Sean Michael Kerner

Key to any operating system buying decision is its lifespan for support and maintenance updates. As it turns out, most of the major operating system vendors offer support lengths that, on the surface, don’t differ radically from each other — though there are exceptions to the rule that IT managers need to keep in mind […]

Enterprise software vendor Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL) fell short of its guidance for the third fiscal quarter of 2010, missing its financial projections with both revenues and income declining. For the quarter, Novell reported revenue of $199 million, a decline of 8 percent from the third quarter of 2009. The company reported net income of $16 […]

With the proprietary enterprise software vendors all scrambling to co-opt cloud computing into a framework of their existing software and services, it should come as no surprise that vendors of open source technology are working hard to do the same. For Linux giant Red Hat, the future of the cloud is one in which the […]

Mozilla developers are out this week with the latest major update of the Firefox 4 Web browser. With the beta 4 version, Firefox 4 integrates two new key features into the open source browser, providing a new way to organize tabs and synchronize browser activities. The new tab features come by way of a Mozilla […]

As enterprises move their workloads to the cloud, the need for integrated security is key. In an effort to help organizations better protect those workloads, Novell is launching its Cloud Security Service — a new offering focusing on providing businesses with access and compliance controls for the cloud. The Novell Cloud Security Service is not […]

Big tech companies disagree about whether it’s a good strategy to pay security researchers who provides information that leads to fixed code vulnerabilities. Fortunately for some skilled researchers, Google is a company that believes in this practice. Google is updating the stable version of its Chrome Web browser to address at least eleven security issues. […]

Last week’s move by Oracle to sue Google over Java use in the Android open source mobile operating system, may well end up having an impact that effects far more that just Android. And that has some key stakeholders in the open source community concerned. Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu Linux, is among those in […]

BOSTON — Open source licenses help to define the terms and conditions of software use and redistribution. But what are the terms and condition under which developers actually contribute code? That’s the realm of software contribution agreements. A new effort spearheaded by Amanda Brock, general counsel at Canonical, the lead sponsor of Ubuntu Linux, is […]

Does Google’s Android operating system infringe on Oracle’s Java patents and copyrights? That’s the claim being made by Oracle this week in a major lawsuit against Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) over its use of Java in the mobile operating system. “In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property. This lawsuit seeks […]

BOSTON — Kernel-based Virtual Machine, or KVM, is a growing Linux technology for virtualization. Speaking at LinuxCon this week, Red Hat Senior Engineer Chris Wright noted that the open source project is on track to meet some very lofty goals. “We’re on track for total world domination,” Wright told the capacity crowd. He might be […]

BOSTON — Linux is now in the mainstream of enterprise adoption, according to analysts presenting new research here at the LinuxCon conference. Separate datasets from both IDC and Forrester Research presented at the conference show that Linux and other open source technologies continue to make inroads in corporate settings. the continuing adoption of Linux and […]

BOSTON — Eben Moglen, director-counsel and chairman at the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), has long stood at the forefront of the free software revolution. At LinuxCon this week, Moglen delivered a keynote address in which he lauded the movement’s many successes, ending with the capacity crowd giving him a standing ovation. “At the beginning […]