21-07-2001 Essential news of the week

Brought neatly together and presented on a plate, here is a roundup of some of the week's main news stories from the world of IT. ...more

Our Roadmap for 2004

Once again we gaze into our crystal ball and predict the trends that we see in the coming year JANUARY Hogmanay shocker! SCO announces it is to extend litigation to those who infringe its 'valuable brand equity' and has sent a 'cease and desist' order to Scotland. Google formally announces it is to issue an IPO 'sometime this year'. Analysts estimate the offering could be worth $20 billion. ...more

PC World goes mod

PC World is to sell modding kit in its retail outlets that will allow customers to add neon strips, tubing and other embellishments to their computers. PC World showed off some of the possibilities at an event yesterday, with a range of new cases, from shuttle boxes to glass cases revealing LED-tastic innards, industrial-looking tubing to replace ribbon cables and neon strips festooned across cases and monitors. The eye-candy comes courtesy of OPTX, which already has a successful business in the US modding both cars and computers and approached PC World to bring the kit into the UK. ...more

Novell acquires Ximian

Novell has acquired Ximian, the Boston-based company that is a force in the Open Source world. The move is intended to drive Novell's growth into the Linux arena and the company believes it is buying 'best-of-breed Linux desktop, groupware and management technologies'. Ximian is best known for its work with the Mono and GNOME projects, and Novell has promised continuing support for these ventures. ...more

eBay and Yahoo! shake hands on deal

Pipping both Google and Microsoft to the post, Yahoo! has landed a multi-year deal with eBay to provide search and advertising services to the auction site's millions of customers in the US. The deal consists of four main components - search and advertising, a co-branded toolbar, online payments and a possible 'click to call' tie up. Under the deal Yahoo! will become the exclusive third-party provider of all graphical advertisements throughout the eBay. ...more