Reviews

Mobile deathmatch: Windows Phone 7 vs. Apple iPhone 4

Microsoft has a very slick device, but it can't do nearly as much as the iPhone — especially in business

InfoWorld review: Cisco SA 520 firewall disappoints

Cisco's Small Business Pro network security appliance meets small-business needs, but will leave network pros wanting

InfoWorld preview: WebMatrix ramps up ASP.Net development

Microsoft combines all-in-one installation, a gallery of templates, and coding shortcuts to speed dev and deployment of Windows-based websites

Internet Explorer 9 closes the HTML5 gap

IE9 Platform Preview 6 gains on Google Chrome and Firefox with big improvements in HTML5 compatibility and JavaScript performance

New MacBook Air: The best ever

Apple's spectacularly responsive new MacBook Air is the best Air yet — and might be the best MacBook, period

InfoWorld review: Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 gains ground

Microsoft's new suite for the Mac doesn't match Office 2010 for Windows, but a new ribbon interface, Outlook client, and SharePoint integration help close the gap

InfoWorld review: Dell iSCSI SAN sizzles with SSD, dynamic storage tiering

The Dell EqualLogic PS6010XVS with automated storage tiering leverages fast SAS or faster SSD storage depending on workload

Top 10 specialty Web browsers you may have missed

These oddly useful alternative browsers offer such advantages as 3-D searching, social networking, easy scriptability, and powerful page manipulation

InfoWorld review: Dell R815 server makes heavy virtualization light on the wallet

The Dell PowerEdge R815 and its four 12-core AMD Opteron CPUs want to run many, many virtual machines, at a much lower cost than Intel multicore

10 great free desktop productivity tools that aren’t OpenOffice.org

These free and open source applications for Windows, Linux, and Mac desktops put power into the hands of users without taking from their wallets

InfoWorld review: Dell AIM automates today’s data center

Dell's adaptive infrastructure management framework has something competitors don't: support for heterogeneous hardware

InfoWorld preview: Dell’s automated provisioning for the private cloud

Leveraging Dell AIM, the VIS Self-Service Creator combines a self-service portal with policy-based provisioning and resource control

InfoWorld review: Top Java programming tools

Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA, NetBeans, and Oracle JDeveloper continue Java's tradition of rich and diverse development tools

First look: Internet Explorer 9 beta makes waves

Microsoft's next browser closes in on Chrome and Firefox with improvements in graphics rendering, HTML5 compatibility, security, and JavaScript performance

InfoWorld review: Data deduplication appliances

Data deduplication appliances from FalconStor, NetApp, and Spectra Logic provide excellent data reduction for production storage, disk-based backups, and virtual tape

InfoWorld review: Nine fine Python development tools

A wide-ranging flock of Python IDEs offer great options for Windows scripting, GUI applications, Web frameworks, multilanguage development, and more.

Eight great virtual appliances for VMware, free for the downloading

The combination of free open source and virtual machines is hard to beat; here are some of the handiest virtual appliances

Bossie Awards 2010: The best open source software of the year

InfoWorld's Test Center picks the top open source platforms, middleware, applications, and application development tools

InfoWorld preview: Visual Studio LightSwitch chases app dev Holy Grail

Beta 1 of Microsoft's LightSwitch shows promise as an easy-to-use development tool, but it doesn't seem to know its audience

InfoWorld review: Microsoft Silverlight 4 vs. Adobe Flash 10.1

Silverlight challenges the RIA supremacy of Flash, Flex, and AIR with superior development tools and design tool integration

Mobile deathmatch: RIM BlackBerry Torch 9800 vs. Apple iPhone 4

The new BlackBerry doesn't try to be an iPhone, but does work better with touch

The best Web browser: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, or Safari?

Find out which of the leading browsers is the perfect balance of features, speed, innovation, and flexibility for you

Log management review: LogLogic MX3020

The LogLogic MX3020 appliance is not as feature-rich as some of the competition, but covers the essentials with great ease

Log management review: GFI EventsManager

GFI EventsManager lacks enterprise features, but is a good software solution for small and midsize businesses

InfoWorld review: Better network security, compliance with log management

ArcSight, LogRhythm, and NitroSecurity ace mining event logs for security alerting, compliance auditing, and other uses

Log management review: NitroSecurity NitroView ESM and ELM

NitroSecurity combines a wealth of log management functionality with outstanding versatility in graphs and views

Log management review: ArcSight Logger

ArcSight Logger 4 meets all the requirements of enterprise-grade log management, with plenty of flexibility and options

Log management review: Trustwave SIEM

Trustwave's SIEM-in-one-appliance provides a great deal of functionality for the price

Log management review: Splunk 4

Splunk doesn't have all the features of the top competitors, but pairs good value with an active development community

Log management review: LogRhythm LR2000-XM

The well-rounded LogRhythm XM appliance is feature-rich and flexible, from log collection to analysis

InfoWorld review: An IP KVM for servers that haven’t come out of the closet

The single-port Lantronix SecureLinx SpiderDuo wins with a low price, advanced features, and local console pass-through

InfoWorld review: Free Java application performance monitors

Innovative tools from AppDynamics and New Relic make it easier than ever to monitor the performance of complex websites

InfoWorld review: QNAP Turbo NAS serves storage with the works

With a multitude of software options and strong support for VMware and Hyper-V, the QNAP NAS appliance can play many roles in a growing small business

Mobile deathmatch: Apple iOS 4 vs. Android 2.2

As the mobile battle narrows, the iPhone finally faces a real challenger

Top five scripting languages on the JVM

Groovy and JRuby lead a strong field, with Scala, Fantom, and Jython following behind

First look: VMware vSphere 4.1 keeps the virtualization crown

With scalability improvements, network and storage I/O control, and countless other enhancements, VMware continues to redefine the possibilities for server virtualization

First look: Firefox 4 Beta 1 shines on HTML5

Sure, Firefox 4's new Chrome-like UI is nice, but the real story is under the hood

InfoWorld review: Microsoft ADFS 2.0 and Forefront Identity Manager 2010

Extensible cross-domain user authentication and automated user rights management highlight these powerful tools

More great Office 2010 features for business

Many of the best new features in Office 2010 were designed with mobile users and far-flung work groups in mind

iPhone 4: Nearly all it’s cracked up to be

First look: Apple's new iPhone is faster, slimmer, slicker, better — except for potential reception problems

Microsoft Office Web Apps: Limited, mediocre, dismal

Web-based editions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote are underwhelming at best

Seven reasons to care about SQL Server 2008 R2

New BI and reporting features in SQL Server 2008 R2 hit the mark, but other additions leave SQL Server shops wanting more

Top 10 Office 2010 features for business

From powerful productivity enhancers to important security safeguards, the new Microsoft Office has a number of features that businesses will love

InfoWorld review: Virtualization for development and test

VMware, VMLogix, Surgient, and Skytap lab managers ace virtual machine configuration, deployment, and teardown, with some key differences in features and ease

InfoWorld review: Tools for rapid Web development

With WYSIWYG prototyping environments and preconfigured graphical components, rapid Web development tools can help you build applications faster — but with less flexibility

InfoWorld review: Riverbed Steelhead rules the WAN

Riverbed's RiOS 6 continues the tradition of WAN performance gains while improving flexibility, ease, and application support

InfoWorld review: Free remote access tools for Windows and Mac

The best free tools combine firewall friendliness with easy remote access and an amazing array of handy features

OpenSolaris 2009.06 Review

Linux Mint 8 KDE (Helena) Review

More great free troubleshooting tools for Windows

Keep these tools handy for ironing out install issues, diagnosing application crashes, probing process activity, slaying resource hogs, and curing other Windows ills