Gregory Burd

Go ahead, download the source code for Sun's amazing operating system, Solaris. It's now been released. I just downloaded it in under 5 minutes using BitTorrent. Why? I have no idea. Because I could I guess. Or because I didn't believe it would ever happen. I used to work at Sun at one point, so I have some appreciation for what it took politically, not technically, to get to this point. Congratulations, Sun. The code to Solaris is now available to everyone. Why would Sun give up such an asset and is it too late for Solaris? Is this move going to bolster Sun, and turn around this excellent piece of engineering? It's hard for me to imagine Linux or BSD kernel hackers leaving behind their beloved code to poke around in Solaris' guts. In fact, wouldn't that make it legally hard for them to return to the BSD or Linux code bases? Aren't there IP issues involved? Or is O... (more)

Use a Native XML Database for Your XML Data

Developers tend to use the most familiar technologies. For data storage, that is the relational database. During design it's easy to see tables of data everywhere; however, not everything is relational in nature. When dealing with XML data or data easily expressed as XML, XQuery-based native XML databases (NXDs) present a viable and cost-effective alternative to relational databases, file system storage, or custom developed storage implementations. So, when is it time to consider an NXD? Can native XML databases really provide a better answer for your data storage needs? In this... (more)