Maureen O'Gara

VirtualBox, the German-made, cross-platform, x86 desktop virtualization software that Sun bought last year, graduates to the server with the 3.0 release that’s supposed to be announced today. Sun says the widgetry can now create and run multiprocessor virtual machines that can handle heavyweight server-class workloads. It’s also getting enhanced graphics support for desktop-class workloads. VirtualBox has previously been good only on one x86 CPU. It can now virtualize up to 32 virtual CPUs in a single virtual machine. To get to 32 figure starting with four quad-cores. Sun recomm... (more)

Consumers Don’t Know a Netbook from a Notebook

Sixty percent of the people who bought a netbook thought it was just a cute little notebook, which is why 42% of them were disappointed with the widget's performance according research done by the NPD Group. The researcher found only 58% of the people who bought a netbook instead of a notebook were very satisfied with their purchase, compared to 70% of the folks who planned on buying a ne... (more)

Amazon Offers Cloud Support

Amazon is now offering two premium support levels for application developers using its cloud computing services, to wit its S3 storage service, its EC2 computing service and SQS application messaging service. It’s got Silver support, priced at $100 a month or 10 cent for every dollar of total Amazon Web Services (AWS) usage fees a month – whichever is greater – and Gold ... (more)

Red Hat Numbers Up in Crummy Economy

Red Hat's revenues were up 11.4% to $174.4 million in its first fiscal quarter ended May 31. Subscription revenue was $148.8 million, up 14% year-over-year. It earned $18.5 million, or 10 cents a share, up 7%. Its non-GAAP income for the quarter was $28.7 million, or 15 cents a share, a penny better than expected. It attributes its results to being cheaper than proprietary kit, particular... (more)