News (89)

Sun threatened by Microsoft, Apple over patents

Revealing a bit of previously hush-hush history that's relevant today, Sun Microsystems' former chief executive said that both Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Microsoft founder Bill Gates had threatened Sun for infringing their patents. Read more »

Microsoft sabotaging GPL, claims Samba

Samba project leader Jeremy Allison has accused Microsoft of trying to prevent people using and distributing software under the GNU General Public Licence, by forcing cross-patent licensing deals. Read more »

Autodesk chief takes Yahoo CEO role

Carol Bartz, Autodesk's former executive chairman, has replaced Jerry Yang as Yahoo's chief executive. Read more »

Yahoo to chop at least 1,400 jobs

Yahoo yesterday in the US reported a 64 per cent drop in net income for the third quarter, issued cautions about a weakening advertising market, and confirmed that layoffs were indeed on the way. Read more »

Jerry Yang's memo to Yahoo staff

This is the text of the e-mail Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang sent to his company's staff on Saturday after Microsoft withdrew its offer to acquire the Internet pioneer. Read more »

SCO boss boos Linux from the sidelines

Troubled software maker SCO's chief executive has claimed the Linux operating system includes Unix source code, during a court case in which Novell is suing SCO for royalties on Unix. Read more »

Microsoft publishes 14,000 pages of protocol docs

Microsoft has made public over 14,000 pages of preliminary technical documentation on the protocols built into its Office 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 products. Read more »

Future versions of OOXML safe: Microsoft

Microsoft has assured coders that its Open Specification Promise — a pledge it won't sue developers using OOXML — will apply to future versions of the document format. Read more »

"Two engineers better than 1,000 lawyers": Microsoft lawyer

Brad Smith, Microsoft general counsel, got on stage at a open-source conference in San Francisco and tried to find common ground with the audience. Read more »

Novell CEO: We made Microsoft open up

Speaking to the Novell boss at his company's annual BrainShare user conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, ZDNet.com.au's sister site, ZDNet.co.uk asked whether the Microsoft deal could actually be damaging in the long run and what effect a financial downturn could have on Novell's recent recovery. Read more »

Features (12)

The truth behind Ballmer's revision of history

While speaking in Moscow, Microsoft CEO and Yahoo suitor Steve Ballmer said, "Yahoo was never the strategy we were pursuing, it was a way to accelerate our online advertising business... We will spend money on some acquisitions. You can do a whole lot of things with $50 billion." Read more »

Microsoft not yet open for business

The most impressive aspect of Microsoft's statement on Thursday in favour of caring and sharing wasn't in anything the company said. It was the speed at which the world, or that part of it not in a commercial relationship with Microsoft, digested the information and replied: Heard it before. Not good enough. Read more »

Microsoft plays open but patent jaws still have teeth

Despite Microsoft's claim it will not sue developers that build free open source software on Microsoft platforms, a caveat leaves a yawning space for its legal teeth to gnash those that commercialise the software. Read more »

Interview with Dr Andrew S Tanenbaum

Nick Gibson caught up with Dr Tanembaum after his keynote address at linux.conf.au and spoke about microkernels, MINIX and what's coming up on the horizon. Read more »

The open-source patent conundrum

The latest tactic in the software-patenting battle is the granting of patent rights to open-source developers. But are the grants really the equivalent of wolves in sheep's clothing? Read more »

Sprucing up open source's GPL foundation

Modernisation is coming to the General Public License, a legal framework that supports a large part of the free and open-source software movements and that has received sharp criticism from Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. Read more »

Are open source databases for real?

Free and open-source software is making a splash in the world of databases. But is it reliable enough for your critical applications? Read more »

Understanding your mental models can help sharpen PM skills

Becoming more aware of your mental models, or preconceptions, can help you become a more nimble project manager. See how to make your mental models more conscious and explainable and learn how they relate to the discipline of personal mastery. Read more »

5 resume flaws to avoid

An effective resume is a key tool when trying to land a job in a tight IT market. A veteran IT recruiter warns of 5 fatal flaws that could send your resume to the reject file. Read more »

Open source systems make business sense

Open source may not be right for every dev platform, but you should compare it with paid licence options. Here are pros and cons of using open source. Read more »

Video (1)

Wikimedia Foundation Defends Jimmy Wales

Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, defended Wikipedia co-creator Jimmy Wales who is under fire for allegedly misusing foundation funds. Read more »

Blog (1)

Microsoft says "open sesame"

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- While you may have been out last night watching the latest Rambo adventure with Sly Stallone making war for war's sake, Microsoft was busy declaring a truce with the open source community. Read more »

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  • Staff Microsoft shows off IE9 preview

    This week, highlights from Microsoft's MIX10 conference and more in the Roundup. Read more »

    -- posted by Staff

  • Chris Duckett IE9's H.264 vote killed Ogg

    In a split decision by the judges, the winner of the W3C/WHATWG video codec consensus is H.264, taking home the future of video playback on the internet while loser Ogg goes home with nothing but thoughts of what might have been. Read more »

    -- posted by Chris Duckett

  • Staff Google launches Apps Marketplace

    Google launches and app store, while Mozilla plans to re-write its open-source license. More of this week's news in the Roundup. Read more »

    -- posted by Staff

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