Sean Michael Kerner

The widely used and deployed open source GNU GCC Compiler is out with a new release that fixes bugs and includes a feature that will aid shared-memory parallel programming. GCC, originally an acronym for GNU C Compiler, now does a more than just C with support for Java and other languages. As such, GCC now […]

One of the barriers small enterprises face in building out applications is the availability of skilled developers. But a new offering currently being tested by IBM  is aiming to overcome that issue by making it possible for anyone with or without development skills to build basic applications online, with the help of an AJAX-driven browser […]

It’s not every day that US-CERT warns of a flaw that is potentially so widespread that it could affect more than 90 vendors covering a huge swath of the IT industry. US-CERT’s HTTP content scanning systems full-width/half-width Unicode encoding bypass flaw could potentially be one of the most widespread networking security flaws discovered in years. […]

Open source business is gaining momentum and is no longer dominated by the discussion about how to make money. At least that’s the view of Open Source Business Conference (OSBC) organizer Matt Asay who now thinks that open source has crossed the proverbial chasm. “The issue is now how do you adopt and get the […]

Think the open source community is all one big happy family? Think again. Though real-time Linux is supposed to be a community effort, there is apparently some dissension over who is leading, who is forking and who is actually making a difference. Executives at embedded Linux vendors MontaVista and Concurrent fired back at a Red […]

IEEE 802.1X promises port-level authentication with security for both wired and wireless users. But it’s a promise that has not yet been fully realized on an industry-wide level for a variety of reasons, among which is the open availability of an enterprise-class standard client for interfacing with 802.1X A new consortium called OpenSEA (Open Secure […]

Claims that the Linux operating system infringes on third-party patents have been around for years, as well as news that Microsoft owns a portion of those patents. Now, Microsoft has put a number to those claims: 235. “In a just-published article, Microsoft has publicly acknowledged that it has 235 patents that read on open source […]

Ruby on Rails for the enterprise? Really?! Borland’s spin-off tools division, CodeGear, is developing an IDE for Ruby and the Ruby on Rails (RoR) framework in an effort to make it more attractive and usable in enterprise development environments. CodeGear sees RoR as challenging existing enterprise frameworks and becoming a disruptive force in the multi-billion […]

IEEE 802.1x promises port-level authentication with security for both wired and wireless users. But it’s a promise that has not yet been fully realized on an industry-wide level for a variety of reasons, among which is the open availability of an enterprise-class standard client for interfacing with 802.1x A new consortium called OpenSEA (Open Secure […]

UPDATED: Tens of millions of Microsoft users get their security updates from the Microsoft Update service. But a researcher at security firm Symantec is alleging that users could potentially get something more than they bargained for. A Symantec researcher said that Microsoft Update, which includes a component called Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS), could potentially […]

AJAX is one of the hottest technology trends today with vendors of all shapes and sizes jockeying for position. And though it has been hyped widely as a consumer-facing technology, with such notable sites as Google Maps, it can also potentially provide tangible benefits for the enterprise. The promise of enterprise AJAX is what seven-year-old […]

Mozilla, mostly known for its Firefox browser and Thunderbird e-mail application, is into bugs, too. The company has announced version 3.0 of Bugzilla, one of the most widely used open source bug tracking tools. Version 3.0 marks the first full-version numbered upgrade release since 1998, but that doesn’t mean the developers have been sitting on […]