Articles by Staff Writer

In part 1 of this two-part article, the E-Commerce Times explored Linux' potential to win market share from Solaris, Sun's proprietary version of Unix, as Linux is used to power ever more mission-critical functions What is the future of Solaris in a world where Linux shares the limelight? In part 2, we will examine why the rise of Linux may not be ...

Setting up the perfect enterprise server system architecture seemed pretty straightforward just a few years ago "You went with [Sun Microsystems'] Solaris for the OS, put Oracle on top of Solaris for the database, used EMC for storage, and Cisco for routers," Yankee Group senior analyst Dana Gardner told the E-Commerce Times....

Informatica, a supplier of data integration and business intelligence solutions, has announced it plans to buy Striva Corporation in a cash-and-stock transaction worth about US$62 million Sanjay Poonen, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Informatica, told the E-Commerce Times that Striva's mainframe data integration software is the gol...

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is planning to offer music downloaders a reprieve from prosecution, provided they adhere to certain conditions, according to published reports People who have illegally downloaded copyrighted music files allegedly would be required to destroy all of those files on their PCs, destroy any known CDs...

As 2003 dawned, Linux seemed poised to take off. This low-cost, open-source alternative to proprietary Windows and Unix systems had grown so robust and reliable that Fortune 1,000 corporations -- entities not known for taking bold IT leaps -- were beginning to migrate to it en masse. Meanwhile, giant vendors like IBM, HP and Oracle were basing more of their core offerings on the OS...

Amazon.com has sued 11 entities in the United States and Canada for forging its domain name in their e-mail spam messages, the company has announced. The lawsuits represent the latest salvo in Amazon's fight to suppress and eradicate such spoofing The company filed suit in seven U.S. federal district courts and in the Ontario Superior Court of Just...

The dog days of summer have certainly arrived for Microsoft. In the month of August alone, the company's security personnel have had to contend with nearly half a dozen major worms, including MSBlast (aka LovSan and Blaster), two variants of SoBig (SoBig.E and this week's SoBig.F, which may be the fastest-spreading worm of all time) and Nachi/Welchia, a so-called "good" worm that nevertheless is creating headaches for IT departments...

As predicted last week in TechNewsWorld's "Profile of a SuperWorm," the latest variant in the SoBig worm family has been unleashed, with Internet security firms reporting that several copies have been found in the wild. Like the previous five versions of the worm, SoBig.F can be spread via either e-mail or network shares. It takes control of an in...

Dell's fiscal second-quarter numbers demonstrated growth in both its consumer and enterprise operations. In addition, the computer maker reported increased growth and profitability worldwide, bucking overall industry trends Although the company's numbers were impressive, they were not surprising to industry watchers....

Google has announced that sales of its Google Search Appliance (GSA) increased 200 percent over the course of the last year. The enterprise-focused product, which integrates hardware and software into a stand-alone appliance dedicated to search technology, first became available early last year Google also provided a list of high-level business and...

SCO has announced that it will sell intellectual property (IP) licenses to make it legal for enterprises to run Linux, which allegedly uses portions of SCO's proprietary Unix source code SCO spokesperson Blake Stowell told the E-Commerce Times that this license covers the company's IP rights in Linux 2.4 kernels and later -- almost every Linux dist...

As the LinuxWorld conference kicks off, Novell has announced the purchase of Ximian, a privately held company known as a trailblazer in the open source space, for an undisclosed amount. According to Novell, the deal was an all-cash transaction and will not affect its financial statements this fiscal year According to a statement issued in conjuncti...

Qwest Communications and Sprint have jointly announced that Sprint will wholesale its PCS Vision voice and data services to Qwest customers under an exclusive agreement Sprint (NYSE: PCS) spokesperson Dan Wilinsky told the E-Commerce Times that this deal is a win-win opportunity for both companies. It offers Sprint a new sales channel, especially f...

Buzz about WiFi has swelled to a dull roar this year. Ads for PC laptops highlight Intel's new Centrino technology, which gives users wireless networking capabilities without requiring them to buy a separate PCI card. Across the United States, Starbucks enables customers to check e-mail wirelessly, and McDonald's has just followed suit with plans to offer WiFi service at about 75 restaurants in the Bay Area...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an updated advisory Wednesday entitled "Potential for Significant Impact on Internet Operations Due to Vulnerability in Microsoft Operating Systems." The warning listed all the major iterations of Windows server platforms as well as client-side Windows XP. The advisory said that, while the depar...

Sprint PCS and Samsung have jointly announced a new gaming accessory that will convert certain Samsung mobile phones into gaming devices. Called the PCS Game Pad, the add-on works only with Samsung's new A600 mobile phone, which was also released today in conjunction with the announcement. The phone retails for about US$350, while the Game Pad costs about $40.

Microsoft has revealed portions of its Windows source code to a dozen foreign governments as part of its Government Security Program Initiative, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) spokesperson Alex Mercer told the E-Commerce Times The initiative, which was first announced in January, allows controlled access to the code so that foreign governments and organi...

IBM has announced that Japan's largest national research agency, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), has commissioned the company to build what will be the world's most powerful Linux supercomputer The system will comprise a cluster of 1,058 of IBM's new eServer 325 systems with 2,636 processors. Specificall...

Part 1 of this article discussed the relative advantages and disadvantages of IBM's DB2 and Oracle's 9i software. However, IBM and Oracle, with their combined 70 percent market share, are not the only RDBMS vendors in the database race. Microsoft, the number three vendor, has seen tremendous growth in the last few years for its Windows-only SQL Server. In fact, a recent Gartner Dataquest survey reported that SQL Server captured 18 percent of new worldwide RDBMS software license revenue in 2002 -- nearly 17 percent more than in 2001...

A group of companies in the mobile technologies and devices industry has established a new standards body for mobile processor interfaces Called the Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) Alliance, the new nonprofit entity seeks to define and endorse open-standard specifications for the application processor interfaces (APIs) used in mobile dev...