open source - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• MP criticises SSC open source guidelines

  Green party MP Nandor Tanczos has taken the State Services Commission to task over the language used in its newly released guidelines for agencies considering using open source.

• Fear and loathing: is open source a developer's dream or business nightmare?

  Wouldn’t it be refreshing if you could email the author of the software you use to ask questions about it? Open source software users do that every day, and would have us believe their software is all the better for it.

• Open all hours

  Free as in beer or free as in speech? Open source is an often contentious issue that can cause huge arguments and great divides within companies and within the industry as a whole. Some argue about whether open source is a Communist plot (thanks for that, Bill) and some argue about how to even define what open source actually is. Users, as ever, seem unmoved by the arguments, and simply want to be able to open their email and spell check their documents.

• Slow to arrive, but here to stay

  New Zealand organisations may have been somewhat slow to embrace open source, it isn’t because they fail to appreciate it.

• Euro open source consortium lifts game

  The ObjectWeb consortium is giving itself a makeover this year to make its open source software more suitable for business use and to help it expand further outside Europe.

• ALF-alpha sprouts in New Zealand

  Serena Software, vendor of software designed to assist application development and integration, is seeking partners from around the world to help meld software from multiple vendors into a common Application Lifecycle Framework (ALF).

• Open source rides to the rescue

  Traffic on the network had been increasing all week, but the intrusion-detection system wasn’t picking up anything malicious. Whatever traffic was traversing the network was considered okay.

• Taking the risk out of open source

  Picture this scenario: Suppose Company A acquires Company B, a hardware vendor that incorporates the Linux kernel into its products. After the acquisition is complete, however, an unfortunate thing happens. Linux developers bring a lawsuit against Company B, alleging violations of the GNU GPL (General Public Licence). As part of the settlement, Company A agrees to open source all of Company B’s code, even the previously proprietary parts.

• Open source Nessus tool to go commercial

  Aiming to address support concerns, Tenable Network Security is introducing Nessus, its widely used open source vulnerability-scanning tool, as a commercial product in a major upgrade slated for November.

• US Navy R&D project looks to open-source use

  Three year programme to explore open source puts Navy at leading edge

• NZ antispam product goes open source

  MailWasher's commercial launch 'missed the boat'

• Vic student admin goes open source

  Doesn't signal a wider Linux adoption, however

• Councils push open source

  'Affordable' software crucial for community ICT use

• Say global, act local

  OPINION: CA's Ingres migration project is endorsed by NZ's open source community, but questions remain

• Political party turns to desktop Linux

  The South Australian Democrats party has rejected a $A50,000 content management system from an unnamed vendor for its new website in favour of the free PostNuke open source system.