The combination of pumped-up technical features and relatively low prices are giving vendors with open source-based products more inroads to corporate networks than ever before.

Watch a slideshow of these 11 open source companies.

The gloves are off now in the fight for the data center. Cisco has operated largely unchallenged in providing routing and networking equipment for data centers, but with the purchase of 3Com, HP is poised to go head-to-head with Cisco.

The nearly $3 billion acquisition allows HP to incorporate a diverse portfolio of network switching and routing equipment, as well as 3Com's TippingPoint intrusion prevention products into its inventory. Combined with the growing success of HP's existing ProCurve network devices, purchasing 3Com intensifies the rivalry between Cisco and HP.

Given undistinguished history of Microsoft's late and unlamented Live Search engine, the predecessor to Bing, it's easy to dismiss Redmond as a hapless also-ran in the search market. But given the vast sums of money and resources that Microsoft is investing in its fledging Google challenger, this could change in a hurry.

Launched in May, Bing initially received a tepid response; some critics essentially called it Live Search with a new coat of paint. But Microsoft is nothing if tenacious. (Old-timers will recall how badly the early versions of Windows stank before Redmond finally found success with version 3.0.) The company has been steadily upgrading Bing since May, including some pretty useful innovations announced Wednesday.

Hot on the heels of a reported hijacking of hundreds of Facebook groups, a new variation on an old worm is crawling its way into the social network's walls. Attackers have released an updated, more intelligent version of the notorious Koobface virus, security analysts say--and anyone could become its next victim.

The Facebook Hijack

Google's getting more than the usual amount of attention this week for sponsoring free airport Wi-Fi during the holiday season. And rightfully so: During a long layover, no one wants to fire up their laptop and Web browser only to see a Web page demanding money for Internet access.

The free airport Wi-Fi promotion from Google is a nice gesture, but in a perfect world, it wouldn't be necessary. Airport Wi-Fi should always be free, and I'm not just saying that as a pipe dream. I think it's inevitable.

Late last week, an Australian hacker dubbed ikee deployed the Rickrolling worm– a harmless and humorous worm that installs a picture of 80’s one hit wonder Rick Astley to affected users’ home screens. Rickrolling serves not so much as malware but as a warning to jailbreak users who have installed SSH in order to gain root access to their iPhone’s file system from the internet but have neglected to change the default password, even though not doing so is clearly warned against in the installation documentation.

Yesterday was Microsoft's Patch Tuesday for the month of November. There are 6 new Security Bulletins this month: 3 rated as Critical and 3 rated as Important. Not all Critical Security Bulletins are created equally though. You need to understand the implications of the flaw being patched and how it applies to your systems to determine how urgent the update is.

With one month left in 2009, Microsoft would have to have a record-breaking month in December to surpass the 78 Security Bulletins released in 2008. So, in that regard you can say its been a better year for Microsoft. It is also worth noting that this month's Security Bulletins do not affect the new Windows 7 operating system.

When the Zune HD launched, it swept the gadget world in a flurry of very positive reviews. It's a fantastic device for music, video, and podcasts, but the app selection could be charitibly described as "weak." The Zune team said more, and better, apps were coming this fall. Today, hot on the heels of a 4.3 Firmware update that improves browser performance (among other small tweaks), the Zune team has released half a dozen new games.

The Zune PR team sent me a mail detailing the six new games released today:

A free Gmail account entitles you to a little over 7GB of free storage. A free Google PicasaWeb account nets you a mere 1GB. If you're sending a lot of mail and/or uploading a lot of photos, you're likely to run out of space in a hurry.

You could always buy extra storage, but it wasn't exactly cheap. Well, now it is: Google just cut storage prices in a big way. Take a look at the options:

Google has added new features to its Latitude location mapping and tracking service, allowing users to see where they have been and automatically be alerted (warned?) when friends are nearby.

"One of the most popular ideas was for Latitude to keep track of location history, allowing you (but not your friends) to see where you've been at any point in time. Another popular idea was to notify you when you're near your Latitude friends so you can easily meet up or grab lunch," wrote Google's Chris Lambert in an announcement on the Google Mobile Blog posted late Tuesday.

Google announced the latest in a barrage of free Wi-Fi promotions from the three online search engine giants--Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. This promotion provides free Wi-Fi at 47 airports around the country for weary travelers. The Wi-Fi altruism from Google and others is much appreciated, but it shouldn't be necessary. The Wi-Fi should be free to begin with.

Free Wi-Fi is apparently the gift that keeps on giving this holiday season. Google partnered with Virgin America to provide free Wi-Fi networking on all of its flights within the Continental U.S.. Yahoo is providing free Wi-Fi in New York's Times Square for one year. Microsoft is delivering free Wi-Fi for Bing users at random locations scattered around the country. And now, Google is picking up the tab for airline travelers to use Wi-Fi connections for free at 47 different airports.

Microsoft's Bing is stepping up its assault on Google with bevy of new features available Wednesday that include the addition of Wolfram Alpha search results, enhanced previews of Web sites within results, improved presentation of weather forecasts, and limited Facebook integration.

Bing's new additions are the latest in a series of updates that have included Visual Search, Facebook and Twitter integration, improvements to Bing Maps and the rebranding of MSN Video to Bing Video.