Linux has always been better received in the server market than the desktop market, where it’s compatibility with UNIX and POSIX-compliance has made it a great fit for companies who aren’t about to shell out for UNIX licensing. The past year along has seen significant Linux server growth, which now accounts for over 13% of the market.
They share this with many top players, including Microsoft, who has more than a third of the total market. While UNIX-like operating systems still make up the lion’s share of all servers active in …

After hiccups and delays, Android, the Google-supported mobile phone initiative is finally nearing release. Looking to build some more interest around the platform and get developer’s attention, Google has revealed its competitor to Apple’s iPhone App Store, the Android Market, which will enable developers to publish applications and Android users to discover and download them onto their devices.
Unlike Apple’s store, however, Android Market will be open to all with no approval process for applications – which of course lowers the barrier of entry for developers, but at the same time …

Facebook seems to be buckling under legal pressure from Hasbro, having made the decision to block use of Scrabulous. Initially they had stopped only people in North America from accessing the game, and were hoping to bring it back up following a name change. Hasbro wasn’t satisfied with that and flexed their patent arm in other countries to convince them of serving Facebook with takedown orders. As a result, the company has decided to block access to the game site-wide, affecting everyone that uses it.
This started initially when Hasbro sued …

In a post to the Internet Explorer development team’s blog, Microsoft has confirmed previous reports that its forthcoming Internet Explorer 8 browser would allow users to cover their digital tracks while surfing the web. Three new features will be introduced sharing the “InPrivate” name, which Microsoft filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office several weeks ago.
With InPrivate Browsing, one of the new features, a user will be able to control whether IE 8 saves their browsing history, cookies, and other Internet data. InPrivate Blocking and InPrivate Subscription will notify …

If you are an Ubuntu user, you may want to take note that the company has issued a warning to all its users to make sure they are using the latest version of the distro.
Due to a security flaw, the vendor has warned that all versions from Ubuntu 6.06 onwards to 8.04 are vulnerable to a local security exploit that could result in system compromise once the attacker gains access to root.
The flaw is not a remote vulnerability. The attacker would have to have an account on the system in …

Today’s pricey game consoles are enticing loot for criminals, but thanks to their robust online functionality, it seems stolen systems aren’t that hard to find.
Just ask Dustin Waller. The Salisbury Post reports that the Carolina man’s previously owned Playstation 3 — which turned out to be stolen merchandise — was tracked by police and returned to its original owner after Waller connected the system to the internet.
Waller’s fiancee purchased the used console from a small video game store in the local mall as a gift. Thinking it was some sort …

Facebook’s controversial Beacon advertising system, which was launched back in November amid waves of criticism, has now led the company to a class action lawsuit for allegedly breaking privacy and wire-tapping laws. The suit claims Facebook gathered users’ online activity and then shared it with friends without asking them for permission.
Beacon was originally designed to collect data on users from external affiliate websites, such as renting a movie from Blockbuster.com or buying something at Overstock.com, and then share that information with people’s social circle through their profile page. Privacy advocates …

Microsoft has been very tight-lipped about Windows 7, carefully revealing only little bits of information about the OS – specifically that it would use the same driver model and basic kernel approach as Windows Vista and that it is reworking the whole user interface with a multi-touch experience in mind. But the secrecy stance over at Microsoft is slowly changing, or so it seems.
Today Microsoft is launching its Engineering Windows 7 blog, hosted by two senior engineering managers for Windows 7: Steven Sinofsky, who is in charge of the Windows …

The Internet is all about communication. Not so much organization, but definitely communication – email, instant messaging, forums, social networks, RSS feeds, news discussions, et cetera. All of that communication is hard to organize, and Mozilla aims to change that.
They are demonstrating a new type of browser plugin that would be integrated into the browser. Dubbed “Snowl”, Mozilla is showing off the pre-alpha software and pitching it as a way to seamlessly integrate communication into the browser just as easily as you do things like bookmarks today. The same navigational …

It appears that Intel has set the brand-name under which it will market its processors based on the upcoming Nehalem micro-architecture. According to an article on Expreview.com, the new desktop parts will be known as Core i7 and should be introduced by Intel on Monday – although they won’t be available until the official launch in the last quarter of this year.
Core i7 processors will be made using 45nm process technology and will have from 2 to 8 cores, triple-channel DDR3 memory controller with up to 1333MHz clock-speeds, and support …