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I ran into a guy I knew from school a few years ago at a gathering in Pasadena. He worked for Sun at the time, and was talking with some other people, discussing linux. The tone in his voice was unmistakeable: linux was a toy, solaris was a serious kernel. He proceeded to enumerate the various virtues of the Solaris kernel and the demerits of the linux kernel.

The creator of Linux has urged the EU Council not to adopt a draft directive on software patents as he considers it 'deceptive, dangerous and democratically illegitimate'.

According to the Web site of its developers, the cAos Foundation, "The goal [of CentOS] is to reproduce RHEL in a freely distributable form that complies in full with RedHat's redistribution requirements. It is designed for people who need an enterprise class OS without the cost of certification or the RedHat brand name." To a large extent, it succeeds.

Commentary: Frank Ottink, COO at YEALD, recently opined that given Sun's recent moves, the Linux movement is dead and will only recede from its current market position. No, really. It's true. I saw a link to the story on Slashdot. Fortunately for Linux fans, Ottink's opinions seemed to be based on equal amounts of pre-revolutionary and wishful thinking. He may be a great guy, but he definitely doesn't grok free software and what drives it.

Linux industry observers were quick to draw comparisons between the Linux Core Consortium (LCC) and the pretty much dead and buried UnitedLinux commercial entity when the Consortium was announced last week. And while one of the founding members of the LCC agrees such comparisons are fair, it soon becomes evident that these two efforts are very different in terms of structure and goals.

A report has predicted that more than one in seven ERP servers will be running the open-source operating system by 2007.

Does getting rid of UNIX favor Linux? Or Does it play right into Microsoft's hands?

Like dozens of other federal, state and local entities, the U.S. Marshal Service is adopting open-source software for some information technology projects, a move that's making Red Hat a potent symbol within the service's IT department. Red Hat Linux may not directly nab more criminals, but it is helping the service run more efficiently.

Look I did not discover this story, but I think it gives perspective to some of the problems Microsoft is confronting and they are not all Linux/Free/Open Source driven. Indeed, I think the headline on the SlashDot entry is a misnomer. Moreover, Google denies it intends to compete for the desktop. The importance is that MS is being challenged by another corporate entity that is really unpredictable and innovative. Furthermore, that challenge emanates from a Linux based company! Microsoft has been too comfortable too long and it senses it is in danger.

Leader in Linux Email and Calendaring to Participate in Lab's Data Center and Desktop Linux Working Groups

This edition of The Locksmith provides a breakdown of the latest update to the SANS-FBI list of the top ten most exploited security threats in Linux/UNIX systems. [BIND, Web servers (Apache, etc), weak passwords, CVS, MTAs, SNMP, OpenSSL, NFS, databases, kernel.]

Massey University took delivery last week of its new Double Helix cluster computer and says it packs anywhere between five to ten times the computational power of the university's existing supercomputer, the 64-node Helix 1.

Red Hat Linux, Solaris 9, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 Server Added to Supported Platforms

New Product Combines Two Most Popular Microsoft Alternatives Into One Cost-Saving Package

Steve Ballmer's warning to Asian officials that they risk legal action should they dare use Linux instead of Windows has drawn a strong response from a leading open source group.

Open-source software, increasingly popular with budget-conscious companies, is beginning to expand into a new area: The lucrative infrastructure-software market dominated by industry giants such as Microsoft.

This column gets results. A few months ago I suggested that Internet users would do well to give up on Microsoft Corp.'s buggy and insecure Internet Explorer browser and check out some well-crafted alternatives. And so you have, in a big way.

How is the FBI supposed to track down bad guys -- including terrorists -- if it can't rely on cross-agency handling of fingerprints? With new open source software developed on Linux and written primarily by a programmer working for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), fingerprint quality and the ability to match prints taken by a disparate variety of print scanners is improving dramatically.

Software licensing fees can cost firms millions, but most government agencies and businesses are still hesitant to make the transition to open source software.

Known as Lindows in the past, Linspire wouldn’t have many problems if it was based in Brazil. For those who remember, Microsoft sued Lindows over its name alleging something like "it could puzzle users". In Brazil we have Freedows, a Linux-based operating system just like former Lindows. There are two interesting highlights, tough. It's almost completely identical to Windows XP (Lindows wasn't that similar) and it has sort of the government hand on it.