Sean Michael Kerner

From the ‘Not Just for the Desktop‘ files: Ubuntu Linux, which is likely best known for being a great desktop Linux distribution is going after the embedded Linux market. The new Ubuntu Core offering is targeted at embedded deployments on Intel x86, ARM (TI, Marvell, Freescale). Considering how widespread embedded Linux is in consumer electronics, […]

A potentially damaging vulnerability to Google’s Chrome browser has been discovered and fixed in an update, the search giant reported. The fix was released just days after Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) had already issued what it called the first stable Chrome 10 release last week. Google said the CVE-2011-1290 vulnerability is a high impact memory corruption […]

Red Hat’s JBoss portfolio got a boost this week with the Linux vendor’s release of JBoss Enterprise Data Services Platform 5.1. With the new release, Red Hat is folding technologies into its SOA platform that the firm acquired through the 2007 purchase of MetaMatrix. “The data services extensions includes the full use of the SOA […]

From the ‘Lucky Charms‘ files: There are a lot of new features in Mozilla’s Firefox 4 web browser. There are also a number of old features that are now gone — or at least appear to be. One of the things that I first noticed with Firefox 4 (when I shifted to it for daily […]

Novell’s openSUSE will soon offer more users immediate access to its latest features without having to wait for a milestone update. That’s because with the release of openSUSE 11.4, Novell is offering a capability it’s calling Project Tumbleweed, which offers users an alternative to the stable release cycle, much the way Arch Linux and Gentoo […]

At the annual Pwn2own challenge, hackers compete for prizes and notoriety as they try to compromise the defenses of the major Web browsers and mobile platforms. So who is still standing, and who got taken down a peg? So far, Google’s Chrome browser and Mozilla’s Firefox have defied the hackers’ onslaught. Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s […]

From the ‘Hurry Up and Wait‘ files: Novell shareholders are going to have wait just a bit longer until they can cash in and be acquired by Attachmate for $2.2 billion. Though Novell shareholders have already approved the sale, the deal is contingent on Novell selling off 882 patents to CPTN Holdings – a group […]

Mozilla is submitting its do-not-track capability as a draft specification to the IETF for review. The do-not-track (DNT) feature is built into the new Firefox 4 Web browser, which is currently at its first release candidate stage (RC1). DNT is an effort to provide both Web users and advertisers with a mechanism to opt in […]

The Pwn2own challenge invites hackers and security researchers to take their best shot at browsers and mobile platforms. And often, in anticipation, vendors will push out updates ahead of the challenge. Underway this week, Pwn2own has already seen its first casualties: Apple’s Safari browser and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8. In fact, in a matter of […]

From the ‘Bug Extermination‘ files: FINALLY! Mozilla’s Firefox 4 open source web browser is at the Release Candidate stage (RC1) — though it sure is fixing a massive list of bugs from the Beta 12 release. By my count the RC1 release fixed 648 bugs though it’s not clear how many are unique to RC1 […]

Like many open source projects, the OpenStack cloud computing effort has worked hard to build up an ecosystem of partners. Backed by Rackspace and NASA, and founded last July, OpenStack now has more than 40 partners, and it’s planning to go commercial. “Since we started OpenStack we have seen a ton of momentum, but one […]

Drupal 7 debuted earlier last year, and the founder of the CMS is eager to put lessons learned from that exercise to use in creating version 8. Drupal is one of the most popular open source content management systems in use today — deployed by Whitehouse.gov, Mozilla and NASA. Developers and users are attending the […]