Stories by Computerworld Staff

Briefs: VA Linux Offers Free Open-Source Software

VA Linux Systems Inc. in Sunnyvale, California, has launched a free online repository of open-source software projects, called SourceForge. According to the company, which owns the linux.com domain, SourceForge will contain more than 700 open-source projects done by more than 3,000 software developers in 76 countries.

Y2K Quotes of Note

FRAMINGHAM (01/01/2000) - "The lawyers and the journalists are having a really bad day. The journalists have nothing to write and the lawyers have no one to sue." --Global Marine Inc. CIO Dick Hudson

And a teen shall lead their ERP efforts

Would you trust your business to an ERP system installed by a teenager? California's Contra Costa County government did, and it paid off big-time.
Putting college or even high school students to work on critical IT projects may also save the ailing computer science programs in our colleges and universities.

Feature: 1983 Technology Flashback

Apple Computer introduces the Lisa, a PC with a graphical user interface. The machine doesn't sell, however, and becomes an infamous commercial flop. One likely reason is that it costs $US10,000. Apple also releases the Apple IIe, which runs Apple Basic and sells for $1400. This is also the year Apple enters the Fortune 500, at No. 411.

Briefs: Nortel Purchases Voice Systems Maker

Nortel Networks has acquired Periphonics Corp., a Bohemia, New York-based provider of interactive voice systems, in a deal valued at about US$436 million. Nortel, in Brampton, Ontario, said the purchase is part of its strategy to deliver networks that unify voice, data and the Internet. Periphonics' customers are mainly in the financial and telecommunications sectors.

Telenet becomes available

Developed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in 1969, the Internet may have been the first packet-switched network.

Interview: Cabletron comeback?

Trapped behind far larger competitors and coming off an $US85 million loss in its most recent quarter, Cabletron Systems, based in Rochester, New Hampshire, is trying to reinvent itself by going from box vendor to network management kingpin.

Briefs: IBM Ends Chip Pact With Hitachi

IBM Corp. and Hitachi Data Systems have quietly discontinued an agreement dating back to 1994 under which IBM sold CMOS chips for Hitachi's midrange Pilot mainframes.

Data#3 seals CICtechnology acquistion

Data#3 shareholders on Friday approved the $6 million purchase of systems integrator to CICtechnology in a deal that has created one of Australia's largest IT solutions companies.

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