Software

To speed the adoption of Linux in the data centre, the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) on Thursday released a paper that defines and prioritizes the Linux capabilities needed to run enterprise-class data centres applications.

IBM Corp. and several other vendors recently unveiled three specifications intended to converge Web services and grid computing.

Extreme Networks Inc. announced the Summit 400-48 switch for wiring closets at the network edge last week, the first in its class to provide two 10 gigabit Ethernet uplinks to a network core.

Sun Microsystems Inc. on Wednesday introduced a version of StarOffice 7 for the x86 variant of its Solaris operating system (OS), a preface to offering a complete desktop software system built around the Unix-based OS.

Microsoft Corp. has made a beta version of Windows XP available to the public that runs on desktops or workstations using Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s Athlon 64 or Opteron processors, Microsoft said Wednesday.

Sun Microsystems Inc., in a somewhat sarcastic open letter to IBM Corp. posted on Sun's Web site, is inviting Big Blue to purchase Sun's Linux-based Sun Java Desktop System for IBM's own employees.

Microsoft Corp. is committed to the SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) market for CRM (customer relationship management) software, and is working with partners on hosted versions of its product to make it more accessible, chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates said last week.

Over the six months from July 2003, Debian has been the fastest growing Linux distribution according to Bath, England-based Internet researcher Netcraft Ltd. Netcraft counted active sites containing the name of a Linux distribution in the Apache Corp. server header.