In the last months, it seems more and more software companies set their eyes on various open source projects, intending to buy them. Leaving the claims of the open source movement, I am sure most companies or people developing open source projects thought at least once about being paid serious amounts of money for their work, but if we leave the financial part aside, there's plenty to gain for everyone. Today, it's about AOL and Jabber...

AOL is testing Jabber with their AIM software, so you'll be able to talk with people using this communication protocol without having to install various "spooky" applications, such as Pidgin, Psi or iChat(don't get me wrong, I thing these applications are great, and I use Pidgin on a regular basis, but most people I know consider me a freak for this reason).

Obviously, there's one big question - why use Jabber? Basically, it's about security and the ability to log in from multiple locations, and then set the Jabber server to send the messages to one of these locations, according to their priority ranking (for example, you could receive messages from co-workers only on your office PC, and those from friends, on your mobile).

On the other hand, another strong point of the Jabber network is that no central server exists, and anyone could have a Jabber server, set up to fulfill the needs of its users.

At this time, it seems the AOL/ICQ test server using Jabber doesn't work without any problem, so we should see what happens with this in the coming weeks. Hopefully, the 10 years-old Jabber will finally get the recognition it deserves, and a much wider range of users will take advantage of its features.

When it comes to protecting your data, you got a lot of alternatives available, and backing it up on a regular basis may not be enough. No matter what people do, data loss happened, it happens and it will occur in the future too, and when such a disaster strikes, you need the right tool to recover the precious files lost. In other cases, when a file gets corrupted, for example, you may need to perform manual low-level editing on it, and there are also other situations when a program like WinHEX is one of the best choices...

If you didn't know that so far, WinHex is a commercial program allowing you to perform low-level disk and file editing, coming with a RAM editor too, disk cloning features, file wiping abilities, and many more. It is developed by Stefan Fleischmann, and published by the German company called X-Ways Software Technology AG.

Last version of this software, 14.7, was released about 2 days ago, and it comes in 4 different license types - Personal, Professional, Specialist and Forensic (X-Ways Forensics). Depending on the license chosen, you get access to more or less features, for example scripting & API support, "specialist" menu, access to Ext2, Ext3, CDFS & UDF file systems, as well as RAID & dynamic disks, a cloning and imaging tool for DOS, and many more.

If you think this program may be worth your money and you have the skills to use it, you can pick your version from here, or get more information to decide, on this page.

I don't know if Vista is the reason of the recent changes in Microsoft's high level management team, and I don't think a product that isn't received by the market as expected, like their latest operating system, could be the fault of the management. In fact, probably it has nothing to do with Vista, but it's interesting to notice that a former Disney executive just joined Microsoft, moving to the same position he had in the cartoon empire: CIO.

As things look now, considering Vista's (in)success and the lawsuits against the company starting here and there all the time (even a few hours ago, news emerged about some tiny Chinese company, which sued Microsoft for using its inputting technology and fonts in Windows operating systems without singing any commercial agreement since early 90s), it's obvious Microsoft needed some fresh air.

Since Steve Balmer behaves like a cartoon in some situations, it seems like a good idea to bring in someone that worked in the animation movies industry, but leaving the funny part aside, I should mention that Tony Scott, the new CIO at Microsoft, is not related with Stuart Scot, its predecessor.

Scott's task will be to manage the structure inside Microsoft that is responsible for the systems that support the company's sales, marketing and services operations worldwide. Before working at Disney, Scott was General Motors' CTO, and vice president of operations at Bristol-Meyers Squibb(I wouldn't be ashamed with such a CV at all!).

For now, these moves may pass aways without much noise, but their effect will be noticed in the long run. I don't know what's going to happen in 5 or 10 years with Microsoft's approach to the industry and its relation with the customers, but they could start getting back on the right track this summer, by continuing to support and ship Windows XP, together with Vista...