Richard Hillesley discusses the pros and cons of the GCC and LLVM compiler collections, and the difference a licence makes.

Richard Hillesley charts the trials and tribulations of PCLinuxOS.

Richard Hillesley ponders the future of Mandriva.

Richard Hillesley looks at whether Haiku will get the opportunity to move from a hobby to a viable open source alternative.

The latest release of the Xandros Linux desktop edition was in June 2006, which is several lifetimes in the history of Linux. Is this the end of the l…

The latest release of the Xandros Linux desktop edition was in June 2006, which is several lifetimes in the history of Linux. Is this the end of the l…

Red Hat is a perfect example of how open source firms need to trade on their reputation, not just their product.

Linus Torvalds has said Linux wouldn't have happened if 386BSD had been around when he started up. We trace the history of FreeBSD and how it's affect…

Slackware is the oldest Linux distribution still with us and has a loyal following among those long term Linux users who pine for the old fashioned vi…

Puppy Linux is something different, a tiny version of Linux that can be stored on a USB memory drive, will run in memory, and can be used for working …

Has open source become a victim of its own success?

Public IP networks and digital technologies that enable the copying and transmission of digitised works of music are a very real threat to the industr…

Public IP networks and digital technologies that enable the copying and transmission of digitised works of music are a very real threat to the industr…

Like the bad actor in a Victorian melodrama, SCO refuses to lie down, and keeps coming back for more.

Open source software might be cheaper than alternatives, but it has many other business benefits, too.

It’s no Windows killer and it'll take some belief in the cloud before Chrome OS can change things.

How can GNOME and KDE developers create the modern Linux desktop?

During the ongoing flirtation between IBM and Sun Microsystems, little has been said about OpenOffice.org, which has been viewed as one of the less si…

Free software has lead to communities of diverse individuals forming to fight for a common cause.

Microsoft's IP claim against TomTom could just be the first salvo in an open source patent war.

It may be open source, but Linux has frequently required corporate support, including from the proprietary software market.

UK firm 64 Studios is using Componentised Linux and the Platform Development Kit to offer customised Linux to companies.

UK firm 64 Studios is using Componentised Linux and the Platform Development Kit to offer customised Linux to companies.

Can software piracy help boost sales, or should vendors give up the battle and set their products free?

The origins of the free software movement can be traced back to to the hackers of MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club, but more recently model railways hav…

Documenting the development of open source software is key to keeping it easy to use, but some disagree on its necessity.

Open source drivers will become an imperative, rather than a choice, for device manufacturers who want to break into new markets and extend their user…

Strip mining of open source can be interpreted as the appropriation of free software code for proprietary gain with no intention of feeding code chang…

Is Microsoft's Office Open XML a functional standard, and if not, why is it being rushed through the process?

Court orders SCO to hand over $2.5 million to rival Novell as legal spat over Linux continues.

Is Linux the disruptive technology, or is it the GNU General Public License which really shook up the open source world?

Xandros has bought Linspire with a renewed aim of establishing Linux on the desktop, but neither has made the impact that might have been hoped for...

Linux, HPC and virtualisation have all lead to the rise of cloud computing, which offers a range of efficiencies to companies willing to set their dat…

Linux, HPC and virtualisation have all lead to the rise of cloud computing, which offers a range of efficiencies to companies willing to set their dat…

Nokia's purchase of Symbian, and promise to take it open source, means three quarters of the world's smartphones could soon be running free software.