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The standard chip-making process, based on using lithography to etch circuits in silicon and other materials, has been in use since the mid-1970s, with change expressed mainly in increased manufacturing precision as decreases in the wavelengths used allowed the development of ever smaller components. ...

Two weeks ago, I wrote a column on LinuxInsider to think out loud about the fundamental differences between Microsoft's operating systems and Unix variants like Linux, Darwin, BSD and Solaris. That drew the usual kinds of responses: Some people said nice things, others critiqued my work, and a lot of slashdotters wandered off to express their own opinions.

One way or another, anti-outsourcing legislation seems likely to pass both houses of the U.S. Congress relatively soon. Whether this comes about through the House initiative led by Bernard Sanders or through other routes isn't important. What is important is that most of the proposals being discussed have bipartisan support and outlaw the use of government dollars to support foreign jobs at the expense of American workers...

What really are the most fundamental differences between Windows variants like 2003/XP and Unix variants like Linux? ...

Want to know why most business analysts and venture capitalists simply don't get it with respect to Unix? Take a look at the computer books they study while working toward their MBA, financial analysis certificate or accounting designation, and you'll understand that their ignorance isn't entirely their fault ...

I've been puzzled by Sun's Linux strategy for a long time. On the software side, things make sense: Linux is Unix, so supporting Linux in the short term brings new value to Solaris in the long term. On the hardware side, however, I couldn't see any logical reason for Sun to sell x86 boxes until just last week, when Intel announced its 64-bit Xeon extensions. My idea about this is pure speculation, but if I'm right, Sun may be creating some interesting opportunities for Linux users everywhere to save a few bucks now while positioning itself to lead the next great wave in technology change...

One of the unfortunate realities of the Wintel monoculture is that expectations are set mainly by ads, the Sunday supplements and stereotypes like TV character Marshall, the supertech on the show Alias. But delivery is constrained by reality. As a result, the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) has no chance of meeting user expectations and must always operate in a kind of rear-guard mode, balanced between short-term fixes and Microsoft's promises for the next upgrade...

Microsoft's Get the Facts site, which I discussed in last week's LinuxInsider column, "Getting the Facts About Windows and Linux," makes the case that Windows is cheaper than Linux. The site includes a contribution from Meta Group dedicated to the proposition that the combination of Linux plus a database costs more than a Windows Server plus SQL Server...

If you read a report sponsored by the Flat Earth Society in which an independent research organization found the world to be flat, would you believe it? I'd guess not, but any reputable research organization hired to survey the society's membership on the question would have to come to that conclusion -- and I don't think you could call the result dishonest...

If you were to make up your own list of the top 10 issues likely to affect computing over the next five to 10 years, would you include liability reform in the American legal system? I think you should, even if you live, as I do, in Canada or some other country where American law doesn't apply directly. Change is coming, and that change will affect anyone who works with hardware or software made or sold by American companies...

The May 2003 publication, in the Harvard Business Review, of an article by Nicholas Carr titled "IT Doesn't Matter" raised so much controversy that opportunists like Anne K. Keehn and Donald M. Norris, writing in Syllabus Magazine, can now use a denunciation of his views as a kind of publicity virus to get their own rather special pleadings more media attention...

A few years ago, the only IT system I wasn't responsible for at a multimillion-dollar company consisted of a SCO server with an ancient accounting application maintained by the remaining representative of the company that had originally sold it. At the time, I thought old Vitki (not his real name) was a fool and that his protector in the finance group was a greater one. But an Apple-related incident over Christmas left me with more sympathy for both of them than I'd ever managed to feel before. For just a minute or two, I was made to feel some of their pain...

The people who run Toronto's municipal IT infrastructure have managed to ground themselves so securely between rocks and hard places that they're about to charge the taxpayer another hundred million or so to bail them out. It really is too bad, but Toronto's not exactly beloved by the rest of the country, and I'm having a hard time remembering to feel guilty about laughing at the predicament the city has created for itself...

I've been thinking a lot lately about the future of computing -- and that, of course, has to include Microsoft's future. Microsoft's own vision of its future seems clear. The company sees a transition to a secure Windows OS environment, continuing strength in Office and server applications, and development of a complementary set of business applications -- ERP/SCM and CRM -- as its route to the future...

The word "pusillanimous" is normally used to label actions judged to reflect a lack of moral courage on the part of the person taking the action. Thus, people who can be rather easily pressured to undertake actions contrary to their own beliefs are often said to be pusillanimous, cowardly or weak-spirited, while those who advise "getting along by going along" are said to offer pusillanimous counsels...

Dear Mr. McBride: I guess push is coming to shove, huh? You finally got a court to order release of the AT&T code, so things are coming together a bit on that end. It's an important legal step, and one I'm sure you'll be glad to get over with, despite the crowing going on among those who see it as a victory for IBM ...

One of the bigger risks facing Linux is that explosive growth can destroy it because people who don't understand what it's for often install it simply as a Windows substitute, then discover that it isn't Windows and denounce it. The underlying issue here is that people can easily become captive to what they know. That happens in almost all areas of management, not just in technology.

I've been trying to imagine what the computing universe will look like in late 2008. The exercise not only highlighted the degree to which Linux has become the focal point for anti-Microsoft feeling, but also underscored the risk that the Linux community now faces from commercialization ...

While watching CNN last week, I suffered one of those brain spasms that leave you holding an idea you can neither rationally assess nor forget about. I still can't assess the idea -- and I'm about to ask you for help on that -- but my attempts to do something with it did give me a deeper insight into the forces that made the Linux development process so successful...

Last week, Novell announced its purchase of SuSE for $210 million -- $50 million of it direct from an IBM investment in newly issued convertible preferred stock. This deal raises two difficult questions: What's Novell up to, and why, if the people behind SuSE wanted to cash out, didn't they do an IPO? ...