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Leading items and editorialsThe Digital Speech Project got a boost this week when the Free Software Foundation announced its support ![[Digital Speech]](digital-speech.png)
for the effort. The purpose of the project is to attempt to bring some
sanity to U.S. intellectual property laws; in particular, the project has
targeted the DMCA and the (proposed) SSSCA. The FSF has joined in by
hiring organizer Jonathan Watterson to work on digital speech issues.
The FSF is right to be concerned about the DMCA and SSSCA, of course. Consider this description of the SSSCA from a recent Wired article: A version of the SSSCA obtained by Wired News prohibits creating, selling or distributing 'any interactive digital device that does not include and utilize certified security technologies.' The SSSCA also creates new federal felonies, punishable by five years in prison and fines of up to $500,000.
Any system built on free software will certainly qualify as an "interactive digital device that does not include and utilize certified security technologies." It is going to be an interesting time if free software is made illegal. Any attempt to ban free software will be futile, of course, but that wouldn't stop the ruining of numerous lives in the process. It is better to avoid that situation altogether - and that requires action now. (One bit of useful action for U.S. folk might be to respond to a call for views on "the application of copyright law to the digital environment" from a House subcommittee. The House is the most likely place to stop the SSSCA, so they should know what we think.) Red Hat's year-end results. Red Hat has announced its financial results for the end of its fiscal year. Since Red Hat is one of the most prominent free software businesses, and since it has been making claims of profitability, its results are worth a close look. The details have to wait for the company's SEC filing, of course; for now, we have to content ourselves with the press release. The company claims an "adjusted net income" of $1 million for the quarter, on revenue of $18.6 million.. "This represents the fourth consecutive quarter in which the company has delivered profitable or breakeven results." Once you un-adjust the figures, of course, the picture is a little different. When the accounts are run in accordance with GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles), that $1 million profit turns into a $28.9 million loss. One can argue that much of that loss is an accounting artifact, since is made up of "goodwill" writeoffs and such. A bit over $2 million of that loss, however, is in the form of cash severance payments to the company's laid-off network consulting group. So, while Red Hat is hardly failing, its claims of sustained profitability only work with sustained funky accounting. They may yet get there for real, however. This time around, Red Hat has decided that its mission is "delivering open source solutions to the Global 2000." So the press release hypes the company's new big-name customers (AOL, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Amazon, Cisco, Nortel, Dell, GE Medical, Dreamworks, Oracle, Deutsche Bank, Siemens, and BP), and deemphasizes other areas of business. It is, perhaps, most interesting to look at the performance one of those deemphasized business areas: embedded systems. With its acquisition of Cygnus, Red Hat should be positioned to do well in the embedded arena. So it is discouraging to examine the trend of Red Hat's embedded services revenues (in millions):
In other words, Red Hat's total embedded revenue has dropped from $7 million to $2.4 million over the course of a year. That hurts. It has been a hard time to run a business, and one could blame a reduction in revenues on the difficult economy. But Red Hat was able to increase its "enterprise" revenues slightly during the last quarter. It's hard to avoid the conclusion that Red Hat's embedded business is slipping away. If this decay continues, a point could come where Red Hat's contribution to important related free software (i.e. gcc) is sharply reduced. Some people have been known to worry about Red Hat's dominant position with regard to gcc, but few would like to see it cut back in this way. Followup: Hurd and proprietary software. Last week we speculated on whether Richard Stallman's comments on the upcoming Hurd release suggested that Hurd-based systems would not be allowed to run proprietary software. It turns out we speculated wrong. There will be no attempt to keep proprietary software off the Hurd kernel. We regret any confusion that our speculations may have caused. That still leaves open, however, the question of what the comments did mean. There is, after all, no difficulty in building 100% free systems based on the Linux kernel, and a number of distributors do so. What will be different about a Hurd-based system? According to Mr. Stallman: Many versions of the GNU system are available (typically they are GNU/Linux systems, using Linux as the kernel), but none of them follows our criteria for free software. Debian comes closest, but their criteria are different and they also distribute software they do not consider free.
We are working at clarifying things further, in an attempt to discover (and fairly represent) what the Free Software Foundation's objections are with regard to the existing, fully free distributions. Stay tuned... Donations. The response to last week's request for donations for LWN met with a tremendous response; over $5,000 has been donated by our readers. This amount of money, of course, is not enough to keep an operation going for very long, but it could well prove to be the crucial bridge that keeps the lights on while we work on longer-term solutions. It is extremely gratifying that our readers are willing to help support us in that way. We can't thank you enough. Our new LWN Supporters Page lists the LWN contributors who were willing to be thanked in public. We have received a few complaints about the use of Paypal. We understand that not everybody likes or wants to work with Paypal, and we are working on alternatives. Paypal has the advantage of being quick and easy to set up, which is why we went to it first. Things like credit card processing will take longer. Of course, it's still not too late to donate if you haven't done so already... Inside this LWN.net weekly edition:
This Week's LWN was brought to you by:
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March 21, 2002
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Sections: Main page Security Kernel Distributions Development Commerce Linux in the news Announcements Letters See also: last week's Security page. |
SecurityNews and EditorialsToo much trust in open source? (ZDNet). ZDNet looks at the recent security vulnerabilities and asks whether free software is really more secure. Quoting Linus Torvalds: "In the open-source community, the community has so far been pretty good at policing itself without the embarrassment. Do bugs happen? Yes, of course. But do they get found and fixed without a new virus of the week that costs a few billion dollars of user time? You bet." Analysts: Security flaws won't undermine Linux (ComputerWorld). ComputerWorld talks to security analysts about recent security problems. "Alan Paller, research director at the SANS Institute, a Bethesda, Md.-based nonprofit security group, said it's not a surprise that more vulnerabilities are showing up in Linux, since the operating system is being used more widely in corporate computing. The larger deployment of the operating system means more problems are likely to be seen in larger numbers, Paller said." (Thanks to Jay R. Ashworth) March CRYPTO-GRAM newsletter. Bruce Schneier's CRYPTO-GRAM Newsletter for March is out. It looks at the SNMP vulnerabilities, the IETF draft "responsible disclosure" standard, cryptography and terrorism, and more. "CERT took on the task of coordinating the [SNMP] fix with the major software vendors, and has said that the reason publication was delayed so long is that there were so many vendors to contact. CERT even had problems with vendors not taking the problem seriously, and had to spend considerable effort to get the right people to pay attention. Lesson #1: If bugs are secret, many vendors won't bother patching their systems." Security Reports
Mandrake Linux update for rsync.
Ethan Benson reported that
rsyncd fails to remove supplementary groups (such as root)
from the server process after changing to the specified unprivileged
uid and gid.
Mandrake has provided an rsync update which fixes the problem.
"This seems only serious if rsync is called using "rsync
--daemon" from the command line where it will inherit the group of the
user starting the server (usually root)."
web scripts.
Proprietary products. The following proprietary products were reported to contain vulnerabilities:UpdatesApache mod_ssl buffer overflow vulnerability. According to this announcement "modssl versions prior to 2.8.7-1.3.23 (Feb 23, 2002) make use of the underlying OpenSSL routines in a manner which could overflow a buffer within the implementation. This situation appears difficult to exploit in a production environment[...]." (First LWN report: March 7). This week's updates: Previous updates:
Buffer overflow in CUPS. Versions of the Common Unix Print System prior to 1.1.14 have a buffer overflow vulnerability. (First LWN report: February 14). This week's updates: Previous updates:
Remotely exploitable buffer overflow in Ecartis/Listar. Janusz Niewiadomski and Wojciech Purczynski reported a remotely exploitable buffer overflow in address_match(). The other vulnerabilities in their report not addressed by the updates listed below are "ineffective privilege dropping in listar" and "multiple local vulnerabilities." Listar is a mailing list manager similar to Majordomo or Listserv. (First LWN report: March 14). This week's updates: Both PHP3 and PHP4 have vulnerabilities in their file upload code which can lead to remote command execution. This one could be ugly; sites using PHP should apply updates at the first opportunity. If an update isn't available for your distribution, users of PHP 4.0.3 and later are encouraged to consider disabling file upload support by adding this directive to php.ini: file_uploads = Off CERT has issued this advisory on the problem. This article in the Register also talks about the vulnerability. (First LWN report: March 7). Developers using the 4.2.0 branch, are not vulnerable because because file upload support was completely rewritten for that branch. This week's updates: Previous updates:
Update: Despite some concern expressed in an earlier report by LWN, these updates do, in fact, fix the problem. The original update from the php team fixes the security hole but introduces a "rare segfault condition" that is not a security problem. zlib corrupts malloc data structures via double free. This vulnerability impacts all major Linux vendors. It may impact every Linux installation on Earth. Updates are required to zlib and any packages that were statically built with the zlib code. (First LWN report: March 14). LinuxSecurity describes the vulnerability and coordinated distributor efforts in detail. "Packages including X11, rsync, the Linux kernel, QT, mozilla, gcc, vnc, and many other programs that have the ability to use network compression are potentially vulnerable." Updating is recommended. As always, please proceed with caution when applying updates to the kernel. This week's updates:
Previous updates:
See also: articles in ZDNet and The Register about the zlib vulnerability. And, these reports from ZDNet and Vnunet on this vulnerability in some of Microsoft's major applications. ResourcesParanoid Penguin: Hardening Sendmail (Linux Journal). Mick Bauer shares his secrets of a secure sendmail install. "Well, contrary to popular belief, sendmail isn't a total loss where security is concerned, nor does it require learning the arcane syntax of sendmail.cf (although hardcore sendmail gurus do indeed master it). This month we examine these and other sendmail security controversies, using sendmail's handy m4 macros to rapidly build a secure but functional Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) gateway to handle internet mail." The Linux Virus Writing HOWTO. Alexander Bartolich's Linux Virus Writing HOWTO describes "how to write parasitic file viruses infecting ELF executables on Linux/i386. Though it contains a lot of source code, no actual virus is included." Linux security week. The Linux Security Week and Linux Advisory Watch publications from LinuxSecurity.com are available. EventsUpcoming Security Events. FOSE SELinux Panel. There is a Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) panel at the FOSE conference in Washington D.C. today, Thursday, March 21, 2002.
For additional security-related events, included training courses (which we don't list above) and events further in the future, check out Security Focus' calendar, one of the primary resources we use for building the above list. To submit an event directly to us, please send a plain-text message to lwn@lwn.net. Section Editor: Dennis Tenney |
March 21, 2002
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Sections: Main page Security Kernel Distributions Development Commerce Linux in the news Announcements Letters See also: last week's Kernel page. |
Kernel developmentThe current development kernel release is 2.5.7, which was released on March 18. This will be the last such release for a while, since Linus has headed off for a two-week vacation. This release contains some fairly big patches, including:
The latest from Dave Jones is 2.5.6-dj2, which adds a number of fixes and updates to the 2.5.7-pre2 kernel. Guillaume Boissiere updated his 2.5 status summary on March 20. The current stable kernel release is 2.4.18. The current 2.4.19 prepatch is 2.4.19-pre4; it includes a massive m68k update, the new video device code, and a great many other fixes. Alan Cox's latest 2.4.19 patch is 2.4.19-pre3-ac4. For those of you who aren't into all that bleeding-edge 2.4 stuff, David Weinehall has released 2.0.40-rc4 which should, with luck, turn into a real 2.0.40 soon. Note that other kernel tree announcements now appear with the rest of the patches at the bottom of the page. Kernel compilation benchmark update. When we last checked in with the fast-kernel-compile benchmark crowd (in last week's LWN Kernel Page) they had managed to get a kernel compilation down to just over 10 seconds. The record has fallen, however: Anton Blanchard has announced that he was able, through use of a 32-way PowerPC64 system, to build the benchmark kernel in 7.52 seconds. "...not a bad result for something running under a hypervisor." Watch for sub-second kernel compilations, coming soon to a million-dollar machine near you... The obligatory BitKeeper update. Marcelo Tosatti has announced that he is now using BitKeeper to manage the 2.4 code. See this note for information on how to access his tree. "Discussions" of BitKeeper's licensing continue, not helped by the discovery of a temporary file race vulnerability in the BitKeeper installer. Readers of this page are more than familiar with the licensing arguments, though; we'll not repeat them this time. Reworking the 2.4 VM patches. The word on the net for some time has been that the 2.4.x virtual memory subsystem almost works as it should; all that remains is to incorporate the last set of patches from Andrea Arcangeli. 2.4 maintainer Marcelo Tosatti has not yet integrated those patches, however; he has wanted to see them split up and documented so that he actually understands what he is putting in. This seems like a not unreasonable approach for a stable kernel maintainer to take. Thus far, however, Andrea has not found the time to rework his patches as requested, so they remain unapplied. Andrew Morton has decided to try to break this logjam by reworking the patch and splitting it up into a form suitable for submission to Marcelo. Andrew has, in consultation with Linus, annotated the patches and made his own changes (including leaving a few patches out entirely). The result is an interesting view into what still needs to be fixed with the 2.4 virtual memory implementation; it's worth a detailed look. Andrea's 10_vm-32 patch was split into 24 individual pieces. Andrew has dropped eight of those, leaving 16 patches for consideration:
Together, these patches represent a great deal of work by both Andrea and Andrew. With luck, they'll find their way into a better VM in the near future. Exit sections and monolithic kernels. The kernel has had, for some time, the ability to mark functions and data with an "exit" flag. The traditional use for this marker is to flag functions which are used at module unload time. Modules need cleanup functions so that they can be gracefully removed from the kernel. When those modules are linked statically into the kernel, however, they will never be removed. In this case, functions and data marked with the "exit" flag are simply discarded, making the kernel image smaller. It's a worthwhile optimization. Anybody who has tried building a kernel with a modern binutils distribution, however, will have experienced the annoying, useless "undefined reference to `local symbols in discarded section .text.exit'" message that accompanies a failed link. The problem is simple: the kernel has numerous pointers to exit functions and data. Usually a human can determine that, in cases where the exit section has been discarded, those pointers will never be used; they are thus harmless. The linker doesn't see things that way, though, and newer versions refuse to complete the link when dangling exit pointers exist. The workaround has been to define a devexit_p macro which causes exit pointers to disappear in non-modular code. It's a bit of a hack, but it gets the job done. The devexit_p calls have been slowly working their way into the kernel code. But now Linus has come up with a different approach. Rather than discard all that exit code, why not keep it in the kernel and use it to gracefully shut down the hardware at system shutdown time? The code is there, one might as well make use of it, even if the kernel gets a bit bigger. devexit_p's days in the kernel may be numbered. Other patches and updates released this week include: Alternate kernel trees:
Core kernel code:
Development tools:
Device drivers
Kernel building:
Miscellaneous:
Networking:
Section Editor: Jonathan Corbet |
March 21, 2002 For other kernel news, see: Other resources: |
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Sections: Main page Security Kernel Distributions Development Commerce Linux in the news Announcements Letters See also: last week's Distributions page.
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DistributionsPlease note that security updates from the various distributions are covered in the security section. News and EditorialsRTFM!. We know what it means*. Sometimes, though, it's hard to find the right M to R and that's where the Linux Documentation Project (LDP) comes in. The LDP is a collection of Guides, HOWTOs, FAQs, man pages, and other sources of Linux related documentation. If you are having trouble finding the M you want to R, searching through the LDP site might help. The LWN Development page usually carries the LDP weekly news, with more information on what's new, what's revised, and so on. This week a particular document showed up in the list of new documents. It's really not so much new, as newly revised, with a new maintainer, and it's clearly in need of additional revisions. It's the English-language GNU/Linux distributions on CD-ROM (formerly: The Linux distributions HOWTO). As the name implies, this list of Linux distributions is very focused, covering only popular English-language distributions; specifically compiled for the Intel platform; available on CD-ROM; and easily accessible to the first-time user. As such it is much shorter than the LWN list which includes distributions in many languages and formats. Keeping the list focused allows new users to find the information they are looking for, without becoming overwhelmed by extraneous information. Martin S. Wheeler is new maintainer of this document, and while he probably doesn't need a barrage of email asking why distribution x, y or z isn't on the list, he could use some help getting this document up-to-date. So if you are a maintainer of a distribution that falls within the scope of this list, check to see if your distribution is covered and follow the directions within the document to add or update the entry for your distribution. We've added a link to the English-language GNU/Linux distributions on CD-ROM document to the right sidebar of this page, along with the other known lists of Linux distributions.
* (For anyone who really doesn't know, it's - Read The Frelling** Manual
- No source for Sorcerer. Sorcerer GNU/Linux seems to be dead. The listing on Freshmeat is gone and the Sorcerer homepage now only contains only a short announcement which reads, in part: Sorcerer GNU Linux is no longer being distributed under the GNU/GPL license. If you have problems with this then write your own original source based GNU Linux distribution and give it away for free. (Thanks to Ravenhall) Update: Numerous readers have written in to note that the rumors of Sorcerer's death are premature. Here's the new web page for this distribution. See also SorcererLinux.org for more information on this (fairly twisted) situation. New DistributionsNetule. A company called Netule has created three new Linux distributions, which are now available for download. The EM-I or Email Module I is a full featured Email Server based on Sendmail; the WM-I or Web Module I is a vastly simplified Web Server based on Apache; and the FM-I or Firewall Module I is released in partnership with Astaro Security Linux. Netule products are a combination of open and closed source and are available bundled with hardware. Distribution NewsDebian GNU/Linux. The Debian Weekly News for March 13, 2002 contains news about the Woody release status, the Project Leader Elections debate, and congratulates Debian developer Bart Bunting for two gold medal wins in this year's Paralympics. The DPL debate is now scheduled for 21:00 UTC Saturday, March 23, 2002. The start of the voting period has been postponed to 00:00 UTC, March 24th, 2002. Mandrake Linux 8.2 is Available. MandrakeSoft has announced the release of Mandrake Linux 8.2. Features include support for encrypted filesystems, SMP support, easy setup for printers and scanners, a redesigned Mandrake Control Center, lots of new configuration wizards, and more. MontaVista Linux. MontaVista Software Inc. has announced that MontaVista Linux will support IBM's new 440GP PowerPC microprocessor. Red Hat Linux. Red Hat has updated e2fsprogs packages available, which fix many ext3 bugs. This advisory says that new versions of the Red Hat Network Update Agent and Registration Client are now available. These new versions include new features, optimizations, and bug fixes. Keep an eye out for 'Skipjack', the code name for the newest Red Hat beta. The ftp site was not open for anonymous ftp as of this writing, but it might be open by the time you read this. Try ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/beta/skipjack/ Slackware Linux. Slackware also has updated e2fsprogs packages available for Slackware current. SuSE Linux. SuSE Linux announced that the latest version of its advanced enterprise operating system, the 64-bit SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7 for IBM eServer zSeries, will be available by the beginning of May. Turbolinux Speeds Enterprise Acceptance of Linux. Here is a press release about Turbolinux 7 Server, "the first Linux distribution to conform to Li18NUX internationalization standards." Yellow Dog Linux. Terra Soft is preparing to release Yellow Dog Linux 2.2; with Gnome 1.4, kernel 2.4.18 and XFree86 4.2.0; all built from a Red Hat 7.2 foundation. It should be out soon. Minor Distribution updatesAstaro Security Linux. Astaro Security Linux has released v3.040 beta with major feature enhancements. Devil-Linux. Devil-Linux released v0.5 beta 6 with lots of changes. Keeper Linux. Keeper Linux has released KL 1.1a, with TinyLogin and other minor updates. Kondara MNU/Linux. The Kondara Project has released Kondara MNU/Linux 2.1 code named "Asumi". (Thanks to Maya TAMIYA) Libranet GNU/Linux. The folks at Libranet GNU/Linux have decided to set up a pay for download scheme to help out with the bills. NSA Security Enhanced Linux. NSA Security Enhanced Linux has released v2002031409 with minor feature enhancements. Vine Linux. Vine Linux has announced the release of Vine Linux 2.5 beta 1, available for i386 and PPC processors. Distribution ReviewsLinux on a Floppy, an Intro to Mini Linux Distributions Version 1.0 (Linux Orbit). Linux Orbit introduces some mini-distributions, including Trinux, the Crash Recovery Kit, and tomsrtbt. "If you've ever been stuck on the freeway with a flat tire and no jack, you know what it's like to have a Linux system crash and not have a boot disk. And although nearly every Linux distribution company asks you make a boot/recovery floppy when you install Linux for the first time, many users skip this important step. Out of the boot/recovery disk concept was born the Mini-Linux distribution." Lycoris Desktop/LX: The World's Flower Power (Tux Reports). Tux Reports focuses on usability in this review of the Lycoris Desktop/LX operating system. "I was surprised that my students latched onto Lycoris so readily. This says a lot about it's usability for novices. Clearly, Lycoris hit the mark for a Windows network. This Linux distribution worked well on a mid-sized Windows network. Students used it without complaining. We'll keep it on this network so that students can work with the school website (hosted on a Linux box)." MandrakeSoft adds Office to Linux (ZDNet). This ZDNet UK article covers the release of Mandrake Linux 8.2, with a focus on the software that will be added to the boxed sets. "When the boxed product ships in April, version 8.2 will be the first Mandrake Linux version to include the office suite StarOffice 6.0 and the Outlook clone Evolution 1.02, both of which are considered to be significantly improved over earlier editions." MandrakeSoft, SuSe add new life to Linux (ZDNet). This ZDNet UK article takes a look at Mandrake Linux 8.2 (which is already available for download) and the upcoming SuSE Linux 8.0. "SuSE Linux 8 includes tweaked versions of its e-mail client, organizer and media players. Other multimedia features include support for CD writing, video playback and editing, the Kooka scanning application, and version 0.9 of the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture." Section Editor: Rebecca Sobol |
March 21, 2002
Please note that not every distribution will show up every week. Only distributions with recent news to report will be listed.
Distribution Lists:
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Sections: Main page Security Kernel Distributions Development Commerce Linux in the news Announcements Letters See also: last week's Development page. |
Development projectsNews and EditorialsThe Knoda Database Frontend for KDEKnoda, ("Knorr's Datenbank"), is a database front end for the K Desktop Environment (KDE). It is based on the hk_classes C++ database library. Knoda works with the Mysql database and the documentation indicates that it can be installed under the Mandrake and SuSE distributions. Knoda was written by Horst Knorr. "Knoda is a GUI for accessing relational databases in KDE. It comprises a Form generator, a Table and Query generator and a Report Designer." The general information page further details what Knoda can do. The screenshots page shows some examples of Knoda's capabilities. Version 0.5.1 of Knoda has just been released, new features include support for KDE2 and KDE3 as well as an XML export filter and bug fixes. See the changelog for the complete list and project history. These pages also have some useful information:
Knoda can be downloaded here. It is licensed under the GPL and the LGPL. Audio ProjectsMPEG audio analysis tools. We have received an announcement from CSIRO for a set of frequency domain audio analysis tools. Maaate is a framework for doing work with MPEG compressed files, and Bewdy allows one to work with MP3 files. (Thanks to Silvia Pfeiffer.) EducationSEUL/edu report for March 18, 2002. The March 18, 2002 SEUL/edu report features discussions on GNU license issues in Canada, teaching Linux to high school students, the Free Assessment Summary Tool (FAST), multi-language support for Tux Typing, data formats for educational use, and more. Embedded SystemsEmbedded Linux Newsletter for March 14, 2002. The March 14, 2002 edition of the LinuxDevices Embedded Linux Newsletter is out with the latest embedded Linux news. Tracking Down Killer Bugs (Dr. Dobbs'). Eric McRae discusses embedded system debugging techniques on Dr. Dobbs'. "In the field of embedded system development, there occasionally arises a bug that defies all normal techniques for discovery. These "killer" bugs are characterized by unpredictability, an unclear hardware/software basis, and their proximity to a major project deadline." Network Managementiptables-1.2.6 released. Version 1.2.6 of the iptables firewall software has been released. It features a bunch of bug fixes. (Thanks to Harald Welte.) ScienceTk Family Practice Version 50 Released (LinuxMedNews). LinuxMedNews reports on the latest version of the Tk_familypractice medical record system. Features include an improved install script, better progress note templates, a file chooser dialog, improved internationalization, and more. BioPerl 1.0 Release (Bioinformatics). Bioinformatics has an announcement for the 1.0 release of BioPerl, a set of Perl extensions for handling biological data. "Bioperl has been used worldwide since 1998 but the project has always used conservative release numbering - for example, for the last 2 years, the stable release series was 0.7. By moving to 1.0, Bioperl is declaring that it is 'feature complete' for sequence handling, the most common task in bioinformatics. " Web-site DevelopmentLiferay Enterprise Portal v1.0. Liferay, a new J2EE open source portal server has been released for Linux and Windows. The portal is built on Oracle9i. Liferay is licensed under the MIT Open Source License. Bricolage 1.2.2 Released (use Perl). Version 1.2.2 of the Bricolage content management and publishing system has been announced. "This is a maintenance release with many bug fixes." This week on Zope Members' News. New items on the Zope Members' News site include a new PHParser, FunctionalTests 0.2, and a note on a Zope talk at the Open Source Content Management Summit in Zurich, Switzerland on Mar 21-22 2002. Asp2php news. A few updates have been added to the Asp2php project. "Fixed some bugs in the 'function' conversion. I also totally updated the GUI. It should work A LOT better now. " Apache AxKit 1.5.1 Released (use Perl). A new version of AxKit, a mod_perl mime encoding sniffer for XML files, has been announced. This release features bug fixes, it is also the first release to be included as part of Apache. Introducing AxKit (O'Reilly). Barrie Slaymaker takes a look at AxKit on O'Reilly's perl.com. "Starting from the basics, this series explains how to install a basic AxKit server and then explores AxKit's more powerful capabilities. " DocumentationLDP Weekly News. The March 12, 2002 LDP Weekly News features a new Latvian HOWTO as well as numerous updated documents. The March 19, 2002 LDP Weekly News mentions that Joy Goodreau will be replacing David Merrill as the collection editor. Thanks go to Dave for all of his hard work, and welcome to Joy. New documents include a Compaq T1500 Linux HOWTO, and an English-language GNU/Linux distributions HOWTO. |
March 21, 2002
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Desktop DevelopmentAudio ApplicationsAlsaPlayer 0.99.57. Version 0.99.57 of the AlsaPlayer PCM player is available. This version features bug fixes, added scopes, and more preferences. Web BrowsersHave You Seen These Hackers? (Mozilla). The Mozilla project is searching for a number of former developers, they need to find them and ask their permission for the relicensing of Mozilla. Switching from IE to Gecko (NewsForge). NewsForge has an encouraging article about a web browser developer making the switch to Gecko. "Howard Ryan is CEO of Custom Browser, Inc. , a company that codes (you'd never guess from the name) custom Web browsers. He's a Windows guy, and most of his work has been based on Microsoft Explorer's rendering engine. But Howard is starting to use Mozilla's Gecko in his own custom and embedded browsers, and says moving to Gecko from Explorer is not only a good idea, but is amazingly simple for browser developers because, he says, 'the Gecko API is identical to the IE API.'" Desktop EnvironmentsKernel Cousin KDE #35. Issue #35 of Kernel Cousin KDE covers recent release candidates for KDE3, Krayon, KOffice file thumbnails, CVS documentation accidents, and more. People of KDE: Andy Fawcett. One of the more recent endeavours in the KDE world is the KDEduware project. This week dot.kde.org speaks with team member Andy Fawcett. "I help out with the KDE Edu project, doing testing, giving advice (I have some teaching experience), and maintaining some of the website . When we 'went public' with the project, I somehow managed to coordinate getting the text in seven different languages, all in the space of a day, and for which I am very grateful to the poor fools people on IRC who volunteered to translate." The KDE Three Meeting. Cristian Tibirna has compiled a summary of the recent KDE Three Meeting, which covered various KDE 3.0 development issues. KDE Worldwide Goes Live. Chris Howells has announced a new project, KDE Worldwide, which aims to promote KDE around the world by assisting with the localization of KDE. GNOME-2.0 Installation Guide Online (Gnotices). A new GNOME-2.0 Installation Guide has been announced. "This GIG2 explains not only how to compile and install the GNOME 2.0 Desktop Environment itself but also how to compile and install the GNOME 1.4.1 applications into the new GNOME-2.0 Desktop Environment." New GNOME themes site (Gnotices). Sunshine In A Bag is a new GNOME themes site that has been announced. Its purpose is to be a resource site for all GNOME related themes. GNOME Summary for March 16, 2002. The March 16, 2002 GNOME Summary looks at Rhythmbox 0.1, GStreamer 0.3.3, GnuCash 1.6.6, Ada bindings for GTK+ 2.0, the GNOME 2.0 desktop Beta 2, and more. GUI PackagesPython/C# Mania: New Bindings Expand KDE Languages. A number of new bindings have been released for KDE and Qt, adding C# and Python to the list of supported languages. InteroperabilityXfsamba 0.44 Samba navigator. Version 0.44 of Xfsamba, a GUI-based Samba navigator, has been released. (Thanks to Joe Klemmer.) MultimediaKWinTV: Future Vision (KDE.News). KDE.News reports on Richard Moore's latest version of KWinTV, a television card interface for KDE. Office ApplicationsAbiWord 0.99.3 Released (Gnotices). In the move towards the AbiWord 1.0 release, the AbiWord team has announced version 0.99.3. "The AbiWord team continues to make great progress towards 1.0. In the 4 weeks since 0.99.2 was released we've closed tons of bugs, completed RTF import/export, added great new image handling facilities and have made AbiWord significantly faster." |
Desktop Environments GNOME GNUstep KDE XFce XFree86 Window Managers Afterstep Enlightenment FVMW2 IceWM Sawfish WindowMaker Widget Sets GTK+ Qt |
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Programming LanguagesC++Implementing C++ Servlet Containers (Dr. Dobbs'). John Hinke introduces C++ servelet containers on Dr. Dobb's. "What if the full power of the Java servlet API could be harnessed in C++ to create a pure C++ web application by using the same techniques used when creating Java web applications? C++ developers would then be able to create C++ web applications without needing to use multiple languages, or using a slower technology such as Java or CGI." CamlCaml Weekly News. The March 19, 2002 Caml Weekl News is available. Topics include profiling, PXP-1.1.4, a lablgtk interface for Gecko, caml-info-look, and a Text Mode Kit. The Caml Hump. This week, the Caml Hump looks at the TextMode Kit OCaml text mode widget system and caml-info-look, an automatic OCaml info file browser. JavaJSP Standard Tag Libraries, Part 1 (O'Reilly). Sue Spielman introduces JSP Standard Tag Libraries on O'Reilly's OnJava site. "If a custom tag has been created, tested, and debugged, then it only is logical that, as a developer, you want to grab the golden ring of OOD: reusable components. Working with custom tags is one avenue to explore in the world of reuse. But wouldn't it be better, more efficient, and easier if there was a set of standard tags that solved common problems? Do we really need ten different ways to iterate, or to do conditional processing?" A taste of 'Bitter Java' (IBM developerWorks). Bruce A. Tate explores Java antipatterns on IBM's developerWorks. "In this article, antipatterns expert and noted author of Bitter Java, Bruce Tate, demonstrates how and why antipatterns are a necessary and complementary companion to design patterns." LispCL-BibTeX alpha available. An alpha release of CL-BibTeX, a Common Lisp replacement of the BibTeX bibliograpy database tool, has been announced. PHPPHP Weekly Summary. The March 17, 2002 PHP Weekly Summary covers streams support, SapDB and PHP, a FastCGI update, fixes for the PHP audit project, interface extension, and Unix Mail, and more. PHP Documentation Team Meeting. The notes from the PHP Documentation Team Meeting are available online. PythonPython 2.2.1c1 released. A new candidate for the bugfix release of Python has been announced. No major new features are included, just bug fixes. Testers are being recruited. This week's Python-URL!. This week's Python-URL! covers Enhanced Generators, NormalDate 1.2, a Python 2.2 bug encounter, an English thesaurus and dictionary thread, a proposed standard logging module, PIL v1.1.3, and more. This week on the Daily Python-URL. New items on the Daily Python-URL include a list-comprehension syntax discussion, Python 2.2.1 RC 1, a Python Logging System, Python Imaging Library, version 1.1.3, Korean Codecs 2.0.2, and more. RubyRuby: Productive Programming Language (Linux Journal). The Linux Journal looks at Ruby. "Ruby has some distinct advantages over Python. It is a far cleaner OOP language with excellent features, and it supports Perl's regex type terse notation. It also scores high in enabling one to write short concise and maintainable code." The Ruby Garden. This week, the Ruby Garden discusses programmer personalities, Dir.mkdirhier and Dir.rmdirhier, message parameters for abort, the Mutex object, dir methods, and more. The Ruby Weekly News. The March 18, 2002 Ruby Weekly News features announcements for Ruby Dataquery Shell 0.3.3, rpkg 0.3.1, Ruby-Gnome 0.27, Ruby/SMB beta 2, Ruby/zlib 0.5.1, the Locana GUI and GUI builder 0.81, and more. Tcl/TkTcl-URL! for March 18, 2002. This week's Tcl-URL! covers try/catch exception handling, garbage collection, embedded TCL legalities, Tcl history, animated GIFs, the Tgdb debugger, and more. XMLProcessing Model Considered Essential (O'Reilly). Leigh Dodds looks at XML processing model issues on xml.com. "This week's XML-Deviant takes a step backwards in an attempt to foreground an issue that has been behind several recent debates in the XML community, namely, the lack of a processing model for XML." Integrated Development EnvironmentsGNUstep Weekly Editorial. The March 15, 2002 GNUstep Weekly Editorial covers testing on different Objective-C window managers, compatibility between Apple Objective-C++ and gcc, Chinese language support, converting a NeXTSTEP text to speech program to Linux, and GNUstep progress. Section Editor: Forrest Cook |
Language Links Caml Caml Hump Tiny COBOL Erlang g95 Fortran Gnu Compiler Collection (GCC) Gnu Compiler for the Java Language (GCJ) Guile Haskell IBM Java Zone Jython Free the X3J Thirteen (Lisp) Use Perl O'Reilly's perl.com Dr. Dobbs' Perl PHP PHP Weekly Summary Daily Python-URL Python.org Python.faqts Python Eggs Ruby Ruby Garden MIT Scheme Schemers Squeak Smalltalk Why Smalltalk Tcl Developer Xchange Tcl-tk.net O'Reilly's XML.com Regular Expressions |
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Sections: Main page Security Kernel Distributions Development Commerce Linux in the news Announcements Letters See also: last week's Commerce page. |
Linux and BusinessFree Software Foundation Announces Support of the Affero General Public License, the First Copyleft License for Web Services. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) announced support for the first public license designed to protect software distributed as Web services: the Affero General Public License (AGPL). They also invite public comment on the new license. Announcement of the EGOVOS SELinux Distribution during the SELinux Panel at FOSE in Washington, DC. Project EGOVOS is an initiative to form a consortium of university-based Open Source/Free Software development centers around the country to take responsibility for producing a secure GNU/Linux operating system. They will be selling the National Security Agency's Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) to help with the project funding. Caldera Education Services Introduces Newest Linux Courseware. Caldera International Inc. revealed Caldera OpenLearning Courseware for Linux solutions. Based on the Linux 2.4 kernel, this new courseware prepares students for Linux Professional Institute (LPI) and CompTIA Linux+(TM) certifications. Questions about Red Hat and ArsDigita answered (redhat.com). Red Hat has published a FAQ about their acquisition of ArsDigita. "ArsDigita has a reputation for delivering flexible and scalable global content management and collaboration solutions, and has strong Open Source roots, which we think will mesh very well with Red Hat's culture." POS Shipments Down 7% in 2001 According to IHL Consulting Group. A press release from IHL says that shipments of Point of Sale terminals are down by 7% in 2001. Linus POS terminals show up in the statistics with a small market share, that will probably grow in 2002 due to an ever-expanding Linux presence in the embedded space. "At the operating system level, Microsoft dominated the shipments with 69% of the market with Windows NT/2000/XP (46%) and Windows 9x/CE (23%). IBM's 4690 continued its strength, particularly in the Mass Merchants and Supercenter/Warehouse Clubs where it garnered 80% of all shipments. Linux represented 2% of shipments." Linux Stock Index for March 15 to March 20, 2002.
The high for the week was 27.73 Press Releases:Open Source Products
Distributions and Bundled Products
Proprietary Products for Linux
Linux PC Hardware
Embedded Linux Products
Products and Services Using Linux
Products With Linux Versions
Linux At Work
Java Products
Training and Certification
Partnerships
Financial Results
Personnel & New Offices
Section Editor: Rebecca Sobol. |
March 21, 2002
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Sections: Main page Security Kernel Distributions Development Commerce Linux in the news Announcements Letters See also: last week's Linux in the news page. |
Linux in the newsRecommended ReadingFree programs with strings attached (Financial Times). Here's a Financial Times article which covers (overblown) worries about the GPL. "This last condition is particularly controversial, as it means the GPL can 'convert' proprietary software into open source software - since any company incorporating licensed code into its own software products is obliged to open up its code too." (Thanks to Thomas Blankenhorn). Microsoft Loses Courtroom Battle Over Windows Trademark. Lindows.com has won a court battle with Microsoft concerning the name of their company and LindowsOS distribution. "In a strongly-worded ruling, a Seattle court has denied a request by the Microsoft Corporation to block a San Diego software company from branding themselves as Lindows.com and their Linux-based operating system, which will run popular Windows-based programs, as LindowsOS." News.com also covers the story. Microsoft 'killed Dell Linux' - States (Register). There have been several articles in the press about the nine states that are pushing for remedies in the Microsoft anti-trust trial. The Register focuses on Dell's decision to drop desktop Linux from its computing solutions. "The States' remedy hearing opened in DC yesterday, and States attorney Steven Kuney produced a devastating memo from Kempin, then in charge of Microsoft's OEM business, written after Judge Jackson had ordered his break-up of the company. Kempin raises the possibility of threatening Dell and other PC builders which promote Linux." (Thanks to David Killick) Here are some additional articles on the subject. News.com carries this Reuters article and Newsalert carries these articles from The Seattle Times and The Washington Times. Sour Note (TechWeb). This article looks at webcasting, and the legal threat to Internet radio. "There are a couple of issues here. One of them is the specific concern about Internet radio Webcasting. (And, in case you're as interested in this as I am, I'll include resource links at the end of this column.) The larger problem, though, is that the music industry hasn't managed to wrap its hands around the Internet, and it doesn't look like it's getting smarter anytime soon. Do I need to mention DMCA? Napster? MP3? I didn't think so." Grey market likely if big MP3 fees imposed (National Post). The Canadian National Post covers proposed legislation that would create new charges for blank compact disks, disk drives and other data storage equipment. "The fees are intended to cover the losses to the recording industry that occur when people record music from an existing copy rather than buy their own." (Thanks to doks) Morpheus auditions for new Net music role (News.com). News.com looks at StreamCast Networks' incorporation of anti-copying technology in its Morpheus software. "With its new technology, the company is moving down a path well worn by Napster. As that file-trading service came under fire by the recording industry for allowing illegal trades of copyrighted works, it too mounted a campaign to solicit support from independent artists who used it to distribute their work." A Tale of Three Cultures (Linux Journal). Doc Searls travels from the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas to the ESC in San Francisco, and thinks about clashes of culture along the way. "The geeks built the Net and want to keep it free. Hollywood wants to control it. That's the basic conflict. Since the beginning, the geeks have had resolute faith in the Net's ability to resist control by government and commercial interests. Geeks interpret attempts at control as mere problems the Net will naturally route around. The same goes for Linux, which has proven handy for extending the Net upward into the operating system and outward into the world." Is Linux an operating system or a political platform? (IT-Director). IT-Director looks at anti-Microsoft sentiments within the Linux community. "But as Linux increases in popularity the question must be asked -- why are people selecting Linux? Is it simply a vote against Microsoft or is it because of superior functionality available within the open source product and how many more organisations will change their allegiances when it comes to upgrade time?" North Carolina Open-Source Technology Center Closes. The Open-Source Technology Center in Durham, North Carolina is closing its doors. "The Center for the Public Domain, founded in 1999 as the Red Hat Center for Open Source when the Linux company's stock was still on the rise, has called it quits with an e-mail message to friends of the center stating: 'Our job here is done.'" The center's last action involved donating money to three pro-open-source organizations. Commentary: Toward a successful Linux desktop install (NewsForge). Don Goodman suggests some ways to make Linux more attractive to those desktop users. "Without an easy-to-use, universally accepted setup for Linux programs, Linux remains relegated to the server room. Building a successful future for Linux on the desktop begins with..." For a slightly different view of the same issue, check out Paul Tatham's writings from last month. Users get a grip on one-handed Linux PDA (ZDNet). Reporting from CeBIT, ZDNet takes a look at the Linux-based Filewalker PDA. "Filewalker, which runs on the Linux operating system, lets users enter text by way of three buttons on the left side of its case, and a scroll wheel on the top. When held in the right hand the buttons are under the fingers, and the scroll wheel sits below the thumb." Linux consortium slows to a waddle, critics say (EE Times). EE Times covers complaints about the Embedded Linux Consortium, and its lack of progress so far. "The IPA [intellectual property agreement], which addresses such issues as licensing, patent and trademark infringement, and disclosure agreements, apparently became a bone of contention for some of the board members who disagreed over its structure. Some reportedly wanted to move quickly and not worry about the consortium's ownership issues, while others wanted to ensure that the ELC essentially owned the specification, and no other organization could build on it." Linux digs in at embedded systems show (InfoWorld). InfoWorld reports from the Embedded Systems Conference. "As the millions of smart computing devices in the world turn into billions, analysts say operating systems designed for particular devices are losing ground to general-purpose software that can be adapted more easily for use in different types of products." BT Linking Suit Dealt a Blow (Wired). WIRED covers recent developments in British Telecom's suit against Prodigy over the use of hyperlinks. "The most damaging point in U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon's ruling is a question about whether BT's patent can legitimately be said to apply to an Internet-based technology, since the patent specifies the use of a single computer terminal. 'In this patent, the computer is a single device, in one location,' McMahon wrote in her ruling. 'The term ''computer'' is the only structure described in the specification, and there is no indication that ... the term ''computer'' means to be broader than ''a computer.'' If the term ''computer'' does not tell us what the computer is, then the claim would be indefinite." (Thanks to Marty.) CompaniesAOL testing new, improved Netscape (ZDNet). ZDNet looks into AOL's efforts to switch to the Mozilla browser. This gem of a quote was included: "However, while Jupiter Media Metrix analyst David Card said it was likely AOL was testing different software, he thought the company would likely stick with Internet Explorer for the time being. ``If they did it, they could pull it off, though I don't see any benefit to it,'' Card said. ``But it would be difficult. It is a big technology investment.'' He said it was unlikely a serious software company would use alternative open-source software for its final products. ``Serious software companies don't ship open source. They may start with it but they build products on it,'' Card added. ''You just have to be serious about the business and I don't think they are serious (about Netscape).''" AOL 7.0 tests Netscape browser (News.com). AOL is considering a switch from the Internet Explorer browser to a Mozilla based Netscape browser. "Launching new versions of the AOL service without Microsoft's IE, long AOL's default browser, could cause an enormous rift between the two technology giants. For years, the companies have fiercely battled in the marketplace and in the federal courts, but they have maintained a business relationship. Now, there are signs that AOL and Microsoft are gearing up for a cold war." AOL Takes Another Look At Netscape Browser (TechWeb). Here is TechWeb's take on AOL's possible browser change. "AOL spokesman Jim Whitney confirmed that the company has already shipped a Netscape browser in some test software for its discount Internet service, CompuServe. The browser is powered by Gecko technology that was developed through an open-source project called Mozilla." AOL Looks at Netscape Gecko; What Are You Looking at? (TechWeb). TechWeb takes another look at AOL, as the company looks at changing browsers. "Security is the third reason you should watch what happens in this case. Have you calculated IE's total cost of ownership lately? If you're applying all the security patches Microsoft puts out, the investment is huge. If you're not applying them, are you sleeping at night? I'm not claiming that Netscape has no security issues -- every piece of software has bugs that can be exploited to breach your security. But Netscape is not tied into your operating system. Therefore, it's arguably less risky and certainly requires less patching." IBM Unveils New Server Based on Intel Chips. NewsAlert reports on IBM's new xSeries 440 server, which uses Intel processor chips. "IBM and Unisys both have packaged those chips with sophisticated features such as self-healing systems, which detect and repair potential problems. Their respective machines also are equipped with partitioning, the ability to run different operating systems at the same time within the same machine. Both run Microsoft programs, and IBM's version works with the Linux operating system. " Lineo swallows another bitter pill, cuts staff to under 80 (LinuxDevices). LinuxDevices.com covers the latest bad news from Lineo. "Citing 'the impact of the economic downturn that has prevailed since March', Lineo reduced its headcount again this week and continued the process begun last Fall of narrowing its focus to three key target markets. According to CEO Matt Harris, the company is reducing its size from 138 employees to between 75 and 80." MandrakeSoft adds Office to Linux (ZDNet). This ZDNet UK article covers the release of Mandrake Linux 8.2, with a focus on the software that will be added to the boxed sets. "When the boxed product ships in April, version 8.2 will be the first Mandrake Linux version to include the office suite StarOffice 6.0 and the Outlook clone Evolution 1.02, both of which are considered to be significantly improved over earlier editions." MandrakeSoft, here we go again (NewsForge). Here's a NewsForge article criticizing MandrakeSoft and its pleas for donations. "This really wouldn't be a problem if MandrakeSoft was a little more like National Public Radio. No one ever figured that NPR would become self sufficient. Likewise, MandrakeSoft was originally set up as a non-profit. It began its existence as a volunteer project to upgrade and localize Red Hat's version of Linux, combined with the KDE user interface. Almost from the day the company declared itself a profit-seeking corporation, observers have had trouble figuring out how the firm expected to make money, although MandrakeSoft leaders keep insisting they are going to try." Novell in talks to bundle eDirectory on Linux servers (Register). The Register reports that Novell is in talks with IBM and Red Hat about bundling its eDirectory services with Linux servers. "The network software and services firm already supports Linux, so the deal - which is still at the discussion stage - would involve expending Novell's commitment to the platform that boosts the availability of directory services for Linux, CRN reports." SuSE goes 64-bit with IBM zSeries (ZDNet). SuSE's Enterprise Server 7 will be available for IBM's eServer zSeries by the beginning of May according to this article. "The software also allows 32-bit and 64-bit applications to run at the same time, within the same Linux instance on the mainframe, so that 32-bit applications can be retained where they are needed." SuSE gets ready to pick up Hammer (ZDNet). ZDNet looks at SuSE's work with the AMD Hammer processor and other SuSE business operations. "SuSE is pushing to have its server software ready in November, in time for the launch of Hammer late in the year, according to product manager Stefan Werden. 'As soon as Hammer is officially available, our operating system package will be too,' he said." BusinessMaking free software pay (BBC News). The BBC News goes to CeBIT and takes a look at open source business models. "Like its European competitors Caldera and SuSE, US-based Red Hat charges not for the Linux software but for the documentation and helpline support that goes with it." (Thanks to Dave Killick) Insurer Seeks Cost Savings With Server Switch (TechWeb). TechWeb reports that the Wisconsin Physicians Service Corp. is dumping their Intel servers in a move to Linux (on a new IBM z900 mainframe). "The apps, running on mainframe partitions, will run in parallel with the Intel servers until April 1. By October, 40 servers will be switched to Linux partitions. The goal of the switch is to save time and money. Jim Hwang, director of enterprise network systems at WPS, says it takes him two to three minutes to configure an app on a partition on IBM's z900 mainframe. A comparable configuration on an Intel server would take two to three days. The apps also run two to three times faster than they do on the Intel-based servers, he adds." Running a corporation in an open source world. Shawn Gordon, founder and president of theKompany.com discusses his reasons for discontinuing the use of the GPL on future products. "We sell one product that is GPL. On at least a weekly basis we get someone telling us that we have to give them the source code because it is GPL. Some of them become verbally violent and abusive when I point out that the GPL provides for us to charge for the source code, we just have to make it available, and this we have done. Some of these people even tried to hack our system to get the code because they thought it was their God-given right to have it. These are also typically the people who contribute nothing to the community." (Thanks to Simon Cozens.) Pay Dirt (TechWeb). TechWeb examines the role that Linux clusters are playing in the oil industry. "As oil companies outsource more seismic processing, especially the commodity depth-migration algorithms that smooth out noisy data, low bids and quick turnaround are king at companies such as WesternGeco, Halliburton, CGG, and Veritas DGC. That's where Linux clusters come in--they've reduced processing costs more than tenfold, Venkataraman says. 'You don't want to tie up expensive computing cycles or storage on stuff they don't need to do,' he says. " German parliament to use Linux (Heise.de). This article (in German) confirms that the German Parliament will replace approximately 150 Microsoft based servers with Linux servers. Here is the Babelfish translation. (Thanks to Werzinger Lothar) Realtor group houses all kinds of Open Source projects (NewsForge). NewsForge reports on the development of Open Source software for the real estate industry. "The more than 800,000 real estate professionals who constitute the membership of the National Association of Realtors the largest trade association in the United States and the tens of millions of commercial and residential customers they serve probably won't realize it, but many will soon be benefiting from Open Source software, thanks to projects being done by the NAR's Center for Realtor Technology." Support still a problem for open source (IT-Director). IT-Director looks into the issue of support for open-source software users: "Explaining that the shortcoming could be overcome in a number of ways, Taylor said: 'There's an opportunity for integrators such as IBM to provide support, irrespective of where the original open source products came from. Smaller support companies could also take on product support in this area. There is a golden opportunity to be in this market space.'" ReviewsAbiWord: Open Source's Answer to Microsoft Word (OreillyNet). The O'Reilly Network looks at AbiWord. "Although the AbiWord development team is currently working towards their milestone Version 1.0, the beta releases already come with a number of useful features: support for plug-ins and scripts, a spell checker, 2- and 3-column text formatting, and image importing. For other languages besides English, multilingual spell checking is in place, as is bidirectional text for languages that are written from right to left." Want a Windows alternative? Take a look at BSD (ZDNet). Here is a look the BSD operating systems, as an alternative to Windows. "If you're investigating and evaluating Unix-style OSes, don't pick Linux just because of the buzz. Take a good look at FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD as well, and make the most informed decision." Roxen WebServer 2.2 (Linux Journal). Linux Journal reviews the Roxen web server. "Although Apache dominates the internet web server market, it has some weak points: it lacks a built-in SQL database backend, flexible administration tools and easy SSL certificate management. All of these features can be found, however, in the Roxen WebServer." Revolution OS: Movie Review (Linux Orbit). Linux Orbit reviews Revolution OS. "When we walked into the theater, lo and behold.... Geeks. I suppose it?s hard to be objective when my wife uses the same term to describe me (in the nicest possible way), but for every filled seat, there was a second seat with a laptop propped up on it." Langa Letter: Exploring Windows Alternatives (TechWeb). InformationWeek looks at Windows alternatives, saying that it is a matter of "self defense." "And sadly, some of the more rabid Linuxophiles add a needless social tension to the already challenging technological task of switching operating systems. These Linux "fanatics" (as opposed to the sane enthusiasts) assume that anyone with lesser Linux skills, or anyone who forms an opinion contrary to theirs, must be an idiot." ResourcesIT pros learn to beat hackers at their own game (CNN). CNN reports on a class called "Extreme Hacking: Defending Your Site". "Using dual-bootable NT/Linux laptops and an accompanying network setup for practicing subversive attacks, attendees were taught a new bag of tools and tricks to help them understand how hackers identify IP addresses, collect information about the systems they want to compromise and exploit weaknesses without being noticed." InterviewsInterview: Linus's latest lieutenant (developerWorks). developerWorks is running an interview with Marcelo Tosatti, 2.4 kernel maintainer. "Something about Linus that is a problem is that a lot of things come from his mood. He'll just say, 'Oh, this is good: Apply. This is good: Apply.' He should not accept some of the patches he does. He accepts some patches too early, without thinking too much about them. He does not have the time to really care about some stuff." (Thanks to Frank Carlos). Navigating a PC sea change (News.com). News.com interviews Compaq's Mike Winkler, and discusses the proposed merger with HP as well as Compaq's business directions. "One of Michael's key initiatives has been to make Compaq a stronger player in the enterprise. That means the server business, not just the industry standard server business, but also continued presence and growth in the Linux and Unix (segments), high-performance technical computing and the very high end of the Tandem mission critical sy |