Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Open Source Virus Scanner

We have been using the open source virus scanner ClamAV since 2004. It is multi-platform, with a web site specifically for the Microsoft Windows version. It has a scheduler to scan files and to download updates.
On XP, memory usage for the Windows background task is about 2,428K with a VM size of 14,408K.

Monday, December 19, 2005

Power Usage and Postgres

Sun has been moving to reduce power consumption in the data center. Anyone managing more than a dozen machines must be concerned about scalability and redundancy of their power and cooling. More efficient chips are good.

Sun also announced support for Postgres, which will encourage more companies to consider open source databases. Low end databases have become a commodity. Money can still be made in support, while licensing fees are under pressure.
Microsoft is trying the opposite by raising prices. Like GM and Ford have found, consumers may pay up for a couple years, but consumers will look for alternatives.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Another Alternative Browser

Mozilla and Firefox are good alternatives from Internet Explorer. Another alternative browser that I have used for several years is Opera. Opera has had tabbed browsing and gesture-based navigation for a few years. The Opera browser is now free.