Sean Michael Kerner

Think you can scare Linux vendors into submission with a patent challenge? Think again. Linux vendors Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL) and Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) have won a patent verdict in a Texas jury trial. In an October 2007 lawsuit, intellectual property firm IP Innovation LLC had claimed that the Linux vendors were infringing on its […]

LAS VEGAS — According to IDC analyst Cindy Borovick, 2010 will be the first year in which the number of deployed virtual servers will outnumber the number of physical ones. While the number of virtualized servers are growing, the real driver that IDC is seeing pushing enterprises forward is the need for IT to create […]

The cloud isn’t just a buzzword for Canonical. For the Ubuntu Linux vendor, the cloud is a technology that its users are actually deploying, and it’s got the numbers to prove it. The Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) has been available since the Jaunty Jackalope release in April 2009. UEC is now poised to be included […]

LAS VEGAS — In 2006, Tom Noonan sold his company Internet Security Services (ISS) to IBM for $1.3 billion. After leaving IBM, Noonan is now back with a new startup, and this time he’s tackling a problem that he thinks is even bigger than security: energy. Noonan’s new venture is a company called Joulex, which […]

A new version of the open source Metasploit Framework penetration testing tool is set to debut next month with the release of Metasploit Express — ushering in new enhancements for ease-of-use and management that come courtesy of its new commercial underpinnings. The Metasploit Framework is an open source vulnerability testing framework and is currently at […]

Intel and Nokia are two of the largest tech companies on the planet, but when it comes to developing a new mobile operating system, they’ve opted to not just team up, but to enlist the legions of open source developers out there. And in the process, they’ve learned a great deal about interacting with the […]

Browser vendors are always trying to improve the stability of their platforms. One key approach being adopted by multiple browser vendors is to take plugins out of the regular browser process and isolate them. The benefit of out-of-process plugins is that if a plugin, say Adobe’s Flash for example, crashes, the entire browser won’t crash. […]

As enterprises move to the cloud, the need for monitoring and management of applications will become increasingly important. A new effort from a pair of commercial open source vendors is now ramping up to take on that cloud management challenge. Cloud technology vendor Eucalyptus System is partnering with networking monitoring vendor GroundWork Open Source in […]

With over 350 million users of its open source Firefox Web browser worldwide, Mozilla is a group that has some insight into the state of the Internet, topic explored in some depth in its new report issued this week. The Q1 2010 Mozilla State of the Internet report sheds light on both the adoption and […]

After nearly seven long years of legal maneuvering and multiple court decisions, a key decision has been made in the case of SCO versus Novell on the issue of which company owns the Unix System V copyrights and patents. The jury decision from the District Court of Utah ruled in favor of Novell, which could […]

Mozilla is out this week with Firefox 3.5.9 and 3.0.19 updates, fixing multiple security vulnerabilities in the open source Web browser’s two branches, while announcing that the older of the two branches is being phased out. As part of the update, Mozilla also issued new advisories on problems that also impact Firefox 3.6.2 browser, which […]

Canonical, the lead commercial sponsor of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, is out with a new study this week looking at how users view and use their server platform. The Ubuntu Server study comes at an opportune time as the next major release of Ubuntu codenamed the Lucid Lynx is scheduled for release at the end […]