Stories by: Computerworld Staff

Now that Microsoft has successfully lobbied to get its Office Open XML document format approved as an international standard by the ISO, it should put just as much effort into showing IT managers that it will offer value beyond attracting the interest of government customers.

Social networking is no longer the Next Big Thing; it's now as much part of our Web experience as search engines. Previously considered the province of kids who wanted to keep up with class gossip, social networking services are being co-opted by grownups who are examining ways to use them both within and outside of their places of employment.

The Cool Stuff Holiday Gift Guide is back, with tips for the very best gifts to buy for the tech lovers in your life. This year, be the one whose gifts are the biggest hits.

Red Hat announced this week the availability of a new Red Hat Training certification; Red Hat Certified Datacenter Specialist (RHCDS).

At Computerworld's Storage Networking World conference in the US, Frank Abagnale gave a keynote presentation on his life as an imposter and fraudster, a story that was told in the book and subsequent Steven Spielberg movie, Catch Me If You Can. Prior to his presentation, Abagnale spoke with Computerworld about ethics, computer crime and security risks faced by IT professionals.

Sun Microsystems this week announced plans to donate pieces of its storage software and hardware technology to the OpenSolaris open-source developer community.

Linux-based systems management appliance maker Opengear has thrown a sweetener to university IT managers by offering a 40 percent discount on all of its management products.

Cybersource has released a free toolkit which offers system builders and whitebox hardware resellers a method for differentiating their PCs and laptops from those of top-tier hardware vendors.

Mandriva said Friday that its upcoming enterprise version of the Linux operating system will include the open-source OpenVZ virtualization software.

Professional Services Automation solution, AllocPSA, has been released as open source software under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL), allowing businesses to obtain and modify the source code free of charge.

It is tempting to think that references to "open content" have a meaning similar to those for "open source". It is equally tempting to want to make use of 'open content' in an open source project. Do not yield to temptation!