Showing all newswire headlines

Microsoft's decision last week to let everyone snoop through its software secrets means vulnerabilities and exploits will almost certainly climb in the short term, security researchers said today. But the move to open the communications protocols and APIs for Microsoft Corp.'s newest and highest-profile products, including Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Office 2007 and others, should translate into better security for everyone in the long run, said those same researchers.

[There's what you get from Microsoft's new "openness". Just more zombies. - Sander]

VMware today inked a quartet of software deals with server giants Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Fujitsu Siemens. The agreements will infuriate Microsoft which is struggling to get its own virtualisation offering onto the market. VMware said that, under the agreement – financial terms of which remain secret – its ESX 3i hypervisor will be embedded in servers produced by the four manufacturers.

A federal judge recently got so infuriated by the conduct of two highly regarded trial attorneys that he overturned a jury's $51 million verdict, then ordered the lawyers to pay the fees and costs of the opposing lawyers. He ruled that the entire trial was "frivolous" and the case filed solely to stifle competition rather than to protect a patent. Now the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed Matsch's decision to overturn the verdict.

[A bit off topic, but very interesting for anyone following the SCO saga. I'd love to see this happen to Boies Schiller & Flexner - Sander]

Linux will become the mobile operating system of choice in time but it still needs to break the proprietary hold the major players have over the mobile sector, says Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth.

Applications as well as users can retrieve protein and DNA sequences and data stored in flat-file databases in either EMBL or FASTA format, using SQL query language, with the EMBL/FASTA Wrapper for WebSphere Information Integrator. This technology runs on AIX, Linux, Java, and Windows platforms.

GNU/Linux systems have often come under attack for the difficulty involved with setting-up and configuring various wireless devices. Thanks to NetworkManager we now have a system that allows us to quickly and easily connect to different networks. As a result of improvements made to NetworkManager during the Fedora 8 release cycle the developers are ready to deliver some incredible new features, including ad-hoc networking, multiple active devices and internet connection sharing. To find out more we talked with Dan Williams, Fedora project member and NetworkManager developer.

Kommander, the graphical scripting tool, has been radically improved for KDE 3.5.9. While our next goal is a KDE 4 executor, then a full update we wanted to offer some new functionality for KDE 3 users. Best of all, shortly you will be able to run what was built in KDE 3 unaltered and native in KDE 4. In 3.5.9 the focus was on the executor, but new features are in the editor. That includes popup menus, KPart creation, a DatePicker widget, widget creation on the fly, embedded widgets, standard dialogs, and a lot more. There is a new plugin architecture and new plugins for database, KParts, HTTP connections and even a KHTML widget.

This month’s cover story for VAR Business touts the Attack of the Alternatives. The premise is certain companies are gaining or having success in the shadows of the market leaders because they are offering a greater value then the market giants.

It is pronounced by judgment and absolute: The Internet Explorer in a standard installation of Microsoft Windows is insecure. (as if we didn’t know this before….)

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a popular open standard for implementing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone calls. Siproxd is a SIP proxy server that can help you with network connectivity issues for SIP clients behind firewalls. One major reason that you might use siproxd is to get around network address translation issues with SIP. Siproxd can run on a firewall machine that is directly connected to the Internet, meaning no address translation is needed. Clients on the intranet behind the firewall can then connect to siproxd.

Adopt 10 good habits that improve your UNIX command line efficiency - and break away from bad usage patterns in the process. This article takes you step-by-step through several good, but too often neglected, techniques for command-line operations. Learn about common errors and how to overcome them, so you can learn exactly why these UNIX habits are worth picking up.

Sure, Microsoft expects Windows’ installed base to top 1 billion licenses by the end of this year. But in the shadow of Windows Vista, a rather remarkable trend — known as an InstallFest — continues to transform Linux from a fringe desktop option into a mainstream Windows alternative. Here’s the scoop.

Recently, Linux.com had the chance to ask Mozilla evangelist Chris Blizzard his thoughts about the past, present, and future of Mozilla, the force behind the successful Firefox browser and Thunderbird email application.

OK, never mind the huge controversy going on about OpenSolaris. OK, I grant that the project is in turmoil, and Debian founder-turned-Sun evangelist Ian Murdock's silence isn't helping the matter. But I digress. I just found out about an intriguing new project out of Russia -- Damn Small Solaris.

5+ year Linux user (straight Linux, no Windows on the desktop) spends 4 months with Vista as his desktop. Read how he got comfy (Getting Konsole running, WinMover and booting out Outlook) and his disappointments.

Companies Concerned with Microsoft/Yahoo Deal Can Switch to Open-Xchange for Discount

"As we navigate into heretofore uncharted regions, I believe it is essential that we relish in the delightful guffaws of the jackal, embrace the rebellious anti-sociality of the porcupine, and keep striving toward the apex of personal development epitomized by the shrew," he said.

Zebuntu is an Xfce-based Ubuntu distribution with heavy - you guessed it - Zeta influences. Our goal is to use BlueEyedOS to offer a new platform for our former Zeta customers. In the future, Zeta, BeOS, as well as any future Haiku applications, will run natively on Zebuntu. Screenshots at The Coding Studio

Last month the Parsix Linux distribution made its 1.0 release after almost a year of development. Parsix is a GNOME-based distro based on the testing branch of Debian GNU/Linux with elements from Kanotix. It makes an attractive alternative to Ubuntu. Parsix comes as an installable live CD and features GNOME 2.20.3 as the desktop. It hails from Persia, but the language and keyboard default to en_US. When you first boot the live CD, Parsix provides two handy boot options for wide-screen display resolutions. Many distros auto-detect the optimal resolution, but many don't. This approach is a great compromise, and assured that I was able to boot into my desired resolution.

A few weeks ago I promised to bring in some more general news from the world of Linux audio software development. Alas, my plans were ambushed by the happy intrusion of the release of Renoise for Linux, but I'm back on track. As promised, here's more straight reporting on the world of Linux sound and music software, starting with some news about recently released music notation programs.