Open source project takes on iTunes, Feb 13, 2006

San Francisco based start-up Pioneers of the Inevitable has released an early version of its Songbird media player that aims to deliver an open source alternative to iTunes and Windows Media Player.

In side-by-side tests of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Firefox, IE proved to be far more vulnerable to spyware infections. Most of the exploits that leveraged IE vulnerabilities to plant spyware were based on ActiveX and JavaScript.

The challenge for Microsoft, which has become addicted to making huge profits from selling its commodity software, is how it can convince customers that continuing to pay through the nose for its brand of software is worth it. For Microsoft, that is becoming an increasingly harder sell.

If you're looking for clear-cut heroes and villains in the raging debate about Linux and GPL version 3.0, don't read on. Things get really messy from here on in.

In an effort to reduce its desktop TCO by at least 25 percent, the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority will start implementing open source thin clients as early as June this year.

If BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has to shut down its over-the-air e-mail service because of its legal battles with intellectual property-holding company NTP, the open-source wireless e-mail company Funambol may be able to keep BlackBerries working.

Microsoft must explain this week why the European Commission should not fine it up to 2 million euros ($2.39 million) a day for failing to comply with an antitrust order.

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