks keeping desktop Linux in a small niche.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 01:28:09 PM EST

Torvalds Warns Linux is Getting Bloated
"We're getting bloated, yes it's a problem," Torvalds said. "I'd love to say we have a plan. I mean, sometimes it's a bit sad and we're definitely not the streamlined hyper-efficient kernel that I had envisioned 15 years ago. The kernel is huge and bloated."
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 10:42:05 AM EST

Cisco Routers Powered By Linux
Cisco has its own networking operating system, IOS, which has long been the mainstay of its routers and switches. But now Linux is powering a new generation of Cisco networking devices for small businesses.
Friday, September 18, 2009 12:10:01 PM EST

Build it Yourself Linux Super-Workstation Part 2
In part one of this series we looked at the basic building blocks needed to put together your very own high-end Linux workstation. This time Paul Ferrill finishes the actual hardware assembly, encounters Windows-required-for-BIOS-update follies, and starts to gaze towards putting some software on this beast.
Thursday, September 17, 2009 01:21:55 PM EST

Is Xen Mature Enough to Replace VMWare?
Charlie Schluting helps admins decide if Xen is a viable alternative to VMWare. Why move away from VMWare? Xen is open source and less expensive. But will it do the job?
Thursday, September 10, 2009 12:15:57 PM EST

ZaReason's New Linux Netbook, How to Thrive in a Tough Market
ZaReason is an independent Linux OEM that sells a line of pre-installed Linux machines, from netbooks to desktops to servers. Their new Terra A20 Ubuntu netbook is flying off the shelves. Founder Cathy Malmrose talks about the challenges of running a Linux shop in a Windows world.
Thursday, September 3, 2009 01:30:33 PM EST

Cracked in 60 Seconds: WPA Falls
It has long been predicted that WPA (wireless encryption) would go the way of WEP and become ineffective. Japanese researchers demonstrate that WPA can be broken as quickly as WEP---in less than a minute.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009 12:05:11 PM EST

KDE4, the Anti-Cloud Desktop
Whether you call it Web 2.0, Software as a Service (SAAS), Cloud Computing, or some other trendy buzzword, it still means ceding control of your data and applications to someone else. Bruce Byfield examines some exciting possibilities in KDE4 for incorporating networked functions into the desktop in a different way, one that keeps control in the user's hands.
Monday, August 31, 2009 11:14:41 AM EST

The Linux Home Office: What's In Your Cyberspace?
From the Linux Today Blog: What does your home computer lab look like? A dedicated office, a corner of the living room, a single sleek laptop? What's in your cyberspace?
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 12:28:38 PM EST

Avahi (Zeroconf) on Linux: What is it Good For?
avahi is installed by default on Debian and Ubuntu systems, but few people seem to use it to any extent. It's supposed to be a service auto-discovery, but what services exactly is it set up to discover? Juliet Kemp figures out if she can actually make it do something she wants it to do.
Monday, August 24, 2009 09:55:12 AM EST

The Globe-Trotting Linux Geek: Staying Connected and Working Remotely
Trains, planes, and automobiles: Juliet Kemp has been roaming the planet for months, while supporting remote servers and writing Linux howtos for LinuxPlanet and Serverwatch. It's a tough life: "...lying in my tent with a cup of tea and a stack of chocolate biscuits, watching TV series downloads on the laptop."
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 11:49:39 AM EST

55 Ways to Bring Open Source into Education
Open source and education are natural fits-- open source encourages experimentation and exploration, and the opportunity to learn computing, rather just how to be a little cog in a giant data-processing machine. Cynthia Harvey gives us a taste of the possibilities with this list of 55 open source educational applications.
Monday, August 3, 2009 12:25:26 PM EST

Is Linux Getting Too Plump?
Modern all-purpose Linux distributions require a lot of RAM and disk space. What's going on, is it lard? Functionality? Have the bytes themselves gotten porky? Paul Rubens investigates the Case of the Portly Linux.
Thursday, July 30, 2009 04:30:40 PM EST

Why Code For Free? Yet More Linux/FOSS Devs Speak! (part 3)
The headline says "Why Code For Free", but it's really more complicated than that because there are many FOSS developers who are paid to work on FOSS projects. In this final part of our series, more developers speak on the rewards of being part of the FOSS community.
Thursday, July 30, 2009 03:17:14 PM EST

Why Code For Free? Linux/FOSS Devs Speak!
Last week I talked about some the advantages of Free/Open Source software for us end users. Today developers speak on why they like to use FOSS; I received so many excellent responses that I have split this into two parts, and the second part will run tomorrow.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 11:36:11 AM EST

Upgrading From Windows to Linux
If you're thinking of upgrading from Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7, why not give Linux a try? Matt Hartley ponders the pros and cons of both platforms, the relative pain of making a change, and the economic incentives for continuing to favor a buggy, insecure platform.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 03:50:40 PM EST

Victory! Murky Mono Legal Issues Settled. Or Are They?
Many a vigorous debate has been fought over any possible legal threats that might be inherent in Mono. Now that Microsoft has extended its Community Promise to cover select parts of the C# programming language, which is what Mono is built on, it is being hailed as evidence that Mono is safe. Bruce Byfield tries to answer the question, is it really?
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 03:22:49 PM EST

5 Ways Linux Saves Older PCs
Windows and Apple rely on endless upgrade cycles to keep the money flowing. Linux, on the other hand, is much more considerate of the planet and our finances. Eric Geier has five excellent ideas for giving new life to old PCs with Linux.
Friday, July 17, 2009 10:37:24 AM EST

Why GNOME Do Is Built With C#
With all the recent heat generated about Mono and the C# language, it only seems appropriate to take a look at the issue from a programmer's perspective. David Siegel talks about how he came to choose C# for writing GNOME Do.
Thursday, July 16, 2009 12:25:35 PM EST

Of Monopolies and Mono
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols wonders: is the Mono programming environment really a Microsoft threat to Linux, or is this just a tempest in a tea-cup? It depends on who you ask.
Thursday, July 9, 2009 04:04:23 PM EST

Good News For Red Hat Is Never Good Enough
Red Hat has shown impressive and steady growth for several years now, despite giving away its core product. So what's the problem? Paul Rubens wonders where all this business will keep coming from, once the high-end Unix market is no longer easy pickings.
Monday, July 6, 2009 01:13:12 PM EST

Best Linux PIM: Kontact or Evolution?
Some of us rely heavily on our personal information managers for keeping our appointment calendars, contacts, reminders, and notes. Gnome offers Evolution, and KDE has Kontact. Which one is better? Bruce Byfield takes a detailed look at both.
Thursday, July 2, 2009 01:37:25 PM EST

Mixing Proprietary Software and Linux
It's easier than ever for Linux users to avoid closed, proprietary applications and drivers. But life is complex, and there are still times when a Linux user's choices are not as simple as FOSS/non-FOSS; for example, multimedia is a minefield of patented codecs, binary blobs, and DRM. So what's a freedom-loving Penguinista to do?
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 02:36:43 PM EST

Linux-Powered Enterprise Storage: Openfiler
Jennifer Schiff introduces us to Openfiler, the robust, enterprise open-source storage networks operating system. It is managed with a Web-based GUI, and works with any industry standard x86 or x86/64 server, and has a very attractive price tag.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 06:00:23 PM EST

Ubuntu's A Fading Memory, PCLinuxOS and 64 Studio Are Fab. So Far.
As I wrote a few days ago, I replaced Kubuntu and Ubuntu on several of my home PCs with PCLinuxOS and 64 Studio. I was intending to wait a couple of months to post a followup because long-term performance is what matters. But a few things have impressed me so much these two newcomers to my little computing empire deserve an extra mention.
Friday, June 19, 2009 02:16:03 PM EST

Unix at 40: the Robust Ancestor of Modern Operating Systems
If you add Unix and Linux together as part of the same family, instead of seeing them as competitors, then Unix still accounts for more than half of all server spend. Paul Rubens takes a look at venerable old ancestor of modern computing.
Thursday, June 18, 2009 05:52:29 PM EST

Linux 2.6.30 Full of New Goodies: Fastboot, Ftrace, Wifi Security, Filesystems
Linux kernel development continues to roar ahead, and 2.6.30 is cram-full of excellent new features: Tomoyo, the learning framework for SELinux, NILFS (new implementation of a log-structured file system), IEEE 802.11w enhanced wireless security, and fastboot, which is a speedier boot process in the kernel itself. Sean Michael Kerner reports.
Thursday, June 18, 2009 01:26:16 PM EST

Branding: Even For Linux and FOSS, It's Everything
The trouble with the present FOSS brand is that it is not created by those with a stake in it; rather, it is created and controlled by those who oppose FOSS and all that it stands for. Bruce Byfield reports on the importance of defining the FOSS brand outside the community.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 11:39:35 AM EST

Good-Bye Ubuntu, Hello PCLinuxOS
After almost two years of relying on Kubuntu and Ubuntu, your editor has had enough. Farewell faithful *buntus, hello and welcome PCLinuxOS. Will PCLinuxOS work out better? Will I pine for the good old alliterative animal days? Will I become dissatisfied with PCLinuxOS and swap it out for something else? Is any Linux good enough?
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 05:57:14 PM EST

A Linux Day of Gratitude
Due to a long succession of pleasing experiences and unfettered software freedom, Carla Schroder hereby nominates today, and every day, as Linux/FOSS Gratitude Day. You don't have to kiss a programmer, but you might take the time to thank some of the folks who have made all of this wonderful software freely available.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 12:13:15 PM EST

Firefox 3.5 Speed Freak: Faster Development, Faster Performance
Firefox 3.5 was originally intended to be Firefox 3.1; a fairly minor update with small fixes and improvements. But it took on a life of its own, and major work was accomplished in a short time. Sean Michael Kerner investigates how these happy accomplishments came about.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 12:22:05 PM EST

Linux Netbook Pioneer's Bizarre 'It's Better With Windows' Campaign
Asus was a Linux netbook pioneer, but now it's a Windows shop all the way. So what happened, and why is their new "It's Better With Windows" ad campaign so bizarre? Bruce Byfield tries to find out.
Monday, June 8, 2009 10:29:09 AM EST

Linux, Android Linux, and Windows 7 Go to War
Linux is easy to customize, is stable, malware-resistant, lightweight, and both user- and developer-friendly. So why do OEM Linux netbook implementations suck so badly? Matt Hartley analyzes the exploding netbook market, and why Linux is struggling to gain traction.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009 02:01:31 PM EST

75-year old Ubuntu User Learns From Books
Instead of wandering in ignorance and getting frustrated, or bouncing randomly all over the Internet, 75-year old Emery Fletcher believes in learning from books, and becomes an accomplished Ubuntu user.
Friday, May 22, 2009 11:32:09 AM EST

Linux Cloud Computing For The Masses With Zimory
Zimory's Linux-powered "cloud" services offers both great flexibility and frugality-- you pay only for what you use, and there are no long-term commitments or penalties. Paul Ferrill examines this vendor of "Cloud computing for the masses."
Friday, May 8, 2009 10:15:07 AM EST

Ubuntu is the Linux Usability Leader
There seem to be more arguments over usability in Linux than efforts to improve usability. Mark Shuttleworth doesn't argue, but pushes ahead. Some critics think that Ubuntu's relentless forward pace is too unilateral, not cooperative enough, and essentially a fork of Gnome. Bruce Byfield takes a look at the controversy.
Thursday, May 7, 2009 01:05:19 PM EST

Ubuntu and Fedora Replace init with Upstart
The venerable Linux init system is not up to the job of managing modern dynamic hardware and processes; if a device is not present at boot, then init cannot control it. Upstart is hotplug-aware, and first appeared as an init replacement in Ubuntu, and now Fedora has adopted it. It runs alongside init for a comfortable transition; Juliet Kemp gives us a guided tour in this two-part series.
Monday, May 4, 2009 03:46:12 PM EST

Controversy Haunts Linux-based DD-WRT-- GPL Violator? Betrayer of Open Source?
The popular DD-WRT router software project (firmware replacement for consumer-level wireless routers, such as the Linksys WRT series) uses GPL software, but its Web interface has a restrictive proprietary license,and it bundles other questionably-licensed software. Aaron Weiss reports on the accusations and controversy that dog this popular software.
Thursday, April 23, 2009 06:13:01 PM EST

Is Gnome Desperately Chasing KDE?
Gnome 3 will introduce a new vision of usability and rapid change, rather than continuing with the incremental growth and gradual changes of Gnome 2. Gnome 3 may be just as ambitious and disruptive as KDE4. Will it work? Will users accept it? Bruce Byfield gazes into his tea leaves and tries to figure out how it will all work out.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 05:15:15 PM EST

Linux Works Even When Your PC is Committing Suicide
Computers always break at the most inconvenient times, but sometimes Linux lets you continue to work until you have time to sort things out. Carla Schroder tells the tale of a display that went kaput, and how she could still use the PC until it was fixed.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009 06:15:06 PM EST

Silly Linux Myths Exposed: Linux Has Great Hardware Support
There is a silly myth that Linux hardware support is poor and requires a lot of manual tweaking. In reality it is excellent, and for the majority of devices is easier and better than any other operating system. It still pays to shop carefully; Matt Hartley guides us past the rough spots.
Sunday, April 12, 2009 11:19:32 PM EST

Linux: Ugly Duckling to Beautiful Swan
Mark Shuttleworth, the benevolent dictator of Canonical and Ubuntu, has big ambitions for Linux. He wants to make the Linux experience seamless, elegant, and superior. Can Linux deliver both power and beauty?
Friday, April 10, 2009 10:53:24 AM EST

Microsoft's Patent War Against Linux: TomTom Settles, Linux Loses
What Microsoft really wants from TomTom isn't money, but building fear about Linux in other companies. Microsoft wants you to believe you need a Microsoft license to deploy Open Source software. Bruce Perens analyzes the unfortunate outcome of the TomTom/Microsoft patent settlement.
Sunday, April 5, 2009 01:06:51 PM EST

KDE Strides Ahead While Gnome Stagnates
KDE4 is a radical rewrite, and it lays the groundwork for a long and sustainable future. The long-term vision for Gnome is conservative and careful. While radical changes are upsetting, Gnome's conservatism could lead to an increasingly crufty and un-sustainable code base. Bruce Byfield gazes into his crystal ball and predicts what the future holds for both.
Sunday, April 5, 2009 12:31:36 PM EST

Does Linux Need Hard Times To Succeed?
In difficult economic times, classical economic theory tells us that expensive goods suffer the most. But, as experienced Linux admins know, lower cost doesn't mean compromising on quality; Paul Rubens examines what it will take to accelerate Linux adoption in the enterprise.
Thursday, April 2, 2009 12:10:17 AM EST

Psyb0t: Drafting Linux Routers Into the World Wide Botnet
While Linux is very secure-able, as always the weakest point is the human factor. The Psyb0t targets inexpensive Linux-based routers that ship with weak or no passwords, and other flaws that are simple to fix. Sean Michael Kerner tells the tale.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 02:02:15 PM EST

Adobe Flash Cookies: Yes They Are Dangerous, and More Cool Linux Hacks
Are Flash cookies dangerous? Of course they are-- to your privacy and personal data security. Carla Schroder shares some additional helpful information submitted by readers on what Flash cookies really do in part 3 of this series, and more cool Linux ways to manage them.
Monday, March 30, 2009 01:43:28 PM EST

OpenMoko Smart Phone: Open Linux, Open Hardware, No Britney Spears
Imagine owning a smart phone that you can hack just as freely as a PC. OpenMoko is an embedded Linux-based mobile platform, and the Neo Freerunner is OpenMoko's slick little touch-screen smart phone that runs OpenMoko. Unlike other mobile platforms that are open in buzzword only, OpenMoko is a genuinely open hardware and software platform. Carla Schroder investigates this radical new approach to mobile devices.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 04:23:13 PM EST

21 Great Open Source Apps For Your Netbook
Low-cost and lower-power don't mean you have to settle for second-best; open source and netbooks go together like milk and cookies. Cynthia Harvey has 21 open-source ways to turn a netbook into a tiny, productive powerhouse.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 01:07:29 PM EST

Bruce Perens: Microsoft Patent Suit 'A Big Duh Factor'
Bruce Perens examines the merits of Microsoft's patent lawsuit against TomTom, and shows how it appears to be little more than an attempted shakedown, and a patent attack on Linux.
Monday, March 9, 2009 04:31:29 PM EST

6 Ways To Connect Linux to the Outside World That Are Not Wireless, Bluetooth, or Ethernet
The more things change, the more they stay the same. In the olden days we had real modems with bauds and everything. A lot of years have passed, and Linux has acquired a lot of new communication protocols and devices. But here we are back to modems (EV-DO and HSDPA) being the latest and greatest. Paul Ferrill shows us what and how.
Friday, March 6, 2009 01:31:47 PM EST

Linux Foundation Acquires Linux.com: Behind the Scenes
The Linux.com domain name is the ultimate Linux domain name. For years it was the home of a good news and howtos site, owned by VA Systems/OSTG/Sourceforge, Inc., and now Sourceforge, Inc has transferred ownership to the non-profit Linux Foundation, which seems to make it a genuine community project. Or is it? Bruce Byfield goes behind the scenes to find out what's what.
Thursday, March 5, 2009 12:55:58 PM EST

Escaping From Vendor Lock-in With FOSS
Is your company a victim of vendor lock-in? Who really owns your data, who really makes your procurement and infrasctructure decisions? Matt Hartley examines the problem of lock-in, and how it wastes your time and costs you real money.

Monday, March 2, 2009 12:27:40 PM EST

Shuttleworth Says Linux is a Joke
Linux is a joke. Well, that may be a bit harsh, but Ubuntu certainly seems to be all the excuse founder Mark Shuttleworth needs to make one bad pun after another. After Bill Gates' performances with Jerry Seinfeld, one wonders if becoming a billionaire tech mogul alters brain chemistry. At any rate, Paul Rubens reports on the future of Karmic Koala and Canonical. (Hint: not as successes in show biz.)
Friday, February 27, 2009 11:59:46 AM EST

Seven Must-Have Firefox Security Add-Ons
Mobile workers are especially vulnerable because they operate outside corporate security systems, and often return home to unload nasties into the company network. Paul Rubens finds seven excellent Firefox plugins to help protect the mobile worker.
Thursday, February 26, 2009 02:43:14 PM EST

Commercial Linux Support Showdown
Money can't buy you love; nor can it buy you happiness. But it just might bring you peace of mind. Ken Hess examines the big three commercial Linuxes, Red Hat, SUSE, and Ubuntu, and compares their support offerings.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009 05:34:35 PM EST

How Many Linux Users Are There (Really)?
Everyday FUD says that Linux market share is below 1%. We know this is incorrect, and it ignores different market segments such as mainframe, cluster, desktop, intranet server, embedded, and so forth. So how many Linux users are there? Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols attempts to take a headcount, and comes up with some surprising results.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 11:58:01 AM EST

Party Like It's 1234567890!
Planned celebrations will spontaneously erupt all over the globe as computer geeks celebrate when UNIX time hits 1234567890! Today! On Friday the 13th! The day before Valentine's Day!
Friday, February 13, 2009 10:03:58 AM EST

When Worlds Collide: Combining GPL and Proprietary Software
Bruce Perens reports that Linux is a natural for embedded systems. That's why it's popping up in more cell phones, often without the customer even realizing it's there. But cell phone manufacturers, and the broader sector of embedded systems, must cope with the problem of how to combine the GPL Linux kernel, and software that isn't Open Source. How does one do that legally?
Thursday, February 12, 2009 01:41:29 PM EST

Open Source is Already Naturally Green
Tech vendors who can't think of good things to say about their products fall back on "It's Green! Save Money And Be Hip!" But as always, Open Source is ahead of the curve. Tina Gasperson examines how Open Source software uses innovative methods such as less clothing, fewer showers, and agoraphobia to generate substantial energy savings.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009 11:25:27 AM EST

The Ideal Linux Desktop
Bruce Byfield talks about what goes into a well-configured desktop, and discusses various tools and techniques for customizing your own Linux system.
Thursday, February 5, 2009 01:01:18 PM EST

Red Hat More Valuable Than Sun
Sun sells more than $13 billion of goods and services per year, while Red Hat sells a little over $600 million. So which is worth more? The market has spoken, and says they're about the same.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 12:57:18 PM EST

LinuxConf Tasmania 2009: Devils, Schoolgirls, Never Reboot Again, Geekcars, and More
Akkana Peck spent an eventful week trying to see and absorb all of LinuxConf 2009. Executive summary: you want to see real innovation and a desire to get more people involved, as opposed to finding more innovative ways to exploit them, check out Linux.
Thursday, January 29, 2009 12:10:35 PM EST

Linus, KDE4, and Yapping Anklebiters
Linus Torvalds makes a minor, off-hand comment that is buried deep in a lengthy interview. The tech press and Linux community act like it's nude celebrity pics and go gaga. Bruce Byfield peels away the nonsense and finds a tiny nugget of actual news. Sorry, no nude pics.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 03:24:58 PM EST

Adventures In External Media With Kubuntu
Uncertainty over hardware support is a perennial Linux bugaboo--even when vendors claim to love the penguin, it isn't always true. Rob Reilly risks his own money and peace of mind testing various external storage devices on his Asus Kubuntu laptop, including an antique Zip drive, and reports his findings.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 11:31:14 AM EST

Red Hat Rolls Out A Herd Of Cutting-Edge Enterprise Updates
Linux vendor Red Hat is updating its flagship Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to version 5.3 with added support for new Intel Nehalem hardware and including new Java, clustered file system and security tools. Sean Michael Kerner reports on this, and a batch of other new updates.
Friday, January 23, 2009 01:56:41 PM EST

Linux Alternatives to iTunes
iTunes has the looks, the industry muscle, the DRM, and the lock-in. But the iTunes media player is inflexible and limited. Matt Hartley reviews some powerhouse open source media players that offer attractive feature sets, user-friendliness, and don't even try to fence users in.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009 11:29:27 AM EST

Linux is the Engine Under the Hood of Instant On
Paul Ferrill reports that Linux-powered "instant-on" environments are the new hot technology. ASUS and DeviceVM led the way with Splashtop, and now the venerable BIOS vendor Phoenix has released Hyperspace, which has some significant differences.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009 12:30:39 PM EST

OpenOffice.org vs. Go-OO: Community vs. the Suits, With a Dash of Mono
It seems that much drama roils behind the OpenOffice scenes, with some saying it's a dying mess thanks to Sun's mismanagement. Then there is Go-OO, which could be a sneaky attempt to implant nasty Microsoft technologies into an important FOSS software suite. Bruce Byfield heroically attempts to sort out the whole mess and figure out what's really going on.
Monday, January 12, 2009 01:02:54 PM EST

Fedora 11 Needs A Name: The Polls Are Now Open
Fedora 11 is now in the cooker, and it needs a name. Voting is now open---hurry, the polls close soon.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009 01:39:39 PM EST

Tech Writing Tips From the LinuxPlanet Pros
People who write good howtos and documentation are the finest people there are. Tina Gasperson, Bruce Byfield, and Carla Schroder share some tips on improving your writing skills, and building a body of work to be proud of.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 03:12:05 PM EST

Discovering the New Features of OpenOffice.org 3.0
The release of OpenOffice.org 3.0 delivers a lot of improvements: more user-friendliness, full tables support in Impress, a better cropping tool in Draw, vastly improved Notes in Writer, Calc gets more muscle, and more, as Eric Geier reports.
Monday, December 15, 2008 12:38:34 PM EST

HP Finally Offers Pre-Installed Desktop Linux
For years now, HP has been slowly edging towards releasing a pre-installed Linux for general users. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports that today, December 10th, HP finally took the big plunge.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008 01:36:57 PM EST

Firefox + Greasemonkey Turbocharge E-Commerce Site--From The Client Side
Perl hacker Ian Malpass uses Perl, Firefox and Greasemonkey to make Etsy.com, the popular online crafts market, more usable and seller-friendly---without ever touching the servers. Tina Gasperson reports on how he did it, and how anyone can do it.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008 05:09:50 PM EST

Public Key Crypto For the Enterprise
Encryption is standard in a lot of applications these days, such as email, Web sites, VPNs, and wireless networking. There is a lot of snake oil and ineffective technology that lies in wait for the unwary; Paul Rubens gives a clear and understandable explanation of the power and benefits of Public Key Encryption (PKE), and why it revolutionized securing communications over untrusted networks.
Monday, December 8, 2008 12:19:58 PM EST

What Will It Take To Have A Truly Free Kernel?
Knowing when a GNU/Linux distribution is free used to be simple. If all its software had licenses approved by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) then a distribution was free. Otherwise, it wasn't. But it's not as black-and-white as it seems, since closed binary-only blobs have been allowed in the kernel for years now in violation of the GPL. Bruce Byfield examines the complexities of this issue.
Friday, December 5, 2008 01:37:08 PM EST

Will a Linux Certification Help You Get a Linux Job?
There are a host of Linux certifications, such as the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE), Novell's Novell Linux Certified Engineer (NLCE), and the Linux Professional Institute's entry-level LPIC-1. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols looks for the answer to the question, How much help are they for turning your Linux expertise into a Linux job?
Thursday, December 4, 2008 11:21:08 AM EST

Linux Continues to Feast on Unix
The latest list of Top500 supercomputers reveals that Linux isn't just chipping away at Unix's market share-- it's jack-hammering. Paul Rubens wonders if Unix even has a future.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008 03:12:26 PM EST

Fedora 10: The Best Fedora Yet?
Fedora Linux has always pushed forward with an intense release schedule, and is usually the first major distribution to package new technologies and advances. Fedora 10 promises to be even a larger milestone than most, both for its development community and users; Bruce Byfield goes behind the scenes and uncovers some of the legal, development, and community issues that the Fedora team have to deal with.
Monday, December 1, 2008 12:27:19 PM EST

The Twelve Top Myths of Free/Open Source Software
All sorts of misconceptions, misunderstandings, propaganda, and FUD swirl around Free and Open Source Software like autumn leaves. Bruce Byfield addresses and debunks the twelve most prevalent FOSS myths.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 05:31:58 PM EST

Guide to Ubuntu Linux for Windows Users
Perhaps you're tired of getting beat up by malware, high prices, lack of interoperability, and poor performance. Maybe you're intrigued by the idea of software that is open, friendly, and that doesn't treat customers like criminals. Maybe you're just curious. Whatever your reasons for wanting to give Ubuntu Linux a try, Eric Geier shows you several easy ways to give this polished, powerful system a test drive. You don't even have to install it to your hard drive.
Monday, November 24, 2008 06:56:27 PM EST

How to Help New Linux Users
LinuxPlanet Classics: The popularity of Ubuntu Linux has attracted millions of new Linux users. Helping inexperienced computer users, whether as part of your job or just on a friendly basis, can be demanding and frustrating. But it is an essential part of building community, and just being a decent person. Michael Hall has some helpful pointers for keeping perspective, keeping your temper, and keeping your sanity.
Thursday, November 20, 2008 02:04:47 PM EST

Why Do Security Pros Forget About Users?
Is it reasonable to expect users to understand the differences between WEP and WAP, IMAP and SMTP, how to figure out the ins and outs of encryption? Kenneth van Wyk believes that the security community simply forgot about the users, and as a result created more problems than solutions.
Friday, November 14, 2008 12:48:13 PM EST

Which Is Better: 802.11n 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz?
The IEEE 802.11n standard gives users a choice between 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz spectrum, but how do you know which one is best for your network needs? Jim Geier outlines the key factors to consider when deciding which spectrum to deploy.
Thursday, November 13, 2008 01:07:39 PM EST

Building a Stout, Versatile Linux Small Business Server
Linux has all the power and flexibility you need to power your network, both for servers and networking devices. Carla Schroder shows you how to select hardware, software, and not spend money unnecessarily on pricey commercial software. Which is probably Linux or BSD-based anyway.
Friday, October 17, 2008 12:30:36 PM EST

LinuxPlanet Tutorials
Get the finest, freshest LinuxPlanet Linux tutorials right here!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008 12:38:56 PM EST

Get Your Daily Linux News Fix!
Visit LinuxToday.com to get the finest and freshest Linux news, howtos, and opinions. "Linux news on Internet time."
Wednesday, October 1, 2008 12:19:20 PM EST

Linux as a Hypervisor
"Virtualization" is the hot buzzword these days, but it's a term that covers a lot of ground and lots of different approaches. Linux kernel expert Andrea Arcangeli explains why the Linux kernel is a perfect candidate as the foundation for virtualization.
Monday, July 21, 2008 01:29:06 PM EST

Virtualizing the Embedded World: Vista Over Linux in a Cell Phone?
While you probably won't run Vista as a virtual machine on your cell phone, there are many viable use cases of virtualization for embedded applications. The most simplest, cheapest, feature rich is using Linux and KVM. KVM developer Dor Laor walks through the advantages of this embedded combination.
Monday, June 9, 2008 01:11:20 PM EST

Reflections on Open Source Commerce, Part 2
Linux on the desktop has yet to gain any real market presence. Despite the unrest over Microsoft Windows Vista, the companies that focus on Linux as a business have yet to deliver a go-to-market proposition that is compelling for the consumer, for the retailer, distributors, and original equipment manufacturers. Author John Terpstra continues his look at the challenges facing the desktop and server markets, with a close examination of current market dynamics.
Friday, May 16, 2008 09:39:23 AM EST

Reflections on Open Source Commerce, Part 1
It has been more than two years since the Yin and Yang article was published on LinuxPlanet. Now, open source expert and author John Terpstra revisits the state of the Linux desktop and server in today's market and highlights the challenges Linux faces to succeed.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 09:58:56 AM EST

Connecting With ISPhone
With open source and proprietary parts, an industry veteran has built a competitive product that offers advantages to even the smallest ISP.
Monday, May 12, 2008 10:12:23 AM EST

Benchmarking Linux With the Phoronix Test Suite
The Phoronix Test Suite is for testing hardware performance under Linux. It's still very young and incomplete, but it's worth getting acquainted with--it is based on the the scripts developed by the fine folks at Phoronix for hardware testing.
Thursday, April 24, 2008 10:29:29 AM EST

Force.com: Salesforce Moves into the Platform Business
One of the more interesting technologies I've been exposed to in the past year is the Force.com platform. Salesforce.com, well known for their Software as a Service CRM product, has taken the expertise they've garnered delivering a high-capacity application to a global market, and used it to offer the underlying infrastructure to application developers.
Monday, April 21, 2008 11:02:25 AM EST

Fie on Photoshop: Krita, the Real Photoshop Killer
Krita isn't really going to kill anything or anyone. What it will do is meet most of the needs of users who want a modern, sophisticated native paint and image-editing application for Linux. It was designed from the ground up for graphics professionals.
Thursday, February 7, 2008 01:10:34 PM EST

Building a New KDE
How do you produce a major update of a popular desktop for GNU/Linux? Following the January 11 release of KDE 4.0, Bruce Byfield sat down with KDE and discussed the new and improved elements of KDE, and what it took to get them there.
Thursday, January 31, 2008 02:45:30 PM EST

The Gobuntu Mission Examined
There's disagreement about whether Gobuntu lives up to its goal as the "strictest possible interpretation of the Free Software Foundation's 'Four Freedoms'."
Monday, November 12, 2007 12:10:26 PM EST

SourceForge: An Open Source Tale
SourceForge.net, through good times and bad, has established itself as the core outpost of open source development on the Web. A look inside one of the open source community's strongest assets.
Monday, October 22, 2007 02:09:06 PM EST

Desktop Stats: Linux Behind, But Moving Forward
The competition for market share between the leading desktop OSes, Windows, Mac and Linux, has seen no major revolution this year. But based on data from Net Applications, there have been subtle changes that suggest major shifts in the years ahead.
Friday, October 12, 2007 05:01:47 PM EST

Hardware Can Be Open, Too
With open source software becoming a household name, another open source movement that may one day see some fanfare is already taking shape. Open source hardware, which I once thought to be little more than a pipe dream left over from a bygone era, is proving to be a dream that it is very much alive and growing.
Thursday, September 20, 2007 02:52:49 PM EST

Linux Job Market Trends On the Move
Since the beginning of the year, Linux job postings have been growing at a torrid pace. Find out which jobs are growing fastest in this report from James Maguire.
Thursday, September 6, 2007 10:37:26 AM EST

SugarCRM 5 Pulling Against Closed Source CRM
The multi-billion-dollar market for CRM software is hotly contested by closed source vendors like SAP, Oracle and Salesforce.com among others, all of whom spend tens of millions of dollars marketing their wares. Can open source compete?
Tuesday, September 4, 2007 12:22:43 PM EST

Moving Closer to 802.11n
The Linux kernel's wireless networking has received a welcome overhaul, but 802.11n drivers are still in their early stages.
Monday, August 27, 2007 11:19:59 AM EST

Indiana's Calling, Is Anyone Listening?
Telling the story of Project Indiana is not an easy one. Headlines like "Sun hopes for Linux-like Solaris" or "Sun OpenSolaris to become more 'Linux-like'" have published, accompanying similarly themed articles. The problem is, this assertion is not quite on the mark. LinuxPlanet talked with several members of Sun's OpenSolaris team to discern just what the deal is.
Friday, July 27, 2007 01:41:24 PM EST

Bring Order to Your Open Source
There's probably more open source in your organization than you think, which makes it critical to put some governance standards in place.
Thursday, July 5, 2007 01:39:34 PM EST

Snort: IDS Done Well (and Good)
Open source IDS Snort went from a weekend hobby to a multi-million dollar best of breed industry leader.
Monday, July 2, 2007 11:31:58 AM EST

QuickBooks and Linux: A Server Story
For a lot of small-to-medium-sized business, the holdout has been Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions. Despite its "Enterprise" name, Intuit has aimed the product at businesses ranging from 50 to 250 people. For many businesses, this accounting server is now the de facto standard for financial organization, but it has been available only for Windows. But no longer--now you can buy Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions for Linux. Well, with limits.
Thursday, June 28, 2007 11:39:18 AM EST

Measuring Linux and Open Source
As Linux continues to move into the enterprise data center, its power and speed are often touted as being stronger and faster compared to other operating systems. But how much faster? And what numbers are used to determine its performance? One decades-old organization has already explored the paths of computer measurement, and is hoping to lend Linux the benefits of the trails it has already blazed.
Monday, June 25, 2007 10:05:46 AM EST

Learn Your Linux Clustering Options
"Cluster" is probably the most heavily abused term in the computing world. In this article we'll talk about what a cluster really is, and give an overview of the Linux technologies that can help you implement various types of clusters. The main focus will of course be on building clusters for highly available services
Tuesday, May 29, 2007 08:32:46 AM EST

Linux Kernel Launches Hardware Management Features
The 2.6 Linux kernel has been one amazing roller-coaster ride of excellent new features and changes coming faster than you can say "git along now, little patchies." Hardware detection and management, and removable media management are probably the most obvious changes to users.
Monday, May 7, 2007 10:27:42 AM EST

MontaVista 5.0 Aims To Drive Embedded Linux Development
With a major revampment of MontaVista Linux Professional Edition, MontaVista Software hopes to spur development of more embedded Linux systems in handheld PDAs, smart phones, telecom equipment, and all manner of other devices.
Thursday, April 12, 2007 09:57:14 AM EST

GPLv3 Draft Comment Phase Begins
Now that the third draft of GNU Public License (GPL) version 3 is out the door, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) will be "actively" seeking out comments from the open source community--and officials expect to get particularly strong response around provisions involving the Novell/Microsoft deal and so-called "Tivo-ization" in embedded devices.
Monday, April 2, 2007 07:39:56 AM EST

A New Dawn Rising For Open Documents?
With the filing of a new bill in Oregon, five US states have now taken legislative action around adopting open documents. Still, government agencies in the US lag way behind those in Europe in moving beyond Windows lock-in.
Friday, March 30, 2007 06:35:47 PM EST

San Francisco Turns To Open Source For Mapping Urban Forest
How can open source software be harnessed to help solve environmental issues? The City of San Francisco is now starting to find that out, by turning to MapGuide Open Source software for use in its "urban forest" initiative.
Friday, March 30, 2007 10:03:46 AM EST

Novell BrainShare 2007 Preview
When Novell's BrainShare users' show opens its doors this Sunday, Microsoft will be on hand for the first time ever. With and without this controversial, recently minted partner, Novell will issue announcements around SUSE Linux in areas that include products, training, and new customer wins, say company sources.
Friday, March 16, 2007 10:35:17 PM EST

Symantec Takes On Virtualization Management Across Environments
With its announcements this week around virtualization and Red Hat Linux, Symantec is moving beyond a past strategy of providing tools for multiple OS to a new vision of managing multiple virtualization environments. In this emerging area of heterogenuous virtualization management, Symantec is also bound to face plenty of competition from companies ranging from Microsoft to VMware and XenSource. But Symantec is well up to the challenge, according to some analysts who are deeply steeped in virtualization technologies.
Thursday, March 15, 2007 03:32:00 PM EST

Upstart Plans to Ease Linux Management
Ubuntu has an interesting project called Upstart, which is a replacement for the traditional Unix init system. The goals of Upstart are ambitious: to modernize and streamline the boot process, control user tasks, and manage services. Carla Schroder examines how this new project will work.
Thursday, March 8, 2007 10:15:16 AM EST

Tresys Nails 'Hardened Security' With Brickwall & Upcoming Razor
After releasing Brickwall Security Suite in January, open source security specialist Tresys Technology is forging ahead on a user symposium slated for March, plus work with IBM around Razor, its second commercial product for smoothing implementation of the SELinux "hardened security" now included in the Linux kernel.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 09:07:36 PM EST

Openbravo's ERP Draws International Cheers
With open-source ERP deployments now starting to take more hold, Spanish-based Openbravo is quickly gaining international penetration, garnering as many as 20,000 downloads a month of its Web-based software from all over the world.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007 01:31:45 PM EST

The State of Enterprise Linux
For more than 20 years, Unix played the role of the 800 pound gorilla in the server space, especially in enterprise, scientific, government and academic environments. But traditional Unix vendors have faced increasing competition on two fronts. Microsoft Windows Server products have made significant inroads, particularly in the business back-end. To a lesser extent, but cutting closer to the bone, is competition from Linux.
Monday, February 5, 2007 11:22:42 AM EST

Other Markets Might 'Terrify' Microsoft, But Not The Legal Space
Although Linux might be making big inroads in some vertical markets, Microsoft Windows keeps enjoying virtually complete domination of the legal software space, with the small exception of some embedded appliances, concurred participants in this week's LegalTech show in New York City.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007 08:08:55 PM EST

Zimbra Pursues Microsoft, Novell With Revamped Software, Red Hat Pact
Open source-based messaging and collaboration specialist Zimbra is picking up more steam in its bid to compete against Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWare, with the release of Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 4.5 today and intentions to roll out a 5.0 update--plus an expanded deal with Red Hat Software--later this year.
Monday, January 29, 2007 09:49:41 AM EST

Linux Dodges Microsoft In Retail Vertical Space
In the face of a big vertical marketing blitz by Microsoft, keenly evident at last week's National Retail Federation (NRF) show, several retailers in the "household name" category keep forging ahead with Linux implementations of their internal computer systems anyway. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007 11:01:18 AM EST

Virtualization Gets A Grip In 2006
When it comes to Linux servers, a few months can make a whole lot of difference. Earlier this year, Red Hat, Novell, and most major Linux vendors were doing their best to fend off Windows Virtualized Server by getting their own virtualization offerings out the door first. Jacqueline Emigh concludes this three-part series on Linux in 2006.
Sunday, December 31, 2006 09:53:34 PM EST

Enterprise Linux 2006--A Year Of Deals
In the enterprise Linux space, 2006 was marked by greater expansion of Linux into vertical markets, new products, and most notably, a string of surprise business deals among vendors. The year also bore witness to an increasing trend, of sorts, among Novell, Oracle, and other software companies to justify their actions on the basis of "customer demand." Jacqueline Emigh reports
Saturday, December 30, 2006 09:11:10 PM EST

Desktop Linux--What Happened, And What Didn't, In 2006
Mozilla, Adobe, and Novell made some major news in desktop Linux this year, and smaller developers introduced interesting innovations. But on the whole, 2006 was just about as memorable for what didn't happen on the Linux desktop as what did happen, with interoperability issues of various sorts playing big roles on both sides of that stage.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006 12:57:05 PM EST

Is Linux Ready for Small Business?
Many small businesses have avoided Linux for a variety of reasons: not enough applications, complexity of installation or that it requires too much technical know-how to run. The technology has matured over many years, which raises the question: how valid are these considerations today? Drew Robb reports.
Thursday, December 21, 2006 01:38:47 PM EST

Heading Beyond Wall Street--HP's Linux-Enabled Blade Workstation
Hewlett-Packard is eyeing additional markets for a new Linux-enabled remote blade workstation solution, already in use at Lloyds TSB and several other big financial trading firms. Jacqueline Emigh gets the low-down on a groundbreaking product line HP is introducing in the financial sector.
Monday, December 11, 2006 03:16:29 PM EST

Open Source Is More Than Software Alone
Open source development is influencing phenomena far beyond software, including manufacturing processes, classroom teaching, and the types of media now emerging online, said CollabNet CTO Brian Behlendorf, best-selling author Thomas L. Friedman, and other members of a panel of business and technology visionaries.
Thursday, November 30, 2006 10:17:19 PM EST

Hovsepian: Balancing on the Novell-MS Tightrope
A lot has been said about the hows of the Novell-Microsoft deal, but what about the whys? What motivated Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian to initiate a deal with Linux's No. 1 Enemy? In this interview, Hovsepian reveals the business realities behind the move, and that when it comes to Microsoft, Novell knows full well who it's dealing with.
Thursday, November 30, 2006 02:17:09 PM EST

GL Studio Puts Simulators On The Desktop
In the latest multi-million dollar training simulators, pilots get to shoot the bad guys out of the virtual sky, while infantry men practice driving their vehicles over virtual desert terrain. Today's sophisticated virtual trainers immerse the soldier in ever more realistic combat situations.
Monday, November 27, 2006 09:58:19 AM EST

SCALE Readies 'Non-Commercial' Open Source Conference
Despite the proliferation of LinuxWorld and other commercial open source shows, several regional Linux organizations continue to hold their own conferences and expos. Jacqueline Emigh highlights one such conference, the popular and growing SCALE 5X show in Los Angeles.
Monday, November 20, 2006 09:07:03 AM EST

CentOS: Oracle Linux Doesn't Measure Up
Oracle's plans for its own Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) product, announced last week, follow on the heels of Red Hat derivatives put together by dozens of open source projects, including CentOS, Pie Box, and Startcom Linux. But this week, members of the influential CentOS community voiced strong pessimism over Oracle Linux.
Thursday, November 2, 2006 02:50:56 PM EST

New Linux Security Products Glimmer On Horizon
Beyond displaying an extensive slate of existing Linux products, vendors at this week's InfoSecurity show pointed to possible future offerings ranging from a Linux client for a CD-ROM encryption system to a Linux-enabled all-in-one device for securing both physical access and video surveillance.
Friday, October 27, 2006 10:09:34 AM EST

FSG Launches Tools, LSB Developers Network With Linux Apps in Mind
To help spur the creation of a lot more applications for Linux, the Free Standards Group and technical publishing firm O'Reilly Media have launched the Linux Standard Base Developer Network (LDN), a developer's network loosely modeled after the Microsoft Developer Network.
Monday, October 23, 2006 03:34:52 PM EST

Tux Barada Nikto?
They may not be trying to take over the world, but robotic science is coming right along. Given its flexibility and low to no license fees, Linux is more and more the operating system of choice as Jacqueline Emigh discovered in Wired NextFest's "Robot Row."
Thursday, October 19, 2006 10:56:27 AM EST

At Intel's Request, Glide Online Suite To Get Linux Client, Back End
Under urging from Intel Corp., TransMedia's Glide online applications suite--an emerging competitor to Microsoft Office--will gain a Linux desktop client in January of next year plus a Linux version of its back-end infrastructure during the March 2007 timeframe. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Monday, October 16, 2006 03:07:35 PM EST

Bugzilla Makes Big Trucks Better
Adapting the popular Open Source Bugzilla framework proved a great way to track the Komatsu manufacturing process. Rob Reilly files this report on a unique solution to a long-standing problem.
Monday, October 9, 2006 10:19:18 AM EST

Open Source BI Broadens Out in Myriad Directions
With business intelligence (BI) heading more widely into Linux these days, vendors are adding more open source componentry in a variety of places, much to the glee of users ranging from financial services firm Tradewinds to health care IT specialist Nequalsone. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Thursday, September 28, 2006 01:43:55 PM EST

Open Sourcer Qlusters Launches Commercial Sys Management
Today, open source player Qlusters will roll out the first commercial edition of its multiplatform systems management architecture, aiming its new OpenQRM Pro product at SMB and enterprise customers that don't want to pay the heftier prices of existing offerings from IBM, HP, and BMC.
Monday, September 25, 2006 10:13:51 AM EST

Software Compliance Gets Easier to Manage
Software license compliance is not one of those issues that just leaps out and screams for assistance, but if you are running a software development shop with multiple projects with multiple developers on each project, license compliance is a very serious issue to contemplate indeed.
Monday, September 25, 2006 09:34:00 AM EST

Interop: More Net Management Products Move to Linux
Citing a rise in customer demand for Linux, companies at this week's Interop show demo'd new Linux-enabled products running the gamut from multifunctional management appliances to specialized software for combatting viruses and administering UPS power devices. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Friday, September 22, 2006 09:49:42 AM EST

Serving Non-Profits: A Case Study
The challenges of deploying open source in a non-profit environment are real, but not insurmountable. One Georgia business makes a living deploying IT solutions to K-12 schools, and reveals how they have been successful using open source to do it.
Thursday, September 14, 2006 09:54:45 AM EST

The Challenges of Open Source in Non-Profits
Open source seems to present a number of obstacles to those making technical purchasing decisions in those businesses that are classified non-profit. The interesting facet of this discussion, however, is that the same business needs exist in not-for-profit institutions as it does in for-profit ones. At the end of the day, each organization has to have money in the bank to conduct its affairs. Ian Hodge files his debut report for LinuxPlanet.
Monday, September 11, 2006 11:44:26 AM EST

BI Vendors Get Smart Around Linux, Open Source
As Linux steps beyond the limits of technical applications, business intelligence (BI) is one area that's leading the way. In a rash of recent BI announcements at LinuxWorld and elsewhere, many vendors are developing new business models, while consciously giving customers a choice between Linux and other operating systems--and in some cases, between commercial and open source implementations, too.
Thursday, August 31, 2006 03:21:59 PM EST

GroundWork to Break New Net Management Ground at Interop
When the Interop trade show unfolds in New York next month, its underlying network infrastructure will be managed and monitored by GroundWork Monitor 7, a new edition of a Linux-based software offering that mixes open source tools with unabashedly proprietary middleware.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006 02:01:09 PM EST

Must-Haves For The Linux Road Warrior
Network-centric services are connecting users to some truly valuable data. For the price of a computer, a network connection, and a browser, you can find information on just about anything, from anywhere on the planet. Rob Reilly takes time from his travels to demo two valuable road warrior tools.
Monday, August 21, 2006 10:12:31 AM EST

IBM's Lotus Sametime Heads for Linux, Voice Messaging
On Monday at LinuxWorld, IBM announced the first Linux desktop client for its Lotus Sametime instant messaging (IM) and collaboration platform, along with plans to add voice messaging to Sametime. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Monday, August 14, 2006 04:25:05 PM EST

LinuxWorld Analysts Cite Hottest Open Source Trends
What are some of the hottest trends in the Linux/open source market today? Avid activity among some resellers, abundant virtualization, and a growing tendency to mixed open source/proprietary deployments, according to a trio of top industry analysts, who helped to preview LinuxWorld San Francisco.
Wednesday, August 9, 2006 02:58:27 PM EST

Big Blue Gets Cool
With its new round of "Cool Blue" PC servers, rolled out last week, IBM is starting to push HPC (high-performance computing) beyond the scientific-technical niche and into the mainstream, particularly among SMBs (small to mid-sized businesses). Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Monday, August 7, 2006 02:42:57 PM EST

Finding the Open Source Tipping Point
When open source developers gather on a panel to discuss whether "all software will go open source," you can expect the sentiment to tip that way, only with lots of arguments. A recent AlwaysOn Innovation Summit planel explored this very question and others.
Thursday, August 3, 2006 10:42:49 AM EST

Defense Department Marches Towards Open Source
In a new initiative to spur more use of open source software within the US Defense Department, the department's Office of Advanced Systems and Concepts has begun teaming up with Red Hat, Novell, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and AMD--along with big systems integrators and "non-traditional" open source companies--to glean insights that will help shorten the learning curve to deployment. Jacqueline Emigh reports
Monday, July 31, 2006 03:34:26 PM EST

LinuxWorld Reshuffles Its Trade Show & Conference Deck
With LinuxWorld San Francisco 2006 just around the corner, curiosity is hovering in the air over IDG's plans for future Linux and open source events. What's the bottom line on this subject from IDG's VP of LinuxWorld, Melinda Kendall? Jacqueline Emigh files this preview of the next big Linux show.
Friday, July 28, 2006 04:53:20 PM EST

This is Red Hat Calling
Linux leader Red Hat is aggressively pushing its Linux solutions into the telecom space with a series of new partner initiatives. Sean Michael Kerner examines Red Hat's new incursions into the world of telecommunications.
Monday, July 24, 2006 03:06:06 PM EST

Securing Your Asterisk Server, Part 1
If you're using Asterisk for your voice over IP needs, you'll need to lock down your Asterisk server, and that begins with secure passwords.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006 02:53:36 PM EST

A New Router, a New Direction for a Router Maker
Using open source software, a rational license policy, and modular hardware, this router company is challenging the marketplace with lower prices and all the features, carving out a cost conscious niche for itself.
Thursday, July 13, 2006 10:01:08 AM EST

Linux Vendors Try To Beat Microsoft To Widespread Virtualization
With Microsoft trying to ramp up its Windows Virtual Server for release next year, Red Hat, Novell, Xandros, and other Linux vendors are pulling out the stops toward virtualization in hopes that Linux might start to beat Windows as the base operating system of choice among enterprises and small businesses.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006 09:58:04 AM EST

Embedded Linux--Rising or Falling in Consumer Devices?
Is the use of embedded Linux rising upward or dwindling downward? Some recent research tends to point in one direction, and some in the other. So to shed just a little more light on this question, Jacqueline Emigh tries a different litmus tests.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006 10:40:01 AM EST

You Need a Corporate Open Source Policy
As organizations bring more and more open source software into their IT environments, they are beginning to realize the need for more control. Decisions about whether or not to incorporate open source into their operations involve complex issues that go beyond the technology. Open source expert Maria Winslow outlines what companies need to properly implement and take advantage of open source.
Monday, June 26, 2006 09:47:27 AM EST

Linux Gains Ground in Wall Street Nooks, Crannies
Behind the scenes on Wall Street, who is really using Linux? Although developers remain the major practitioners, Linux is also making headway these days as a grid platform for transaction processing, a place for running algorithmic trading engines, and even as a desktop environment, according to participants in this week's SIA (Securities Industry Association) conference in New York City. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Friday, June 23, 2006 02:20:50 PM EST

Computing for a Cure
Silver anniversaries are normally joyous occasions, but not this one. June 5, 2005 marked the 25th anniversary of the discovery of AIDS. Amid the calls for greater awareness and increased funding was recognition that, from a medical viewpoint, billions of dollars spent on research had produced little progress in recent years. Find out how Linux is part of the fight to cure this disease once and for all.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006 01:41:47 PM EST

Novell's Desktop Advances
At LinuxWorld Canada 2006, Dee-Ann LeBlanc sat down with Ross Chevalier, Chief Technology Officer of Novell Canada, Ltd, who wanted to talk about why 2006 is finally the year of Linux on the desktop. Or, more precisely, "The Year of Adoption for an Enterprise Linux Desktop."
Friday, June 16, 2006 02:45:30 PM EST

FreedomHEC Unconference Fosters Linux Device Support
Although quickly convened, last month's first-time FreedomHEC event brought together hardware makers and driver developers in ways that could help boost device connectivity for Linux. Jacqueline Emigh gets a post-show debrief from conference organizer Don Marti.
Friday, June 9, 2006 04:32:11 PM EST

Dojo The Mojo For IBM's AJAX Push
IBM has announced it is partnering with the Open Source Dojo Foundation in an effort to help further AJAX development. As part of its involvement, IBM is open sourcing code to help the Dojo toolkit improve its accessibility, internationalization and data model.
Friday, June 9, 2006 01:00:31 PM EST

My Penguin, The Doctor
Many people in the Linux community know that its an operating system built to handle the most mission-critical of jobs. In fact, Linux is so stable, it can handle the most mission-critical job of all: managing the human heart. Rob Reilly reports.
Thursday, June 8, 2006 10:33:34 AM EST

Open Source a Judgment Standard
Open Source is changing the way that Gartner Group measures the application development market. The big loser as a result may well be proprietary Java application development tools, according to this Sean Michael Kerner report.
Thursday, June 1, 2006 11:41:11 AM EST

Zenoss--Open Source Systems Management for SMBs
Eyeing systems management as the next big market to "go open source," Zenoss, Inc. is now trying to give mid-sized customers another alternative beyond the two main choices available so far: massive suites from the "Big Four" giants or a mishmash of specialized point solutions. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006 03:09:07 PM EST

Linux Computing at MIT
It is the institution that is arguably the home of free software, as well as so many other important technologies. So it comes as no surprise that the IT infrastructure at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology depends on Linux. Rob Reilly takes a tourist's look at the nuts and bolts of MIT information systems.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006 09:06:26 AM EST

New OpenClovis Project Builds Communication Systems
Formerly known as Clovis Solutions, Inc., OpenClovis has announced it has launched the OpenClovis Software Project, contributing more than 500,000 lines of carrier-grade application service code to developers under the GNU General Public License. Rob Reilly reports on how the carrier-grade industry will be affected by the onset of more open source technology.
Monday, May 15, 2006 01:40:56 PM EST

Unitrends Adds Linux Hot Snapshotting To Appliance-Based Rapid Recovery
Servers crash. Hard drives die. Users delete files they want back. OS patches don't work. It's possible to recover... if you've got the right files, the right spare hardware, enough time, and enough knowledge. Daniel P. Dern reports on one new product that uses Linux to provide rapid, bare-metal recovery in a snap.
Thursday, April 27, 2006 09:24:02 AM EST

Linux Rising in Financial Firms; But Some Users Wonder Why
Among early adopters of Linux, Wall Street looms as tall as its skycrapers. But why are some financial services firms starting to take giant steps into Linux, and what stands in the way of even bigger penetration? Jacqueline Emigh files this report from this week's Linux on Wall Street show in New York City.
Thursday, April 27, 2006 09:15:14 AM EST

Novell Chips Away at Microsoft's Desktop Dominance
In an effort to break some of Microsoft's stranglehold on the desktop, Novell is taking new steps in the product and pricing arenas to attract customers who want to move either gradually or quickly to Linux. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Monday, April 3, 2006 09:18:58 AM EST

The Mobile Linux Initiative at OSDL
On October 16, 2005, the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) announced the creation of a new initiative called the Mobile Linux Initiative (MLI) to focus on accelerating the adoption of Linux in the rapidly growing mobile market. The OSDL's Ibrahim Haddad files this report on the progress of MLI.
Sunday, April 2, 2006 02:54:46 PM EST

New SUSE Linux Features New Interface, More Mono Apps
While Novell conducts video-enabled usability tests of new GUIs, the company's partners are implementing Mono, a cross-platform development environment built into the new SUSE Linux 10, along with other tools to create applications and hardware drivers for current and future editions of Novell's Linux desktop. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Friday, March 24, 2006 10:46:09 AM EST

OpenVZ Delivers Easy Virtualization
Understanding virtualization is not an easy thing to do. The concept of many virtual machines running on board a single physical machine sounds all well and good but to many, even in the IT field, the idea seems rather, well... virtual. Brian Proffitt reports on one open source approach to virtualization that is getting a lot of attention, including from Linux kernel developers.
Thursday, March 9, 2006 10:32:06 AM EST

Wall Street: Linux Gets a Lift from Web Services, Tech Support
Are Linux and open source implementations rising on Wall Street? "Yes," said participants in a financial services IT trade show held this week in New York City, who cited Web services and incremental improvements to tech support as two big drivers. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 10:37:36 PM EST

Collax Takes Appliance Approach to Push Linux into SMBs
In the early days of the Internet, a software appliance would have been called a "turnkey solution," so the idea is nothing new. But that hasn't stopped a number of Linux vendors from pushing their software appliance wares into the market, a move that is seeing some early signs of success. Brian Proffitt reports on one vendor that may have big things to offer SMBs
Friday, February 24, 2006 12:08:57 PM EST

Linux Rare at Legal Firms, Except for Security
In the increasingly Microsoft-dominated land of law firms, Linux deployments remain just about nil, but security appliances are starting to stand out as one exception, according to attorneys and IT folks attending LegalTech. Jacqueline Emigh files this report.
Friday, February 10, 2006 07:01:11 PM EST

IBM Rolls Out Blades for Virtual Desktops, Hollywood Movies
IBM and some of its customers are starting to test new "virtual desktop" solutions running atop Linux-, Unix-, and Windows-based blade servers, including three souped-up systems rolled out at an event in New York City this week. Meanwhile, all IBM blade servers, old and new, are now being outfitted with new Linux-enabled management controllers, regardless of which OS the servers running. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Thursday, February 9, 2006 02:56:32 PM EST

Big Vendors Leap To More Linux In Retail Stores
Although Microsoft is becoming an increasingly formidable rival in the same space, IBM, Sun, Oracle, and many other vendors are now responding to renewed opportunities for Linux in department store environments, as retail chains like Circuit City, Pep Boys, and Urban Outfitters start to step to 100-percent Linux deployments on their store-level IT systems. Jacqueline Emigh reports from this year's National Retail Federation show.
Thursday, January 26, 2006 09:53:49 AM EST

Scali Manage 5 Offers to Tame Linux Cluster Proliferation
As Linux cluster use in the datacenter grows with each passing day, a unique problem has begun to develop, the kind of problem most people like to have: there seems to be just too many Linux clusters out there. Scali has released a new management application that promises to keep all of a company's clusters under control in one place.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006 09:32:33 AM EST

How Relevant is the Homeland Security Grant?
Three organizations--Stanford University, Coverity, and Symantec--recently received a Department of Homeland Security grant to assist open source projects in tightening their code with automated code-checking. The question is, will this help be welcome? LinuxPlanet speaks with Coverity's CTO and founder as well as Linus Torvalds to see just how useful Coverity's defect reports have been.
Monday, January 23, 2006 08:58:26 AM EST

Hardware Emulation and Old Games
Have you ever found yourself quoting something from a favorite old arcade game ("Elf needs food, badly!") and wondered whatever happened to that original experience? When caught in a nostalgic mood, it's a natural move these days to find out if you can revisit those old games again.
Monday, January 2, 2006 10:44:47 AM EST

Novell's New CTO/EVP Mulls 2006 Linux Strategy
Novell has a new CTO, a position that has gone unfilled for a while. In this article, Jacqueline Emigh finds out about Dr. Jeffery Jaffe and reports on what he is bringing to Novell--and what he thinks Novell will soon be bringing to the world.
Thursday, December 29, 2005 02:11:27 PM EST

Interop: Giants, Start-ups Examine Open Source
From giants such as Sun and Computer Associates to start-ups such as Sourcefire and GroundWorks, companies are now stepping in to the open source market from a variety of directions and perspectives, as evidenced at last week's Interop show in New York City. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005 11:25:23 AM EST

Knock Knock. Who's There? Mandriva
To say that Mandriva has been quiet on the Linux front lately might just qualify as an understatement. The Paris-based Linux distribution company has had a rough road these last couple of years, having pulled themselves out of redressement judiciaire (the French equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US) in March 2004. But now the company is back with a vengeance, and is more than willing to discuss its past, present, and future. Brian Proffitt reports.
Thursday, December 15, 2005 10:39:26 AM EST

Sun Gives Red Hat, Novell Their Niagara Marching Orders
Sun Microsystems is "talking publicly" this week with both Red Hat and Novell SuSE about doing native ports of their respective Linux distributions to the high-powered and relatively low-priced RISC-based T1000 and T2000 Fire Servers rolled out in New York on Tuesday. Find out more about how the open source bug has bitten Sun in this report from Jacqueline Emigh.
Friday, December 9, 2005 01:15:18 PM EST

Verano--Improving Industrial Network Security
Verano is on a mission to safeguard industrial control networks... like manufacturing plants, waterworks, or electrical grids. They use a combination of hardware, proprietary and Open Source based software to head off threats, both internal and external to the protected network. Rob Reilly reports on the company's latest technology.
Monday, December 5, 2005 12:28:46 PM EST

Getting the Real Facts: How Industry Analyst Reports Can Trick Readers
Microsoft's "Get the Facts" advertising campaign makes the claim that Windows offers a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than Linux, and backs it up with reports from well-known industry analyst firms. But Linux advocates claim that the TCO of Linux is lower, and some other studies back them up. How can you separate the fact from the fiction?
Monday, November 14, 2005 10:12:15 AM EST

Communicate with CommuniGate Pro 5.0
Do you need an Internet communications server solution that handles email, instant messaging, calendaring, and VoIP? Want it to run on Linux? CommuniGate Pro 5.0 could be the ticket. Rob Reilly examines the features of the latest flagship release from Stalker Software.
Thursday, November 10, 2005 10:27:22 AM EST

The Yin and Yang of Open Source Commerce, Part 4
"The bulk of Linux business opportunity is demonstrably in the SMB/SME marketplace, a market that is presently under-serviced by Linux companies. The nature of the market as a whole has been discussed, and in this concluding part of the series, the competitive situation is briefly mentioned so as to round out the argument that it is time for seriously profitable Linux business activity from businesses that know the rules for success..."
Friday, November 4, 2005 01:33:23 PM EST

The Yin and Yang of Open Source Commerce, Part 3
"Had Linux companies better focused their efforts on the SMB/SME market, the operating system market share picture would look far more rosy for Linux and OSS than it does today. There is some suggestion in what we have seen so far that Linux has performed well despite the efforts of the Linux vendors. It is as if the market has made a run for Linux, in spite of the lack of market presence by Linux vendors..."
Thursday, November 3, 2005 10:47:01 AM EST

The Yin and Yang of Open Source Commerce, Part 2
By targeting the enterprise markets, Linux vendors are going after big bucks. But have they completely ignored a much better market and, in so doing, slowed the overall commercial development of Linux? Part 2 of this special series examines where a better market opportunity may reside.
Wednesday, November 2, 2005 09:12:43 AM EST

NightStar Brings Commercial Development Tools to Linux
With the upcoming rollout of NightStar LX, Concurrent Computer Corp. is bringing tools first created for internal use to outside Linux application developers who are willing to turn to commercial products to get the capabilities they need.
Friday, October 28, 2005 05:31:08 PM EST

Google Displays Model OSS Citizenship
One of the hottest companies on the planet, it is a well-known fact that Google has relied on open source tools and technology to build itself. But how good of an open source citizen is Google? Based on its actions in 2005, the company's doing a pretty good job.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 03:57:48 PM EST

Getting the Real Facts: How to Read an Analyst's Report
Microsoft's "Get the Facts" advertising campaign makes the claim that Windows offers a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than Linux, and backs it up with reports from well-known analysts. But Linux advocates claim that the TCO of Linux is lower, and some other studies back them up. It's time to clear up the confusion, beginning with this introduction to a new LinuxPlanet series.
Thursday, October 13, 2005 11:00:45 AM EST

LinuxWorld UK Impresses With Depth
Last week's LinuxWorld UK may not have been the biggest Linux show around, but LinuxPlanet editor Martin C. Brown was more than a little impressed by the depth of the vendors and presentations there. Linux is still running strong in Europe and momentum couldn't be higher.
Monday, October 10, 2005 02:17:03 PM EST

Inside the Novell Linux Migration
It is open knowledge that Novell has been progressing towards migrating their own internal desktops and servers to a pure-Linux play. Details of this migration have been sketchy, but in a public presentation to attendees of Ohio LinuxFest, Novell specialists gave a rare look inside the ongoing move to Linux and laid out ideas for other companies to follow in their own migration plans.
Thursday, October 6, 2005 11:29:56 AM EST

Gaming Open Source
The enterprise is about open source. Open source is about the enterprise. Its business value is unrivaled. Okay, okay, we get that. But when you strip away all the efficiency models, the market-speak, and the TCO reports, what's fun about open source? Dee-Ann LeBlanc reports on the State of the Gaming Nation in Linux and open source today.
Monday, October 3, 2005 12:18:55 PM EST

What's Holding Up Linux on Wall Street?
Although the financial services industry has adopted Linux more slowly than first expected, Linux is now starting to hold more sway, even if often from behind the scenes, according to participants in this week's High Performance on Wall Street conference in New York City.
Thursday, September 29, 2005 04:21:08 PM EST

From Contributors to Customers: How Open Source Projects Turn Into Successful Businesses
Currently, over 100,000 registered open source projects are on SourceForge.net, and you've never heard of most of them. While the great majority of projects remain in obscurity, some have turned into successful businesses and made the transition to mainstream. Maria Winslow looks at some of the features of this new breed of business.
Monday, September 26, 2005 12:05:04 PM EST

Kaspersky: More Adoption Could Make Linux Attractive Target
Linux needs anti-virus? As malware writing gains more of a profit motive, according to one security exec, that improbable future may yet come to pass.
Tuesday, September 6, 2005 03:38:27 PM EST

Embedded Linux Takes Big Strides Forward
Embedded Linux is all about the small, the stable, and the fast. The latest release from embedded powerhouse MontaVista, MontaVista Linux Pro 4.0, promises all three in its quest to provide Linux-based computing for devices everywhere.
Friday, September 2, 2005 02:14:50 PM EST

Beautiful LinuxFest, In Ohio Again I See
If LinuxWorld Expo has become the place for the suits, and OSCON has become a developer's haven, then where does the average Linux user get to go? In the Midwest, one event that seems to be answering this need is the Ohio LinuxFest--an event that promises to meet the technical and social needs of the Linux user.
Thursday, September 1, 2005 11:33:32 AM EST

IBM Package Expand Grids on Linux (and Elsewhere)
"Grid computing is the domain of the enterprise-level business." Not anymore, thanks to a new on-demand grid service from IBM that puts Linux-powered grids in the hands of small- to medium-sized businesses.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005 04:18:15 PM EST

Now Here It Is, Your Moment of ZENWorks
Novell's recently released ZENWorks 7 adds some major new Linux functionality--but a long-term product redesign is also under way, and the first overhaul of Novell's multiplatform systems administration package could hit the streets as early as next year.
Monday, August 29, 2005 01:49:18 PM EST

Integration: Versora Readies Software for Gradual Migration
For companies looking at adopting Linux on the desktop, Versora is now readying a new edition of its Progression Desktop software, slated to offer new "transitional" capabilities geared to giving users a chance to make the move gradually.
Monday, August 22, 2005 03:41:50 PM EST

A PC For Every Citizen
Imagine a world where you can access your messages and files from any platform, anywhere. SimDesk Technologies is delivering on that idea, using open source and an upcoming Linux client to let anyone gain access to their data from any PC. And their customers aren't the enterprise... it's the citizens of Houston, Chicago, and yes, the State of Indiana.
Thursday, August 18, 2005 03:35:02 PM EST

Carrier Grade Linux: Adoption and Deployments
In this article, Ibrahim Haddad continues his detailed examination of Carrier Grade Linux, with an overview of CGL distributions, deployments, and some of the challenges ahead.
Thursday, July 14, 2005 12:04:22 PM EST

Managing Open Source Usage in Off-Shore, Outsourced Development: Best Practices
With the growth of outsourcing and off-shore staffing of software development projects, it has become common for companies to accept large blocks of source code into their corporate software repositories from development teams that they don't manage directly. If companies aren't managing these development teams directly, how can they be sure that the source code delivered to them is free of open source code that could potentially cause problems for them?
Thursday, June 30, 2005 12:18:36 PM EST

Carrier Grade Linux: Linux in Telecom
The Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) released the latest version of the Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) Requirements Definition--version 3.1 on June 2, 2005. CGL 3.1 is the successor to CGL 2.0 and 1.1, the earliest versions of CGL which have been broadly adopted by the industry. In this article, Ibrahim Haddad of the OSDL provides an overview of the state of Carrier Grade Linux.
Thursday, June 23, 2005 01:04:34 PM EST

Linux Goes Offroading
When most people think about mobile Linux, they're talking about laptops. When Paul Perrone, CEO of Perrone Robotics and CTO of Assured Technologies, talks about mobile Linux, he's talking about having Tux drive himself on a 175 road trip across the Nevada desert. James Turner reports.
Thursday, June 16, 2005 11:22:30 AM EST

OpenNMS: A Study in Deployment
"At one point we had three separate network monitoring systems, three separate performance management tools and a plethora different scripts, web pages and command line tools. We sent out critical alerts by email, pager, and SMS, often to completely inappropriate people. The company was growing, and it looked like it was beginning to need a grown-up systems management tool, but which one...?"
Thursday, June 2, 2005 12:15:45 PM EST

LinuxWorld Summit: Linux Replacing Other Enterprise OS
"Linux is rapidly replacing Unix, Windows, and old-style mainframes for mainstream enterprise use, despite lingering issues ranging from the availability of enterprise server applications to the quality of desktop Linux software, according to attendees at this week’s LinuxWorld Summit in New York City..."
Thursday, May 26, 2005 04:03:50 PM EST

LinuxMedNews.com--Just What the Doctor Ordered
Dr. Ignacio Valdes is celebrating five years on the Web with LinuxMedNews.com, a site that is devoted to Linux and open source software stories related to the medical community. Rob Reilly spoke with Valdes to find out how Valdes manages this site and why his such a big proponent of Linux.
Thursday, May 5, 2005 10:58:01 AM EST

Linux on the Desktop--Wide Deployment Soon?
Is Linux about to "make it big" on a lot more desktops worldwide? Executives from Novell and IBM expressed diametrically opposing opinions on this question, in a panel discussion at last week's "Linux on Wall Street" conference that also touched on the server and IP (intellectual property) sides of Linux. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Thursday, April 28, 2005 11:08:21 AM EST

Behind the New Mandriva
Citing desires for both a "new identity" and an end to possible legal liability, Mandrakesoft changed its name to “Mandriva” last week, not long after announcing a merger with Conectiva and many details of a future product roadmap. Some members of the Linux community are unhappy about the changes, but Mandriva has plans to make the changes more palatable.
Monday, April 11, 2005 03:44:57 PM EST

OpenNMS Helps Keep Tabs On Networks
"OpenNMS is an open source package that has not only been successful as a tool to help network managers run their networks, but also as an example of how open source software can be leveraged to create a service business. The latter will be the focus of this article..."
Thursday, April 7, 2005 04:14:25 PM EST

WiFi PDA Meets Linux--Part 1
In this series we'll give tips and observations on using a current generation WiFi enabled PDA with Linux desktops and servers. The plan is to save you some research time by showing you what has worked for us, using a standard off-the-shelf PDA and a Linux-based operation.
Thursday, March 31, 2005 03:56:48 PM EST

Black Duck On Demand
Black Duck Software is rolling out an on-demand service that will help small companies establish their software compliance processes at a modest cost. This puts open source licensing analysis capabilities within reach of small software development shops, law firms involved in intellectual property litigation and venture capitalists doing due diligence.
Monday, March 28, 2005 09:31:27 AM EST

Tall Maple Fills a Tall Order
The presence of Linux-based appliances for IT is growing more and more. But the work to produce such devices has also kept growing, keeping potential appliance-based solutions off the market entirely. But one new company has a strong solution: develop most of the appliance platform ahead of time, leaving only the specialized code to the appliance maker.
Thursday, March 10, 2005 10:04:09 AM EST

The Debian Delay: Is Sarge MIA? Or Simply a POW of Process?
The latest release of Debian Linux, code named "Sarge" was supposed to report for duty at the end of last year. That didn't happen. Why has Sarge been delayed and ultimately does it matter? Debian developers and Debian's founding father talked to LinuxPlanet about Sarge's delay and its ultimate deployment.

Thursday, March 3, 2005 02:53:08 PM EST

Free Standards Group Has Goals in Sight
To say that the Linux Standard Base has a lot of confusion surrounding it could be a bit of an understatement. But that is the challenge Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Free Standards Group, has facing him these days.
Monday, February 14, 2005 12:02:55 AM EST

Desktop Linux Summit 2005: Interest Continues to Grow
Linux author and correspondent Dee-Ann LeBlanc made her way to the Third Annual Desktop Liux Summit and files her observations on how the show is going this year: "One thing's for sure. Not only is the Linux desktop itself growing, but so is interest in it..."
Friday, February 11, 2005 09:39:58 AM EST

Outblaze Kindles Own Linux Flame
There are companies out there who will never need to migrate to Linux. The joys and pitfalls of transition will be forever lost to them. That's because they've been using Linux from Day One. Outblaze, an e-mail and messaging provider that handles about five percent of the world's total e-mail traffic, is one such company.
Thursday, February 10, 2005 11:07:36 AM EST

OSDL Linux Summit--A Conference with Some Differences
At first glance, the upcoming OSDL (Open Source Development Lab) Linux Summit looks more or less like any other industry conference. But Summit organizers have something different in mind for this conference, which is soley aimed at promoting Linux adoption in the enterprise.
Thursday, December 30, 2004 09:39:45 AM EST

Veritas Storage Foundation Eases Pain of Data Migration
"Vendor X Ports Enterprise Widget App 5.0 to Linux! Nations Rejoice!", the headline might read. Or: "New Linux App To Bring World Peace." You've read the headlines. We've even written some of them. But in all this glorious talk about applications moving to Linux, what about all that data you have? How does that get over to Linux?
Thursday, December 2, 2004 08:00:40 AM EST

Unisys Makes Big Play for Linux in 2004
Unisys has not-so-quietly entered the Linux enterprise arena this year, after a rather cold relationship with the open source operating system. Now that the Blue Bell, PA-based company has come in from the cold, what Linux products and services will it now offer?
Monday, November 29, 2004 10:22:34 AM EST

Imprivata's OneSign Simplifies Password Management
"Imagine having separate login names and passwords for your desktop machine, email account, and the main application that you use for your job. At the same time, you might have a different user name/password combination for a web application or other programs. Then imagine, that all the systems you use enforce password aging, on different time schedules. In short order, the situation gets way out of hand..."
Monday, November 15, 2004 10:13:11 AM EST

New Project Hopes to Quell EU Open Source Patent Concerns
Borrowing a concept from a very popular open source site, Open Source Risk Management (OSRM) has launched a study today that's designed to assess whether current European laws regarding technology patents actually do what they're supposed to and protect true innovation rather than corporate interests.
Monday, November 8, 2004 09:46:45 AM EST

Switching to Linux is Getting Easier
Deciding to switch to Linux is one of the daunting questions every CIO must continually evaluate. Fortunately, the answer is getting simplier as Linux evolves into the enterprise-ready versions making their way onto the market today.
Monday, November 1, 2004 09:46:42 AM EST

Hang Time for Kernel Real Time
Earlier this month, MontaVista released a proposal to incorporate real-time processing directly in the Linux kernel. The proposal has been met with a decidedly mixed reception, even though MontaVista could stand to lose some business if it goes through.
Monday, October 25, 2004 02:59:51 PM EST

Network Intrusion Detection, Neighborhood Watch Style
Keeping an eye on the valuables stored away in your network is a tough job these days. Thugs and criminals are trying to jimmy your ports. Terrorists are lurking around your network neighborhood. And stealthy email spy-ware may already be in employee mailboxes, just waiting to silently ship secrets out to the cyber underworld.
Monday, October 11, 2004 12:35:29 PM EST

Linux Books--Then and Now
Want to read a good book? How about a good book on Linux? Rob Reilly files this report on the State of the Linux Publishing Market.
Monday, October 4, 2004 12:43:14 PM EST

OpenCountry To Update Cross-Distribution Linux Management
If you’re a Linux administrator, most of the tools available to you are either too limited in scope or overly big, complex, and expensive, according to OpenCountry CEO Michael Grove. Naturally, OpenCountry is offering its answer to this particular problem.
Thursday, September 30, 2004 11:12:24 PM EST

Oracle on Linux Gets One Firm Great E-Commerce Seats
As what is known as a "secondary ticketer," StubHub.com specializes in helping its customers to get good deals on sporting events, concerts, and live theater. But from the perspective of Shawn Kernes, VP of technology, StubHub itself is now getting great value out of running the company's Oracle database on Linux.
Wednesday, September 29, 2004 11:42:12 AM EST

DistributionWatch: Your Guide to Linux Distributions
The Linux universe is ever-expanding. See for yourself in LinuxPlanet's updated guide to Linux distributions, an ongoing project to become a handy reference to what distros work best for you. (Updated September 2004)
Monday, September 27, 2004 03:25:10 PM EST

Linux Writer Gets Ready For Disaster... Again
When disaster strikes, how does the home and small business computer owner recover? As Orlando-based Rob Reilly prepares for another potential encounter with a hurricane, he lists all the ways a system can be recovered... and protected.
Thursday, September 2, 2004 12:26:58 PM EST

3PAR Snapshots Your Data
Database managers and system administrators in charge of maintaining huge sets of files frequently feel the heat when data gets corrupted or a user decides that he didn't want to delete something. Administrators need effective ways to deal with these situations.
Thursday, August 26, 2004 11:59:08 AM EST

Students Create Linux Code For Real IBM Products
While some college students did little else but hit the beach, about 20 highly select computer science and MBA degree candidates interned with IBM this summer, creating Linux code along the way. Software developed through IBM’s “Extreme Blue” internship program will turn into real IBM applications for electrical utilities, financial risk management, and other industries.
Monday, August 16, 2004 02:39:18 PM EST

Linux Skills in High Demand as IT Jobs Pick Up
More employers are looking to hire people with Linux experience and skills than another skillsets, according to a new report. And that demand is expected to last another few years.
Thursday, August 12, 2004 10:44:14 AM EST

Emulex Connects To Linux
Emulex, with an installed base of 1.6 million host bus adapters, recently announced that drivers for their line of HBA boards would be supported in future updates of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9. Rob Reilly has the details within.
Monday, August 9, 2004 01:58:29 PM EST

Xandros To Roll Out Myriad Servers After Desktop Release
Xandros has seen a new version 2.5 launch of their desktop product, so will they rest on their laurels? It seems unlikely, since next week at LinuxWorld they plan plan to introduce their new Xandros Desktop Management Server. More on the company's plans to shake the Linux, er, world within.
Saturday, July 31, 2004 10:44:01 AM EST

Oracle Forges Further with Linux
Oracle's new 10g database on Linux continues the company's tally of record-breaking TPC-C benchmarks. Naturally, Oracle's pretty darned proud of their product. So what will Oracle do for an encore? Big hint: roll more products over to the Linux platform.
Thursday, July 22, 2004 03:30:19 PM EST

The Scoop on Gelato: Intel & Free Standards Group to Join
"The Gelato Federation, an industry consortium dedicated to advancing Itanium, is looking at adding about a dozen new member organizations by the end of this year, including Intel and the Free Standards Group. Meanwhile, in one of Gelato's open source projects, members are producing an IA-64 version of Eclipse..."
Thursday, July 15, 2004 03:17:30 PM EST

Zeroconf: A Net Admin's Work is Still Never Done
If you thought zeroconf would solve all your network configuration problems, you might want to hold on to your subnet calculator: The standard isn't soup, and configuration-free devices might make for a few too many chefs in your network kitchen.
Monday, July 12, 2004 12:22:46 PM EST

Clients Find The IDEAL Way
How do you make money with free and open source software? You get really good at implementing it for a variety of tough clients. Orlando-based IDEAL Technology Corp. is one such company, celebrating five years of Linux consultancy with clients such as the Army and the IEEE in their portfolio.
Thursday, July 8, 2004 11:37:51 AM EST

LinuxWorld 2004 San Francisco--A Preview from the Top
More business focus, with some technical information thrown in for good measure. That's the recipe for this summer's LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco, as show organizers try to cater to the ever-increasing interest in Linux for the enterprise crowd.
Wednesday, June 30, 2004 10:59:43 AM EST

Is Linux Desktop Better Than Windows?
Use of Linux by nonprofit organizations is nothing new. For one thing, the lower costs of Linux fit in well with limited budgets. Now, though, some end users at nonprofit organizations are choosing Linux for a completely different reason--namely, a better desktop experience than they've been getting from Windows.
Monday, June 28, 2004 04:25:15 PM EST

Verano's Industrial Defender Does Just That
So, what's keeping the bad guys out of the computer systems that run a huge metropolitan water works? Or, how would a plant manager know if someone had broken into his multi-megawatt power plant's network? What would happen if a virus got into their plant's networks and took out all of their MS boxes for a few hours? These are questions that security company Verano is answering with Linux-based technology.
Monday, June 21, 2004 11:17:28 AM EST

Large Plans for Linux at Marist College
You might not associate a small upstate New York college with penguins, but recently Marist College became host to one of three OSDL laboratories. This is a school, however, with even stronger ties to Linux and Open Source.
Thursday, June 17, 2004 10:10:16 AM EST

Can Linux Help Both Haves and Havenots?
How does Linux help IT companies make money, while at the same facilitating computer access among the world's "havenots"? In a special session at the CeBIT America, sponsored by the Business Council for the United Nations, representatives from IBM, Red Hat, Oracle and other organizations explored some manifestations of the paradoxical role played by Linux in today's global economy.
Monday, May 31, 2004 10:27:41 PM EST

Linux Criticism Revs Up
The Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt aimed at Linux is getting more prevalent everyday. Are we in the midst of a whisper campaign against the Penguin, or is this just the price Linux pays for success?
Thursday, May 20, 2004 11:28:09 AM EST

IBM Workplace - A Good Thing for Linux?
IBM Workplace, a new application management model launched this week, is bound to spell changes ahead for Linux developers, administrators, and desktop users. Just what kind of impact should the Linux community expect?
Thursday, May 13, 2004 10:27:46 AM EST

Penguins Like Salmon, Too
Springtime is a time for budding flowers, buzzing bees, and, it seems, Linux and open source seminars. Correspondent Dee-Ann LeBlanc files this report on her recent visit to the up-and-coming show: Linuxfest Northwest 2004.
Monday, May 10, 2004 10:51:35 AM EST

Is Linux Desktop at the Crossroads?
With Microsoft's next generation version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, scheduled for release as much as 12-24 months away, does Linux have a window of opportunity to capture market share? The answer depends on who you ask, but even the most optimistic prognosticators don't see Linux desktop eating into Microsoft's domination of the desktop in any significant way.
Thursday, May 6, 2004 10:07:53 AM EST

Real World Linux 2004: Bigger and Better
RealWorld Linux 2004 came to a close last month with a lot of news generated around the newest Linux player on the block, Novell. But what was the show as a whole like? Speaker-correspondent Dee-Ann LeBlanc gives this review of the conference atmosphere and events.
Monday, May 3, 2004 12:18:16 PM EST

Dell Takes More Steps into Linux
Dell, a long-time member of the Wintel camp, has started taking more steps into Linux, often hand-in-hand with various software partners. Outside of splashier deals with the likes of Red Hat, Oracle, and SAP in North America, Dell' has more quietly started selling SUSE Linux and Red Flag distributions on other continents.
Friday, April 30, 2004 03:57:58 PM EST

Opteron's First Year All About Linux
"Opteron's first year has been all about Linux," said Christopher Rimer, an exec in AMD's Infrastructure Enablement Group. Over time, though, industry experts expect 64-bit x86 implementations from AMD and Intel to gravitate much more towards Microsoft Windows, without leaving Linux behind, either.
Wednesday, April 28, 2004 10:49:07 AM EST

A Day at the IT Forum in Vancouver
LinuxWorld Expo, the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, Comdex... the major events that all feature or showcase Linux and Open Source. But how is open source being talked up at smaller, business-oriented seminars? Dee-Ann LeBlanc takes a look at one such local seminar and discovers the grass-roots state of open source.
Monday, April 19, 2004 12:57:27 PM EST

The Changing Face of Open Source
The stereotype of the lonely programmer working in the wee hours is seriously outdated. The second generation of open source projects responds to specific business demands, and the people building these applications are getting paid -- even if the code they write will be free.
Thursday, April 15, 2004 11:20:23 AM EST

Novell Eyes YaST Solutions of Various Stripes
"In releasing YaST (Yet Another Setup Tool) to open source, Novell has thrown down the welcome mat to management solutions aimed at homes and small businesses as well as enterprises, according to Novell officials..."
Monday, April 12, 2004 03:20:04 PM EST

Linux Vendors Push Migration Strategies
Use Linux today, all the pundits proclaim. The cost seems right, the scale seems right... there's just one problem: what's the best way of actually migrating to this open-source OS? Recently, more vendors are stepping up with clear guidelines and toolkits that can make the move to Linux a lot easier.
Thursday, April 8, 2004 11:37:51 AM EST

Novell Plans Future of Red Carpet, ZenWorks
As BrainShare 2004 continues, almost every Novell product has some sort of plan to make it integrate better with the company's new Linux strategy. This includes ZenWorks and the newly acquired Red Carpet, as Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Thursday, March 25, 2004 04:17:54 PM EST

Sun Wants to Make Linux 3D
"Sun Microsystems, a company that has been making noise lately in the Linux desktop market with StarOffice 7 and Java Desktop, is currently working on an experimental 3D successor to Java Desktop that they believe will change the way we interact with computers, and in the end elevate the popularity of Linux in general..."
Monday, March 22, 2004 08:37:36 AM EST

JBoss' Open Source Plans
"Fueled by a $10 million injection of investment capital, JBoss plans to keep offering its J2EE application server and other open source software for free..."
Thursday, March 18, 2004 09:00:06 AM EST

Bacone College Stays Cutting Edge With OpenOffice.org
After 124 years of continuous operation in Oklahoma, Bacone College must know how to do a few things right, especially when it comes to making strategic decisions for the future. It should then come as no surprise that the college would choose to standardize on OpenOffice.org for its writing, spreadsheet, and presentation needs.
Thursday, March 11, 2004 11:28:09 AM EST

VERITAS Continues Linux Push
At the January LinuxWorld Expo 2004, VERITAS made a number of announcements that demonstrate this company's commitment to the Linux space, and the new products have kept coming steadily since then. Dee-Ann LeBlanc recaps VERITAS' Linux product line to date.
Monday, March 1, 2004 10:33:10 AM EST

Choices in Embedded Linux: Commercial or Roll Your Own
Over the past week, Red Hat and Wind River's upcoming embedded Linux OS has generated considerable industry buzz. Yet there are many other commercial solutions already on the market in the embedded Linux space. There's also the "roll your own" approach, relying on "free" open source components. So what's the best route for a developer to take?
Friday, February 27, 2004 02:47:44 PM EST

Wind River Changes Course Towards Linux
Just today, Wind River announced a team up with Red Hat in order to develop Red Hat Embedded Linux for the device software optimization market. So why--after a history of moves away from open source--the change in strategy? Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Monday, February 23, 2004 02:09:20 PM EST

Sun To Linux-Enable All Java And C/C++ Tools
While some in the Linux community have criticized Sun Microsystem's approach on to Java, the company is starting a plan to release all of its development toolset for the Linux platform.
Tuesday, February 17, 2004 10:12:14 AM EST

Linux, SiteScape Save the Green
When you hear the phrase "saving the green," do you usually conjure images of saving the environment? Or, perhaps, saving money? Green is a color associated with these elements, so it there can be a pause when this phrase is heard, until one can figure out the context. In the case of one government agency's use of Linux and some very flexible collaboration software from SiteScape, both instances of the phrase can certainly be true.
Thursday, February 12, 2004 03:47:52 PM EST

Sun Readies Three Linux Desktop Offerings
Sun's upcoming 3D desktop environment, codenamed Project Looking Glass, drew lots of glances at LinuxWorld last month, largely because of advance demos by Computer Associates. However, Sun is planning not just one, but three new offerings in the overall desktop space. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Monday, February 2, 2004 11:29:02 AM EST

Economy On An Uptick, Say Some .Orgs
The major vendors all have their press announcements and PR people to let us know how things went at LinuxWorld for them. But how did the .Org Pavilion do during the show? From all indications, not too bad, not too bad at all.
Friday, January 30, 2004 10:29:56 AM EST

The Year in Linux - Highs & Lows of 2003
Every year has good and bad points. For members of the Linux community, though, the pendulum swung to absolutely new highs and lows during 2003. LinuxPlanet reviews the highlights and lowlights of a year many will not soon forget.
Thursday, January 15, 2004 10:16:44 AM EST

Novell Plans GUI For '04
Novell is planning new Linux products for 2004, now that its Nterprise Linux Services 1.0 product is out the door. The second edition of Linux Services will feature a graphical user interface, in addition to the command line interface in 1.0. More on this, and other upcoming developments from the new player in the Linux arena in this report.
Tuesday, December 30, 2003 10:06:40 PM EST

iSeries Linux Apps Now Total 300, EFT Solution Is The Latest
IBM Monday unveiled S2 Systems' OpeN/2 financial services application as the latest software solution for Linux running on iSeries, which brings the number of Linux apps available for the iSeries midrange server to more than 300. This mid-range Linux system is making a big impact in the enterprise, with more to come.
Tuesday, December 23, 2003 09:55:06 AM EST

SUSE/IBM, Red Hat/Oracle Tool Up On CCS Security
Backed by big name partners, SUSE Linux and Red Hat are each putting their security systems through the rigorous paces of Common Criteria Scheme (CCS) testing, with ultimate plans to reach the same security ratings already achieved by Microsoft and Unix players.
Friday, December 19, 2003 01:56:17 PM EST

Linux in the Security Crosshairs
Linux's growing popularity is attracting unwanted attention from virus writers, script kiddies and other criminal elements. In response, Linux advocates are putting a new emphasis on security measures and working to reassure companies that the OS is ready for important business networks.
Monday, December 15, 2003 10:51:44 AM EST

Linux-Based PageBuilder Takes on Microsoft's FrontPage
Web-based tools are nothing new. But a California company is using Red Hat Linux and PHP to create PageBuilder, a server-based software system aimed at quick, WYSIWYG creation of Web pages from Linux, Windows, and other desktops.
Thursday, December 4, 2003 09:45:37 AM EST

Will Linux Topple Windows from the Desktop?
Will Linux ever oust Windows from most people's desktops? Backing from big vendors like Novell and Sun certainly doesn't hurt. Yet lingering barriers remain. During recent industry conferences, Linux veterans pointed to factors that include usability, fragmentation in users' preferences, and the need for both more desktop apps and better tech support.
Monday, December 1, 2003 10:34:56 AM EST

Netli Adds App-Level SSL To Ultra High Speed Network
At Comdex this week, Netli will announce the addition of hardware-based application-level acceleration and encryption for Web sites that use its Linux-enabled NetLightning high speed Internet overlay network. The three-year-old Silicon Valley start-up will also make an official rollout of four more blue-chip customers: Boeing, Hewlett-Packard, Tektronix, and Scholastic Publishing.
Monday, November 17, 2003 11:09:19 AM EST

Progeny Makes a Love Match
Earlier this week, Progeny announced that it had named former Caldera/SCO CEO Ransom Love to its board of directors. And while some are focusing on Love's past, they might want to take note of Love's future as he teams with Progeny to move towards a unified commercial Linux platform once again.
Thursday, November 13, 2003 09:26:44 AM EST

Spam Cleaning with the Big Boys
"You think you've got spam problems with a hundred or so spam messages a day? Try being an ISP or a business where on a good day you don't get more than a one hundred thousand spam mails a day..."
Monday, November 10, 2003 10:28:07 AM EST

NASA Boosts Linux SGI Supercomputer to 512 Processors
When NASA doubled their 128-processor SGI machine to 256 Itanium processors last month, they had such success that they decided to double the platform again: up to 512 processors. The system is officially functioning, but did NASA meet with the same great results it got when it went to 256? A lesson in high-end scaling was definitely learned.
Thursday, November 6, 2003 10:27:32 AM EST

From the Data Center to the Desktop: Linux Grows Up
Linux has matured from a robust adolescence, a time when those in the server room had those in the board room convinced that it had the potential to be everything for everybody, to being known for being highly effective in certain conditions, such as those that benefit from scaling out, yet less desirable in others, such as those that require scaling up. So what is the state of Linux in the enterprise, circa 2003?
Tuesday, November 4, 2003 09:06:40 AM EST

Crime Checkers Adopt Linux Device to Ward Off Worms
After attacks from the Nimda and Code Red worms back in 2001, National Background Data (NDB) turned to Astaro Security Linux (ASL), a multi-faceted Linux-based network appliance. ASL will keep playing a behind-the-scenes role when the national criminal background checking service moves its Web front end from Windows 2000 to Linux later in 2003.
Thursday, October 30, 2003 03:38:08 PM EST

Linux Security: Tips from the Experts
Is Linux more secure than Windows, or vice versa? Fueled by conflicting industry reports, this controversy keeps raging. To arrive at a well-informed opinion on the subject, you need to know as much as you can about what kinds of security measures are actually available for Linux.
Thursday, October 30, 2003 10:27:40 AM EST

Linux Is Sometimes a Pleasant Surprise
Sometimes companies aren't actively seeking Linux for the solution to their problems; sometimes Linux just happens to be the best solution for their needs. One NY-based sporting goods chain found itself in this position recently, and they are so far pretty impressed with the benefits of the unsought platform.
Monday, October 20, 2003 11:44:49 AM EST

Linux Rescue Disks Get a Kick from GAR
Spurred by its recent adoption of the GAR build system, The LNX-BBC Project is now galloping right along. Find out the progress of the project and learn how mini-distros can be put to work in your organization.
Monday, October 13, 2003 10:53:01 AM EST

Linux Cost Savings Add Up
Companies that have changed their systems over to Linux report cost-savings across a wide variety of categories. Learn that it's not just license savings that you'll pocket if your organization shifts to Linux and open source.
Monday, October 6, 2003 11:00:44 AM EST

Which Linux Distro Is Best For You?
At the recent PC Expo in Manhattan, a few sessions turned to the topic of Linux. One such session provided a introductory round-up of the Linux distributions that are out there, and which might be better suited for commercial, development, or power-user scenarios.
Monday, September 29, 2003 11:06:21 AM EST

Catapult MySQL with Pogo Linux
If you're an enterprise looking to start using open-source and Linux solutions in your company, the hassles of systems configuration and administration might make you hesitate. Pogo Linux has come up with a solution that will take even these minor concerns away: the DataWare 2600--specifically tuned and configured for MySQL database.
Thursday, September 25, 2003 12:21:35 PM EST

Novell's Linux Users Report Installation Glitches
As Novell prepares the year-end release of its Nterprise for Linux services, early beta testers are liking what they see, but many are reporting concerns with limitations in installing the software. While Novell delays the release to include newly-acquired Ximian software into Nterprise, it will have these issues to tackle as well.
Monday, September 22, 2003 03:26:10 PM EST

Linux Clusters Rev Up on PC Blades
When it comes to Linux clusters, mainframes have long drawn the largest acclaim. Now, though, scientific and technical imaging specialists such as Paradigm and Electro-Optical Sciences (EOS) are praising the gains they're seeing from Linux clusters on PC servers, even without blades.
Monday, September 15, 2003 11:35:20 AM EST

Komodo Breathes New Fire into IDE
Developing for Linux (or any other platform) is a cutting-edge proposition that demands the best tools for the best job. ActiveState's Komodo is one such tool, bringing sophistication and flexibility to open-source developers.
Thursday, September 11, 2003 11:17:35 AM EST

Boscov's Inches Into Linux
Massive mainframe migrations, dizzying desktop moves--all a part of the huge effort to move to Linux, right? An all-or-nothing approach to Linux may not be the only path an enterprise has to take. Boscov's Department Stores is learning that slow and steady wins their race to IT savings with Linux.
Thursday, September 4, 2003 10:43:30 AM EST

PureMessage Raises E-mail Admin Standard
URGENT REPLY REQUESTED may have been funny the first two thousand times it showed up in your employees' Inboxes, but now it and the rest of the deluge of spam and viruses have added up to a real and burdensome cost in manpower and systems. One Canadian firm is using the power of Perl for a fast, sleek, and very efficient e-mail administation and filtering tool: PureMessage.
Tuesday, September 2, 2003 11:48:06 AM EST

OSDL Seeks To Be Linux Center of Gravity
With the likes of Linus Torvalds and Andrew Morton coming onboard, one gets the distinct impression that some interesting things are happening at the Open Source Development Labs. Fortunately, it didn't take long to catch up with OSDL CEO Stuart Cohen to find out more.

Thursday, August 21, 2003 11:08:24 AM EST

Tux Makes Orbitz Fly High
It is perhaps one of the most commercially-oriented ventures on the Internet today: a travel Web site run by a consortium of airlines. You can't get more corporate-minded than that. So what is Orbitz doing when working directly with the open source community for support issues on its massive search engines? Enjoying one of the many benefits of Linux, that's what.
Thursday, August 14, 2003 11:13:16 AM EST

Penguin Wooed By Platform Vendors
Major hardware vendors are continuing to push the next wave of processors: the 64-bit platforms. And while Intel is still touting its Itanium offerings, AMD is seeking to attract Linux vendors to its Opteron platform. Who wins in this tussle? The customer...
Monday, August 11, 2003 11:57:10 AM EST

The StartX Files: Inside the Expo
The end of the this summer's LinuxWorld Conference and Expo has come and gone. What did participants get out of the experience? Brian Proffitt lends his perspective on what vendors, attendees, and even the media got out of the conference, and shares some theories on what may happen next.
Friday, August 8, 2003 04:07:39 PM EST

Force10: Linux Accelerates Need for Bandwidth
The technology behind the Internet is no mystery or miracle. Wires, routers, servers--it's all been talked about before. But the advent of Linux clustering and grid computing is putting some serious demands on the old plumbing of the Internet, which is leading a company called Force10 to provide more transfer bandwidth on an almost ubiquitous scale.
Sunday, August 3, 2003 11:09:42 PM EST

Tux on the Telly: An Open DVR Product
In a world where hardware vendors erect very stringent walls to protect their precious products from being modified, customized, or otherwise hacked, it is a bit refreshing to hear about a company that wants people to be able to do all of those things to its product. And the pleasure factor goes way up when you take into account the fact that the product is really, really cool.
Thursday, July 31, 2003 11:10:00 AM EST

VERITAS: Then and Now
The name VERITAS has a familiar ring to most people in the computing world, even if they can't quite remember why. After all, VERITAS is no startup. It's been around since 1989, and if you're an enterprise-level company that is moving seriously to Linux, VERITAS has a heavy commitment to the open-source operating system, as Dee-Ann LeBlanc discovered.
Monday, July 28, 2003 10:38:17 AM EST

Linux Makes PalTalk Possible In A Windows World
PalTalk is a Windows-based instant messaging/telephony application that is showing real market success in the world of voice-based IM. And, learns Rob Reilly, one of the secrets to its success is the fact that all development and production for the New York-based company is run on Linux and open-source software.
Thursday, July 24, 2003 09:44:43 AM EST

So Many Customers, So Little Time...
There's a big, wide world of potential Linux customers out there, all ready to make the shift to open source. And there's an ever-growing population of skilled Linux vendors ready to deliver the goods. But how are the different vendors picking their targets. Jacqueline Emigh talked with three of the biggest Linux vendors to find out who's on their most wanted customer lists.
Thursday, July 17, 2003 11:57:50 AM EST

Previewing Summer LinuxWorld
With only a month to go, preparations for LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco are still on-going, as Expo organizers are still processing vendors and seminars from start-up and major Linux-using customers. Dee-Ann LeBlanc interuppted their work for a few moments to get a preview of what this summer's show will be like.
Thursday, July 10, 2003 11:42:09 AM EST

Netli, Linux Take Web to Warp Speeds
As fast as the Internet can be, there is still a problem with distance-induced delays. Downloading a Web page in Japan from the US can add unwanted seconds to surf time. And when that surf time is to a commerce site, then such delays can mean real money lost. Netli is a company with a better plan: service called NetLightning that uses Linux to achieve sub-second download times--from anywhere on the planet.
Monday, July 7, 2003 09:09:50 AM EST

CommuniGate Pro 4.1 Continues Stalker's Linux Growth
Commercial products for Linux are often given a wide berth, as many admins and developers question the need to pay for something they can already get for free. Stalker Software's CommuniGate Pro messaging server is one of those products that is gaining a strong following in the Linux enterprise despite the existence of a price tag.
Monday, June 30, 2003 11:32:05 AM EST

ActivCard Gets Physical (Security) with Linux
Linux is a secure operating system, of that we have no doubt. But let's face it, anyone with a little knowledge and a lot of physical access can get onto any machine, Linux or otherwise. Physical security is a key--yet often overlooked--aspect of overall security. This week, ActivCard has introduced a new commecial product that will enable smart card control of a Linux system, along with a whole range of network, Internet, and e-mail security possibilities.
Thursday, June 26, 2003 02:03:41 PM EST

Invisibly Protecting your Digital Assets with Public Key Infrastructure
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) offers the opportunity to streamline your procedures for protecting and sharing sensitive and valuable information. When it comes to protecting your company's valuable digital assets, you owe it to yourself to investigate what doors PKI can open for you and your organization.
Monday, June 23, 2003 11:39:19 AM EST

SuSE Delivers Business Desktop Linux
SuSE has been planning their business around business-class Linux servers for years so it should come as no surprise that when they finally offer a Linux just for the desktop, SuSE Linux Desktop, it comes targeted at enterprises. This is a desktop Linux for CIOs, not individual users.
Monday, June 16, 2003 11:28:49 AM EST

PGA Tour Is On Par With Linux
The PGA is probably more well-known for Tiger Woods, mulligans, and the occasional hole-in-one rather than for IT systems. But the real-time demands of an information-hungry audience has brought PGA Tour organizers driving down the information age fairway. And guess which flightless fowl is holding the No. 3 Wood?
Monday, June 9, 2003 12:25:19 PM EST

Sforce--Linux, Microsoft Developers Can Repurpose Apps, But Not Through Open Source
In an announcement unusual in lots of ways, Salesforce.com is teaming with Microsoft, Sun, Borland, and BEA on a new Web development environment dubbed Sforce. Developers working in Linux, Unix, and Windows environments will all be able to repurpose Sforce's Web applications, although not through open source. Meanwhile, however, Saleforce itself is in the process of moving from a mainly Linux production environment to '100 percent Linux,' said Salesforce Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff.
Thursday, June 5, 2003 02:53:38 PM EST

Analysis: Novell Tries to Torpedo SCO Unix IP Claims
Today's events surrounding The SCO Group and Novell are just another chapter in a long and continuing saga between the two companies. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols recaps today's events, gives an in-depth analysis of how SCO and Novell came to be at odds over the Linux operating system, and speaks with industry analysts on their take on SCO v. Linux.
Wednesday, May 28, 2003 05:19:22 PM EST

Big Machines, Big Linux
Often called the aging dinosaur of IT, the IBM mainframe product line is starting to make a real comback in sales and deployment. The secret to its recent success, of course, is server consolidation with Linux as the platform. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols focuses on the new IBM z990, aka the T-Rex, which shows that dinosaurs should not be trifled with.
Tuesday, May 27, 2003 10:31:07 AM EST

SCO Turns Cartwheels for SCOx
Remember SCOx? Right after The SCO Group launched its IP lawsuit against IBM, the Utah-based firm announced the SCOx product, which would work with Unix and Linux, at least the announcement seemed to say. Now that SCO has suspended its own Linux sales, just what happens to this product now? Easily done--just deny that the product was ever intended to run on Linux at all. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Monday, May 19, 2003 03:23:30 PM EST

CrossOver Office's Microsoft Office Support is Not a Problem
CodeWeavers' CrossOver Office 2.0 now enables Linux users to run Microsoft Office from 97 to XP and Visio on most Linux distributions. Just don't expect Microsoft to help you though if you run into trouble. CodeWeavers, on the other hand, will be more than happy to help.
Thursday, May 15, 2003 01:49:04 PM EST

Guarding Your Systems With Guardian Digital
EnGarde Secure Linux, designed to be a massively secure Linux platform, definitely falls towards the more specialized end of the distribution spectrum. Its Guardian Digital makers have consistently maintained their focus on this purpose for the product, and so far, the results are coming along nicely. But how did their idea of a single-purpose distribution take root?
Thursday, May 8, 2003 10:47:20 AM EST

SCO Plans To Stay In UnitedLinux, Despite IP Beef
In spite of a heated intellectual property (IP) spat with IBM, SCO Group will stay on as a UnitedLinux member, according to Thor Christianson, SCO's director of ISV/IHV relations. Meanwhile, the vendor is now pushing ahead with SCOx, a newly rolled out common Web services framework for its Linux, UnixWare, and OpenServer platforms.
Monday, May 5, 2003 01:19:28 PM EST

Real World Linux Showcases New Products, Strategies
Dee-Ann LeBlanc took a trans-Canadian trip to Toronto this week to visit and speak at the Real World Linux conference. She picked up some interesting bits of news while she was there, including word of a new business venture from TransGaming.
Thursday, May 1, 2003 11:24:38 AM EST

Microsoft Users, Partners Add Linux To The List
Jacqueline Emigh visited the New York Windows 2003 launch event and learned that many long-time Microsoft users are still evaluating Linux as an alternative platform. Reasons cited by IT administrators range from cost savings to "an anti-Microsoft boss." Meanwhile, many of Microsoft's partners in the launch already offer products for both environments.
Monday, April 28, 2003 11:55:24 AM EST

Novell Elaborates on Linux
Recent reports out of Novell's Brainshare conference in Utah this week have the company both touting Linux as a future direction for NetWare and delivering back-hands such as calling Linux "immature." Is Novell another company getting into Linux without really understanding it? Jacqueline Emigh files this report from the conference.
Wednesday, April 16, 2003 01:26:31 PM EST

IBM's Big Plans For Eclipse-Based WebSphere Studio
IBM's Eclipse project is still going great guns and has just released a new beta for WebSphere Studio 5.0, which includes a new tool for autonomic computing. LinuxPlanet's Jacqueline Emigh was that the developerWorks Live! conference last week and files this progress report on this open-source development platform.
Monday, April 14, 2003 10:32:08 AM EST

Sun's McNealy: We've Been Through This (Linux ISV) Movie
Now that Sun has decided to drop plans to create its own Linux distribution, what is the company going to do? In a press conference this week, CEO Scott McNealy gave some of his new spin on how Sun will be using Linux in the future--this time.
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 08:16:30 AM EST

Reasoning Your Way to Linux
All open source programmers believe in their heart of hearts that open source is not only the best way to write software, it produces the best possible software. There hasn't been any hard proof from an non-partisan third party demonstrating that open source code was actually superior to closed source. Until now.
Monday, April 7, 2003 12:22:20 PM EST

Dell Feels Linux Customer Demand
In rolling out low-cost, Oracle-based server clusters on Wednesday, Dell CEO Michael Dell mentioned Linux and Windows as "standards" in almost the same breath. At the same press conference in New York City, though, members of a Dell customer panel indicated that momentum for Linux could be starting to outweigh attachment to Windows and other OS among Dell's customer base. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Thursday, April 3, 2003 11:57:40 AM EST

User Mode Linux: Coming to a Kernel Near You, Part 2
In Part 1 of this article, we took a closer look at UML, how it works, and the pros and cons involved in determining if this upcoming kernel feature is for you. Now we continue our look at UML with examining how to connect UML to the outside world and polishing your UML configuration.
Tuesday, March 18, 2003 11:16:23 AM EST

IBM's eServer Strategy Strong on Linux and UNIX
What started as a feature on IBM's eServer line may be the last pre-lawsuit comments made on the company's policies regarding Linux and AIX, IBM's version of UNIX. The Utah-based SCO Group alleges that IBM is trying to kill off UNIX by sharing SCO's proprietary UNIX code with the open-source Linux kernel. But in this interview with IBM's Rich Michos conducted mere hours before the SCO lawsuit was announced, IBM appears to be hanging on to Linux and AIX equally.
Monday, March 10, 2003 08:50:10 AM EST

Gordano Messaging Suite: Early, Current Support for Linux Platform
It used to be called NTMail and it ran on the Windows platform with the same name. Put as time went by, the makers of NTMail realized that their next move had to be Linux platform. Today, Gordano is one of the largest software vendors of messaging software, and their customers definitely like the availability of products for Linux. Brian Proffitt reports.
Thursday, March 6, 2003 11:49:37 AM EST

OpenEXR Graphics File Format Turns Up The Contrast
OpenEXR is a graphics file format recently made open source. That's the nickel version of the story behind the this format, but the quarter version is a bit more interesting: that OpenEXR was developed by Industrial Light + Magic, those wizards of special effects. Rob Reilly digs into OpenEXR to find out what makes it tick.
Tuesday, March 4, 2003 10:33:06 AM EST

The Return of PowerCockpit
Turbolinux's departure from the US left some of its toolsets in a state of legal limbo. Now one of the former founders of Turbolinux is bringing one of the more powerful applications back to life: PowerCockpit. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports.
Tuesday, February 25, 2003 11:15:43 AM EST

IBM, HP, Sun--Dueling Approaches to 'Linux on RISC'
From IBM's full-bore charge, to Sun's tentative first steps, to HP's complete abstinence: server companies have wildly differing views on running Linux on RISC-based hardware. What are their rationales for their Linux on RISC strategies?
Thursday, February 20, 2003 09:48:04 AM EST

PDAs, Anyone? Linux Arena Almost Abounds
Linux in the enterprise isn't just about big servers or sleek-looking desktop workstations. Linux, ever about flexibility, is also about working on virtually any platform. During last month's LinuxWorld, Jacqueline Emigh discovered how companies are putting Linux in the palms of customers' hands. And how many are turning away from Windows CE.
Monday, February 10, 2003 09:04:43 AM EST

Grid Computing Oracle Style
"Oracle has been at the forefront of database technology for a long time. The have also embraced the Linux environment in a big way. Now they've gone a step further, developing industrial strength database applications that run on clusters of commodity blade servers or grids..."
Thursday, February 6, 2003 09:58:20 AM EST

Red Hat Isn't Alone at the Linux Management Table
Red Hat has released a new management tool that promises a high degree of control over Linux-based servers. But Red Hat doesn't have the only management tool on the block... IBM, UnitedLinux, HP, and Computer Associates also have such tools on the shelf or lined up in development.
Monday, February 3, 2003 11:24:30 AM EST

Modeling Linux in the Enterprise
Think Linux and open source software isn't ready for the enterprise? Linux International and Wild Open Source have collaborated to actually demonstrate live just how viable Linux is as a business solution. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Thursday, January 30, 2003 11:44:20 AM EST

A New Day, a New Certification: Red Hat Certified Technician
Need to pickup a certification for Linux, but don't want to run the LPI or RHCE marathons? Red Hat's latest cert, the Red Hat Certified Technician, is part of a new "journeyman" approach by the North Carolina software company to get needed technicians into the workplace.
Thursday, January 16, 2003 11:15:12 AM EST

NEC Calls Dibs on Breaking Linux Eight-Processor Limit
Earlier this week, SGI announced their new line of supercomputer-class Linux servers that can run up to 64 processors--thus passing the so-called eight-processor limit for Linux. But--much to our chagrin--SGI was not the first to successfully demonstrate post eight-way technology: that honor actually falls to NEC.
Thursday, January 9, 2003 10:50:35 AM EST

SGI Busts into Linux with 64-Processor Scalability
Silicon Graphics, Inc. has introduced its own Linux offering today with a line of Linux-only servers that can scale up to 64 processors and, thanks to some slick architecture, can communicate between these nodes up to 200 times faster than previous clustering methods.
Tuesday, January 7, 2003 12:05:15 AM EST

Tolerating Fault in an Intolerant World
In the world of clustered computers, you have your high-performance machines and your high-availability machines. But while clustering is a great way of getting HPC for not too much cost, it may not be the only solution for HA computing. A very hardened and redundancy laden Linux server from NEC has the capability of performing in the HA arena--and at a price point that won't blow the IT budget.
Monday, December 23, 2002 09:49:05 AM EST

Your Friendly Neighborhood Supercomputer
Getting access to multi-FLOPS computers has historically meant a big outlay in time, resources, and money. But what if your company could acquire access to a big distributed computing network without facing most of these hurdles? A company you might not expect is offering such a service, thanks in large part to its alliance with United Devices and the capabilities of Linux.
Thursday, December 19, 2002 10:43:33 AM EST

Suiting All Tastes at LWE
Recent LinuxWorld Expo attendees have complained the semi-annual event has become more of a meeting place for executives than a Mecca for Tux-heads. Organizers of the event are taking steps to ensure that LWE will satisfy all visitors, whether they're in suits or tye-dye. Brian Proffitt reports.
Monday, December 16, 2002 10:29:35 AM EST

Putting TCO Studies In Their Place
You may have heard about the recent TCO study released by Microsoft that indicated that Windows 2000 actually has a lower total cost of ownership than Linux. Brian Proffitt met with the architect of that IDC study this week, Dan Kusnetzky. Kusnetzky puts the study in a broader perspective and maintains that TCO studies are just one piece in the larger decision-making process. And, he revealed his own surprise that the Linux and Windows 2000 results were so close--results which may give Microsoft less to cheer about.
Thursday, December 5, 2002 10:14:28 AM EST

Linux Jobs: They're Out There and Here's How to Find Them
Got those economy slow-down blues? Looking for a really cool job where you're not forced to use Microsoft wares? Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has done some research to come up with this round up of the best places to go hunting Linux employment.
Monday, December 2, 2002 09:35:20 AM EST

UnitedLinux Momentum Mounts--Who's Coming Along?
During Comdex this week, UnitedLinux officials claimed growing industry momentum for their new Linux platform, which is aimed in large part at giving developers and customers a well-supported alternative to industry leader Red Hat. Red Hat ISV (independent software developer) partners Oracle, Novell, and BEA Systems have already received the "gold" code for UnitedLinux 1.0, along with a number of other ISV players, said Paula Hunter, general manager for UnitedLinux.
Thursday, November 21, 2002 11:32:22 AM EST

Hot Rodding Your Slightly Dated Laptop For Fun and Profit
Are you skittish about putting Linux on your laptop because the installation will be hard and it will be tough to find the right drivers? Are you worried that you're going to be limited to command-line based applications, especially on that old corporate laptop that moves like molasses under the weight of XP? Try revving up your beat up old laptop, using Linux to get some serious performance from something that was once obsolete.
Monday, November 18, 2002 10:42:26 AM EST

Red Hat Tour Seeks Feedback From Community
There is something mystical about searching across the country for the answers one seeks. The journey and the open road all hold strong sway over our imaginations--then there's the Red Hat Road Tour 2002, which pretty much blows that kind of fanciful thinking right out of the water. Still, the five-man crew of the giant red RV is driving across the US in search of their own answers... but will they find them? Brian Proffitt reports on the tour's visit to his hometown.
Thursday, November 7, 2002 10:45:35 AM EST

Many Certifications, Many Jobs?
Interested in getting a Linux job? HR and IT departments alike may seen obsessed with candidates having those little letters on your resume--letters like LPI and RHCE--but are certifications the be-all-end-all? And, of all the Linux certifications out there, which ones are the most practical? Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols takes a look at what's available in the world of Linux certification.
Tuesday, October 29, 2002 08:30:29 AM EST

Progeny Evolves Beyond Distribution Model
When Progeny ceased marketing its Progeny Debian distribution almost exactly one year ago, the company faded from view. But while it was out of the limelight for a while, the company was busy planning its next move with Linux. Now it has come out with its Platform Services program, a service model that may change the way customers will interact with Linux and the Open Source community.
Thursday, October 17, 2002 12:19:33 PM EST

Automating Manufacturing Processes with Ethernet-Enabled I/O Modules, Linux
If you think Linux is just something that runs on PC and servers back in the IT room, this report from Rob Reilly should disavow you of that notion. See how modern manufacturers are starting to introduce Linux-based processors into their automation schemes.
Wednesday, October 9, 2002 08:19:15 PM EST

Exclusive Preview of Red Hat 8.0: Bluecurve's Debut
Users will get their first official look at Red Hat 8.0 upon its release on Sept. 30. LinuxPlanet's Jacqueline Emigh got an advance look at the latest release earlier this week, and files this preview report on what's under the Red Hat this time around. Screenshots of the new interface are also included.
Thursday, September 26, 2002 02:53:35 PM EST

Caldera to SCO to Success?
Can a company come back from the dead? As Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports, that's what Caldera is betting as they change from their old identity to SCO, the company that was once known as the be-all and end-all of Intel Unix.
Monday, September 23, 2002 11:10:51 AM EST

Amazon.com Tests Oracle On Linux, But Windows Is Possible
Amazon.com has begun testing the Oracle database, operating on Red Hat Linux, as a possible platform for its behemoth data center, a top official confirmed this week. The online bookseller, though, is not excluding Windows solutions from the running either. Jacqueline Emigh continues her look at the progress Linux is making with one of the world's largest on-line retailers.
Thursday, September 12, 2002 10:49:32 AM EST

The Linux Kernel's SCSI Subsystem
Some people predict that SCSI will fade over time as IDE drives get faster and remain cheaper, or bow to newer protocols like USB 2.0. Whether you agree with this or not, this doesn't change the fact that the SCSI devices in existence will be around for some time, and Linux needs to support them as well as it can especially to improve its enterprise-level capabilities. Dee-Ann LeBlanc offers this report on the Linux kernel's support of SCSI.
Tuesday, September 3, 2002 12:14:08 PM EST

Koha: A Library Checks Out Open Source
Library software is an expensive and rather restrictive proprietary environment. "You get what you pay (a lot) for" seems to be the industry model. But one rural Ohio library is using a free software application developed in rural New Zealand to shatter this model and develop their own library management system.
Friday, August 30, 2002 04:13:55 PM EST

iCanProgram.com--A Story of Success, Sadness, and the Spirit of Open Source
There are always joys and sadnesses in the lives we lead. When death comes, it is the strongest blow of all. But one man has rolled with the punches and has created something that is not only a gift to the Linux community, but also to cancer patients around the world. All in the memory of a beloved colleague.
Friday, August 23, 2002 11:03:30 AM EST

Amazon.com To Don Red Hat Data Center
Amazon.com has been a prominent user of Linux for quite some time, having implemented the platform for it's application and middle tiers. Now Amazon.com plans to "go for the 'full Monty' in the data center" and implement an Oracle on Red Hat solution there. And the benefits are already estimated to be enormous. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Wednesday, August 21, 2002 10:37:37 AM EST

LinuxWorld Expo--More Suits, But Plenty Of Sandals
As this summer's LinuxWorld Expo wraps up, LinuxPlanet writer Jacqueline Emigh files this report on the general atmosphere of the semi-annual convention. Like most attendees, she finds a curious mixture of business and culture--with more of an emphasis on business than ever before.
Thursday, August 15, 2002 01:36:47 PM EST

Using the InterMezzo Distributed Filesystem
Getting connected is one of the more vital goals of any IT shop. But what happens when users can't get connected to the network right away? Are they just cut off altogether from their files? Not necessarily, writes Bill von Hagen, especially if you are using the InterMezzo distributed filesystem. In this next installment of the Distributed Filesystems series, von Hagen examines InterMezzo in detail and shows how to install, configure, and implement this DFS.
Monday, August 12, 2002 11:53:57 AM EST

Modern Distributed Filesystems For Linux: An Introduction
Data and information has become the lifeblood of many organizations of late, and storing that information safely has led to inventive data management. Once known as networked filesystems, distributed filesystems are now one of the best ways of storing your data across multiple machines on your network. Bill von Hagen begins a series of articles on distributed filesystems with an introduction to the technology and what it can do for your organization.
Wednesday, August 7, 2002 11:42:51 AM EST

The New Standard for Web Development: Free Software
For many companies building Web applications, using an open source application server like JBoss is rapidly becoming the standard practice. Dan Orzech reports.
Monday, August 5, 2002 10:31:54 AM EST

Moving The Open Web Application Security Project Out Of The Shadows
Nearly every news program, talk show and print media headline now has a security angle. If you are an IT Manager or Executive, you are probably pulling your hair out trying to secure your Information Technology systems...especially web applications. You think about firewalls. You think about hackers and terrorists. You think about your revenues if someone breaks your web based ordering system. So, while everybody talks about what to do... who really is doing something? Look to the people on the Open Web Application Security Project for many of the answers to these solutions.
Wednesday, July 24, 2002 11:46:14 AM EST

Linux in Canada: Are We Going Open Source Yet?
With open source government initiatives occuring in nations around the world, LinuxPlanet checks in with its neighbor to the north and see if any progress has been made in Canada. U.S. expatriate Dee-Ann LeBlanc files this report on her adopted country's e-government goals.
Monday, July 22, 2002 11:11:36 AM EST

Students Score Big Opportunities For Learning Using Linux
In a practical sense, it is rather hard to ask users to just quit using the technology they're used to cold turkey. Rather than abandoning their use of Windows altogether in favor of Linux and Open Source, one Florida school is opting for a slower, more balanced approach as they move towards Open Source and Free Software. And, as Rob Reilly reports, the results are already pretty dramatic.
Friday, July 12, 2002 11:08:18 AM EST

UnitedLinux: Turbolinux Sees Lots Of Advantages
Of the four current members of the UnitedLinux consortium, we've heard from all but one: Turbolinux. Jacqueline Emigh reports on what Turbolinux hopes to gain from this union, how they feel about the Linux Standards Base, and how this member of the group makes no secret of who UnitedLinux is going after.
Thursday, July 11, 2002 11:53:04 AM EST

Rescuing Linux Systems--Generic and Distribution-Specific Safety Nets
The time comes when every Linux system administrator experiences a system failure. And while hardware failures are simpiler to contend with, the true twilight zone for system administrators occurs when an otherwise useful system is unbootable due to disk corruption or accidental system misconfiguration. Bill von Hagen reveals how you can regain access to your data when things go suddenly awry.
Monday, July 8, 2002 11:31:59 AM EST

Making Linux Sing
Along with sight, the sense of hearing is one that we demand to be treated with respect. Most of us are closet audiophiles--though we may not realize it until the first time we hear bad sound, or no sound at all. Even in the business world, good sound is key to an enjoyable computer experience. Dee-Ann LeBlanc reports on the various sound tools available for Linux today.
Tuesday, July 2, 2002 11:27:34 AM EST

Caldera Changes its Captain but Stays the Course
It's been a day of many changes for Caldera International, but as Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports, the more things change, the more things stay the same. A look at the new leadership of Caldera and where UnitedLinux and Caldera may be heading now.
Thursday, June 27, 2002 05:44:50 PM EST

The UnitedLinux Dark Horse: Conectiva
If you watch Linux-related news, then for the last few weeks it's been hard to do anything without running into pronouncements about UnitedLinux. UnitedLinux is certainly a curious beast, a kind of Tuxed-out Cerberus with four heads where more might sprout out at any moment. Dee-Ann LeBlanc takes a break from all of the hype and guesswork and examines one of the lesser-known heads--at least, in English-speaking Linux markets.
Monday, June 24, 2002 10:17:18 AM EST

Server Consolidation—Beyond the Hardware
Hardware may be the most obvious component of server consolidation, but it's by far not the only one. This overview discusses how and why hardware, software, and human capital must be taken into account when considering undertaking such an endeavor.
Thursday, June 13, 2002 03:14:24 PM EST

The Heart of the Penguin
Linux is often regarded as a life-saver for harried tech professionals and overworked IT budgets. But there's work being performed right now on Linux clusters that could one day really save your life. Brian Proffitt reports.
Friday, June 7, 2002 12:41:07 AM EST

Basics for Adopting Linux/Open Source
Despite the recent sucesses of Linux adoption in the marketplace, you can't just wave a magic wand and make Linux appear on all of your company's desktops. Software change in an organization is something that takes time, planning, and lots of patience. Brian Proffitt puts on his configuration/change management hat and walks through some of the procedural basics in getting a Linux test-bed started in your company.
Tuesday, May 28, 2002 11:27:40 AM EST

Graduation Day for Linux
"Suddenly, the rest of the world has figured out what many in the Linux community knew all along--that the availability of free, resource-stingy software to these various environments could not help but bring significant costs savings to new Linux users. For two men in Portland, Oregon, the success comes as no surprise--they've been implementing Linux within school systems in the Portland area for the past six years..." Brian Proffitt reports.
Wednesday, May 22, 2002 10:49:58 PM EST

What's New Under the Sun? Sun's Love Affair With Linux
Sun Microsystems' relationship with Linux has been described as a love/hate affair. They detract IBM's Linux push into the mainframe markets but are just as quick to embrace Linux for their own sales. How did this all come about? Where is it all going? Bill von Hagen reviews Sun's past and present standing with Linux.
Friday, May 17, 2002 10:41:05 AM EST

Astaro: A "Swiss-Army Knife" of Security Software
Astaro Security's software is becoming a strong player in a widening market as more and more clients find they need the strength of heavy-duty security, the flexibility of open source, and the pricing that won't blow the IT budget out of the water. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Tuesday, April 30, 2002 02:42:33 PM EST

Geodesic Seeks More Linux Believers
As Linux becomes more of an everyday platform in the corporate world, the need for more robust and sophisticated application environments becomes even more crucial. Jacqueline Emigh takes a look at how one Chicago-based development firm is meeting the needs of some very particular clientele.
Wednesday, April 10, 2002 01:58:28 PM EST

Exploring the ext3 Filesystem
If you have ever had to run fsck on a large hard drive during boot then you are familiar with those long pauses that make you feel like you're starting a Windows machine. Bill Von Hagen shows you the inner mechanics of the ext3 journaling filesystem and shows how it can make your restart times lower and how it can be tuned to make your performance better.
Friday, April 5, 2002 09:53:55 AM EST

The Law Office Network/Linux Server Trial
Entrepreneur-based small businesses make up a large percentage of the business community. Not quite an enterprise and not quite home users, small businesses have their own unique needs in getting a Linux network put together, as Rob Reilly explains.
Thursday, April 4, 2002 09:12:28 AM EST

Case Study: Clusters and Image Processing, Part II
ImageLinks, Inc. had identified a need to migrate their high-end image processing servers from SGI machines to Linux boxes. Having devised a plan for implementation, it was now time to actually put the plan to work. In Part II of this Case Study, Dee-Ann LeBlanc examines the real-world solutions used by the ImageLinks team in their quest for this goal.
Monday, March 25, 2002 08:53:30 AM EST

Getting Connected: The Evolution of Linux and Windows E-Mail Integration
In today's world of tight IT and MIS budgets, saving money and
investing wisely in new infrastructure are words to keep your job
by. Regardless of whether there's a recession, times are tough and
money is tight. One good way to implement cost-savings, Bill von Hagen reports, is to use non-Microsoft products in a corporate e-mail environment. In this article, he gives a detailed overview of the Ximian Evolution client and how, with the help of the Ximian connector plug-in, it can allow Linux-based clients to work freely with Exchange-based messaging systems.
Friday, March 22, 2002 11:31:07 AM EST

An Update on the Eclipse Project
After investing $40 million of its hard-earned cash, where do things stand with the Open Source Eclipse Project? As Jacqueline Emigh reports, Eclipse has grown into far more than just a Linux development project for IBM. Like the open source Mozilla project, Eclipse has taken on a life all of its own, with real results for developers in all sorts of platforms.
Tuesday, March 19, 2002 06:44:35 PM EST

Case Study: Clusters and Image Processing, Part I
In the late 1990s, ImageLinks, Inc. had the software to perform highly sophisticated remote sensing operations, thanks to declassified government code. But the software ran on high-end--and highly expensive--SGI Indigo 2 systems. In this first part of a comprehensive two-part case study, Dee-Ann LeBlanc examines the challanges that faced the team at ImageLinks when they decided to try running their code on Linux systems, in the hopes of saving thousands of dollars a year on licenses alone.
Sunday, March 17, 2002 06:47:40 PM EST

Bynari Compatability: Linux Software Vendor Provides Exchange Emulation
Breaking the hold of the Exchange/Outlook combination is not an easy thing to do. In this report from Bill von Hagen, see how the new product InsightConnector is giving administrators the choice to replace Exchange with Linux-platform IMAP servers.
Friday, March 15, 2002 09:15:46 AM EST

Frontline Report: Linux World Expo Turns Businesslike
Dennis Powell braves a whole new world at Linux World Expo 2002, discovering that the Javits Center has turned into less of a Mecca for Linux enthusiasts and more of a business opportunity for the Movers and Shakers.
Thursday, January 31, 2002 12:03:14 AM EST

LinuxBiz: A Daring Rescue, and Plans, Finally, to Make Money
Welcome to LinuxBiz, a new regular feature appearing here every other week, bringing readers a look at the business of Linux. This week's edition reveals some of the questions we'll have waiting as Linux and Open Source business people return from LinuxWorld Expo: what's up with SuSE? Where's Ximian headed? Can Progeny make its services orientation work? And how's VA Linux going to survive its change in focus from hardware to software?
Friday, August 31, 2001 03:01:30 AM EST

ext3 or ReiserFS? Hans Reiser Says Red Hat's Move Is Understandable
Interest in journaling file systems is high right now: Linux enjoys a sudden embarrassment of riches in this area, and Red Hat -- which abstained from the rush to ReiserFS in which several other distros indulged-- has finally committed to ext3. Dennis Powell offers a quick guide to what's so important about journaling filesystems anyhow, and a brief chat with Hans Reiser... who says Red Hat's choice of ext3 makes good sense.
Friday, August 24, 2001 02:28:44 AM EST

Running Windows Apps on Linux: Put Away the WINE
There's always a crucial factor when Linux advocates are trying to woo new users: the fact that most Windows users are locked into their favorite applications, many of which have no comparable counterpart in the Linux world. Brian Proffitt reviews two tools that run Windows applications on a Linux desktop: the WinToNet application server for the corporate crowd and Win4Lin for the small office/home user crowd.
Monday, March 12, 2001 01:38:04 PM EST

Infocrossing and S/390 Linux: An ASP's Story
We've heard all about the high-profile deployments of Linux on IBM's mainframes. Scott Courtney takes a look at Infocrossing, an ASP running Linux on IBM's storied S/390, and learns how it provided something more proven than Microsoft's Win2k Datacenter Edition.
Wednesday, February 28, 2001 08:31:59 AM EST

Hardware Notes: Hard Drive Benchmarking With iozone
Quick... how fast is your shiny new Linux machine? If you answer with the speed of its CPU, you're missing a big part of the equation. In the kickoff edition of his new hardware column on Linux Planet, Lou Grinzo delves into the world of hard drive benchmarking with the versatile iozone, and offers some sane advice on making sense of all the numbers.
Thursday, February 22, 2001 09:00:16 AM EST

The StartX Files: X Is For Xim--Just Kidding, It's For Xfce
Brian Proffitt concludes his grand tour of Linux window managers with a look at Xcfe, a GTK+-based window manager that is made to resemble the CDE environment for UNIX. He also interviews Xfce lead developer Olivier Fourdan, who drops a little bombshell: the future of Xfce will include voice recognition, as Fourdan will be using IBM Via Voice SDK to create a new module for Xfwm that will allow people to drive the window manager with a microphone.
Tuesday, February 20, 2001 12:52:11 PM EST

Jay Beale: Education Is Primary Defense for Secure Machines
Jay Beale, lead developer for Bastille Linux and one of the foremost experts on Linux security, has a straightforward recipe for securing your Linux Web site: make sure you have no unnecessary services running and make sure you always have the latest security patches installed. This advice seems simple --but you'd be surprised how many Linux sysadmins don't follow it. Brian Proffitt interviews.
Friday, February 16, 2001 06:41:54 PM EST

Conflicts of Interest: Plans for Nautilus and Evolution
As GNOME 1.4 approaches beta testing, the GNOME world is faced with a slew of decisions regarding the future: how the plans of Eazel and Red Hat might conflict with the plans of Ximian, and how the different technologies will be melded into a whole. Michael Hall looks at the different road maps from the major GNOME players.
Friday, February 16, 2001 11:31:40 AM EST

NetRaider: Small, Fast Window to the Web
Looking for a graphical Web browser that's as stripped-down and speedy as a text-based Web browser? Consider NetRaider, a work-in-progress that's based on Konqueror.
Thursday, February 15, 2001 07:24:29 AM EST

The StartX Files: U Stands for UDE and Uncharted Territories
Goodbye "From the Desktop," hello "StartX," as Brian Proffitt continues his weekly reviews of Linux window managers. This week: Brian reviews UDE (UNIX Desktop Environment) and its window manager, UDM, and interviews Christian Ruppert, lead developer on UWM.
Tuesday, February 13, 2001 11:22:33 AM EST

Red Blood in the Emergency Room, Red Carpet on the Way
This week's GNOME column takes Michael Hall to his local emergency room, where he has a heated discussion over the merits of GNOME vs. KDE. Also, Michael announces a contest to name his GNOME column (Ximian swag! Ximian swag!) and updates us on the progress of Red Carpet.
Friday, February 9, 2001 09:50:13 AM EST

From the Desktop: Tom LaStrange Speaks!
OK, so he's not exactly as reclusive as Garbo in her later days, but Tom LaStrange -- the creator of the twm window manager, a staple for early X Window users and still a popular option today for Linux users -- did emerge from the shadows to explain the history of twm and discuss what he's doing today.
Tuesday, February 6, 2001 11:43:02 AM EST

Mozdev.org: These Aren't Your Father's Browsers
Brian Proffitt sits down with David Boswell and Pete Collins, two key players in the Mozdev.org group, a developer's group closely related to, but not the same as, the Mozilla Project. What's the difference? The Mozilla Project is the open source organization that sprang into being after Netscape Communications made its announcement that it was releasing the source code for Netscape Communicator 5 in 1997. Mozdev.org is a separate open-source project, but it is tightly integrated with the original Mozilla Project. While the Mozilla Project focuses on changes and improvements to the base Mozilla code itself, Mozdev.org creates a collaborative development envirnoment for applications that can be developed from the Mozilla code.
Tuesday, February 6, 2001 07:43:47 AM EST

How SuSE Carries Its Big Stick
Carving out a profitable niche in the Linux space has proven to be an elusive goal, and SuSE is approaching the marketplace with the same mix of operating-system sales and services that others like Red Hat Software are offering. But the differences between SuSE and other Linux companies lie in the details, explains Dirk Hohndel, Chief Technology Officer for SuSE in an interview with Brian Proffitt: SuSE may be speaking softly, but it's carrying a big stick.
Monday, February 5, 2001 07:45:44 AM EST

From the Desktop: Special Big Apple Edition
Brian Proffitt hit the show floor at LinuxWorld Expo to find the brightest and the best of the Linux/Open Source world. What he found was a tension between the suits and the Linux faithful -- amidst a sea of evidence that Linux is indeed going corporate and upscale.
Saturday, February 3, 2001 12:29:29 PM EST

From the Desktop: W is for WindowMaker and West Coast
This week Brian Proffitt looks at WindowMaker, one fine looking window manager that's based on the legendary NeXTStep interface. Brian reviews WindowMaker and discusses its origins and future with designer Alfredo Kojima.
Tuesday, January 30, 2001 07:17:37 AM EST

It's Back: New Version of Ellison-backed Linux Network Computer
OK, so the first Linux-based network computer from Larry Ellison's NIC didn't exactly set the world on fire. But Ellison and NIC are back with a second edition that addresses some of the shortcomings in the initial release. David Needle reports.
Thursday, January 25, 2001 10:41:56 AM EST

Lou's Views: Zend Philosophy: Finding Another Way
When Zend Technologies was looking for a way to monetize the open source PHP technology, it didn't look to scratch an itch or impose its own beliefs upon potential customers. Instead, Zend officials took the radical step of going out and talking to companies that might be customers for PHP-based products and asked them not just what they liked about PHP or wanted in a new release, but what was keeping them from using PHP. What they found was a blueprint for a new kind of open source business. Lou Grinzo interviews Jim Jagielski, U.S. CTO and PHP Evangelist of Zend.
Tuesday, January 23, 2001 11:32:53 AM EST

From the Desktop: T is for twm and Tracking Originality
Those whose roots in UNIX actually predate Linux will remember twm, known variously as the Tab Window Manager and Tom's Window Manager. For many years, twm was the best freely available window manager for the X Window System, and it still exists to this day as a functional window manager for Linux systems. Brian Proffitt looks at twm and why it's so important in the history of X.
Tuesday, January 23, 2001 11:01:12 AM EST

w3m: No Ordinary Text Browser
Looking for a text-based browser that can handle the most complicated of tables? Browser guru Brian Proffitt recommends checking out w3m, a Linux-based Web browser created with the express purpose of handling complicated Web pages in text mode.
Friday, January 19, 2001 12:23:40 PM EST

Linux a Very Silent Player in New Cobalt Release
Cobalt made its name as a vendor of Linux-based servers, but Sun's acqusition of Cobalt put this strategy in doubt. And when the dust settled on a press conference announcing a new line of Cobalt servers -- which are still running Linux, by the way -- it was clear that Sun executives wanted nothing to do with any discussion of Linux as a strategic part of Sun's future. Brian Proffitt reports.
Wednesday, January 17, 2001 05:11:36 PM EST

.comment: Happily In My CUPS
Setting up printing under Linux is not a pleasant task, whether you're connecting a printer to your own Linux box or to a Linux server on the network. How can you solve the problem? Dennis E. Powell recommends CUPS, the Common Unix Printing System, which solves a multitude of problems. In this column, Dennis details how he used CUPS to remedy printing problems on his personal Linux system and tells how CUPS can solve printing issues on a network.
Wednesday, January 17, 2001 12:42:39 PM EST

Penguins Over the Wires: X Servers for Windows
When Michael Hall's DSL connection began to behave erratically, he faced a Sophie's choice: keep running Linux and putting up with the hassles of a connection that came and went on a whim, or get a working Windows 98 install up long enough to let the technician diagnose the problem. His solution: running X applications over a network on a Microsoft Windows machine, using MicroImages MI/X and Labtam WinaXe X servers.
Friday, January 12, 2001 11:53:57 AM EST

Freedom 2.0 for Linux: Masking User Identities
Want to mask your identity when cruising the Web? Then take a look at Freedom 2.0 for Linux, a nifty little add-on for your browser and e-mail client that allows you to create pseudonym identities for yourself while you are out surfing on the Web. Under the guide of one of these identities, called nyms, you can surf to your heart's content knowing that what the Web sites full of cookies and trackers are seeing is the nym, not you.
Thursday, January 11, 2001 04:37:04 PM EST

From the Desktop: S Is For Sawfish and Shedding
The preferred window manager for the GNOME environment, Sawfish offers users an unprecedented level of control over all aspects of their usage -- and they can exercise all of this control without having to generate a configuration script. Brian Proffitt reviews.
Tuesday, January 9, 2001 11:56:30 AM EST

From the Desktop: Q Stands For QVWM and Quality Sarcasm
Brian Proffitt reports on the ultimate in retro window managers: QVWM, a window manager that looks and works exactly like Windows 95. Why anyone would want such a window manager, however, is another matter.
Tuesday, January 2, 2001 07:39:49 AM EST

Net Returns: Linux and Netware
Linking Linux and Netware systems used to be one of the most eagerly anticipated trends in the server field. But, as William Wong writes, suddenly Linux and Netware are on separate paths, as Caldera quietly drops support for Netware and the Open Source community fails to develop any cross-system tools.
Friday, December 22, 2000 10:00:55 AM EST

From the Desktop: Derailing the Alphabet
Brian Proffitt checks into the archives of window managers and comes up with two venerable tools: mwm and olwm. Of the two, mwm is still used today--it serves as the basis of the Common Desktop Environment, with many old-time UNIX hacks still swearing allegiance--while olwm receded from the spotlight some time ago.
Tuesday, December 12, 2000 09:31:01 AM EST

From the Desktop: M Stands for MLVWM and Memories
Tired of WIMPy Linux interfaces that owe way too much to Bill Gates and Windows? Then rebel with MLVWM, the Macintosh-Like Virtual Window Manager, and pretend you're using a Macintosh. Brian Proffitt interviews the creator of MLVWM, Takashi Hasegawa.
Tuesday, December 5, 2000 06:00:05 AM EST

Protecting Your Linux System with FireStarter and Storm Firewall
With Linux emerging as a powerhouse on the desktop, it's more important than ever to make sure that your Linux system is secured. Michael Hall reviews two tools that automate the process of setting up a firewall on your system: FireStarter and Storm Firewall.
Friday, December 1, 2000 11:44:36 AM EST

From the Desktop: I Stands For Ice, Ice, Baby and Introspection
This week Brian Proffitt reflects on his own mortality, realizing that he is growing old. Not that you really care about that, of course; this article is worth reading because it discusses the amazingly flexible IceWM window manager, which will probably outlive Brian as he cruises into middle age.
Tuesday, November 21, 2000 08:52:20 AM EST

GNOME on the Road; Rolling out the Red Carpet
It takes the ultimate road trip--in this case, the sprawling and demanding COMDEX trade show--to thoroughly test software. Michael Hall tells how he used the road tools in GNOME to file regular dispatches from COMDEX. In addition, he delivers some early information about Red Carpet, Helix Code's subscription plan for GNOME.
Monday, November 20, 2000 09:10:44 AM EST

From the Desktop: F Stands For FVWM95 and fOX Project
So what's the difference between between FVWM2 and FVWM95? Darned if we can tell. Brian Proffitt continues his tour of Linux desktop tools with a look at FVWM95, a derivative of FVWM2, and details exactly what future development is planned for this Windows-like window manager.
Tuesday, November 14, 2000 12:34:26 PM EST

Lights! Camera! Linux!
The star-making machinery seems to be an unlikely place for Linux to pop up, but it's true: we're now seeing Linux assume a key position in Hollywood and the world of filmmaking. Brian Proffitt explains how Tux is waiting for his closeup.
Saturday, November 11, 2000 12:39:23 AM EST

From the Desktop: F Stands for FVWM2 and Free Market
This week Brian Proffitt looks at the venerable FVWM window manager, which has been around a long time (longer than many Linux users, probably), but thanks to the efforts of a dedicated development team, still chugs along. In addition, Proffitt updates us regarding the true story of which Linux-Mandrake users received KDE 2.0 and which users received a beta version.
Tuesday, November 7, 2000 07:42:40 AM EST

From the Desktop: E Stands for Enlightenment (Really, I Promise)
Many people were first exposed to Enlightenment as the former default window manager for GNOME -- and to this day many GNOME users swear by it. But, as Brian Proffitt learns in an interview with Rasterman, the future of Enlightenment isn't in acting as the window manager for a specific environment or providing applications: it's to unify the Linux desktop by appealing to both KDE and GNOME users.
Tuesday, October 31, 2000 07:03:27 AM EST

From the Desktop: C Stands for ctwm... and Confrontation
This week Brian Proffitt examines the ctwm window manager, which is based on the venerable pre-Linux twm. But before he profiles ctwm and chats about it with developer Claude Lecommandeur, Brian drops by his local PTA meeting and is forced to defend Linux before a surprisingly aggressive Macintosh user.
Tuesday, October 17, 2000 11:08:35 AM EST

From the Desktop: Blackbox
Austere without being stark, the Blackbox window manager is designed to look like a stripped-down NeXT interface: the toolbar, root menu, and windows menu are the only onscreen tools available, something that could make the hardcore Gnome/KDE user hyperventilate in panic. But that shouldn't dissuade anyone from trying Blackbox, reports Brian Proffitt: it's a speedy window manager that doesn't get in the way of applications.
Monday, October 9, 2000 08:57:49 AM EST

Editor's Note: Mozilla Revisited
Yes, many in the Linux community are frustrated by the slow-moving glacier known as Mozilla development. But for those of us who have been watching Mozilla closely for months and months, there is a clear light at the end of the tunnel: the latest builds of Mozilla have been stable enough for daily and regular use, says Michael Hall.
Monday, October 2, 2000 11:03:16 AM EST

.comment: Going Broadband With a Cable Modem
It should be a simple enough task: connect a Linux box to the Internet via a cable modem. But when Dennis E. Powell tried it--and in the process set up his Linux box with a firewall and a hub--he found that support for Linux still isn't universal among vendors (including Linux vendors) and that his best tools for cable-modem nirvana were elbow grease, an educated friend, and some luck.
Wednesday, September 27, 2000 06:00:00 AM EST

From the Desktop: AfterStep Into My Parlour
Who needs KDE or GNOME when AfterStep is still available? Seriously, there's a devoted group of users committed to AfterStep, who find a lot to love about AfterStep: it's easy to configure, it doesn't eat up a lot of memory, and it's a relatively speedy interface. Brian Proffitt reviews the newest version of AfterStep and discusses its future with Sasha Vasko, the person currently guiding AfterStep development.
Tuesday, September 26, 2000 05:00:00 AM EST

TheKompany.com: A New Approach to Linux Business
Shawn Gordon may be a wide-eyed idealist for committing TheKompany.com to developing Linux-based applications and development tools. But, as Dennis E. Powell found out in an extensive interview with him, he's also enough of a businessman to try and make a living off of developing and selling cutting-edge Linux software--as you'll see in this preview of what TheKompany is coming out with between now and the end of the year.
Monday, September 25, 2000 08:16:29 AM EST

From the Desktop: Fishing For the Right Envionment
Despite all the recent publicity regarding KDE and GNOME, there are a wealth of desktops available for the Linux operating system. In this column, Brian Proffitt tells why such a diversity of desktops is good for the Linux community and why we should encourage all the desktop efforts.
Monday, September 18, 2000 08:53:09 AM EST

Web Coding in Romulan? Open Source at the Worldcon
There is certainly a lot of overlap between Linux geeks and science-fiction fans, so it's no surprise that the onsite Web servers at the current Worldcon (the yearly world science-fiction convention) is built around a raft of Open Source tools: Linux, BSD, Apache, mySQL, and PHP. Scott Courtney reports from Worldcon in Chicago and shows how Open Source tools are used in a real-world--and otherworldly--situation.
Monday, September 4, 2000 09:00:00 AM EST

Trolltech to Release Qt Under GPL
In a move that should dramatically alter the GUI environment, Trolltech is releasing the upcoming free edition Qt 2.2 under the GPL -- eliminating a major criticism of both Qt and KDE as a development platform. Kevin Reichard interviews Trolltech president Eirik Eng about the decision.
Monday, September 4, 2000 07:26:05 AM EST

Editor's Note: Not a Typical Troll Tale
We sat down with Haavard Nord, the CEO of TrollTech, at LinuxWorld Expo last week to discuss a wide variety of topics: the future of Qt (and TrollTech), where KDE and GNOME are headed, and where he's taking the firm. Surprisingly, he's relatively low-key about the new competition for the Linux desktop--and he's very bullish on taking TrollTech away from the desktop onto embedded devices.
Monday, August 21, 2000 03:28:04 PM EST

Test Suite Heralds SGI's Growing Involvement with Linux
With the release of nearly 100 test tools designed to make Linux kernel hacking easier, SGI is signalling a rapidly growing involvement in Linux by SGI. In this preview, Dennis E. Powell explains how SGI is aiming to streamline Linux kernel development through these tools, to be unveiled at this week's LinuxWorld Expo in San Jose.
Sunday, August 13, 2000 01:41:54 PM EST

From the Desktop: Dealing with the Dark Side
Can't we all just get along? Brian Proffitt thinks so. He's put together some ways to have Windows and Linux coexist on the same system and the same network.
Friday, August 4, 2000 10:25:21 AM EST

The Graphics Lab on Your Linux Desktop
You don't need to sacrifice quality when it comes to graphics tools running under Linux. Michael Hall reports on several GNOME/GTK-based graphics tools (including gPhoto and the GIMP) that should please both graphics professionals and casual users.
Tuesday, August 1, 2000 08:45:56 AM EST

The Ultimate Install Fest: Linux on the IBM System/390
With 4,000 downloads and a raft of dedicated support personnel from several companies, Linux on the IBM S/390 is definitely a reality. The centerpiece of the Linux/390 evangelism is an IBM-sponsored Install Fest, where 150 customers from countries as diverse as Austria, France, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Switzerland, Canada, and the United States signed up for assistance in installing Linux on their S/390s. Scott Courtney details the Install Fest and also explains how IBM is further supporting Linux on the S/390.
Monday, July 31, 2000 07:47:10 AM EST

Stallman/Stanco: A Dialogue on Copyright Law and Free/Open Source Software (Part 8)
Doing the right thing via software copyright is today's topic, as Richard Stallman and attorney Tony Stanco continue their nine-day discussion of the philosophy of copyright law and how it applies to the Free Software and Open Source communities. While both Stallman and Stanco are passionate advocates for Free Software and Open Source, their dialogue shows that there are still some disagreements within the movement--disagreements that may surprise you.
Monday, July 24, 2000 02:19:37 PM EST

Stallman/Stanco: A Dialogue on Copyright Law and Free/Open Source Software (Part 5)
Equality and the freedom to cooperate is today's subject in today's installment of the unique nine-day dialogue between Richard Stallman and Attorney Tony Stanco on the philosophy of copyright law and how it applies to the Free Software and Open Source communities. While both Stallman and Stanco are passionate advocates for Free Software and Open Source, their dialogue shows that there are still some disagreements within the movement--disagreements that may surprise you.
Wednesday, July 19, 2000 02:00:16 PM EST

Stallman/Stanco: A Dialogue on Copyright Law and Free/Open Source Software (Part 4)
In Day 4 of this unique nine-day series, Richard Stallman and attorney Tony Stanco discuss the philosophy of copyright law and how it applies to the Free Software and Open Source communities. While both Stallman and Stanco are passionate advocates for Free Software and Open Source, their dialogue shows that there are still some disagreements within the movement--disagreements that may surprise you. Today's topic: Economic freedom and copyright.
Tuesday, July 18, 2000 01:55:09 PM EST

Stallman/Stanco: A Dialogue on Copyright Law and Free/Open Source Software (Part 3)
In day three of their e-mail dialogue, Richard Stallman and attorney Tony Stanco discuss the philosophy of copyright law and how it applies to the Free Software and Open Source communities. While both Stallman and Stanco are passionate advocates for Free Software and Open Source, their dialogue shows that there are still some disagreements within the movement--disagreements that may surprise you. Today's topic: Copyright as a natural right.
Monday, July 17, 2000 02:50:28 AM EST

Stallman/Stanco: A Dialogue on Copyright Law and Free/Open Source Software (Part 2)
Richard Stallman and attorney Tony Stanco continue their discussion regarding the philosophy of copyright law and how it
applies to the Free Software and Open Source communities. While both Stallman and Stanco are passionate advocates for Free
Software and Open Source, their dialogue shows that there are still some disagreements within the movement--disagreements
that may surprise you. Today's theme: opinion vs. fact.
Friday, July 14, 2000 03:44:45 AM EST

Stallman/Stanco: A Dialogue on Copyright Law and Free/Open Source Software (Part 9)
We wrap up our unique nine-day dialogue between Richard Stallman and attorney Tony Stanco with a discussion on why proprietary software requires the force of law to support it--and why Stallman and Stanco both oppose it.
Thursday, July 13, 2000 02:26:08 PM EST

Stallman/Stanco: A Dialogue on Copyright Law and Free/Open Source Software (Part 7)
Reconciling the needs of the real world with the goals of the free/open software movements is today's topic in this unique nine-day dialogue between Richard Stallman and attorney Tony Stanco. While both Stallman and Stanco are passionate advocates for Free Software and Open Source, their dialogue shows that there are still some disagreements within the movement--disagreements that may surprise you
Thursday, July 13, 2000 02:14:22 PM EST

Stallman/Stanco: A Dialogue on Copyright Law and Free/Open Source Software (Part 6)
Corporations and cooperation--and the inherent tensions between the two--is the topic into today's installment of the nine-day discussion between Richard Stallman and attorney Tony Stanco, and how it applies to the Free Software and Open Source communities. While both Stallman and Stanco are passionate advocates for Free Software and Open Source, their dialogue shows that there are still some disagreements within the movement--disagreements that may surprise you.
Thursday, July 13, 2000 02:07:07 PM EST

Stallman/Stanco: A Dialogue on Copyright Law and Free/Open Source Software (Part 1)
In this unique nine-day series, Richard Stallman and attorney Tony Stanco discuss the philosophy of copyright law and how it applies to the Free Software and Open Source communities. While both Stallman and Stanco are passionate advocates for Free Software and Open Source, their dialogue shows that there are still some disagreements within the movement--disagreements that may surprise you.
Thursday, July 13, 2000 01:25:40 PM EST

Oracle-Funded NC Company to Offer $199 Linux System
Remember the Network Computer? It was the bold, heretical idea promoted by the likes of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Sun CEO Scott McNeally four years ago that was going to unseat the PC for top spot on the desktop. A new Oracle-backed venture called the New Internet Computer Company plans to make its $199 Network Internet Computers available to consumers on July 4, according to Ellison.
Friday, June 30, 2000 11:06:18 AM EST

Broadening Horizons with Other Operating Systems
Despite our devotion to Linux and Linux-like operating systems, we all know that there are other operating systems out there worthy of our attention. In this report, Jay Fink reports on two other noteworthy operating system--GNU HURD and Plan 9--and explains why both are interesting to Linux users.
Thursday, June 29, 2000 09:25:20 AM EST

.comment: Freebies, Buzzwords, and Goofy Stuff
Turn loose a Linux fan on the PC Expo show floor, and what do you get? Piles of goodies: the freebies, the gooey stuff, buzzwords, and the wait-till-next-year stuff. Dennis E. Powell reports from the PC Expo show floor in New York City.
Wednesday, June 28, 2000 11:28:32 AM EST

Jabber: The Linux of Instant Messaging?
An Open-Source alternative enters the IM fray, trumpeting a challenge to AIM's dominance of the market. But America Online is firmly intrenched in the instant-messaging field, so the battle should be difficult. Patricia Fusco reports.
Monday, June 26, 2000 12:13:44 PM EST

.comment: Judgment Day for the GPL?
One of the biggest issues facing the Open Source and Free Software communities is the legality of the GNU General Public License. As Dennis E. Powell reports, a judge may determine as early as this summer if it's worth the paper it's (not) written on.
Monday, June 26, 2000 12:25:22 AM EST

One Fat Gecko: Netscape 6
Had a look at the Netscape 6 preview version yet? It's been out on release for a few months, and now all the fuss has died down (what fuss was that, then?) it's time to take a long hard look at the monster Netscape has saddled us with.
Tuesday, June 20, 2000 12:00:01 PM EST

Connecting with GNOME Mail Clients
If e-mail is the Internet's killer app, then it behooves an emerging desktop like GNOME to feature robust mail clients. In this article, Michael Hall looks at the many GNOME mail clients available--Balsa, Spruce, Mahogany, Bynari Tradeclient, and CSC Mail--and found a surprisingly large number of powerful mail clients.
Monday, June 19, 2000 09:07:48 AM EST

.comment: Lawyers, Guns, and Money
Historically, Linux has been developed by volunteers interested in cool technology. However, the ranks of Linux developers are now being augmented by developers on loan from commercial companies--and in some cases, the needs and goals of these commercial companies don't mesh with the needs and goals of the Linux community. Dennis E. Powell explains how this happened in the KDE community and how it could reverberate throughout the entire Linux community.
Wednesday, June 14, 2000 08:04:50 AM EST

.comment: XFce: The Little Desktop That Could
Most Linux users are moving to the KDE or GNOME desktops, but there are other alternatives worth checking out. Dennis E. Powell lays out XCfe, the little desktop that could, for your inspection.
Wednesday, June 7, 2000 09:13:34 AM EST

Konfiguring KDE2
When our intrepid reporter needed some help in configuring KDE2, he rolled up his sleeves and discovered how easily it was to hack his way through his problems. Dennis E. Powell explains how he tackled some KDE 2 configuration issues--and shows how what he did can be applied to a variety of situations.
Friday, June 2, 2000 05:46:10 AM EST

GNOME 1.2: A Giant GUI Leap
With the release of version 1.2, the GNOME desktop environment takes a big leap forward in terms of look, feel, and included applications. Michael Hall reports on the latest and greatest version of GNOME.
Tuesday, May 30, 2000 10:29:21 PM EST

Net Gains: Networking Adapters
Before you can enter the wild world of networking, you'll need to make sure that your Linux installation is properly set up for networking--and that means you'll need a properly configured network card (NIC). William Wong continues his series on home-office/small-office networking with a look at configuring networking cards under Linux.
Tuesday, May 23, 2000 10:00:22 AM EST

Wearable Linux: Notes from the Field
A conference on wearable Linux may seem like it should be a cozy gathering of hobbyists from the strange intersection of homebrew computing and any episode of Star Trek with Borg in it. But wearable Linux is now entering the mainstream business world, as the essential qualities of Linux--stability and reliability--are also the essential qualities inherent in wearable computing. Michael Hall reports from last week's Xybernaut conference on wearable computing.
Monday, May 22, 2000 07:13:54 AM EST

Hitting the Reset Key the Linux Way
Hitting the reset key can mean many things--especially to a stressed-out Linux editor, who found Linux in the most unexpected places when trying to get away from it all. Paul Ferris explains how the Marblehead Inn in Ohio is using Linux for its business back end.
Friday, May 19, 2000 09:07:11 AM EST

It's Official: IBM Announces Linux for the S/390
What began as an underground project is now an official product: Today IBM adds System/390 hardware to its list of supported environments for Linux, completing a range of systems that extend from Intel laptops to the largest mainframes the company has ever made. Scott Courtney reports on why IBM's release and support of Linux is important.
Wednesday, May 17, 2000 12:01:07 AM EST

There but for the Grace of Bill....
Linux users are feeling pretty smug about their seeming invincibility as they watch Windows users get dragged down with the latest in viruses. But Scott Courtney warns that the same techniques used to attack Windows systems can attack Linux email as well.
Friday, May 5, 2000 12:46:23 PM EST

Word to the Wise: Reviewing Linux Word Processors
Everyone disses Linux for its lack of robust end-user applications. But when Michael Hall set out to review all the major word-processing tools for Linux, he found a wide variety of surprisingly robust packages. In this series, we'll present one new word-processor review per day. Today: Michael's final recommendations. Previously: Applix Words 5, WordPerfect 9 for Linux, StarOffice 5.2, AbiWord 0.7.8, GNU Emacs/XEmacs, LaTex, Vigor, LyX, and Maxwell.
Thursday, May 4, 2000 12:31:05 PM EST

Linux and Oracle: NetLedger's Real-World Solution Detailed
When NetLedger needed a robust data center to fuel its new accounting ASP, it put Linux, Windows NT, and Solaris though a rigorous evaluation process. Linux not only shone on the technical side, but also offered the best performance for the price. Kevin Reichard details how Linux triumphed when compared to other operating systems in a real-world evaluation, leading to the world's largest Oracle/Linux deployment.
Thursday, March 30, 2000 11:50:44 AM EST

How the Wolf Will Survive: Linux Supercomputing and Los Lobos
Combine Linux with 256 IBM Netfinity servers and clustering software, and you have one of the fastest supercomputers on the planet. Welcome to Los Lobos at the University of New Mexico, where a planned Linux supercomputer could change the face of computing in the 21st century. Kevin Reichard reports.
Wednesday, March 22, 2000 08:34:00 AM EST

ApacheCon: Fueling the Web Revolution
Apache is the workhorse of the Web, and ApacheCon is the yearly gathering of Apache developers and devotees. Paul Ferris reports from ApacheCon 2000 and explains how Apache is changing the way corporations approach Open Source software.
Thursday, March 9, 2000 04:01:28 PM EST

Do-It-Yourself Caching: Squid 2.3
This open-source solution is a great low-cost way to get into caching. However, a stable Squid installation calls for some fairly hefty hardware--not to mention considerable tuning effort. Lisa Phifer explains.
Tuesday, February 29, 2000 12:19:06 AM EST

S/390: The Linux Dream Machine
Could mainframes be the next frontier for Linux? Scott Courtney explains how several groups (including Big Blue herself) are working to bring Linux to the S/390 mainframe world--and the results are surprisingly practical and affordable.
Wednesday, February 23, 2000 09:19:48 AM EST

Crusoe: Transmeta Comes Out of the Closet
Until now, little was known about Transmeta--a secretive Silicon Valley startup--other than that it had employed Linus Torvalds, the originator and architect of the Linux operating system. The veil of secrecy was at last lifted with the introduction of a line of microprocessors called "Crusoe."
Thursday, January 20, 2000 03:17:03 PM EST

Akamai CEO Swings His Elbows
It's not that you wouldn't want to meet George Conrades, the chairman and CEO of Akamai Technologies in a dark alley. It's more that you'd want to avoid him in an open playing field. Meet the man who is using Linux to distribute data around the globe.
Tuesday, January 11, 2000 09:57:51 AM EST

Eagle To Introduce Linux Set-Top
Eagle Wireless International says it will base its forthcoming convergence line of multimedia set-top box products on Linux, furthering Linux's penetration into the embedded-systems and multimedia convergence worlds. David Haskin explains.
Tuesday, December 21, 1999 11:28:23 AM EST

Implementing E-Commerce on Your Linux System
Looking to implement e-commerce on your Linux server? With these three open-source e-commerce tools--TallyMan, Yams, and OpenMerchant--Linux stands a good chance of becoming the dominant e-commerce OS. We look at all three of these Perl-based packages, currently available in alpha and beta.
Monday, December 20, 1999 06:49:10 PM EST

Is Microsoft Giving up on Windows CE?
Is Microsoft giving up on Windows CE? All signs are yes. If so, that creates a huge opportunity for embedded Linux to serve as the underlying OS for the next generation of smart devices. David Haskin, managing editor of AllNetDevices, explains how Microsoft is rethinking its OS strategies.
Monday, December 13, 1999 09:20:06 AM EST

Linux Everywhere: The Rush to Embedded Systems
The embedded-systems world--long considered a dowdy but necessary part of the computing universe--is now one of the trendiest development areas as computing devices become smaller and more powerful. Linux is primed to play a key role in embedded systems, as we consider a future of Linux Everywhere.
Tuesday, December 7, 1999 10:14:56 AM EST

Linux Moving to Net Devices
Two vendors announce wireless Linux-based tablet-sized handhelds for the home in the first half of 2000.
Monday, November 22, 1999 03:03:37 PM EST

Application Servers and Linux: The Enterprise Awaits
Application servers were once solely deployed in the world of big iron. But as Linux penetrates the enterprise, app-server vendors are finding that supporting Linux makes good business sense.
Sunday, October 31, 1999 02:28:47 PM EST

Linux at the BBC
Damion Yates of the BBC provides insight into Linux use at one of the world's top media corporations.
Friday, October 29, 1999 11:46:35 AM EST

Perl and the Y2k problem
Tom Christiansen explores the y2k issue and how it relates to perl.
Wednesday, October 20, 1999 10:40:34 AM EST

Bigger, Faster, Smarter, Friendlier
Linux just keeps getting better as it moves towards its objective - total world domination, or at least a better alternative to the Windows operating system. Here's a small taste what we can look forward to now, over the next year, and beyond...
Thursday, September 9, 1999 04:31:08 PM EST

Multi-Head Displays in Linux
Will Weisser gives a run down of what multiheaded displays are, what software to get to set them up and the pros and cons of installing multiheaded X Windows on your system.
Saturday, June 19, 1999 11:02:29 AM EST

How Linux Boots
James takes time to help you understand how Linux boots and what's running behind the scenes!
Saturday, May 29, 1999 01:36:47 PM EST

Is Linux Difficult to Use?
The question, 'Is Linux Difficult to Use?' is one of the most often asked queries floating around the Web at present. James seeks to resolve the issue by touching on key areas related to Linux's learning curve and overall usability.
Saturday, May 29, 1999 01:36:47 PM EST

Packages and Package Managers
One of the big plus points of Linux is that it has a large body of high quality, free application programs available. But once Linux is installed how do you go about getting them? Read this article to find out how to do it quickly and easily.
Saturday, May 29, 1999 01:36:47 PM EST

3D Graphics Hardware in Linux
Will Weisser provides a comprehensive rundown on how to use 3D video card technology with Linux. Be sure to check it out!
Tuesday, May 25, 1999 12:43:09 PM EST