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Alejandro Toledo, president of Peru, signed legislation this week that allows public institutions to consider adopting open-source software, another step forward for the open-software movement. The legislation, which Peru's Congress approved in September, allows government agencies and schools to choose between proprietary software from companies like Microsoft or Oracle, as well as open-source alternatives.

In the short time that I've spent using Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger), I've really come to like it. The installation was painless, all my hardware was detected and configured correctly, package management was easy, and the clean-cut GNOME desktop is terrific.

“It's not clear how much Microsoft actually believes that the web is the platform of the future. After conquering its immediate adversary, the company tends to retrench and fall back on developing its core assets. That may work again this time. But, eventually, it may not be enough to forestall the Internet tidal wave that will eventually arrive.”

The National Center for Open Source Policy and Research (NCOSPR) was recently announced, and represents a big step forward in open source advocacy in government. The non-profit's mission is to "recruit experienced and innovative thinkers to help craft development, implementation and acquisition policies that will facilitate the continual adoption and growth of open source within the public sector IT communities."

The university began teaching console game programming in 1998, focusing on the PlayStation console. The course was redesigned in 2002 to concentrate on the PS2 console, using PlayStation2-Linux development kits donated by Sony.

I recently broke my glasses though I admit I don't wear them much and I started to notice that I was squinting more. Sometimes I could make out what was going on on my Linux desktop, which is set to a whopping 1920 x 1200 resolution, but I couldn't quite make out some items without closer inspection.

That's like the way I think businesses and government agencies have come to view Linux and Open Source. They've been squinting at the "Open Source movement" knowing that there's something worth looking at there but not quite making out the details. I think those days are ending since the drought in IT spending has left the wary IT buyer looking for more efficient and cost-effective solutions that give them big returns on their IT dollars - or at least don't waste them on what, in hindsight, turns out to be frivolous solutions that don't return what was promised.

Server software company could cut 1,000 or more jobs in attempt to restore its financial strength.

IBM Named Tech Innovator of the Year

Opinion: The new browser's developer preview has some bugs now, but it's poised to take advantage of tagging, blogging and all things Web 2.0.

Bob Young hung up his red hat this week, content that the software company he co-founded 12 years ago has lived up to his revolutionary expectations and is now better off without him.

The decision by the former chief executive officer of Red Hat Inc. to walk away from the Raleigh, N.C.-based company was hardly a dilemma at all. Instead, he said it was simply a case of recognizing the different traits that define an executive and a serial entrepreneur.

Today is a good day. I've been dragging home a Windows laptop every weekend for the past 19 months, for one simple reason - VPN access. When Mandriva switched to the 2.6 kernel, I switched right away, and immediately broke the Cisco VPN Client build. Getting it to work with x86-64 (I've been using Mandriva x86-64 since December of 2003) was completely out of the question.

Mainstream database software companies that have been watching open-source upstart MySQL in their rearview mirrors must be having some uncomfortable thoughts right about now.

When Microsoft last month announced at its Professional Developers Conference it was going to offer a Complete Cluster Solution on — get this — Windows, we couldn't believe our ears. But when CEO Stave Ballmer reiterated the move to cluster space in a keynote address at the Gartner Symposium & IT Expo in Orlando, Fla. this week, we realized that the vendor wasn't kidding.

A 122-year-old dairy equipment company has used embedded Linux in a robotic cow-milking system (the system is robotic, not the cows). The Voluntary Milking System (VMS) allows cows to decide when to be milked, and gives dairy farmers a more independent lifestyle, free from regular milkings,

The new version for Windows, Mac and Linux users includes improved e-mail and stability, support for additional Web standards, and changes to the user interface designed to make it easier to switch from Internet Explorer or Firefox.

When you’ve worked on as many sites as I have, you try to learn any techniques to makes your web management job as easy as possible. Nothing is more tedious and excruciatingly painful than working with HTML code for layout and web design. Before your carpal tunnel syndrome kicks in, you would probably benefit from taking a look at Peachpit Press’ PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites.

With its first commercial open-source solutions expected to launch within weeks, XenSource is poised to challenge VMware and commoditize the virtualization software market, observers predict.

XenSource, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup that oversees the open-source Xen project, is expected to launch in November its first management and automation solutions based on the open-source Xen 3 virtualization engine, said Simon Crosby, founder and vice president of strategy at XenSource.

TurboLinux Inc. Friday that TurboLinux FUJI Version 11 will be available in retail stores in Japan beginning on Nov. 25, the company said. Among its distinguishing characteristics is compatibility with Windows files, applications, and system functions, such as MS Office-compatible software, Active Directory Authentication, file sharing, Desktop Search, Turbo Search, and others.

IBM's blade server plans for 2006 include a new Infiniband-boosted chassis, improved management software and better iSCSI support. Oh yeah, IBM would like to beat HP to a pulp as well.

SYDNEY -- A U.S. effort to require voice technologies to support wiretapping is currently the gravest threat to cyberfreedom, according to Brad Templeton from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who spoke at an open source coders conference here Wednesday.