Hardware: With the demand for desktop computer motherboards on the wane, users just might be able to reap bargains when purchasing new PCs. On the flip side, strong demand for laptops is stirring up a shortage of components.

Columnists' corner: "Oracle's decision to offer full, enterprise-class for Red Hat Enterprise Linux -- including software updates but sans Red Hat branding -- was a direct attack on the leading Linux vendor," writes Neil McAllister in Oracle's Red Hat support spells trouble for Sun. "Red Hat's stock plummeted in response." But what about Oracle's other partner, Sun Microsystems?

Best of the blogs: Continuing that topic, Matt Asay offers his take. "Oracle has good Linux expertise in-house. But translating that into a compelling support offering, especially for someone else's product, is going to be a long, expensive road for Oracle, and not financially advantageous for its customers," he writes after reading an analyst report suggesting that Oracle won't be able to outperform Red Hat on support. "[By the way], Oracle, if there's even a shred of credibility to your claim that you made this move 'for your customers,' then I'd recommend you working more closely with Red Hat to provide the support these customers apparently crave and can't get from Red Hat alone. That would be the right thing to do. Not what you did."

Podcasts: Jon Udell speaks with John Schneider, CTO of AgileDelta, about the proposed W3C standard Efficient XML, including its foundations and uses. Tune in here.

Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 30, 2006 10:49 AM