February 2009 Archives

No doubt open-source proponents are rejoicing over this news: The British government has decided to increase its use of open-source software in the public services field. It will be adopted over Windows whenever it delivers the best value for the money.

Nothing gets the high-tech industry more agitated that the word "antitrust." So the reports ricocheting around the blogosphere about Google coming into the Obama Administration's legal sights are generating growing consternation.

As if Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7 operating system release doesn't have the tech industry and channel buzzed enough, he's a new issue to worry about: Netbooks.

The Mobile World Congress is underway in Barcelona this week and both vendor and service provider executives are having to adjust to the realities of an economic slowdown. Mobility has been an IT industry bright spot.

You want real open source? Head south to Havana.

The Cuban government -- the one that's outlasted 10 U.S. presidents and a 50-year American boycott -- has launched a new operating system called Nova, a variant of Linux, in a bid to end U.S. computer dominance.

Cloud computing has been receiving its share of attention on this web site and many others as vendors and channel partners adjust their busines plans to get under the cloud. Now there's a sign that cloud computing is heading into a new realm.

Asus, the manufacturer that carved out the worldwide netbook market, is the latest vendor to get more serious about the increasingly crowded smartphone field. Vendor announcements are popping up like wildfires in the desert as the Mobile World Congress conference gets ready to roll later this month in Barcelona.

Despite the worsening economic downturn (or perhaps more accurately, as a convenient excuse to capitalize on it), U.S. corporations are continuing to ship thousands of IT jobs offshore. More than half of the estimated 140,000 U.S. jobs that will move offshore this year and next will be in IT, according to a recent report from the Hackett Group.