Netscape has traditionally based it’s web browser on the full Mozilla suite, but they have apparently decided that Firefox is up to snuff now that it has reached a stable 1.0 release. Read more about it here. It seems that the browser wars are in full swing again.

Franki

After saying several times that there would be no further updates to Internet Explorer except those delivered as part of Windows Longhorn, Microsoft has indicated that it is thinking about releasing extra functionality updates that build around IE’s plug-in set-up. One can only assume that this possible turnaround is at least in part due to the excellent progress that Firefox is having converting smart Internet users to their superior browser. The only people that seem to think that IE is better then Firefox are Microsoft, everyone else I’ve seen that has reviewed Firefox has become a convert. Read more here.

Franki

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft recently told a group of government officials of Asian countries that to use Linux will result in law suits over intellectual property. He declined to mention that Microsoft might be behind many of these lawsuits, but that is the conclusion drawn by at least one journalist. After trying traditional competitive tactics against Linux and failing, Microsoft now seem to have decided that legal threats of IP suits will achieve the high level of FUD they require to compete fairly.

Franki

Three new flaws have been found in Internet Explorer 6, two of them are classed as critical flaws, and both of those will affect even uses of IE6 SP2.
Here for more details.

Franki

After calling Linux a cancer, and making many other such disparaging remarks to anyone that would listen. Microsoft have just put 10 million dollars into a company called Vintela that is known for its Unix/Linux management software.

Could this be a sign of change from Microsoft? I doubt it personally, I suspect that they are either just covering their bases, or they are planning to use parts of their software to allow the management of Unix/Linux boxes from Windows servers, or vice versa. That’s not really as unusual as it sounds, one of Microsoft’s past tactics has been to make it really easy to migrate from a competitors products to their own, and nearly impossible to migrate away from. Nothing unusual there. You can read more about the deal here.
INSERT: It appears that Vintela is a Canopy group company, Canopy is behind SCO, so this may well be a sly way to give SCO more money to continue it’s battle against Linux. Read this groklaw article for more.

In other Microsoft news, a company in Australia called EEYE Security services has complained to the media that a critical security flaw in Win2k that they found and showed Microsoft in August has not been acted upon or patched. “The flaw allows anonymous attackers to compromise default installations of the affected software, without requiring user interaction, and gain absolute access to the host machine.”

More on that story here.

Franki

This article at Wired.com is of vital importance to anyone that considers their rights at least as important as Hollywood’s or the recording industry’s. Basically they are trying to sneak new laws quietly though the Senate that in many ways totally changes your rights with regards to music and video.

For example, how do you like the idea of not being able to fast forward though ads and other promotional material without it being a crime? Or perhaps having the DOJ come after you for using iTunes or a file trading program.

If you have any regard for your personal freedom, and you live in the US, it’s in your own best interest to write to your relevant politician to register your objection for this sort of underhanded action. They have lost a couple of ground breaking cases, so now they are trying to change the law to suit them. Consider that when we used VCR’s, we were able to fast forward the copyright notices (which we have all seen a hundred times or more and don’t need to see again.) as well as the previews and such. We already can’t fast forward our DVD’s past the copyright notices, and now they want to make it illegal to fast forward previews and other ads as well? They are slowly eroding all of the rights we took for granted. Don’t let them.

Franki

AVG maker Grisoft has long had a popular free (non-commercial) anti-virus program for Windows. Up until now however it was based on old code, and was relatively slow to receive pattern file updates.

That has just changed with the release of the new version 7 release of AVG free anti-Virus. If you are using the old version, you will need to update before the end of the year as updates will stop for previous versions at that time.

I run two anti-Virus apps on my Windows machines, because one often picks up things that the other would miss, and my choice of an alternate program is the Open Source ClamWin anti-Virus. ClamWin is small and fast so there is no noticeable slowdown when running both programs in the background.

Franki