Tech Roundup: Psystar Countersuit Dies, Amazon Enters Content Delivery, More

(MoneyWatch)  Microsoft to give away security software -- Microsoftis taking aim at security software vendors by saying that it will discontinue its subscription PC security service and, instead, give away protection. The new product, code-named Morro, will be available for free download in the second half of next year. Is that an alternate term for operating system updates? [Source: Reuters]

Judge kills Psystar's countersuit against Apple -- Apple has been suing Mac clone maker Psystarfor copyright infringement. The cloner tried countersuing, but the judge ruled that Psystar failed to sufficiently support its claims, and so dismissed them, leaving it with next to no leverage in negotiating a settlement. [Source: Ars Technica]

Microsoft, Novell, and Vista -- Two years after making their deal, Microsoft and Novell paint a rosy picture of the results. But some critics say that both companies are putting their interests ahead of the free software community. Meanwhile, as they say, insider emails show that Microsoft had internal wrangling over relaxing the "Vista Capable" program and concern about comparisons between Vista and Apple's Mac OS X before the new version of Windows came out. Little did they know that the big competition would be XP. [Source: InfoWorld on Microsoft and Novell and fight on Vista capable, Computerworld]

Amazon in content delivery business -- Moving content in various forms is Amazon's forte, so no surprise that it has extended its cloud services to provide a delivery network, largely independent of the Internet, to transmit and delivery large content files, such as sound and video, for clients. The company won't require long-term contracts, putting pressure on existing players in the space. [Source: Red Herring]

Nvidia and desktop supercomputing -- In the summer we covered how Intel'snew Larrabee chip was potentially a lot more than a graphics processing unit. Now it seems that even GPUs aren't necessarily just GPUs, as Nvidiaunveiled a "personal supercomputer" that delivers four teraflops of computing for under $10,000. [Source: BNET Industry Technology Blog, Computerworld]