Dell pre-installs Ubuntu Linux

Dell will sell commercial PCs running the Ubuntu distribution of Linux, but if the experience of competitors is a guide, it faces challenges translating the move into financial success, reports PC World.

Dell competitors, including Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo, are already selling Linux-powered PCs on some customised machines. But, according to vendors, retail demand for the open source operating system is a fraction of the market for Microsoft's Windows.

Even if Dell gains only a sliver of new sales, the company is likely to earn a lot of goodwill from its move, according to a market analyst.

VeriSign has partnered with Innovative Card Technologies to create credit and debit cards that generate six-digit, one-time-use passwords for online authentication, reports Information Week. The card is expected to reduce online fraud.

The one-time passwords generated on the ATM cards will only be valid for 30 seconds and will continue to produce PIN codes until the battery dies, which Fran Rosch, VP of authentication solutions at VeriSign, says will take three or five years.

"It's the benefit of two-factor authentication," said Rosch. "Even if the credit card was stolen, the criminal could press the button and generate the security code, but he doesn't know your user name and password. It wouldn't do him any good."

Apple released new versions of QuickTime for Mac OS X and Windows to plug a hole discovered during a hack challenge at the CanSecWest security conference last month, reports Computer World.

The security flaw can be used to exploit users running a Java-enabled browser, which leaves Mac OS X 10.3.9 or 10.4.9, as well as PCs with Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista at risk of being hijacked if the QuickTime was present.

QuickTime 7.1.6 can be downloaded for Macs and Windows-based systems from Apple's Web site.

Ken Kutaragi, the father of the now three generations of PlayStation (PS), may be planning the next three consoles, reports Daily Tech.

"As a matter of course, I have the vision of PS 4, 5 and 6, which will merge into the network," says Kutaragi, who is set to retire on 19 June. However, some analysts have predicted the PS3 could be the last of its kind for Sony, saying the new appointment of Kazuo Hirai, a software-focused individual, could shift the company's focus.

Recent comments by Kutaragi imply a PlayStation 4 is being planned, although what will happen to those plans after Kutaragi's departure is still unknown.