Sean Michael Kerner

Whatever happened to the founder of Mandrake Linux? He’s back on the scene with a new open source startup and looking to break some ground with its first offering called a Virtual Desktop solution. Ulteo’s new enterprise Open Virtual Desktop Solution is an attempt to break into the broader virtualization and remote desktop space. It’s […]

Sun’s open source database MySQL is getting an enterprise update today — thanks to closed source. The MySQL Enterprise Fall 2008 Release includes the new MySQL Query Analyzer tool, a proprietary source component designed to help improve database efficiency. The Query Analyzer tool is being integrated with MySQL Enterprise Monitor to monitor database query performance, […]

Apple Safari 3.2Click to enlarge Apple is out with an update to its Safari web browser that aims to take the bite out of several vulnerabilities — as well as the potential for phishing attacks. The Safari 3.2 update, available for both Windows and Mac versions of the browser, fixes at least 11 flaws, three […]

Mozilla is updating its mainline Firefox 3 browser with a security and stability update that provides at least nine security fixes, four of them “critical.” In addition to the latest version, 3.0.4, Firefox is pushing out 11 fixes for the older Firefox 2 browser, six of which are critical. If that wasn’t enough, Mozilla is […]

There are a plenty of ways to grow a business, including the old-fashioned approach of stealing customers from your competition. The latest entrant is Novell, which is pitching customers of Red Hat’s Linux to migrate over to Novell. As part of its offer, Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL) said it would provide support for existing installations after […]

Linux users are not an easy bunch to profile or to count. Many Linux users download the operating system for free and never perform any kind of systems registration to enumerate their hardware. That’s where Smolt may be able to help fill the gap. Smolt is an open source hardware profiling technology that is already […]

The open source systems and network management space is heating up with new releases coming soon from vendors Groundwork, Hyperic and Zenoss. Among the new features that will appear in the respective vendors new releases are improved cloud features, virtualization, network management and improved Java app server features. Each of the open source vendors is […]

One of the key features of Solaris 10 is its Zettabyte File System (ZFS) that provides more storage flexibility and scalability to Unix. For the past four years, however, ZFS was not integrated into the deepest parts of the Solaris operating system — a shortcoming that denied administrators access to its advanced administration and recovery […]

For some, the Linux operating system is about offering an alternative to proprietary commercial systems. For Ubuntu Linux and its new Intrepid Ibex distribution, it’s also about offering more features that extend usability and effectiveness. Intrepid Ibex — the name for Ubuntu version 8.10 — is being released today with a host of new features […]

At the heart of every operating system is the file system that provides read/write access to data. Since 2001, Ext3 has been the mainstay of Linux file systems. But the winds of change could be blowing toward a better file system in the works. BTRFS (pronounced better FS) is currently under development in an effort […]