Stories by Katherine Noyes

Chrome browser set to become 'wicked fast'

Earlier this fall Google promised that hardware acceleration advances were going to make Chrome 7 as much as 60 times faster than its predecessor, and now the company is working on a new feature that could boost the browser's speed even more.

Mozilla Firefox celebrates 6 years

Mozilla is celebrating the sixth birthday of its Firefox browser today, and it's inviting users of the popular free and open source browser to help by sending in a postcard for display in Mozilla's Mountain View or Paris offices.

Ubuntu will adopt Wayland Graphics System

Hard on the heels of Canonical's controversial decision to use the 3D-enabled Unity interface in its desktop Ubuntu operating system came word late last week that it will also adopt a new graphics system.

10 reasons open source is good for business

With the many business and government organizations that now use open source software such as Linux, it's becoming increasingly clear that price is not the only advantage such software holds. If it were, companies that adopted it during the Great Recession would surely have switched back to the expensive proprietary stuff as soon as conditions began to ease, and that's clearly not the case.

Is your business compliant with open source licenses?

There are many ways that vendors of proprietary products try to scare business customers away from open source software, and one of the more commonly heard examples involves vague fears about compliance with open source licenses. There's nothing like the specter of a good lawsuit to scare a company back into a paid vendor's welcoming arms.

No HTML5 crown for IE9 yet, W3C says

Following the flurry of reports early this week that Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 had bested key competitors in the browser arena on early HTML5 compatibility tests, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has cautioned that the results of those tests are far too preliminary to form any kind of basis for conclusions.

IE9 and Chrome 7 top early HTML5 tests

The newly released sixth preview of Internet Explorer 9 best handles the forthcoming HTML5 standard, followed by Google's Chrome 7 Web browser, according to recent early tests by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

5 things to do first with Ubuntu

Ubuntu 10.10, or Maverick Meerkat, is proving to be one of the best, most user-friendly distributions of the Linux operating system ever seen, so it's no wonder that businesses and individuals are adopting the new operating system in growing numbers every day.

Is Unity the right interface for desktop Ubuntu?

Canonical shook the Linux world yesterday when it announced that the next version of Ubuntu -- "Natty Narwhal," or version 11.04 -- will no longer use the GNOME interface by default. Instead, Natty will feature Unity, the multitouch and 3D-enabled interface that made its debut earlier this month in the distribution's netbook edition of Maverick Meerkat, or Ubuntu 10.10.

Fix a Windows infection using Linux

If you use Linux on your company's desktop or server computers, you're already familiar with many of the security advantages the open source operating system offers over its Windows and Mac rivals. What many people don't realize, however, is that Linux can also be used to rescue a computer that has been crippled by malware.

Build a custom browser with Mozilla Chromeless

No matter how many choices there are in the Web browser arena, it's a pretty safe bet that many of us would love to tweak some aspect of the interface on our browser of choice, if given the opportunity. After all, no one product can satisfy everyone perfectly.

4 reasons to give Linux Mint 10 a try

Canonical's newly released Ubuntu 10.10 -- or "Maverick Meerkat" -- may still be dominating the headlines in the Linux world these days, but it's by no means the only excellent distribution of the open source operating system. Following just behind Ubuntu on DistroWatch's list of popularity, in fact, is not just Fedora, at No. 2, but also -- of particular interest this week -- Linux Mint.

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