Microsoft Office document dependencies keep desktop Linux niche, Jan 30, 2008

IT managers considering the future of their organization's desktops need to be wary of the amount of dependence workers have on Microsoft Office documents -- which cause the most lock-in, according to one consultant.

Expensive and error-prone digital tapes has forced BBC UK, one of the world's largest television broadcasters, to look at using computers running Linux to help produce its programs.

Agencies expect to increase open source use, vendor support remains a concern

The Red Hat-sponsored Fedora Linux project has released version 8 of its operating system with a host of new features aimed at raising the bar over rival Ubuntu.

Three local government shires in Western Australia have adopted the open source Xen virtualization technology to virtualize Windows servers on Linux hosts and reduce its need for physical machines.

The movie industry may be accustomed to using Linux for creative design and high-powered clustering but Happy Feet creator Animal Logic is content to have the penguin run the bulk of its corporate services.

The next-generation of the KDE open source project, version 4.0, has been touted as the beginning of a new era in desktop computing, but only two months from the first release some users are wondering if it's just all hype.

In an interesting tale of penguins giving life to penguins, the smash hit animated feature film Happy Feet was creating with Linux servers and desktops, in addition to Windows 2000 and XP.

Ubuntu Linux founder Mark Shuttleworth is urging the three large desktop projects of KDE, GNOME, and OpenOffice.org to agree on a common and regular release cycle.

Ubuntu Linux founder Mark Shuttleworth has declared more publicity would be generated for open source software if the three large desktop projects of KDE, GNOME, and OpenOffice.org agreed on a common and regular release cycle.

The annual technical conference for the open source KDE desktop project, known as aKademy, will have a special buzz this year as developers from around the world prepare the fourth-generation release which promises all the glitz of Windows Vista and Mac OS X.

This month's announcement by Microsoft to acquire digital marketing services firm aQuantive has revealed little on how the companies will integrate their IT, but inside information indicates the deal may be Redmond's largest commitment to free software.

Maintaining a large number of Linux servers to power its search and web application services is at the heart of Google’s business and, until now, has remained a closely guarded secret.

The federal government backed IPv6 for e-Business project has yielded an Ubuntu-based IPv6 router that is now being trialled in business.

The Novell executive who architected an historic technology and intellectual property agreement with Microsoft has scolded rival Red Hat for not being innovative and warned Oracle's Linux play will fragment the company's operating system.

Linux may be an operating system synonymous with a flightless bird, but Loyalty Pacific, the company behind popular retail loyalty and rewards program FlyBuys, has announced it will jet its infrastructure to open source software.

In general, InTACT uses servers running either Solaris, Red Hat and other types of Linux, and Windows operating systems.

The University of Melbourne's University Systems Project is set to undergo its largest transformation since its launch four years ago with the core Unix systems to be replaced by Linux by the end of the year.

By steadily overhauling individual pain-points in its IT infrastructure, the National Gallery of Victoria's (NGV) multimedia division has adopted Linux and open source software resulting in an improved service delivery capability.

Since announcing its intention to contribute to and support the open source PostgreSQL database on its flagship Solaris 10 operating system in late 2005, Sun Microsystems has published a customer win that pulls no punches towards Linux and Oracle.