News (381)

Azure manages to avoid a Hailstorm of criticism

Microsoft's Hailstorm prompted an avalanche of criticism when it was proposed seven years ago, but developers seem to have few qualms with Windows Azure, which embraces many of the same notions. Read more »

Google reveals Android source code

A year after announcing Android, the open source phone operating system intended to jump-start the mobile Internet, Google has begun sharing the project's underlying source code. Read more »

Microsoft: We're all 'mixed source' companies

In case you were wondering, Microsoft thinks the battle of open source vs. proprietary software is basically over. Read more »

IBM joins the 'cloud computing' bandwagon

IBM on Monday launched a major initiative into 'cloud computing', a current term for internet-based services, in an effort it hopes will challenge the early lead of cloud pioneers such as Amazon and Google. Read more »

Stallman warns of cloud vendor lock-in

Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman this week said cloud computing was "stupidity" that ultimately would result in vendor lock-in and escalating costs. Read more »

Google denies disassembling Vista code for Chrome

The source code underlying Google's Chrome web browser suggests Google used a reverse-engineering technique called disassembly to figure out how to use a useful Windows Vista security feature, but the company has denied doing this. Read more »

Google Chrome's open source ally: Microsoft

During Google's launch of its Chrome Web browser, the company went out of its way to acknowledge the debt it owes two open source projects, Firefox and WebKit. But Microsoft, an uncommon ally in the open source realm, might also deserve a tip of the hat. Read more »

Firefox 3.1 alpha 2 available to developers

Firefox 3.1 alpha 2, code-named Shiretoko, adds functionality for Web developers with very little eye candy for users. Read more »

Google quietly updates Chrome

Search giant Google has quietly begun releasing a hastily prepared update to its Chrome browser to fix some security problems. Read more »

Stephen Fry kicks off GNU's 25th birthday party

The Free Software Foundation is beginning celebrations of 25 years of GNU with the release of a video presented by actor and comedian Stephen Fry. Read more »

Features (157)

Mozilla chairman unfazed by Google Chrome

Things just got a lot more complicated for Mitchell Baker, the Mozilla Foundation's chairman and "chief lizard wrangler." Read more »

10 questions to ask before migrating to Linux

If you're thinking about making the switch to Linux, Jack Wallen is all for it -- but only if you approach the migration with your eyes open. He recommends that you evaluate a number of key issues before taking this big step. Read more »

Symbian's research chief on going open source

We caught up with Symbian's research chief, David Wood, at the Symbian Smartphone Show at Earls Court in London, to discuss the complications of such a process, as well as what the next few years holds for smartphone technology. Read more »

Should web developers keep up with browser statistics?

This article explains why developers may want to keep up with web browser statistics and describes where to find this information. It also discusses how browser market share impacts your development work. Read more »

Brazil's love of Linux

Walk into the Ponto Frio electronics store at Sao Paulo, Brazil, which proudly displays a penguin-shaped logo, and you will find a healthy supply of Linux PCs alongside the usual Windows machines. Read more »

JavaScript -- a Flash competitor?

Open source software has its problems when it's trying to keep up with proprietary software, but when it does what it's good at -- creating ideas and developing them very quickly in public -- it can be revolutionary. Read more »

Flash, HTML, AJAX: Which will win the Web app war?

The days when Web pages were static collections of text and graphics are long past. But as the Web matures, there's a fierce competition over which technology will propel it into a medium for rich, interactive applications. Read more »

Why traditionalists should take Web developers seriously

There used to be a sharp distinction between application developers and Web developers. This made sense when technologies such as Perl/CGI, classic ASP, standard JSP, and PHP ruled the Web development roost. But this distinction is becoming less relevant. Read more »

Manage relational data with the Java Persistence API

The Java Persistence API (JPA) is a Java framework that allows developers to manage relational data in J2SE and J2EE applications. The JPA is defined as part of the EJB 3.0 specification (which is part of the Java EE 5 platform). Read more »

HTML 5: A change in course... straight for the iceberg

The W3C recently released a working draft specification for HTML 5. In its current iteration, this is the worst specification I have ever read. Read more »

Video (3)

Explaining Google's BigTable

Google uses a proprietary, high performance and scalable database called BigTable. Brett Slatkin, senior software engineer at Google, explains BigTable and how it get the best out of it with AppEngine. Read more »

Microsoft ditched as Anglicans go open source

The Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church has decided to cut the Microsoft umbilical cord by moving to open source, starting with Office which will be replaced in the next three years. Read more »

Microsoft denies OOXML has 'proprietary hooks'

As Australia and various other nations prepare to vote on whether Microsoft's Open Office XML becomes an ISO standard, the Redmond giant is attempting to downplay fears that OOXML adopters will be hooked into the company's technology. Read more »

Blog (12)

Theora, Firefox reach milestones

Chris Duckett [blogs:betaliving] -- Milestones were reached with two open sources projects: Theora has hit version 1.0 and Firefox reaches 20% global marketshare. Read more »

Wired keyboards lead to tin foil hat wearing

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- Just because you don't wear a tin foil hat, doesn't mean they aren't after you keystrokes. Read more »

Bracing for Applefest

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- It's that time of year again, Steve Jobs' reality distortion field is about to extend throughout the internet and consume your favourite tech news sites for days. To Apple fanboys it is more than Christmas -- to others it is WWDC and you cannot escape it . Read more »

When it comes to Apple, proprietary, 'schmaprietary'

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- The company's "closed" behaviour, you can argue, is what makes simplicity possible. What limited Apple's appeal is now working to its advantage. Read more »

How Google's App Engine stacks up with Amazon's EC2

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- We compare Amazon's approach to providing infrastructure services to Google's. Read more »

Google's Secret Sauce

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- A new Googler has offered a rare glimpse into the process by which the search giant turns ideas into products. Read more »

OpenID Foundation scores top-shelf board members

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- If the OpenID Foundation were a liquor cabinet, it just got stocked with some Grey Goose, Rhum Clement, and Gran Patron. Read more »

Samba gets an inside look at Microsoft documentation

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- A complicated third-party arrangement means that the open-source Samba project will be able to make use of proprietary documents describing Microsoft file-sharing software. Read more »

Adobe bashes open source alternatives

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- Adobe Systems has embraced open source software for some products, but its core Creative Suite line looks like it'll remain proprietary. Read more »

Microsoft's two faces of SharePoint

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- One way or another, proprietary and open-source companies need an answer to SharePoint. Content is the center of the enterprise ecosystem, when all is said and done. SharePoint is Microsoft's answer for controlling the next decade of IT. Read more »

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  • Staff Crying, mooning and leaving

    In this week's roundup we see that continuous whining can get results, Linux users get 64-bit Flash and Moonlight previews, the latest in the Yahoo/Microsoft relationship and Senator Conroy ducks and weave in Senate Question Time. Read more »

    -- posted by Staff

  • Brendon Chase Sun eye Web developers with Netbeans 6.5

    Despite the recent employment axe hitting Sun the company has pushed out a new release of its Netbeans open source IDE with an eye to appeal more to Web developers. Read more »

    -- posted by Brendon Chase

  • Renai LeMay BarCamp buzz: Let the hacking continue

    Attending last weekend's BarCamp in Sydney, it was hard to escape the conclusion that a certain "dot-com bust" flavour had seeped into the kool aid previously being drunk by Australia's web 2.0 and early stage start-up sector. Read more »

    -- posted by Renai LeMay

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