Operating Systems: News

Australian users of the Motorola Milestone smartphone will receive an upgrade to Android version 2.2 "Froyo" from next year the company announced today.

A number of Linux distributors have issued patches for fixing a widely used program that fetches Web pages, called Wget, so it can not be misused by attackers.

On Friday, ViewSonic launched its second tablet during the Internationale Funkaustellung (IFA) trade show in Berlin. The ViewPad 100 runs Windows 7 Home Premium and Android version 1.6.

The first beta release of Canonical's next Ubuntu Linux distribution, version 10.10 'Maverick Meerkat' is now available and promises a more refined desktop and netbook experience in preparation for the final release in October.

Huawei has launched the IDEOS, or U8150, smartphone, which will cost between US$100 and $200, depending on the market, the company said on Thursday at the Internationale Funkaustellung (IFA) trade show in Berlin.

Acer has entered the local smartphone market in a big way with five new handsets available, all running variations of Google's Android operating system.

Software patents have figured prominently in the news in recent weeks, thanks not just to Oracle's attack on Google but also--more recently--to Paul Allen's breathtaking multi-victim onslaught.

The managing board of enterprise open-source software company Red Hat has elected a retired U.S. Army officer, General Henry Hugh Shelton, to serve as chairman, the company announced Monday. Shelton takes the place of Matthew Szulik, who was the former CEO of Red Hat.

Oracle's patent and copyright lawsuit against Google for its use of Java in Android won't be repeated by Microsoft if .Net is used on the Linux-based mobile operating system instead.

Huawei Technologies plans to launch the U8150, which is based on Android version 2.2, at the Internationale Funkaustellung (IFA) consumer electronics show, the company said via e-mail.