OSS group says don`t pay SCO fines

CBS Market Watch reports that an Australian open source advocacy group has called on Linux users to ignore any demands made by SCO Group for licence fees.

SCO is fighting a number of lawsuits claiming it owns the rights to some of the code used in Linux. Among others, it has filed a $5 billion suit against IBM.

CBS Market Watch quotes Open Source Industry Australia as saying Australian companies and individuals using Linux should continue to do so. "SCO`s threats are no barrier to the ongoing adoption of the operating system," says the group.

Infoworld reports that BEA Systems has unveiled a prototype technology to extend the familiar Web browser and make it a more useful tool for those using notebooks and handheld computers with only occasional Internet connectivity.

BEA chief architect Adam Bosworth said at BEA`s eWorld conference in San Francisco that BEA had been working with industry partners such as Nokia and Intel to develop the new "universal client platform", dubbed Alchemy.

Alchemy is intended to give mobile workers as much use from their applications when they are travelling as they would when they have a permanent connection to the Internet, he said.

The technology extends the idea of a Web browser by adding an additional memory cache for fetching and storing information that a user might want to view offline. It also includes a server component that handles synchronisation requests from clients and can tap into other sources of data to complete transactions.

Worldwide layer 2 and layer 3 Ethernet switch ports increased 11% and revenue increased 16% to $3.6 billion between 4Q03 and 1Q04, according to Infonetics Research`s quarterly market share and forecast service, "L2-L3 Ethernet Switches".

"Cisco continues to dominate in both categories, but is particularly strong in the chassis category, despite competition from smaller vendors who are renewing themselves to do battle with Cisco for a slice of this pie," said Neil Osipuk, directing analyst at Infonetics Research and lead author of the report.

"For the overall Ethernet switch market, Cisco`s biggest threats are HP, Netgear and 3Com, which are seriously vying to become the clear alternative to Cisco."

Comodo Trustix has launched Trustix Infrastructure Solutions, which are pre-configured to maximise the stability, security and performance of various server types - including LAN, proxy, mail and Web servers. The solutions feature protection against stack smashing attacks and buffer overflows.

"The Achilles heel of many Linux servers come from insecure default configurations. This arises from vendors shipping their distributions with certain services enabled, claiming it is the end-user`s responsibility to secure the system before it goes live," says Steve Roylance, VP of global technical marketing for Comodo.

"Trustix Infrastructure Solutions are secure 'out-of-the-box` - featuring no unnecessary running services and secure default configuration for the essential services that remain."