Stories by Eric Lai

Options drive Web-based Office alternatives

Google's test release Tuesday of an online spreadsheet application is the highest-profile challenge yet to Microsoft's dominant Office software franchise. But it's hardly the first.

Red Hat to drop Application Server

Red Hat confirmed Thursday that it is discontinuing development of its Red Hat Application Server (RHAS), a move that had been widely anticipated since mid-April, when the Linux distributor said it planned to buy commercial open-source application server provider JBoss for up to $US420 million.

Red Hat releases open-source development tools

Red Hat said Wednesday that it has made in-house development tools available to the open-source community that will help enterprises more quickly test and certify applications they build to run on Red Hat Linux and other distributions.

Oracle stays atop global database market

Oracle continued to top the worldwide database market last year, propelled by companies migrating to Oracle Database running on Linux, according to figures released by two leading market research companies.

Informatica app joined with salesforce.com

Informatica Tuesday said it is making its flagship PowerCenter data integration software compatible with the popular salesforce.com service. The move is the first step toward connecting customers' on-site applications with Informatica's Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications.

HP exec on navigating the open-source waters

Christine Martino was appointed vice president of Open Source and Linux Organization (OSLO) at Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) in November, succeeding Martin Fink, who took over HP's non-stop server group and remains Martino's boss. An 18-year veteran of the company, Martino often runs the widely-dispersed group out of her home office in California. when she's not traveling. She talked this week with Computerworld's Eric Lai about inking deals for HP to sell and support popular open-source applications such as OpenLDAP, JBoss and MySQL in the last 18 months, but said she is now less focused on alliances and more on making the software work better for customers.

Ubuntu vendor plans upgrade, corporate push

Ubuntu Linux has gained more than 2 million users worldwide since its release in October 2004, according to Canonical Ltd., a small vendor on the Isle of Man that oversees the software. Most are home users. But at the Desktop Linux Summit 2006, Jane Silber, Canonical's chief operating officer, spoke with Computerworld about the company's efforts to increase Ubuntu's corporate appeal.

NextAction taps Oracle for database marketing

Some people choose databases from Oracle because of their cutting-edge features, but Steve Helle, chief technology officer at Denver area database marketing firm NextAction, wanted something else.

ISO approves Open Document Format as standard

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) this week accepted the Open Document Format (ODF) as an international standard for saving and exchanging digital office documents, according to a group supporting ODF's use.

Microsoft: Vista 'on track' despite Gartner doubts

While Microsoft has a good track record of hitting its release targets for minor operating systems, its history with large, complex overhauls such as Windows Vista is far spottier, according to Gartner, which in a Monday research note predicted a further delay in Windows Vista's release.

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