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Yes, Sun Microsystems' new OpenSolaris really is an open-source project. And no, it's not likely to be much like the Linux open-source project. How are they alike? Both projects will produce a production-grade version of Unix, including source code, that we'll be able to download and use without paying for. So from where corporate IT sits, there's lots of similarity.

Wireless hardware for Linux is a moving target. The wireless network adapter that worked fine with Linux yesterday may be released with an unsupported radio chipset today, and with no indication of the change. So buyer beware--always confirm the chipset before you buy. Part 1 begins within.

When I think of the Linux desktop called GNOME, I think of Red Hat, or Ubuntu. I also think "sleek," "sophisticated," and "sexy." The GNOME Journal is all those things, with "intelligent," "enlightening," and "thought-provoking" thrown in for good measure.

The emergence of stacks of open-source infrastructure software will spawn new opportunities for companies to enter and succeed in the open-source space, according to a panel of experts at the Harvard Business School's annual Cyberposium conference.

As a consultant to small businesses trying to get up to speed on Linux, my must-have applications are OpenOffice.org, MySQLAdmin, and Rekall. I'm going to include Knoppix as well; although it isn't an application in the sense of being a single package, I use it as a system recovery tool rather than an operating system.

Considering the capabilities of Samba 3 and what they could mean for your workplace network.

Start-Up Developing Commercial Open Source Software for Transaction Grid Computing to Join OSDL Data Center Linux Working Group

Activists at the World Social Forum, where Microsoft is viewed as a corporate bogeyman, urged developing nations yesterday to leap into the information age with free, open-source software.

Blake Ross has written two weblog postings on Mozilla Firefox. One clarifies the developer recruitment policy and the other talks about how the project doesn't take itself too seriously.

The Public Patent Foundation and others have serious questions about Sun's new open-source patent policies.

Growing support for Linux has been the single biggest technology change in financial organisations over the past twelve months, say researchers

Open source database software maker MySQL warned its users to tighten security Thursday, after news broke about a new Internet worm that targets the popular relational database, according to a company executive. The company is looking at making bigger changes to harden its product against future attacks, the executive said.

Networking software giant Novell Inc wants to do two things this year – position itself as the preferred Linux supplier, and establish a proper “ecosystem” for its partners, be they independent software and hardware vendors (ISVs and IHVs) or resellers.

There was a partnership made this week that is probably scaring the pants off of Bill Gates and the people behind Internet Explorer - Google is shacking up with Mozilla to form Googzilla! Well, not exactly, but close enough. Just as Mozilla makes Internet news of securing almost 6% of the web browser market with FireFox - which has been downloaded an estimated 19 million times, Google starts offering positions, free lunch, and in-house dental benefits to the top Mozilla developers Ben Goodger and Darin Fisher.

Two software vendors announced a new partnership that pairs an embedded Linux distribution with a Java solution for next-generation mobile phones.

Commentary: There are a lot of good reasons to like the GPL: the GNU Public License. For one thing, it's a David and Goliath kind of thing. It's the little guy standing up to the corporate behemoths that run rough-shod over our daily lives by virtue of their influence, legal and otherwise, on government. For another, it's virtuous. It's a Medicare Bill which actually provides more and better health care for the elderly rather than simply pouring public funds directly into the greedy, gaping gaws of the pharmaceutical industry. It's also territorial. It's "Don't Tread on Me" applied to software. The GPL provides a legal framework for an ever improving, ever free, software infrastructure. In addition, it's what Linus chose for Linux in order that those who follow can have access to his creation. But what I love about the GPL is the same thing that Microsoft and other corporate predators hate about it: it works.

Sun's move to open-source the version of its Solaris operating system that runs on Intel and AMD chips is a no-lose proposition, and it might even help Sun out a bit. But it's no game-changer. After months of signling that this shift was coming, Sun CEO Scott McNealy announced the change on Tuesday, Jan. 25. "Solaris 10 is the best operating system on the planet, bar none," said McNealy. "Now we're open-sourcing it, so that takes another barrier to innovation out"

KDE Dot News recently spoke with some prominent people from the Kontact and Kolab projects. We talked about how both projects got started and how they have evolved. Enjoy the first part of this two-part interview.

Reaction to Sun Microsystems' launch of its OpenSolaris initiative is apparently related to the size of the enterprise and its attachment to the open source community. In some cases, the larger the company -- and its investment in Linux -- the more vocally opposed it is to Sun's liberation of Solaris source code and the release of more than 1,600 of Sun's patents associated with the OS.

Freevo is a media platform that brings together various applications for video recording and playback. Under its open format, the user can fully customize Freevo to suit his media viewing needs. Its main feature is its ability to schedule and record television broadcasts.