Red Hat virtualises Enterprise Linux

Red Hat has officially announced its virtualisation plans with full integration into RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) 5 by the year's end. Red Hat's 'Integrated Virtualization' strategy includes partners in the form of chip builders AMD and Intel as well as data specialist Network Appliance and virtualisation open-sourcers XenSource. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 will be available by the end of the year with a full integration of XenSource virtualisation technologies including a complete platform for server consolidation, a developer and QA environment to speed testing and optimising software for operating in a virtualised environment, and support for hardware abstraction helping IT managers smoothly introduce new hardware into existing software stacks without expensive migration processes. ...more

MP3.com founder back with new download music venture

Michael Robertson, the man behind MP3.com and Linspire (formerly Lindows) which arguably helped to kick off the whole downloadable music culture is set to launch a new digital music company called MP3tunes. The ambitious aim of MP3tunes is to offer new hardware software and a new online music store. ...more

Smoking controls escape through the Net

A new report outlines the threat the Internet poses to the regulation of tobacco sales. According to Reuters, researchers at the North Carolina School of Public Health have conducted one of the first studies into the sale of cigarettes on the Web. What it highlights is the ability of the Web to circumvent existing legal controls, for example the control of under age smoking. ...more

AOL ousts Music Now for Napster

AOL has signed Napster as its exclusive online music subscription service, the companies said on Friday, sending Napster's shares higher. Napster, which is considering putting itself on the auction block, said it will replace the online service's AOL Music Now, which has about 350,000 paying subscribers. The storied online music service hired investment bank UBS in September to explore a sale after receiving 'third-party interest,' Napster said at the time. ...more

Toshiba handheld unveiled

Toshiba has taken the wraps off its Pocket PC e570 handheld. Already available in Japan as the Genio, the PDA is targeted at the corporate market, resplendent in its PocketPC 2002 livery and the high price that entails. With no official price point fixed, a Toshiba spokesperson reckoned it would sell for around ?375 ex VAT. ...more