Technology News: Applications

Google Spills Chrome OS' Guts
November 19, 2009

Google on Thursday opened the source code for its fledgling Chrome operating system to developers. This means "Google developers will be working on the same tree as external developers, and we're looking forward to working with the open source community," said Sunder Pichai, vice president of product management at Google.

EC Throws Monkey Wrench Into Oracle, Sun Deal
November 10, 2009

Europe is ratcheting up its opposition to Oracle's proposed $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems. The European Commission has issued a formal statement of objections to the deal, based on a perceived threat to competition. Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes raised those concerns last month in a meeting with Oracle's top executives.

Has Firefox Peaked?
November 10, 2009

Fans around the globe marked the fifth birthday of the open source Firefox Web browser with a multitude of special events held as part of the "Light the World with Firefox" campaign. "We've vastly improved the browsing experience for hundreds of millions of people around the world," wrote Christopher Blizzard on the Mozilla Hacks blog.

Yahoo Lets FOSS Community Drive Its Traffic Server
November 04, 2009

In a move that resembles a major food vendor giving away its prize recipe -- minus the secret sauce -- to all of its customers and competitors, Yahoo on Monday donated the source code for its Traffic Server software to the Apache Software Foundation through the Apache Incubator Project.

FOSS Goes to Washington, and Nvidia Keeps Its Driver Code to Itself
October 29, 2009

You know it's going to be a good week when it kicks off with news that the Obama administration has officially embraced the open source content management system Drupal. Just a few days later, the Department of Defense issued an almost glowingly positive memo on open source software.

Drupal Takes Up Residency in the White House
October 27, 2009

Free and open source software just got a major boost: The Obama administration announced that it has adopted open source content management system Drupal for the Whitehouse.gov Web site. Though it may look much the same to visitors, the newly revamped Web site went live on Saturday with the goal of improving the tools visitors use to engage with White House officials and each other.

Mozilla's Raindrop to Provide a Tidy In-Box for Everything
October 23, 2009

Mozilla on Thursday introduced Raindrop, a project that seeks to consolidate online communications. The Raindrop team consists of the same people who worked on Mozilla's Thunderbird, an open source, cross-platform email client. Raindrop will complement Google Wave, the new data communication and collaboration tool from Google.

Linpus Hones Moblin-Based Linux Lite
September 23, 2009

Linpus Technologies on Tuesday released Linpus Linux Lite 1.2, a new version of its consumer Linux software based on Moblin version 2 that's been enhanced with improved social networking applications and power management capabilities. The first version of the Moblin v2-based technology was released earlier this year.

Linux Buffs Get Eyeful at LinuxCon Tech Showcase
September 22, 2009

Amid all the talks, workshops and training sessions now under way at LinuxCon, attendees hoping to get an up-close look at some of the latest open source technologies were not disappointed. A wide variety of products are being demonstrated by a diverse set of vendors in the technology showcase at the Linux Foundation's first annual LinuxCon event.

Whipping MuleSource Into Shape
September 01, 2009

Having secured funding from Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Morgenthaler Ventures, MuleSource cofounder Ross Mason turned what was the Mule Project into an open source player on the fast track. Re-invigorated with new CEO Greg Schott, MuleSource has been ramping up its business in the wake of a recession that has gutted some proprietary legacy players.

KnowledgeTree Takes Root in New ECM Markets
August 14, 2009

In 2004, KnowledgeTree CEO Daniel Chalef had no idea his interest in developing an open source document management product would thrust his South African company into prominence. That's the time a government agency there approached him to help the Medical Research Council retain control of its documents and track shared access. That South African council is an agency much like the U.S. NIH.

Where Are the LiMo App Developers?
August 12, 2009

LiMo Foundation, a Linux mobile operating system consortium, announced that two of its members -- NEC and Panasonic -- are shipping the latest round of LiMo-compliant devices. NTT Docomo plans to use the new handsets in its Prime and Style series of phones, marketed primarily in Japan.

Migrating to Linux, Part 2: Avoiding Separation Anxiety
July 24, 2009

Six months ago, I began a self-imposed experiment to see if I could survive leaving Windows XP behind. After all, despite its flaws and decade-old technology, the aging Microsoft OS had served me well. However, I decided to skip Windows 7 when it comes to town in October.

Migrating to Linux, Part 1: Sharing a Room With Windows
July 17, 2009

Microsoft has a very clever philosophy that it uses to keep consumers misinformed about the benefits of the Linux operating system. It's a simple message that effectively dissuades consumers from deviating from the Microsoft upgrade path to Windows 7. The argument basically asserts that consumers making the Windows upgrade will continue to enjoy a familiar desktop experience.

Reductive Labs Snaps Up Cash, Pumps Up Puppet
July 07, 2009

Before he helped start Reductive Labs, CEO Luke Kanies was determined to improve IT systems management options to eliminate the repetitive tasks required to manage policies across networks, cloud computing systems, and virtual machine banks. In 2002, that direction led to the Puppet project, a system for automating admin tasks. The launch of his company followed in 2003.

Is Software Installation on Linux 'Broken'?
July 02, 2009

You know a controversy is a big one when none other than RMS weighs in with his opinion, and sure enough, that's what happened in the Mono debate late last week. "Debian's decision to include Mono in the default installation, for the sake of Tomboy which is an application written in C#, leads the community in a risky direction," RMS wrote on the Free Software Foundation's site.