Sean Michael Kerner

Red Hat is a leading technology vendor for its Linux platform and JBoss middleware lines of business. Though it has tremendous in-house technical expertise, Red Hat is actually going to a third party vendor for the technology needed to build the Web content management system for the new JBoss.org community website. In so doing, Red […]

From the “still kickin around” files: Bankrupt and apparently beaten in a key court ruling, embattled Unix vendor SCO is still around and rolling new releases. This week in Las Vegas, SCO is holding its SCO Tec Forum 2008 event at the Luxor hotel. In addition to hosting customers (yup they’ve still got those I […]

In tough economic times, it’s always a good idea to know what you’re worth — especially for a product potentially worth billions, even if it’s often given away for free. In a study that aims to take stock of the value of the Linux kernel and a typical Linux distribution, the Linux Foundation estimates the […]

Tough times for the financial services market doesn’t mean tough times for all of the software vendors that support them. Open source trading platform software developer Marketcetera, in particular, sees an increasing number of opportunities for its technology. Marketcetera is now rolling out new back office services for financial services users that leverage Marketcetera’s open […]

From the “Cookie Monster is not a toy story character” files: Every Linux distribution (and open source project) has an ongoing challenge to resolve bugs. Fixing bugs becomes increasingly important at release time – which is where Debian is now at with the upcoming “lenny” release. Debian is gearing up for a bug sprint to […]

In an age where everyone is trying to do more with less, carrier networks are no longer just about providing connectivity. The modern network is about delivering intelligent services at ever corner of the network, including the edge. It’s an area that Juniper Networks is targeting with its new Intelligent Services Edge offerings to help […]

Mozilla, well known as the open source group behind the popular desktop Firefox Web browser, is now hoping to move to the mobile browsing realm with the Fennec browser. Under development and currently at its Alpha 1 release, Fennec isn’t Mozilla’s first kick at the can for a mobile Web browser, however. Instead, Fennec replaces […]

From the “not bad for Free” files: The Linux Foundation is set to release a report on Wednesday estimating that the Linux ecosystem is now worth $25 billion. The $25 billion figure is one that I’m surprised at because its lower than other forecasts I’ve seen over the years. Or is it? I’m not sure […]

On any given day I see reports of various security issues allegedly affecting applications and Web sites. Often in my own professional estimation, I judge many issues to be non-issues but it’s not always an easy call to make. Some security vulnerabilities are difficult to execute, while some are trivial but still could leave users […]

From the “whatever happened to the dewey decimal system” files: Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman is leading an effort now that could possibly end up changing the way the Linux kernel is numbered. Currently kernels are on an x,y,z scheme where the latest point release is 2.6.27 while the bug fixes and security updates are […]

Who’s afraid of open source? According to the open source industry group FOSSBazaar, there are plenty of organizations that view using the software as risky. But the group maintains that concerns about open source stem from often poorly understood legal issues that could be overcome with some education. FOSSBazaar, an HP-led Linux Foundation working group, […]

From the “but what about WebKit?” files: The first alpha of Mozilla new Fennec mobile browser is now out, though its mobile platform availability is extremely limited. Fennec only works on Nokia N810 Internet Tablets currently, though efforts are ongoing for a Windows Mobile version. But don’t worry – if you’ve got a Windows/Mac/Linux desktop […]