Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Hans Reiser, well-known open-source developer, goes on trial Nov. 5 for the murder of his wife, Nina Reiser, in Alameda County Superior Court in California. Reiser is the founder of Namesys and creator and primary developer of the popular ReiserFS Linux file system. Nina Reiser, the estranged wife of Reiser, has been missing since Sept. […]

There is security, and then there is Security. HP, with its new multi-level security services for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 is now offering Common Criteria certified level security for this Linux on its server and desktops. Common Criteria is an ISO security framework standard. It is frequently required in government computing contracts. It is […]

So there they were, Google vs. Microsoft, slugging it out again. This time, to the winner, would go a small percentage of the ownership of the popular social networking site, Facebook. The real prize though was that the winner would get to decide if Facebook would continue to accept advertising only from advertisers working with […]

Over at our sister site LinuxDevices, were always looking at small, embedded-Linux systems. While reviewing Freespire recently on a Mini koobox, an Apple Mini-sized system, I began to wonder, Just how small do full-featured, Linux-powered PCs come? When I say full-featured, dont mean Internet tablets, like the Nokia N800, or PDAs (personal digital assistants), such […]

Crossbeam Systems has started shipping a massive chassis-style, “unified threat management” (UTM) system based on an open Linux OS. The X-Series UTM server runs the companys Linux-based “XOS” OS, and targets highly scalable firewalls and other security applications for large data centers and service providers. The X-Series UTM competes with high-end UTM systems such as […]

Apples OS X 10.5 “Leopard” emerges from its den today, Oct. 26. Macs fan are, of course, ready to embrace the latest Mac OS, but whats really new in this version? For starters, this is not the major upgrade that Tiger, Mac OS X 10.4 was. Instead, its many small steps forward and several new […]

Should we be ready, as Kent Brockman might put it, to “welcome our new Microsoft overlords,” or are the IDC Quarterly Server Tracker figures not really reflecting the reality of how servers are used in businesses? I, for one, think that what IDC is measuring and what server operating systems people are really using are […]

My colleague over at Microsoft Watch, Joe Wilcox, declared that “Microsoft bowed before the EU and took its whipping.” Eh, after a couple of days to look at the decision, I dont think so. At best, Id say the European Union got the more favorable end of a draw. To refresh your memory, heres the […]

On my mountainside home outside of Asheville, NC, the sky is dark and gray, but on my PCs screen the skies of San Diego are filled with the smoke of homes burning away. Thanks to television, were closer than ever to disaster, no matter where or when it happens. You didnt need to be in […]

How many times do we need to go over this? Just because Microsoft enters a market, doesnt mean that its going to own it. The latest “Microsoft is coming! Microsoft is coming! Run for your lives!” rumor can be seen in the recent report that Microsoft announced plans for its System Center Mobile Device Manager […]