Free Republic

The past few weeks have revealed much about the great paradox that is China. It is a nation that wants a capitalist lifestyle with centralised totalitarian rule. The past weeks have also revealed a lot about the Western World's biggest IT companies, Namely, they'll do just about anything to crack the giant fortune cookie market. Some will give away their software, others will allow their search results to be censored and others may even be prepared to help the Chinese Government track down its dissidents. The more principled ones among us may say: "IT companies beware of the Chinese trap."...

For years scientists trying to visualize the concept of gravitational waves churned by the collision of black holes have relied largely on artists' conceptions. Now, at long last, they have Einstein's conception. According to Einstein, when two massive black holes merge, all of space jiggles like a bowl of Jell-O as gravitational waves race out from the collision at light speed. This is a mind-boggling notion, to be sure. NASA scientists have reached a breakthrough in computer modeling that allows them to simulate what gravitational waves from merging black holes look like. The three-dimensional simulations are a manifestation of Einstein's...

Amazing story wasn't it, when that iconic tech company said it would help users run the operating system of its longtime rival as well as its own? No, not the Apple Computer-Windows announcement, but one made at about the same time that got vastly less attention, even though it may be more significant. On April 3, Microsoft surprised everyone when it said that from now on, it will support business customers who also use Linux. Considering how, not long ago, a top Microsoft executive was comparing the free Linux operating system to cancer, it was quite a switch. But two...

Last November I described the Free Software's Surprising Affinity with Catholic Doctrine. Since then, several important things happened, from feedback by Stallman and other Free SW users to the birth, or acceleration, of some projects specifically based on the concept that Christians have even more reasons than others to adopt Free Software.

Oracle is studying whether to launch its own version of the Linux operating system and has looked at buying one of the two companies currently dominating the Linux world, according to Larry Ellison, the software company’s chief executive officer. Such a move would redraw the software landscape and open a new front in Oracle’s long rivalry with US rival Microsoft. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Ellison said that Oracle wanted to sell a full “stack” of software that, like Microsoft, included both operating system and applications. “I’d like to have a complete stack,” he said. “We’re missing...

A picture is worth millions of words.

Microsoft is preparing to take on Linux in a battle over price and performance, according to John Borozan, product manager for the forthcoming Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 (WCCS) software. WCCS is a new version of Windows designed for high-performance computing (HPC) applications, such as those used for geological exploration, but it will also have a valuable role to play working with Excel spreadsheets.WCCS will go on sale in the summer. Borozan said the price has not yet been set but will be very competitive against Linux rivals. Borozan added that 80 percent of existing HPC systems use x86 chips...

The SCO v. Novell litigation just got a lot more interesting. Here are some more documents filed yesterday and now available on Pacer, and they provide some more explosive news, namely that SuSE on April 10th filed a Request for Arbitration with The Secretariat of the ICC International Court of Arbitration in Paris. Here are the ICC Rules, which you can download in several languages. We learn about this development in a Declaration by Michael Jacobs, one of Novell's attorneys, and you can see the request for arbitration on page 53 of his Declaration. Here it is along with the...

Hackers have released a sample code for a virus that could infect both Linux and Windows PCs. The virus, which was given the double name Virus.Linux.Bi.a/ Virus.Win32.Bi.a, was reported Friday by security firm Kaspersky Lab. Security researchers worry that the malicious code may be part of a disturbing new trend of viruses that can run on Windows, as well as other operating systems that have been largely ignored by hackers.

APRIL 07, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Kaspersky Labs is reporting a new proof-of-concept virus capable of infecting both Windows and Linux systems. The cross-platform virus is relatively simple and appears to have a low impact, according to Kaspersky. Even so, it could be a sign that virus writers are beginning to research ways of writing new code capable of infecting multiple platforms, said Shane Coursen, senior technical consultant at Kaspersky. In a note on its Web site, the SANS Internet Storm Center (ISC) in Bethesda, Md,. said the new virus “is a sign the cross-platform aspects are becoming important. As the...

CUPERTINO, California—April 5, 2006—Apple® today introduced Boot Camp, public beta software that enables Intel-based Macs to run Windows XP. Available as a download beginning today, Boot Camp allows users with a Microsoft Windows XP installation disc to install Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac®, and once installation is complete, users can restart their computer to run either Mac OS® X or Windows XP. Boot Camp will be a feature in “Leopard,” Apple’s next major release of Mac OS X, that will be previewed at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in August. “Apple has no desire or plan to sell or support...

Naked PCs: Free software supporters are angry that Microsoft is putting pressure on PC vendors not to sell machines without an operating system installed Microsoft has urged UK PC vendors not to give customers the opportunity to buy a PC without a pre-installed operating system.... The FSF Europe is alarmed by the prospect that customers who request a base systems would risk a visit from Microsoft's investigators. "It looks like a private sniffing service which is supposed to spy on these who do not want to pay the Microsoft tax anymore. It is an incredible piece of impudence which any...

At http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/florian-mueller-blog/ballmer-linux/ we're reminded that Microsoft wants Linux dead. Ballmer is once again making noise about patents. Unfortunately, Microsoft likely does have patents it could use against Linux. IBM can probably be replied upon to fight back on the side of Linux with its own patents - supposedly they've called Microsoft patent bluffs in the past just by pointing out that they also have stacks of patents and idle lawyers ready to look for violations by Windows code. However, Microsoft might now be willing to risk the battle. Microsoft is not in a happy place right now. Vista is delayed,...

Excerpt - LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — In a rare discussion on the severity of the Windows malware scourge, a Microsoft security official said businesses should consider investing in an automated process to wipe hard drives and reinstall operating systems as a practical way to recover from malware infestation. "When you are dealing with rootkits and some advanced spyware programs, the only solution is to rebuild from scratch. In some cases, there really is no way to recover without nuking the systems from orbit," Mike Danseglio, program manager in the Security Solutions group at Microsoft, said in a presentation at...

A review of the 10 major Linux distributions out there, giving the pros and cons of each and every one of them Introduction The Microsoft Windows operating system is developed and released by a single company. It comes with a minimal set of applications (a calculator, a few games, some networking tools, an Internet browser.. etc). Other software can be obtained by users from various sources and installed on the operating system. GNU/Linux is different. A GNU/Linux operating system is made of a Linux kernel, a set of GNU tools, an installation program, a package management system and a lot...

Microsoft today lobbed three massive bombs into the server virtualization market. First off, it will now support - wait for it - Linux, when the OS is running on top of its Virtual Server product. Secondly, Microsoft has made Virtual Server free. And, in a move few thought possible, Microsoft has teamed with the developers of the open source Xen product to gang up on server slicing leader VMware.

Microsoft will support customers who chose to run Linux with Microsoft's Virtual Server 2005 R2, software for running multiple operating systems on one machine. In addition, the company on Monday said that it has now made Virtual Server 2005 R2--which the company had charged either $99 for up to four physical processors or $199 for an unlimited number of processors--a free download. The announcements were made in conjunction with the LinuxWorld conference in Boston this week. Virtualization, an emerging technology which is garnering growing interest from corporate customers, allows a server to run multiple instances of an operating system....

Over the next five years, Oracle is predicting annual growth of 12 percent for the open source OS Linux adoptions are to grow in the next three to five years at nearly triple the rate of Windows, according to Oracle. In an interview at the LinuxWorld conference in Sydney, the database company suggested Linux deployments had grown beyond an adoption phase, and were now becoming ubiquitous in small and large businesses alike. Monica Kumar, director of Oracle's Linux programme office, pointed to the open source operating system becoming mainstream as "businesses are looking to Linux as a way to save...

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Dell will be partnering with Novell in April to provide server customers with a single console to manage hardware and software on Linux servers.