Peter Galli

As Microsoft announced the availability of its unified communications software at a launch event in San Francisco on Oct. 16, attended by partners, press and some two thousand customers, Chairman Bill Gates sent customers an executive e-mail detailing not only how far we have come on the communications front, but also how far we still […]

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—The first beta of Version 8.3 of the open-source PostgreSQL database has been released, with dozens of new and improved features, Josh Berkus, a member of the PostgreSQL core team and strategic lead in Suns database technology group, said. Oct.15. The first beta for PostgreSQL 8.3 has more code than any previous version, […]

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Sun Microsystems delivered in September the second version of GlassFish, its project to build a free, open-source application server to implement the newest features in the Java Enterprise Edition 5 platform, and has more projects on the way. When the second-generation Java Enterprise Edition 5-compliant application server was delivered, customers did not have […]

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Sun Microsystems wants its OpenJDK project to spawn a vibrant developer community during the next year. There are a number of projects under way within the OpenJDK community, and a multilanguage virtual machine project was proposed this past week, Mark Reinhold, chief engineer of Suns Java platform, told attendees Oct. 15 at Suns […]

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Project Indiana, Sun Microsystems Linux-like OpenSolaris effort, will begin shipping to developers before the end of October, the company announced Oct. 15 at its open-source summit press event here. The developer release will include Image Packaging System, a new package manager slated for inclusion in the next version of Solaris, but wont be […]

Organizing an event? Microsoft is hoping that customers will use its latest free online service, Windows Live Events. This new social events planning service was unveiled Oct. 11 and will be rolled out over the next few days. Windows Live Events is designed to make it easy for users to create personalized event Web sites […]

Microsofts scare tactics in what could be considered an attempt to coerce Red Hat into a patent agreement similar to one Novell penned last November are not unusual for this early stage in the process, according to a patent attorney. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Oct. 1 told a small group of Web 2.0 developers […]

Red Hat is assuring its customers that they can continue to deploy its Linux operating system with confidence and without fear of legal retribution from Microsoft, despite the increasingly vocal threats emanating from the Redmond, Wash., company. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told a small meeting of Web 2.0 developers and partners on Oct. 1 at […]

Microsoft has made the third beta release of FastCGI for Internet Information Services available under its free Go Live license, which means that customers can now deploy the production-quality release on Windows Server 2003. FastCGI essentially allows IIS to reuse CGI (Common Gateway Interface) processes for multiple requests to PHP applications, helping improve the performance […]

Major technology vendors are continuing to push initiatives to bring collaboration tools online, fueled by equal parts customer demand and competition from rivals. Moves by Microsoft and AT&T illustrate efforts by established tech companies to carve out space in the market contested by major vendors such as IBM and relative newcomers such as Google. Microsoft, […]

Microsoft is making its Internet Explorer 7 browser available to all Windows XP users—even those using pirated software—and installation will no longer require that the operating system first be validated as genuine. The company said the move is about security and ecosystem safety, because if even one user in a network is not using the […]

SAN FRANCISCO—Sun Microsystems has unveiled its virtualization platform, which consists of two pieces, one being the open, cross-platform Sun xVM Server, which will host Windows, Linux and Solaris guest operating systems. It will also include the xVM Ops Center, a tool that lets customers manage both their physical and virtual environments. In a media presentation […]