If you still think that putting up a colorful and splashy Web site for your company's products, or running online ads about them, is enough to bring in boatloads of repeat customers, you'd better think again, according to Google's top IT executive.
When using open-source software, businesses usually choose between a free, community-supported version of an application or a fee-based enterprise version that includes support, service, updates and other features.
Diebold, the parent company of e-voting systems vendor Premier Election Solutions, is in the crosshairs of a hostile acquisition attempt by conglomerate United Technologies (UTC). In an announcement, UTC said it is making an offer for Diebold because it would tie in well with its existing businesses.
For years, open source software advocates have been holding "installfests," gatherings to help others learn how to install and use Linux and other open source applications on computers. This weekend in the US, a nonprofit group and a open source vendor are taking the idea a step further by co-sponsoring an all-day "Installfest for Schools" to create what they hope will be 500 refurbished computers to be used by underprivileged students in schools in nearby neighborhoods.
Just six weeks after announcing that it would acquire open-source database vendor MySQL AB for US$1 billion, Sun Microsystems this week said that it has already completed the deal.
In a splashy announcement last week, Microsoft touted new efforts to improve the interoperability of its key software products with open source projects and products from other vendors.
Although many universities in the US have been installing or updating their emergency notification systems for students, faculty and staff since last April's shootings at Virginia Tech, technology can't fix one problem: not everyone who's eligible for the emergency alerts wants them.
At the fifth annual JBoss World user conference last week, two themes are heard often when IT managers talk about adopting JBoss middleware applications within their businesses -- simplifying and saving money.
Since being acquired by Linux vendor Red Hat in mid-2006, open-source middleware vendor JBoss has been a company in transition. It was well-known for its open-source middleware line that could be used by large businesses to better tie together their divergent applications.
With global stock markets in flux and the US economy either in the midst of a recession or teetering on the edge, there are steps you can take that may help protect your IT job.
Is Linux on the enterprise desktop finally ready for prime time? IBM apparently thinks so as it prepares to deliver its next versions of Lotus Notes enterprise collaboration software and Lotus Symphony office productivity applications for the first time with full support for Ubuntu Linux 7.0 sometime in the second half of this year.
More laptop computers preloaded with Ubuntu Linux are coming from Dell Inc. in response to demand from potential customers around the world.
For Sun Microsystems, the acquisition of open-source database vendor MySQL is a positive step, giving Sun its own database and a growing, loyal community of open-source users and developers to add to its portfolio.
With 50,000 models and a million auto parts to keep cataloged on a constant basis, ETAI's old homegrown, stovepiped internal database system just wasn't running on all cylinders.
Interested in trying out the free OpenOffice.org 2.0 office suite without having to install it on your computer?