Selling businesses on the benefits of Linux has been a tough proposition for many years. Common reasons cited for not moving to the open-source operating system include system complexity, lack of in-house IT skills and a shortage of business applications. Both the open-source software community and the vendor world have done a lot to address [...]

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Steve Langasek has announced the availability of the delayed first alpha release of Ubuntu 8.10, code name “Intrepid Ibex”: “Welcome to Intrepid Ibex Alpha 1, which will in time become Ubuntu 8.10. Alpha 1 is the first in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Intrepid development cycle. The primary [...]

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It is estimated that the data storage sector consumed about 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2006 (1.5% of total U.S. consumption, or roughly equivalent to the amount consumed by 5.8 million average U.S. households). These numbers are only expected to grow. The energy used by the nation’s servers and data centers is growing at an [...]

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When it comes to the U.S. government’s computer security, we in the tech press have a habit of reporting only the bad news—for instance, last year’s hacks into Oak Ridge and Los Alamos National Labs, a break-in to an e-mail server used by Defense Secretary Robert Gates … the list goes on and on. Frankly [...]

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