Stories by Julie Bort

Dell: Smartphones will never kill the PC

Dell CEO Michael Dell contends that mobile devices will never kill the PC. Instead, he envisions a future where users own an increasing number and variety of devices, each capable of looking like the other via desktop virtualisation, served by virtual networks and the cloud.

The 5 best, and 5 worst, features of Google Chrome OS

Google has released the source code for Chrome OS and promised that devices will be shipping in about a year, in time for the 2010 holiday season. Chrome OS will run only on devices specifically manufactured for it and Google is dictating to manufacturers the hardware specifications. For instance, Chrome OS devices will be netbooks, will not include a hard drive, will have only solid state disks, will rely on specified WiFi chipsets/adapters for connectivity and must have full-sized keyboards, says Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president of product management.

Microsoft unleashes five service packs for its enterprise security wares

In the past week, Microsoft has unleashed five service packs for its enterprise class security software. These service packs include the beta 2 of its identity management framework "Geneva," the SP3 of Forefront Security for SharePoint, the SP2 of Forefront Security for Exchange Server and trial versions of Antigen Spam Manager for Exchange and Antigen for SMTP Gateways.

Cisco announces its highest level certification ever

For years, the coveted Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE)  was the highest, most difficult rank a network professional could achieve. No more. On Monday, Cisco announced a new certification, the Cisco Certified Architect, which will become the rank above CCIE. The CCA will attempt to marry the networking engineering know-how of the CCIE with the business acumen of a MBA.

Building home labs for Cisco certs: what you need to know

Wendell Odom, Cisco press author, instructor and blogger was recently a repeat guest for Network World chat. Attendees asked him the best ways to build a home lab, which certifications still have power in the market, and strategies for most easily passing the hardest exams.

How the used gear industry is winning the fight against counterfeiters

Over 100 attendees gathered for Network World's live chat on counterfeit network gear -- how to detect it and protect yourself -- with guest Mike Sheldon, chief executive officer of Network Hardware Resale. NHR employs more than 200 people in the United States and Europe. Sheldon discussed methods for identifying fake gear, the refurbished hardware industry's efforts to educate users about counterfeits and Cisco's role in eradicating this growing problem.

Enterprises grow more savvy over open source

Open source icon Stormy Peters is co-founder of the non-profit GNOME Foundation and director of community and partner programs for OpenLogic. Peters recently discussed why enterprises don't know how much open source software they use, how newbies and non-programmers can become involved in the movement and why she thinks open source software is more secure than proprietary code.

The making of Wine (how to make Windows apps merrier with Linux)

Jeremy White, co-founder and CEO of CodeWeavers, talked about how Wine might make IT professionals a lot merrier. For those wanting to save money on desktops by using Linux, but feel trapped into Windows because of the need to run Windows apps, Wine can help. Ten days ago, the folks at CodeWeavers released the almost official version of this open source project that allows Windows programs to run on Linux and Mac desktops. Wine is on course for official release, its 1.0 version, in the next 60 days.

The five hottest skills for your networking career

Cisco's Neil Anderson, enterprise network expert and author was recently interviewed. In this transcript, he answers questions about the hottest skills, the impact of voice and video on the network and the Internet, how QoS technologies will evolve, stomping out worms and tips for passing your next Cisco cert.

Everything you need to know about Microsoft certs

<b>Moderator-Julie:</b> Welcome and thank you for coming. Our guest today is certification guru Patrick Regan. Patrick has penned over a dozen books, written the study guides for the A+ certification exams for Cisco Press and is currently writing an Exam Cram on Windows Server 2008. When not writing books, Patrick is a senior network engineer at Pacific Coast Companies supporting a large enterprise network and a celebrity blogger for Microsoft Subnet. We are giving away 15 free copies of Patrick's latest book, too. Go to the contest page for details. Now onto the chat.

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