Jason Brooks

The purpose of a Linux distribution is to deliver a Linux-based operating environment with a useful set of applications in a single, well-integrated package. Two of the best such distributors, MandrakeSoft S.A. and Novell Inc.s SuSE Linux division, recently shipped new versions of their respective mainstream Linux distributions, both based on the new Linux 2.6 […]

Security enhanced Linux, a set of kernel modifications and utilities initially developed by the National Security Agency, bolsters the security of Linux systems by enabling administrators to more finely tune data and process permissions. SELinux enforces mandatory access control policies, which limit user and application privileges to the minimum required to do the job. In […]

In recent years, open-source alternatives to Office have matured to the point where IT managers are beginning to investigate the viability of moving from the Microsoft Corp. suite to a freely-licensed alternative. So when eWEEK Corporate Partner Ed Benincasa shared his desire to perform a user-based comparison between the OpenOffice.org project’s OpenOffice.org suite and Microsoft’s […]

On April 15 the FCC took an important step toward expanding high-speed Internet access—particularly for customers in rural areas without cable or DSL—by proposing a rule change that would benefit the wireless delivery of broadband services. The proposed change would make more room in the electromagnetic spectrum for unlicensed devices by allowing them to operate […]

With version 2.6, the GNOME Projects namesake desktop environment is smoother than ever. The new release will make a great upgrade for Linux and Unix systems, such as Red Hat Inc.s Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Sun Microsystems Inc.s Solaris, that use GNOME as their default graphical interface. Click here to read the full review […]

Sun is of many minds when it comes to open source. I recently spent an afternoon at Suns Software Summit, in Menlo Park, Calif., getting a detailed rundown on the companys software road map. The presentations and product demonstrations were, for the most part, very interesting, but what most fascinated me was the way that […]

Last month, desktop Linux distributor Lindows.com began making its Linux CD images available for download via BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file-transfer application thats popular for moving large files over the Internet. Ive used BitTorrent to download CD images in the past, but Lindows.com is the first company Ive seen that takes commercial advantage of the application. […]

WINNERS Microsoft Corp.s Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2003 won the top spot in this years e-Business Foundations category on the strength of the components it combines for building an organizations basic IT infrastructure. Our judges were impressed by Windows Server 2003s improved security features. Chief among those was the move to the all-new IIS […]

Sun has been dealing with calls to loosen its grip on Java for years. During the last several weeks, these calls have intensified, with open-source advocate Eric Raymond and IBM Vice President of Emerging Technologies Rod Smith both challenging Sun to make its Java code available under an open-source license. Should Sun set Java free? […]

Debian GNU/Linux is a stable, complete Linux distribution that has the best software update system of any Linux distribution eWEEK Labs has seen—which helps explain why Debian is one of the worlds most widely used Linux distributions. According to a Netcraft Ltd. report covering July 2003 to January 2004, Debian was the fastest-growing distribution among […]

Making the most of Microsoft Office 2003 means delving into the productivity suites extensibility potential, one of the most noticeable parts of which is Offices support for Smart Tags. These small, content-sensitive dialog boxes first appeared in Office XP. Microsoft recently released a Smart Tags Software Development Kit, available for free download. The SDK includes […]

The big question on the minds of Windows road-map watchers these days is whether Microsoft will ship a new version of its desktop operating system to fill the growing gap between Windows XP, which came out in 2001, and the ambitious “Longhorn” release, which probably wont be ready until 2007. /zimages/1/28571.gifRead “Microsoft Mulls Interim Release, […]