Enterprise IT

With its recent acquisitions of Ximian and SuSE Linux, Novell has taken on the challenge of promoting enterprise-class Linux solutions. The company is not simply trumpeting the benefits of Linux to clients. To prove the enterprise Linux concept, it is adopting Linux as a preferred platform for its o...

Since the unveiling of its Unix-based OS X operating system, Apple has been releasing "point upgrades" about once per year, charging $129 for each one -- a pretty stiff fee for staying current. This in itself might not be so bad, except that in the process of speeding development through the pipelin...

The latest effort to reduce unwanted commercial clutter in consumers' e-mail inboxes has reached the U.S. Senate, bolstered by strong support from several high-profile online companies. The bill would require commercial e-mail senders to include an opt-out address in every message and would levy a f...

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced it plans to examine whether individual states are acting in an anticompetitive way toward e-commerce. According to the FTC, the states' actions might be costing consumers as much as $15 billion per year. "There's no question that there is a pa...

The Federal Communications Commission has cleared the way for telephone companies to share customer data with associates that hawk communications services -- without first seeking customer consent. FCC Chairman Michael Powell defended the decision, but it was denounced by FCC Commissioner Mich...

In a newly released analysis criticizing the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, market research company Gartner Dataquest said a "radical reform" of telecom policy is needed if the rollout of high-speed Internet services, or broadband, is ever to break out of the slow lane. "There's a firest...

Senator Conrad Burns (R-Montana) has announced plans to introduce a bill that would give the U.S. government more influence over ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the overseer of Internet addressing and traffic. Rick Villers, vice president of Internet research at Forre...

With a landmark law authorizing the use of e-signatures having just taken effect, U.S. Congressional lawmakers hosted representatives of the budding industry in Washington, D.C. Wednesday and received hands-on demonstrations of the new technology.