Jason Brooks

Four years ago, Microsoft laid out an ambitious plan for building an NGSCB (Next-Generation Secure Computing Base). NGSCB was to be a trusted computing environment extending from motherboard-embedded security chips, through the Windows kernel and out to the application windows and input peripherals with which users interact with the system. As a major player in […]

Intellectual property regulation in the United States is out of control. The thicket of legislation, policy and precedent through which we grant private monopolies on ideas has become, in many places, disconnected from its Constitutional mandate of promoting the progress of science and useful arts. Weve taken the U.S. patent system to task in this […]

Parallels Parallels Workstation 2.1 is a desktop virtualization product that stands out for its low cost and broad operating system platform support. Click here to read the full review of Parallels Parallels Workstation 2.1. 2 Parallels Parallels Workstation 2.1 is a desktop virtualization product that stands out for its low cost and broad operating system […]

Virtualization is hot because its so useful. As if that wasnt enough, the word “free” frequently now accompanies virtualization, but, as weve come to understand, free can mean many things. To take a couple of pages from the open-source software glossary (and to add one of our own), free virtualization technology can be categorized into […]

Gentoo is a Linux distribution that succeeds in striking a balance between fine-grained configurability and ongoing manageability. Click here to read the full review of the Gentoo Foundations Gentoo 2006.0. 2 Gentoo is a Linux distribution that succeeds in striking a balance between fine-grained configurability and ongoing manageability. In contrast to popular Linux distributions such […]

The Internet can be a nasty place, where network-facing server applications are subject to probes of potential evildoers in search of known (or, worse, unknown) vulnerabilities to exploit. Trusted operating system features, such as mandatory access controls, can help contain the havoc that exploited services can wreak by ensuring that applications can access or modify […]

Word is that Larry Ellison and Oracle are interested in having a Linux distribution of their very own—a proposition that, in my Opinion, would be of limited value to Oracle. Building and maintaining your own distribution is a real chore. Just ask Sun Microsystems, which, at one time, was set to offer up its own […]

On April 5, Apple strengthened the case for Mac Intel users switching from OS X to Microsofts Windows XP, at least some of the time, with the release of an initial beta of Boot Camp. During eWEEK Labs tests, the beta software guided us smoothly through the process of turning an Intel-powered Mac mini into […]

For years now, the Linux and open-source desktop has had the benefit of multiple software projects pushing forward to create nicer-looking, more useful environments. One of the most prominent of those projects, GNOME, recently underwent one of its twice-yearly updates, and the result is a compelling set of refinements. The newest version of GNOME, 2.14, […]

Red Hats Fedora Core 5, which hit the Internet late last month, shines in the server and developer roles with which Linux has come to be identified. In addition, for many scenarios, Fedora has matured enough to perform well as a mainstream corporate desktop. Click here to read the full review of Fedora Core 5. […]

A few weeks back, a hack surfaced on the Internet that let users of Apples new Intel-based computers install Microsoft Windows XP. It was probably more trouble than it was worth for most users, but Apple has come around with its own, much smoother pathway to Windows. Indeed, as with most hacks, the Windows-XP-on-Mac-hardware workaround […]

As Peter Galli points out in his story, virtualization is awfully hot right now, and open-source virtualization is particularly toasty. The Xen hypervisor—the code for which is licensed under the GNU GPL (General Public License)—has steadily accrued new vendor support, with Red Hat, Novell, Virtual Iron Software and XenSource all preparing offerings based on the […]