Sean Michael Kerner

Building and maintaining packages for multiple Linux distributions has never been an easy task. But Novell wants to change that with a pair of releases it hopes will make it easier to build Linux application packages and custom Linux distributions. Novell’s openSUSE Build Service and KIWI build-your-own distro efforts are aimed at building community open […]

The term Linux desktop is a bit of misnomer since there are actually many Linux desktop environments, including KDE and GNOME. Xfce is another Linux desktop option. Xfce 4.4 is now available, boasting new features that will change the way that its Linux desktop looks and works. Both KDE and GNOME have been known to […]

The Liberty Alliance wants open source developers to use its protocols, though it isn’t about to open source the protocols themselves. The Liberty Alliance today announced the openLiberty Project, an open source initiative designed to offer developers tools for integrating the privacy and security capabilities of Liberty Federation and Liberty Web Services into identity-based services. […]

UPDATED: The world’s largest retailer is all for the recent Microsoft-Novell deal, which provides for interoperability for Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and Microsoft Windows. Wal-Mart will receive a number of subscription certificates for SLES from Microsoft. Though financial terms of the deal were not publicly disclosed, Susan Hauser, Microsoft general manager of customer […]

Six weeks ago the OSDL (Open Source Development Labs) announced layoffs and the loss of its CEO. Today it announced a merger. The group has merged with the Free Standards Group (FSG) to create the Linux Foundation. Jim Zemlin, executive director of the FSG, will lead the new Linux Foundation, which will include more than […]

Oracle  is basing its Unbreakable Linux offering on Red Hat’s Linux, but the database vendor is not content to rest on Red Hat’s laurels when it comes to managing Linux. Oracle today is announcing Oracle Management Pack for Linux, which is a module for Oracle’s existing Enterprise Manager offering. Oracle claims that Management Pack for […]

Reporter’s Notebook: SCO’s recent fourth-quarter earnings call started on a somewhat ominous note. SCO spokesman Blake Stowell warned that SCO would only be taking questions about its Unix and Me Inc mobile business. Read: We will not be taking questions about our legal activities against Novell and IBM. I was on this call and, at […]

Network Access Control (NAC) was one of the most talked about networking technologies of 2006. Some have positioned it as a silver bullet with the ability to defend a network against all comers. One man and one company in particular stood out amid the torrent of NAC hype in 2006 and poked holes in a […]

Sun has officially announced that it has fixed a highly critical vulnerability in its Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The flaw was first reported to Sun six months ago, but the public’s just finding out about it this week. Sun ALERT 102760 has labeled the flaw as a security vulnerability in processing GIF images in Java […]

SCO CEO Darl McBride insisted during the company’s fourth quarter conference call today that the company is not going bankrupt. He did admit, however, that SCO’s recent earnings are not very impressive, but is encouraged by the company’s prospects for 2007. SCO  reported results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended October 31, 2006 […]

Oracle is out with its first Critical Patch Update of 2007 and it addresses 51 different security vulnerabilities. The number may seem high, but it’s actually less than past fixes, thanks in part to Oracle’s new reporting methods. The 51 vulnerabilities affect Oracle Database Server, Oracle Applications Server, Oracle Collaboration Suite, Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle […]

What do NASA, MTV, Tim Berners Lee and Mozilla all have in common? They use the open source Drupal content management system (CMS). The Drupal project celebrates two major milestones this week: the release of Drupal 5.0 and the sixth anniversary of the project. It’s a long way away from the project’s humble beginning in […]