Stories about: Gartner Dataquest

Data will flow more freely as mobile communications networks move towards a "flat IP" model, but developers and operators will face new security challenges, according to engineers gathered at the Freescale Technology Forum in Paris.

Just when you thought it was over, bar the odd bit of Microsoft licence price gouging, the PC desktop wars may be about to erupt again. We know about Sun Microsystems' StarOffice and its megaphone marketing of it against MS Office but we also know that getting a SuSE Linux desktop software package and having it run your scanner, your tape drive, your printer and any other peripheral whose operation you take for granted in Microsoft's plug-and-play USB world, is pure fantasy, fit only for the most rabid Linux geek with a wardrobe full of anoraks.

Netgear next week is expected to jump into the Layer 3 Gigabit switch market with a 24-port box that can act as a hardware-based LAN router for small and midsize nets.

With backing from Microsoft Corp. looming on the horizon, IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) deployment got a shot in the arm this week from embedded OS player Wind River Systems Inc., which announced a network stack that supports the newest version of the Internet protocol.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) asserted its Itanium bragging rights Thursday, boasting it is the leading seller of workstations using the chip from Intel Corp., but analysts put a damper on the company's claims, saying Itanium sales are few and far between.