Patrick Thibodeau

End user unrest over Microsoft Corp.'s enterprise licensing plan may prompt some companies to move from Microsoft Office suite to rival Sun Microsystems Inc.'s personal productivity suite, StarOffice, predicts Gartner Inc.

Continued economic uncertainty is bringing IT managers some benefits, including lower prices from vendors and more success in filling critical positions.

Corporate IT concerns are getting top billing in the Microsoft Corp. antitrust trial as the federal judge overseeing the case considers proposed remedies intended to improve server integration and desktop competition by porting Office to Linux.

Sun Microsystems Inc. CEO Scott McNealy, who studied antitrust issues as an economics major at Harvard University, has been among the industry's most vocal critics of Microsoft Corp. And he doesn't hesitate to put his problem with the software giant in personal terms.

The Bush administration's top cyberdefense official said today there is evidence that the terrorist group al-Qaeda was using the Internet to gather intelligence about critical facilities in the U.S., and other terrorist groups and nations may be doing the same.

U.S. president George W. Bush wants to knock down federal agency IT silos, integrate systems and develop the means to quickly share information across government agencies and businesses. And across the board, he wants to beef up IT security.

Beginning next week, financial services companies with Vermont customers will face strict limits on what they can do with the personal data of state residents. These new privacy rules have prompted five insurance industry trade groups to jointly file a lawsuit against state officials, while also warning that the rules will hike business costs and hurt customers.

During the past few years, the U.S. General Accounting Office has issued dozens of reports skewering security measures at various federal department and agencies. It has tested security by using techniques ranging from government-sponsored break-ins to audits.