Sean Michael Kerner

From the ‘Strange Bedfellows’ files: When you download Firefox today the default homepage and search provider is Google. That ‘deal’ and the searches that millions of Firefox users do everyday is what provides the vast majority of Mozilla’s revenues. The only problem is that the Google deal is up for renewal soon (and I personally […]

From the ‘Cloud Rules’ files: You can add SUSE to the long list of vendors that have an OpenStack solution. OpenStack is the open source cloud platform that now has well over 80 member companies participating. What SUSE is doing is interesting, in that they’re making an OpenStack distribution available. So instead of just ‘pledging’ […]

From the ‘Kernel Fun’ files: Some kernel release cycles are longer than others. Such is the case with Linux 3.1 which was officially released today after 10 release candidates and a hack of kernel.org. Yet despite those challenges, it really hasn’t been that long since the Linux 3.0 kernel release, which came out at the […]

In January of 2008, Cisco launched the Nexus 7000, its first major new switching platform in years. After three years in the market, Cisco is now refreshing the Nexus 7000 with new modules and chassis. From a scalability perspective, the new Fabric 2 module, enables the deployment of up to 768, 10 GbE ports in […]

For as long as there has been more than one browser, users have been asking which browser is more secure. Answering the question has often led to an evaluation of publicly disclosed vulnerabilities and determining how long it takes a browser vendor or organization, as in the case of FireFox, to patch. According to a […]

It has been more than two years since the last major release of PHP, with PHP 5.3 debuting in June of 2009, which means it’s almost time for a new major release. PHP 5.4 is currently in beta and will make multiple improvements over the current PHP 5.3 release. “There are a lot of improvements […]

In 2010, the Stuxnet malware gained global notoriety as a weapon of cyberwar against Iran. A new derivative of Stuxnet, dubbed “Duqu” is now making the rounds, though its purpose and target are not yet known. In a keynote session at the SecTOR conference in Toronto this week, F-Secure security researcher Mikko Hypponen detailed his […]

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) reported third quarter fiscal 2011 earnings this week, showing an increase in revenue but a decline in net income. Juniper’s results come as the company gears up for the availability a number of critical service provider and enterprise networking products. For the third quarter, Juniper reported net revenue of $1.1 billion, which […]

“Bill is basically unimaginative and has never invented anything, which is why I think he’s more comfortable now in philanthropy than technology. He just shamelessly ripped off other people’s ideas.” Steve Jobs as quotes in his upcoming biography, talking about Microsoft founder Bill Gates (Huffington Post) “Amazingly, nothing bad happened to me at Google. Everyone […]

From the ‘Desktop/Server Support Parity‘ files: One of the strange things about Canonical’s Long Term Support (LTS) releases has always been the disparity between the length of support on the desktop vs. the server. LTS releases today provide 5 yrs of support on the server and 3 on the desktop, but that’s going to change […]

From the “Warty, Hoary, Intrepid, Jaunty, Karmic, Lucid, Maverick, Natty, Oneiric‘ files: I have to admit, I’m a latecomer to Ubuntu. My first Ubuntu story was in April of 2005 with the Hoary Hedgehog release. Hoary came some six months after Ubuntu Warty Warthog first debuted in October of 2004, 7 years ago today. Ubuntu […]

From the “Warty, Hoary, Intrepid, Jaunty, Karmic, Lucid, Maverick, Natty, Oneiric‘ files: I have to admit, I’m a latecomer to Ubuntu. My first Ubuntu story was in April of 2005 with the Hoary Hedgehog release. Hoary came some six months after Ubuntu Warty Warthog first debuted in October of 2004, 7 years ago today. Ubuntu […]