In a significant win for open source desktop productivity suites, Sun Microsystems Inc. has announced that the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) would implement up to 25,000 units of its StarOffice 5.2 software. StarOffice, Sun's open source productivity application suite that includes word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and database applications for the Solaris, Windows and Linux platforms, would replace Applix on more than 10,000 of DISA's Unix workstations at 600 client organizations worldwide.

For the past seven years, Hubbard has worked as a FreeBSD CD's product manager and FreeBSD evangelist for Walnut Creek CDROM, BSDi and WindRiver Systems. Part of Hubbard's new job will be helping Apple strengthen its relationships with other open source projects.

Komodo 1.1 is available as a general release on the Windows platform, and as a Release Candidate on Linux. This Release Candidate for Linux fixes numerous issues regarding running Komodo on Linux. New features include XML autocomplete, expanded Find and Replace dialog, partial Unicode support, Syntax checking and debugging PHP programs, XSLT "intellisense" for faster and easier transformations, XSLT debugging support, to name a few. All of Komodo's editing features are available for Tcl, including syntax coloring, code folding, autocomplete, and calltips.

In this article, there are some rather thought-provoking quotes from Japanese business executives who say that IBM is trying to hijaak Linux for its own ends, and in the process take control of Linux from the core Linux developers and the greater Linux community. The article also blames the "casual" attitude of Linus Torvalds as one reason why investors and corporate customers are losing interest in Linux.

Intel Corp. scored a coup of sorts when Compaq Computer Corp. signed a multi-year deal that accelerates the availability of next-generation enterprise servers based on Intel's Itanium processor family. The move marks the death knell for the Alpha chip technology that Compaq acquired through its 1998 purchase of Digital Equipment. Compaq will deliver an additional generation of Alpha-based servers through 2003, with a new system based on the Alpha EV7 microprocessor scheduled for introduction late in 2002.

The Red Hat Database package will include Red Hat Installer, and enhanced documentation for PostgreSQL 7.1 and Red Hat Linux 7.1. The company said the target market for the product is mid-sized organizations and corporate workgroups and departments.

Caldera has changed the license on its OpenLinux Workstation product for the latest version (3.1) to require one license per system the distribution is installed on. The company will provide a certificate of license authenticity (COLA) with each unit sold, and Caldera expects each customer to have a COLA for each system that deploys OpenLinux Workstation.

Lineo has released Lineo Availix Vertical Clustering 1.0, an solution to provide Internet data centers, large Internet service providers and access providers with high scalability and performance for non-stop access services. Availix VC architecture consists of interconnected CompactPCI clusters (called Horizontal clusters) and data storage devices over a storage area network. Interconnections, based on high-speed switched fabrics, allow significant workload distribution over horizontal sub-clusters.

DB2 Developer Domain will help satisfy the growing demand for DB2 information from the developer community. It features original technical articles, sample code, DB2 trial downloads, preview technologies and how-to information. The site offers training services, product documentation, tutorials and tips on planning, implementing, tuning and integrating DB2 with XML, mobile/wireless applications,Java, the Web and other new technologies. The content will be refreshed weekly.

Building on its long-standing reputation as a bellwether for technology innovation, IBM has announced three new technological firsts--the industry's first database to support InfiniBand, a database software running against the new DAFS and the database software to support newly announced Itanium-based systems--aimed at improving database performance, speed, scalability and efficiency to bring value to its customers so they can gain a competitive edge.