Open SourceEssentials

Microsoft has given its most ringing endorsement of open source Web browsers to date with chief executive officer Steve Ballmer not ruling out adopting such technology as an alternative to its own popular Internet Explorer, saying it is "interesting".

To say Sabre Holdings is a believer in open source technology is an understatement. Its IT department supports the Travelocity Web site, the Sabre Travel Network and Sabre Airline Solutions, and the company has been using open source tools for some 10 years, according to CTO Robert Wiseman. Cost certainly factors into the reason, but it's Sabre's ability to control its own destiny by making whatever changes it deems necessary that's the real motivation. Along with Kevin Bomar, Sabre's senior principal of middleware services, Wiseman explains how open source software and the community that supports it help Sabre deliver solutions that meet its demanding uptime requirements.

The full depth of IT's involvement in Wall Street's meltdown is unknown, but one plan to stop it from happening again calls upon a growing IT trend: open source.

Here at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, it seems as though each of the thousands of attendees is on mission.

Free software advocates are praising a US federal appeals ruling that allows greater protection for open-source software against copyright infringement.

Open source software is a significant security risk for corporations that use it because in many cases, the open source community fails to adhere to minimal security best practices, according a study released Monday.

I've been writing about the use of open source software in business for nearly a decade and during that time I discovered the level of interest in free software to be somewhere between non-existent to various point solutions for routine or mission-critical tasks. It was therefore with pleasant surprise that I was invited to report on the activities of an independent Sydney-based health insurance company, IMAN International Pty Ltd, which has committed to an end-to-end open source strategy and is reaping measurable results.

After running for six years on a "black box" legacy system, ACT and South Eastern NSW real estate portal allhomes.com.au has migrated its technology stack to open source Linux and Java technologies.

No one loves to pay crazy per-user licensing fees, not to mention 15- 22 per cent annual support residuals. (And no one loves the endless, mind-numbing meetings with non-technical financial folks trying to pry budget for these tools from their clenched fists.) So today we're going to discuss tools that are free. However, we are not naming them to this list of "great" tools simply because they cost nothing. These are some of the best lesser-known tools out there.

Via Technologies released the hardware design for a low-cost laptop with WiMax support under an open-source license on Tuesday, a move intended to make customization easier and shorten design cycles for system makers.

Don MacAskill calls himself a "huge fan" of open-source software in general, and the MySQL database in particular. MySQL is one of the core technologies used at SmugMug, an online photo-sharing service, where MacAskill is CEO.

Recession be damned. The first quarter of the year saw a record $203.7 million of venture capital flow to young open source companies. You'd think that would be a cause for celebration, but for too many members of the open source community money is, well, icky.

The Open Source Census, an effort to pin down hard statistics regarding the implementation of open-source software around the world, got underway on Wednesday.