Sean Michael Kerner

MySQL is one of the most popular databases in use today, a popularity that has been driven by the open source community. Some in the community, however, are taking issue with exactly how open MySQL actually is as fears about the future of the open source database grow. At stake and at issue are the […]

From the ‘apparently it’s not the year of the Linux desktop‘ files: For years, we’ve heard various vendors and pundits proclaim, ‘ the year of the Linux Desktop’ . Linux leader, Red Hat however isn’t proclaiming 2008 to be the year of the Linux Desktop, in fact they’re being very forthright about the difficult prospects […]

The kernel at the center of the burgeoning Linux universe has just received its broadest series of changes in its history. The new 2.6.25 kernel’s extensive list of enhancements continues Linux’s forward momentum, as it enjoys escalating success both in terms of developers and in customer spending. “There are a lot of changes in the […]

The future of the stand-alone operating system is not particularly bright. At least, that’s according to Nat Friedman, chief technology and strategy officer for open source at Novell, which yesterday officially announced the company’s entry into the Linux appliance space. Novell’s effort, the SUSE Appliance Program, aims to provide independent software vendors (ISVs) with an […]

Barely three  weeks after its last update, the Mozilla Firefox 2.x browser is again being patched for a security issue. Firefox 2.0.0.14 fixes a single issue that is a result of a fix that Mozilla made in the Firefox 2.0.0.13 release. The fix for ‘Crash in JavaScript garbage collector’ MFSA 2008-15 that Mozilla fixed with […]

The vulnerability count for Oracle software is on the rise with the latest April Critical Patch Update (CPU) fixing a total of 41 vulnerabilities. The list of fixes tops Oracle’s last quarterly patch of 26 fixes issued in January. The new security patch does, however, add in updates for Oracle’s Siebel product line, which had […]

Talk about FUD. I came across a release this AM titled, “Free Open Source Software Is Costing Vendors $60 Billion,” New Standish Group International Study Finds”. This ‘research’ firm claims in its release that they’ve spent 5 years studying the Open Source market (funny since in the last five years I’ve never heard of the […]

From the ‘all good things must come to an end’ files: The Debian GNU / Linux distribution has announced the eighth and final update to the Debian 3.1 Sarge release.  Time sure does fly.  It seems like just yesterday that I was complaining about the delayed Sarge release (it was actually 2004), and wondering what […]

Borland’s CodeGear unit this week released its new version of its Delphi for PHP IDE — introducing a number of enhancements geared to make PHP developers more productive. But the new release may also signal growing competition with Zend, PHP’s lead commercial sponsor, and the maker of Zend Studio IDE. Version 2.0 of CodeGear’s Delphi […]

Google’s recently unveiled App Engine promises developers a means of hosting applications on the search leader’s massive, scalable framework. Now, the effort is already underway to simplify the process. Among the first to offer tools to help developers develop and deploy Python applications on Google’s App Engine is Appcelerator, an open source, rich Internet application […]

Well, maybe — and maybe not. Yesterday’s big news from Linux that it would be opening up its millions of ISR routers to third party applications is massive news. It would have been big news if Cisco has just opened up the routers, but by doing it with a Linux base, Cisco may well dramatically […]

Networking gear and server equipment are two distinct types of hardware, right? Not anymore. Networking goliath Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is now opening its Integrated Services Router (ISR) and Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) platforms to become Linux-based application server platforms. The move could have wide-ranging implications, as Cisco’s gear has millions of deployments that […]