McNealy is stepping aside as CEO, 24 years after co-founding Sun and five years after the company's agonizing downward spiral began during the dot-com bust. Yet it is not fair to blame McNealy for Sun's woes.

Borland's Java and Windows application development tools will once again lead the industry, setting the pace in both quality and innovation.

The use of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags is becoming a hot topic for developers and business

Linus Torvalds doesn't want to change the Linux kernel's software license, and he said so again last week. For good measure this time, he threw in some inflammatory remarks.

Testing as learning

"A while back, when Microsoft announced its decision to no longer release a monthly CTP for Vista, we were a bit worried, since we wanted to follow-up on the latest developments of Microsoft's next-generation operating system (though Microsoft promised to update current versions via critical updates). To Microsoft's credit, it has kept its word and has released an update sooner than we had anticipated, and needless to say, the changes in this release are substantial."

Never write when you can talk. Never talk when you can nod. And never put anything in an email

With Linux continuing its struggle to convince the world's businesses that it's a viable Windows alternative, David Braue asks if the pending release of Windows Vista could finally provide the boost it's been waiting for.

Tim Anderson gives alpha version a spin

The big events of 2005