Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Two top executives of The Canopy Group, the parent company of Unix firm The SCO Group Inc., have unexpectedly left the firm. SCO spokesperson Blake Stowell confirmed that Canopy had ousted Ralph Yarro, president, chairman and chief executive of the Lindon, Utah-based business, and Darcy Mott, chief financial officer of the company. He was unable […]

The itsy, bitsy spider, climbed up the water spout.Down came the rain and washed the spider out.Out came the sun and dried up all the rain,So the itsy, bitsy spider went up the spout again. That was one of my daughter Alicias favorite nursery rhymes when she was small. And its a great fun as […]

The SCO Group Inc. on Tuesday reported a loss of $6.5 million, or 37 cents per share, in its latest quarter, which ended Oct. 31. The litigious Unix companys revenue fell to $10.1 million, down from $24.3 million a year ago, when the company suffered a fourth-quarter loss of $1.6 million or 12 cents per […]

OpenOffice.org 2.0, the open-source office suite sponsored by Sun Microsystems Inc., is getting closer to reality. The latest prebeta edition, OpenOffice.org Snapshot Build 1.9.m65 (680_m65), is feature-complete and reveals an office suite that includes a personal DBMS (database management system) and improved Microsoft Office file compatibility. While StarOffice—OpenOffices commercial, closed-source brother—has long had a database, […]

Not too long ago, the sub-$500 computer was a dream, now its a CompUSA commonplace. And now, thanks to a partnership between Wal-Mart and Linspire Inc., the sub-$500 laptop is also a reality. Walmart.com is selling for $498 the Balance laptop, which runs the Linspire (formerly Lindows) Linux-based operating system. The laptop comes fully equipped […]

According to a recent report by The Yankee Group, indemnification is becoming open sources nightmare and Microsofts blessing. However, other analysts and open-source companies dont see it that way. “A corporate Linux or open-source user that lacks indemnification and product warranty will expend its own time, money and resources fighting legal action,” said Laura DiDio, […]

Research company IDC said last week that Linux server customer revenue will reach $9.1 billion in 2008, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 22.8 percent. That compares with a 3.8 percent growth rate for the worldwide server market overall. IDC forecasts Linux server shipments will be 25.7 percent of worldwide server shipments in 2008, […]

Efrain Rovira, Hewlett-Packard Co.s worldwide director of Linux marketing, wants one thing perfectly clear: HP is taking Linux very seriously. “Linux is a very important customer trend that goes beyond the operating system. Customers want to do a lot more with less money,” Rovira said. “We understand that, so weve made Linux one of our […]

Gartner Inc. says Linux is becoming big business, and rival research house IDC agrees. Specifically, IDC sees worldwide Linux server customer revenue reaching $9.1 billion in 2008, driven by a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 22.8 percent, compared with the broad market CAGR of 3.8 percent for the worldwide server market. Further, the research […]

Linux desktop vendor Xandros Inc. on Wednesday released the latest version of its flagship operating system, Xandros Desktop Operating System 3.0. This latest descendant of the first mass-market Linux desktop, Corel Linux, uses the KDE 3.3 interface. It is built on the foundation of a Linux 2.6.9 kernel. Earlier versions of this desktop Linux have […]

All I want for Christmas is a Linux for everyone to enjoy. And I found it. You can find it, too, in Robin “Roblimo” Millers new book, “Point & Click Linux!” Ive often recommended CD-bootable Linux distributions such as Knoppix and Gnoppix as ideal distributions to get your feet wet with Linux, and I still […]

Sun Microsystems Inc. has proposed a new open-source license to the Open Source Initiative, but Linus Torvalds and others doubt that it will help Sun create an open-source community. The new Common Development and Distribution License, or CDDL, is based on the MPL (Mozilla Public License 1.1). Although there are more than 50 open-source licenses […]