Matt Croydon::Postneo

Day: November 15, 2003

  • Linuxant Offers WLAN Drivers for $19.95!

    Newsforge:

    DriverLoader licenses for end-users have been affordably priced at USD $19.95 and can now be purchased online from Linuxant’s web store (https://www.linuxant.com/store). Upgrades to future versions will be provided at no extra charge for at least one year or longer. Free 30-day trial licenses also remain available. Due to significant development/support costs, and inconclusive discussions with hardware vendors, it is not possible to make DriverLoader completely free for end-users at this time.

    This is ka-huge.  I’ve been using the trial version of the Linuxant drivers on my Laptop.  It allows me to use my otherwise unusable Broadcom 802.11g chip under Linux.  I hope that eventually the wlan-ng project will support the chipset, but the Linuxant drivers are worth every penny of that $19.95.

    So far the Linuxant drivers have been working just fine under SuSE 9 and I will definitely be picking up the $19.95 full version of the drivers.  Sure, I could stick in my Linksys 802.11b card, but that totally kills the all-in-one nature of my laptop.  I was worried that Linuxant would price the drivers out of the range of normal users, but they managed to keep prices below what I am willing to pay.

  • The Future of J2EE

    Tod Nielsen at CNet:

    J2EE is as powerful as any developer could ever dream. But with power comes complexity. All the J2EE specifications put side by side easily take a yard of shelf space. While I have a hard time visualizing enterprise technology becoming “easy” in my lifetime, it can–and should–be easier. If J2EE is to achieve mass adoption while maintaining what makes J2EE powerful, it must become easier.

    Overall Nielsen seems pretty sure that J2EE will rock if issues of complexity and changing standards.

  • CyberGuard Nabs SnapGear

    ZDNet:

    CyberGuard, a manufacturer of security and networking hardware, announced a plan to acquire a competitor called SnapGear, which builds Linux-based products, the companies said Thursday. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based CyberGuard will pay $16 million, $1.6 million of which is cash and the rest of which is stock, in a deal expected to close by the end of the current quarter.

    And two Linux-based VPN/firewall companies become one.