Linux, Open Source, & anti Microsoft news

Apple must pay software biz VirnetX $368m after a court ruled FaceTime video calls infringed VirnetX’s patents.

Microsoft has been granted a patent on a content distribution system that uses cameras built into televisions, PCs, and mobile phones to act as a “consumer detector,” to enforce DRM…

The Linux version of Valve’s Steam games download shop goes live today, chip maker Nvidia has revealed.

Thanks to projects like OpenStack and the mighty operation that is Amazon’s EC2, open source and Linux are quickly becoming the building blocks of “cloud” computing.

Apple today posted its second Samsung apology to its UK website, complying with requests by the UK Court of Appeal to say its original apology was inaccurate and link to…

Government agencies at all levels are locked into proprietary, vendor-specific file formats. Government’s tendency towards gigantic IT contracts didn’t help.Today, the UK took a long-awaited, important step towards fixing this…

Patents threaten every software developer, and the patent wars we have long feared have broken out. Software developers and software users – which in our society, is most people –…

Microsoft is demanding that systems with the “Designed for Windows 8” badge include a UEFI firmware feature called “Secure Boot” that will only boot software that has been signed with…

Facebook, Red Hat, Hewlett-Packard and other big vendors have joined a project to develop Linux OS software for the upcoming generation of ARM-based servers, the companies announced Thursday. 

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, including the KVM hypervisor, has been awarded the Common Criteria Certification at Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) 4+ – the highest level of assurance for an…

“Microsoft is spending billions on marketing for Windows 8, but there’s no equivalent for Linux,” noted Google+ blogger Linux Rants. “Most people haven’t even heard of Linux, and those that…

Windows 8 was released late last week, and already this week French security firm VUPEN says it has broken Microsoft’s latest and greatest security features. The company claims it has…

Mozilla has claimed that Microsoft’s failure to run the browser ballot cost it nine million users – suggesting the EU-mandated system does have some affect on the market.

A Texas-based company, Intercarrier Communications, is lining up its lawyers against a small throng of companies over a messaging patent.  Apple is on the list, with FaceTime and Apple Messages…

Microsoft had barely got Windows 8 out the door before it was slapped with a patent lawsuit related to the new OS.  Software and OS design tech firm SurfCast has…