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In various studies, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Latest News about Microsoft and some analysts have claimed Linux has a higher total cost of ownership (TCO) than Windows. They attributed the difference mainly to higher system management Latest News about system management costs, and concluded that the higher TCO outweighed the lower license and acquisition costs for Linux. In a new study of more than 200 Linux enterprises conducted for Levanta, however, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) found that this perception is no longer accurate. Sophisticated management tools now allow Linux management to be fast, effective and inexpensive. With lower acquisition costs, Linux...

Rebooting Your Airbus (After All The Screens Go Dark) April 24, 2006 By Russ Niles, Newswriter, Editor Cures aside, pilots of Airbus A320-series airliners are getting new guidance on what to do if the screens on their electronically biased aircraft go blank. "Checklists will be streamlined so re-booting of power is quicker," an Airbus spokesman told the London Daily Mirror after Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch released a report on an incident aboard a British Airways A319 last October. The plane was carrying 76 passengers to Budapest from London when most of the electronic displays went blank. The crew was...

(IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Oracle Corp. customers are intrigued by recent comments by Larry Ellison, the company's CEO, suggesting that Oracle might offer its own Linux distribution (see "Update: Oracle eyes launching its own Linux version"). Users would welcome the tighter integration offered by a complete Oracle software stack of operating system, database, middleware and applications, they said in interviews this week. "An Oracle-hatched version of Linux would undoubtedly be the most optimal when running Oracle [databases]," said Tony Jedlinski, vice president of administration and warehouse operations at Roman Inc., a wholesale giftware distributor in Addison, Ill. "I don't know...

NEW YORK - In a move to make the freely distributed Linux operating system a stronger alternative to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows, a group of major Linux distributors announced Friday they have united on a standard set of components for desktop versions of Linux. The standard created by the Free Standards Group should make it easier for developers to write applications that will work on Linux versions from different distributors. Linux has a firm foothold as an operating system for servers - it's popular for hosting Web sites, for instance - but has only a few percent of the desktop market....

I'll leave a fuller examination of Vista's broken promises for a later date. For now, let's look at the most current builds we do have--build 5308 and 5342--and see where Vista just completely blows it. As with the broken promises, Vista's failures are legion, but I'll just focus on a few examples here and leave the full list for a later time.

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...