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Monday, November 03, 2003

Microsoft nixing official Virtual PC support for UNIX, Linux When it was learned that Microsoft was buying Virtual PC technology from Connectix, industry-types were quick to assume that the Redmond giant was after Mac users. After all, they reasoned, Virtual PC was all about running a PC on top of a Mac, right? However, Microsoft's real interest lies in consolidation: provide Virtual PC services on a Windows server, and you can sell Windows servers to IT shops that need to run multiple server instances but don't want to invest in new physical servers (for more information, see this). [Ars Technica]
7:34:13 PM

Yahoo dissolves enterprise products group. Company is focusing efforts on Messenger, and phasing out business portal offerings. [Computerworld News]

This is interesting. Looks like Yahoo! in a box didn't really pan out. I'm sure this trigger some sort of shake up of the portal market.

7:09:41 PM

November 2003 Web Server Survey. Apache has a significant percentage gain in this month's Web Server Survey as register.com eliminated its Windows front end, and reverted to Linux and Apache which it ran prior to switching two years ago. Barely weeks ago its largest rival, Network Solutions made a similar switch from Microsoft-IIS back to Apache. [Netcraft]
1:34:26 PM

Red Hat tells customers, 'No more freebies!". In an email to Red Hat Network customers, the company has announced today that it "...will discontinue maintenance and errata support for Red Hat Linux 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 and 8.0 as of December 31, 2003," that "Red Hat will discontinue maintenance and errata support for Red Hat Linux 9 as of April 30, 2004," and that "Red Hat does not plan to release another product in the Red Hat Linux line." This should not come as a surprise to NewsForge regulars who saw this story on October 23, but less-prepared Red Hat users seem shocked by the idea. [NewsForge]

Looks like it's Fedora for freebies. While this is most certainly going to cause some consternation in some quarters, I se it as a good move for Redhat. While plenty of folks have used free Redhat, it is the paying customers who pay the bills. And increasingly those customers are good-sized compaines willing to pay for the software they use in return for good support and quality assurance.

1:25:36 PM

Spammers Release Virus to Attack Spamhaus.org:"A new virus released by spammers on Saturday 1st November is infecting computers worldwide, and this time the purpose of the virus is to attack www.Spamhaus.org. The W32.Mimail.D virus is the latest in a string of viruses, each one released by spammers for the purpose of creating a vast worldwide network of spam-sending machines and building an attack network consisting of hundreds of thousands of virus-infected zombie machines with which the spammers then attack anti-spam organizations."
9:50:42 AM

InformationWeek > Analyzing The Analysts > Who Owns Gartner? > November 3, 2003 - "Two weeks ago, 700 CIOs and thousands of other technology professionals attended a six-day strategy fest in Orlando, Fla., to hear Gartner analysts talk about everything from application integration to business-process "fusion." The IT research and advisory firm can draw such a large and influential crowd because of its track record for providing top-notch analysis of IT trends and helping companies develop successful business-technology plans. Would their respect for Gartner's advice change if they knew the firm is indirectly owned by dozens of big-money investors who control some of the same companies Gartner evaluates? "

9:43:20 AM