Tuesday, December 09, 2003
Stackable Open Source BIOS could cut proprietary stuff dead
JUST IN CASE you missed it – as we did - there's a paper that was filed as part of the Usenix 2003, Freenix track, which talks about the design of an Open Source BIOS to displace the proprietary software that's in there.
Yes indeedy, the makers of BIOSes are in league with the devil to scrape their earnings from one of the most important but oft-neglected elements of an IBM compatible personal computer.
The LinuxBIOS has trouble with Windows XP, for example, because such OSes depend on some services provided by the legacy BIOSes.
So the paper describes how open source firmware that combines elements of the LinuxBIOS, the Bochs PC emulator and other software to create what's claimed to be capable of booting most modern OSes.
As the paper points out, the BIOS is the last bastion of closed source software, with most hardware interfaces in PC chipsets smothered by non disclosure agreements.
The software designers say, in the paper they've made use of Bochs and LinuxBIOS to solve a good few of the technical details. Full Article>>>
Yes indeedy, the makers of BIOSes are in league with the devil to scrape their earnings from one of the most important but oft-neglected elements of an IBM compatible personal computer.
The LinuxBIOS has trouble with Windows XP, for example, because such OSes depend on some services provided by the legacy BIOSes.
So the paper describes how open source firmware that combines elements of the LinuxBIOS, the Bochs PC emulator and other software to create what's claimed to be capable of booting most modern OSes.
As the paper points out, the BIOS is the last bastion of closed source software, with most hardware interfaces in PC chipsets smothered by non disclosure agreements.
The software designers say, in the paper they've made use of Bochs and LinuxBIOS to solve a good few of the technical details. Full Article>>>
Microsoft-Lindows battle expands in Europe
Microsoft has expanded its legal battle with Lindows to Europe, putting pressure on PC makers there and on the company to stop distributing Lindows software.
The dispute opens another front in Lindows' trademark spat with Microsoft, which has claimed that the company's name violates its Windows trademark in the United States. Microsoft's lawsuit over that issue is scheduled for trial next March.
The latest action involves Microsoft's European trademarks for the Windows name. Lawyers representing the software company in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg (the Benelux countries) and in Sweden sent letters to Lindows and several PC manufacturers in those countries, saying the use of the Lindows name infringes on Microsoft trademarks in those countries. Full Article>>>
The dispute opens another front in Lindows' trademark spat with Microsoft, which has claimed that the company's name violates its Windows trademark in the United States. Microsoft's lawsuit over that issue is scheduled for trial next March.
The latest action involves Microsoft's European trademarks for the Windows name. Lawyers representing the software company in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg (the Benelux countries) and in Sweden sent letters to Lindows and several PC manufacturers in those countries, saying the use of the Lindows name infringes on Microsoft trademarks in those countries. Full Article>>>
Managing Web services jargon
With so many companies touting Web services management software, you get a sense that there's money to be made. In fact, Computer Associates just entered the fray with its own product. But when you sit down and speak to different companies in the market, the picture of what Web services management actually is gets fuzzy.
There's easily 15 or so companies, large and small, using the management label. Some companies promote features such as security--ensuring that users are authorized for Web services applications and that messages sent between application components are authenticated. Other outfits use the management label to describe typical network operations such as load balancing. Meanwhile, still other Web services management companies offer such functions as routing and transformation of XML documents.
Why use the same tag for such a broad range of capabilities? Because Web services management is what customers are asking for, says an executive at one start-up. If you want to get in on the bidding, make the label fit. Full Article>>>
There's easily 15 or so companies, large and small, using the management label. Some companies promote features such as security--ensuring that users are authorized for Web services applications and that messages sent between application components are authenticated. Other outfits use the management label to describe typical network operations such as load balancing. Meanwhile, still other Web services management companies offer such functions as routing and transformation of XML documents.
Why use the same tag for such a broad range of capabilities? Because Web services management is what customers are asking for, says an executive at one start-up. If you want to get in on the bidding, make the label fit. Full Article>>>
