Short Takes

Brief IT news items.

Oracle Claims Early Wins in Battle With Red Hat

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison told an audience at the OpenWorld user conference that the company now provides Linux support to 1,500 users, a significant boost to its effort to challenge Red Hat.

Paglo unveils free IT infrastructure search engine

An IT search engine start-up said it will soon launch beta software that will allow businesses to scour and search all of the IT data from their networks, computers and security systems from a free, Web-based application.

HP reports Q4 profit, strong software sales

Bolstered by a sharp rise in its software business, Hewlett-Packard today reported net earnings in its fiscal fourth quarter of $2.3 billion and an operating profit for the full fiscal year of $9.6 billion.

VMware fires back at Oracle's VM performance claims

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said Wednesday the company will provide benchmark numbers to back its claims, but as of Friday, those figures were not available.

VMware fires back at Oracle's VM performance claims

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said Wednesday the company will provide benchmark numbers to back its claims, but as of Friday, those figures were not available.

OpenWorld: Hyperion remains core to Oracle's BI roadmap

A nervous post-acquisition customer base heard good news this week at Oracle OpenWorld. Users of business intelligence and enterprise performance management products from Hyperion Solutions, which Oracle bought in February, were assured that development and support would continue.

Latest update fixes most iMac screen freezes

An update issued by Apple Inc. appears to have solved most of the screen freezing problems iMac users have been reporting, according to messages posted on support forums.

Microsoft delays 2008 WinHEC event by six months

The 2008 version of Microsoft's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference will be held in the fall instead of the spring -- a change that the vendor attributed to "industry feedback."

Brookstone to launch 3-D online store

Brookstone is set to launch a 3-D virtual store that the retailer says will have the same look and feel as its physical stores.

Amateur cryptographer beats Colossus system in code-cracking challenge

A reconstructed Colossus vacuum-tube system was no match for homegrown PC software in cracking enciphered test messages similar to the ones the British broke during World War II.

Open-source Java could result in port to iPhone

As the first anniversary of open-source Java approaches and Apple prepares to release an SDK for the iPhone, Sun thinks it may have a way to put Java on the popular handheld.

Processing, a language for visual output

An open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions

Microsoft ships Vista SP1 release candidate to testers

Microsoft Corp. has delivered a release candidate of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to some 15,000 invitation-only testers.

OpenWorld: VMware says Oracle licensing, not support, is the issue

VMware says that contrary to reports earlier in the week, companies can continue to expect support from Oracle if they run its software on VMware's virtualization platform -- the problem is all about the licensing, not the mechanics of the thing.

Oracle execs discuss Web 2.0 plans, Fusion's timeframe

A wide-ranging panel discussion at this week's Oracle OpenWorld conference got company executives talking about the company's application, database and middleware technology future.

Microsoft's OneCare 2.0 set to launch soon

Microsoft Corp. is about to release a major update to its Windows Live OneCare security suite, according to online retailers that have already begun taking orders for the software.

Dell to offer Solaris systems under new pact with Sun

Sun has agreed to let Dell run Solaris on selected PowerEdge servers.

Mozilla won't fix 80% of Firefox 3.0's bugs

Mozilla will fix just 20% of the bugs now in Firefox 3.0 before it releases the final version next year, the open-source developer's Web site revealed.

Vista's biggest problem remains Windows XP, survey says

Mac OS and Linux are no competition for Vista in the enterprise; its key rival is Microsoft's own Windows XP, Forrester reports.