When I talk to organization X (fill in your favorite health care entity, government or medical society) they never fail to utter the dreaded statement: "We are vendor neutral." followed by a dramatic long pause.

Apple proved with the iPhone's comprehensive and extremely clever communications UI and with their interactive pixels technology that they are simply the leader in UIs and product design. Many manufacturers and Linux developers are nipping at their heels though, and the question is how many more tricks Apple has up their sleeves.

The UK's position as the open source laggard of Europe is preventing the growth of UK software industry and skills, according Alfresco, an open source enterprise content management company. Alfresco is a UK success story, counting top investment banks and the European Commission among its customers, yet only 5% of its business comes from its home turf.

The widespread acceptance of open source continues to grow as a cost-effective alternative to traditional network deployments. Well-known projects such as Linux have proven themselves to be in the enterprise environment, helping to dispel the fear, uncertainty and doubt preceding open source implementations.

A while back I worked with a couple of students from a number of universities here in Auckland: UoA, AUT, Massey. These were students in various IT fields, which had to do a practical industry project.

Many of you have likely heard of or even used open source software at one time or another, but I’m constantly surprised at how many people are unaware of the benefits and opportunities open source software presents to us, especially being poor university students.

Women are woefully underrepresented in IT. With few exceptions, women represent less than 30 percent of the IT workforce in most countries, while comprising approximately half the workforce.

THE energy efficiency battle between Linux and Windows is intensifying, with each claiming to be better at cutting power consumption and avoiding environmental damage.