Peter Galli

Paving the way for Linux to reach farther into the enterprise, Red Hat Inc. has released Version 7.1 of its Red Hat Linux distribution, based on the 2.4 kernel that came out in January. The release is one among many in the Linux and Unix communities recently. In addition, Ximian Inc., the open-source company formerly […]

Sun Microsystems Inc. is on track to release StarOffice 6, its open-source productivity application suite that includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and database applications for Solaris, Windows and Linux. Iyer Venkatesan, senior product manager for StarOffice, said that Sun plans to release StarOffice 6 later this year. While Venkatesan is aiming for next quarter, the […]

Microsoft Corp., claiming to have learned from its mistakes, has added a number of features and enhancements to the second beta of its Whistler server operating system, which company officials said will make deployment far easier, especially for Active Directory. “We didnt supply enough prescriptive guidance with the Windows 2000 server family,” said Dave Thompson, […]

The application compatibility monster is rearing its ugly head again as Microsoft Corp. moves closer to the launch of Windows XP late this year. As was the case when Microsoft upgraded users from Windows 3.x to 95/98 and then to Windows 2000, software developers and users are finding that what once ran on previous versions […]

In a defensive move designed to protect its lucrative Office software suite, Microsoft Corp. has moved the rival NetDocs team under the Office umbrella. The shift terminates the very real threat NetDocs posed to Office and ends the rivalry and intense competition between the two teams, which have been headed by Office Senior Vice President […]

While Microsoft Corp. is touting its upcoming Tablet PC as the laptop of the future, corporate IT managers are less than convinced. Microsoft officials told delegates at WinHEC here recently that the Tablet will become the laptop of the future, combining the simplicity of a sheet of paper with all the power of a PC […]

Although the latest Linux kernel is only now starting to appear in commercial distributions of the operating system, the Linux development community is wasting no time in making the next version more suited to enterprise users. Linux creator Linus Torvalds, still working to stabilize the 2.4 kernel, was joined by about 50 other Linux developers […]

The gap that has threatened to split the Linux community appears to be closing. Though the GNOME (GNU Network Object Model Environment) Foundation and the KDE (K Desktop Environment) League and their respective user interfaces for Linux remain competitors, recent developments put them closer together regarding user support and interoperability. The new GNOME 1.4 desktop […]

For all of its size and influence, Microsoft Corp. has been built to react rapidly to changing competition, user demands, computing models and, yes, legal pressure. At no time in its history has that ability to cope with change been tested as it has in the year since the government found the Redmond, Wash., company […]

In pledging conformance to open standards and protocols, Microsoft Corp. said all the right things with the launch here last week of HailStorm, the software makers building blocks initiative for Web services. But, potential users of the platform are skeptical about the companys commitment to openness, pointing to Java as an example of how Microsoft […]

Amid mergers and acquisitions and executive shifts, Novell Inc. is still finding time to crank out cutting-edge networking software. The Provo, Utah, company is set to include an Internet printing capability, known as Novell Internet Printing, in NetWare 6.0, the next version of its network operating system, due in the third quarter. This week, at […]

Now that Office XP has been released to manufacturing, the challenges are just beginning for Microsoft Corp. and its flagship desktop productivity suite. In addition to persuading Office users to upgrade—no small task, considering that about 70 percent of the 120 million installed Office users still run either Office 97 or Office 95—the Office team […]