Ruling renews hope for developers
Microsoft's defeat in a European appeals court on Monday has left open-source developers hopeful about the future — although still dissatisfied with the company's compliance with a 3-year-old antitrust ruling.
Stories by Peter Sayer
Cognos acquisition
Cognos has agreed to buy Applix, a developer of performance analysis software, and plans to integrate the companies' products by early next year.
OOXML vote at ISO: France says non, Australia abstains
France has voted against adoption of Microsoft's document format Office Open XML as an international standard, while Australia has decided to abstain.
ISO votes to reject Microsoft's OOXML as standard
Microsoft Corp. has failed in its attempt to have its Office Open XML document format fast-tracked straight to the status of an international standard by the International Organization for Standardization.
Ingres launches open-source BI appliance
Ingres has released the Icebreaker BI Appliance, a package of software that integrates JasperSoft’s open-source business intelligence suite with the Ingres 2006 database running on Rpath Linux.
EU fines Telefónica for predatory broadband pricing
The European Union’s antitrust regulator has fined telecommunications operator Telefónica €152 million (NZ$265 million) for overcharging its competitors for wholesale access to broadband services in Spain. But competing operators say the fine is still not enough to ensure fair competition in Europe’s telecommunications markets.
Web app buy for HP
Hewlett-Packard has agreed to buy web application security specialist SPI Dynamics, just two weeks after IBM announced plans to buy SPI rival Watchfire.
Security concerns prompt French BlackBerry ban
French government members and their advisors have been told not to use BlackBerry smartphones, for national security reasons. The ban on BlackBerry devices is just one of the IT challenges facing new National Assembly members as they take their seats following Sunday's elections.
German telecom regulator pushes for competition in fibre
The German Federal Network Agency wants to move competition closer to the customer in the market for high-speed optical fibre connections to the home or office.
Don't use WEP, say German security researchers
The Wi-Fi security protocol WEP should not be relied on to protect sensitive material, according to three German security researchers who have discovered a faster way to crack it. They plan to demonstrate their findings at a security conference in Hamburg this weekend.
HP swoops on Russian talent
Hewlett-Packard is recruiting researchers to tackle fundamental problems in information management at a new laboratory in St Petersburg, Russia.
Alcatel-Lucent expects poor Q4 results
Alcatel-Lucent SA warned on Tuesday that its fourth-quarter revenue and operating profit will be significantly lower than a year earlier, dragged down by uncertainty among customers and employees about the merger of Alcatel SA and Lucent Technologies Inc., which completed on Nov. 30.
Office Open XML official
Microsoft has won approval for its Office Open XML document format from ECMA International, a global standards body.
France pins growth hopes on Parisian open source software
The French government plans to make the region around Paris a centre of excellence for open-source software development, the French Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry, Thierry Breton, says.
French politicians to get free software on desktops
Deputies elected to the French National Assembly in the next legislative session will find open source software on the desktop PCs provided for their use.