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Linux's record for reliability may be the polar opposite of what critics consider the crash-a-day life of Windows. Yet, the fact that Linux crashes are rare means that an unexpected outage throws many IT administrators in unmapped territory. Learning the proper steps to prevent such crashes can help Linux admins avoid many headaches over the long term.

In a misguided attempt to protect the movie industry, key members of the US Congress are considering funding the equivalent of a perpetual motion machine. It won't work. No Law can shield copyright holders from millions of highly motivated file sharers. Instead, Congress should focus its might on protecting innovators from its wild and woolly US Patent Office.

In an unprecedented move, IBM has completed its assault on the x86 market by moving ahead of both Dell and HP in customer satisfaction, according to the "Corporate IT Buying Behavior & Customer Satisfaction Study: x86-Based Servers Third Quarter 2005" from Technology Business Research.

Open source software (OSS) developers find and fix software bugs quickly, according to Evans Data Corp.'s Fall 2005 Open Source Software/Linux Development Survey. Seventeen percent of OSS developers find and repair severe bugs in less than 4 business hours on average. Another quarter say they can find and fix severe bugs in their software in four to eight business hours.

Sun is improving its Solaris OS with new support for the open source PostgreSQL database, Xen virtualization, GRUB boot loader and the Solaris ZettaByte File System (ZFS).

David Berlind writes: "For those looking to alter the technology landscape in a way that affects People With Disabilities (PWDs), Chong's opinion can make or break new initiatives like the one in Massachusetts where that state's Information Technology Division (MA ITD) is trying to establish the OpenDocument Format (ODF) as a standard format for creating and saving public documents. So far, Chong has opposed the Massachusetts plan. But, as you're about to find out, he's actually willing to endorse it and he's putting the ball in the pro-ODFers' court."

[Ed: This is an excellent discussion of getting the Visually-impaired and other people with disabilities (PWDs) on board with OpenDocument - a must read. - dcparris]

What would happen to Linux, Free Software, and Open Source Software if Microsoft reformed itself? What if Microsoft abandoned their evil, customer-hostile, restraint-of-trade ways, and did a complete turnaround? Would FOSS even have a reason to exist?

Bytware, Inc, a global authority on virus and malware vulnerabilities, announced today the beta availability of StandGuard Anti-Virus for Linux running on x86-based PCs, powered by McAfee to detect and clean more than 150,000 threats.

Novell says the study's comparison of Microsoft's Windows Server System and Novell's SLES undervalues Linux and downplays Windows' reliability and security problems.
Diggable

Jeremy Jones recently bought a new laptop and decided to run Linux. Don't shudder--it actually works! Here's how he installed, reinstalled, and configured Ubuntu GNU/Linux on a Dell Inspiron.

One of the great things about being a VC is that I am always meeting new and exciting companies that are focused on changing the landscape of enterprise technology. So how do you actually meet these companies, you might wonder? There are literally thousands of startups, all vying to be the next big thing. Amongst VCs, everyone has a different approach, but we’ve often found our best investments when we do two things: define a trend where innovation creates a disruption in the status quo, and listen intently to what customers (or prospective customers) are saying and doing.

In the enterprise, there is probably no greater disruption than what is going on with open source. The momentum of Linux, Apache, JBoss and MySQL is accelerating, which I am sure you already know. I won’t bore you with the myriad issues around deploying open source related technologies in the enterprise, whether that be about licensing, security, manageability, etc. I’ll leave that to the folks that are paid to write about this stuff. [Editor’s note: the latest blog post by CIO magazine’s Christopher Koch is a good dialogue on open source.] But I will leave you with one thought, which is this: if you can buy something that is at a minimum just as good as the alternatives at half the price (or less), why wouldn’t you? After all, we’re talking about technology, not luxury cars here.

Sun plans to distribute database and optimize it for Solaris. It also plans to include Xen virtualization and Linux compatibilty next year.

In a deal late yesterday at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia, the US retained its effective control over the Internet. Instead of wresting control from the US - an issue high on many an attendee's agenda - the forum agreed to set up an international forum in to deal with Net issues, although it will have no binding power.

Opinion: Another day, another lame attempt by Microsoft to show that Windows is better than Linux.
Diggable

This paper from the MPR Fall Processor Forum 2005 explores programming models for the Cell Broadband Engine (CBE) Processor, from the simple to the progressively more advanced. With nine cores on a single die, programming for the CBE is like programming for no processor you've ever met before. Read why.

Sebastopol, CA--Europe has become fertile ground for open source projects and innovators: European governments are beginning to integrate FLOSS (free/libre and open source software) in innovative ways, and open source communities--particularly on the professional level--are multiplying and gaining influence across the continent. To support and further this open source momentum, O'Reilly Media held its first O'Reilly European Open Source Convention (EuroOSCON) at the Hotel Krasnapolsky in Amsterdam on October 17-20, 2005.

The Chinese government will purchase more than $20 million worth of computers from IBM, making it Big Blue's largest Unix installation ever in Asia, the company said Wednesday.

What would happen to Linux, Free Software, and Open Source Software if Microsoft reformed itself? What if Microsoft abandoned their evil, customer-hostile, restraint-of-trade ways, and did a complete turnaround? Would FOSS even have a reason to exist?

Diggable

In this second interview with SearchOpenSource.com, Yank, who served as lead technical editor on the book, uncovers more of Firefox tips, shortcuts and plug-ins that users need to know about.

AJAX enables a dynamic, asynchronous Web experience without the need for page refreshes. In this best practice tutorial for building apps using AJAX, you will learn to build AJAX-based Web applications -- complete with real time validation and without page refreshes -- by following the construction of a sample book order application.
[Ed: Registration required to read what sounds like a neat article. - ralph]