Reviews and Commentary

This area includes reviews of primarily open source products and commentary on the computer industry.

• Open Source and Commercial Product Comparisons is a preface to what will follow and explains why the reviews will be divided as they are. It discusses how the packaging and licensing of open source products complicates the comparison of competing open source and commercial products.
• Comparing Commercial and Open Source Licenses discusses the essential characteristics of commercial product software licenses and compares these with the two very different types of open source licenses: the GNU General Public License (GPL) and Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) type licenses.
• The Limits of Open Source states that the open source software development model is not appropriate to all software. Government, schools, medical office/patient management, and jet engine control software are discussed. Why open source is appropriate to some and not others is considered.
• Linux, OpenBSD, Windows NT & 2000 Server Comparison is an in depth (over 120 printed pages) comparison of three operating systems used as servers. About one third is devoted to security issues. Other significant comparison topics are application support, stability and reliability, and usability. Also discussed are scalability, staffing issues and total cost of ownership.
• Bogus PHP DoS Attacks looks at a basic PHP feature that was recently covered by the on-line press as some new security threat. I ask that some knowledge and analysis be applied, before the web press assists some publicity seeking miscreant, who claims to have found a bug where none exits.
• Corel Linux OS, Version 2, Review Learn why the Corel variation of the Debian Linux distribution is simply not adequate. Would be Linux users are advised to try almost any other Linux distribution. Some comparisons with Red Hat 7.1 are made

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