Google has announced a new operating system project: Google Chrome OS. This is separate from Android, Google’s mobile phone OS. Chrome OS is a “open source, lightweight operating system”. It won’t be available until the second half of 2010, but the source code will be made available later this year. At the heart of the OS is Google’s Chrome browser. In fact, the operating system appears to be little more than a secure platform for the browser to run upon. Google says the following: “Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re...

There’s a long standing argument over the differences between “open-source” software and “free” software. But, a more common error outside of software ideology circles is that you can use open-source software anyway you please. Nope. Wrong. It’s never been that way. Cisco, the networking giant, should know better than this, but they’ve worn out the FSF’s (Free Software Foundation) patience. So, Cisco is now being sued by the SFLC (Software Freedom Law Center) on behalf of the FSF for Linux and other GPL copyright violations. You see, Cisco, like...

Microsoft has released an early version of an open-source content management platform that developers can use to build sophisticated blogs or large Web sites. Called Oxite, its creators describe it as a standards-compliant and highly extensible content management platform. They built it not because there is a need for another blog engine, but because they were building the MIX Online site for Web designers and wanted to offer an example of a use for ASP.NET MVC, according to the Oxite Web site. ASP.NET MVC lets developers use ASP.NET to build Web applications using an architecture called model-view-controller....