Rebecca Reid

The brain behind Cisco Systems Inc.'s hardware is getting a lobotomy. Development teams at Cisco are sticking the proverbial icepick in its Internetwork Operating System (IOS) and carving it up into modules, which one industry insider says will increase performance of hardware such as routers and save users money.

Inertia is cited as one of the main reasons why free and open source software (FOSS) has not yet made significant inroads into Canadian enterprises, two industry insiders agreed during a discussion at Real World Linux in Toronto recently.

Bob Young is no stranger to open source. In fact, he has one of the most recognizable names in the industry, alongside movement gurus such as Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman and Jon "maddog" Hall. After all, Young co-founded Red Hat Inc., arguably the most successful Linux vendor in the world.

Nothing hurts the ears of a user like the droning buzz of a Unix workstation. With that in mind, Hewlett-Packard Co. on Tuesday announced its newest unit, the c8000, which has been designed to run quietly, among other improvements.

About 4,200 of Aliant Inc.'s employees took to the picket lines on Friday after time ran out for the telco and its workers to reach a compromise over a new collective agreement.

With revenues from enterprises stagnant or decreasing, vendors are quickly turning to the small- to medium-sized business (SMB) services sector to make a profit. However, while money might be the motive, the results spell good things for SMBs, one industry analyst noted.

Novell Inc. recently annouced it has penned deals with IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. to distribute its SuSE Linux on servers and desktop computers.

Canadian telcos have joined forces, filing a letter to the Canada Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requesting a longer public debate over pending voice over IP (VoIP) regulations.