Infrastructure Linux News for Jul 31, 2000

• NY Times: AOL's Rivals Want to See Open Instant Messaging (Jul 31, 2000, 22:32)
  "It is important to note that the debate is not about whether the various instant messaging systems will ever interoperate. Instead, the questions seem to be when and how. Even AOL does not dispute the need for an interconnection standard. But like most market leaders, the company would prefer to control the standard."


• Internet Week: Everything But Hardware: E-Smith cuts... costs by focusing solely on software (Jul 31, 2000, 21:46)
  "The first thing the software does is pose a rather pointed question: Is it OK, the machine asks, to erase the entire hard drive? If the user gulps hard and consents, the software installs a complete Red Hat Linux installation tailored to provide Internet access for small businesses, including e-mail, file sharing and Web site serving for up to 500 end users..."


• VNU Net: Napster ruling creates MP3 frenzy (Jul 31, 2000, 21:37)
  "Meanwhile, it has emerged that major US record labels had considered buying Napster. A report in the New York Times cited an unnamed record industry insider as saying talks failed because the labels could not come up with a viable business model while permitting the wide exchange of content that has made Napster so popular."


• Inter@ctive Week: IBM 'Vikings' Seek More Linux Conquests [w/Bluetooth] (Jul 31, 2000, 21:37)
  "Linux champion IBM Corp. -- which has become increasingly intent on making Linux pervasive on every platform from handhelds to mainframes -- is now bringing the Bluetooth wireless protocol to the open-source operating system."


• AsiaBizTech: Taiwan's Linux Market Booms (Jul 31, 2000, 21:27)
  "...Mitac International Corp. announced on July 25 that two professional software companies under the group had been launched in Shanghai and aimed to develop products based on the Linux framework."


• BW: Collab.net and SkillsVillage.com Extend Online Marketplaces for IT Development (Jul 31, 2000, 21:15)
  "Collab.Net will offer the eMarketplace community the ability to work on or sponsor well-defined, financially backed open source projects. SkillsVillage.com will provide Collab.Net's SourceXchange members with access to its collaboration tools, business applications and a broad spectrum of work opportunities."


• SiliconValley.internet.com: Napster Supporters Rally; Competition Soars; RIAA: "DOH!" (Jul 31, 2000, 21:13)
  "When was the last time you took to the streets for a Web site?"


• BW: On RadioWallStreet.com: The Linux League Monday Edition (Jul 31, 2000, 21:08)
  "Joining Mr. Gaskins today will be Frank Dzubeck, president of Washington, D.C.-based Communications Network Architects, Gary Lawrence Murphy, CEO of TCI, and Tom Adelstein, CEO of Bynari Inc."


• LinuxPR: TradeXCH - the Linux Client for Microsoft Exchange Released Today (Jul 31, 2000, 20:52)
  "Clients Built for Linux, Solaris 2.7+ and X86 2.7+."


• LinuxPR: Long Awaited Version 7.0 Released By SuSE Linux (Jul 31, 2000, 20:25)
  "To a large extent, installation is now carried out automatically with the YaST2 set up tool, using the extended hardware recognition."


• SEUL.org: Linux in education report #25 for July 31 (Jul 31, 2000, 20:19)
  "Vladimir Tamara tells us of the formation of SLEC, Software Libre y Educación en Colombia (Free Software and Education in Colombia). Michael Viron wrote to tell us about General Education Online, whose goal is "to provide students with links to web sites of educational facilities worldwide."


• Inter@ctive Week: Developers To Polish New Perl (Jul 31, 2000, 20:11)
  "Perl, the scripting language whose flexible connecting features make it known as "the duct tape of the Web," will get a massive upgrade over the next 18 months from its original author, Larry Wall."


• CNET News.com: Battered Linuxcare receives new funding (Jul 31, 2000, 19:57)
  "A new round of funding will be necessary to bring Linuxcare back from the brink and restore its status as one of the earliest companies to make a serious go at turning Linux's popularity into a business."


• NY Times: Free Speech Rights for Computer Code? (Jul 31, 2000, 19:51)
  "If the court upholds this injunction, what would happen is that certain uses of computer language -- my preferred means of expression -- would be illegal."


• Mozilla.org: A Personal Report on the 4th Open Source Conference (Jul 31, 2000, 19:29)
  "I attended the 2-day Open Source Conference in Monterey primarily to check out Mozilla track sessions but also to gauge how the Open Source movement itself is going. The following represents my **personal** takes on some of the things I observed at the conference."


• BW: Caldera Launches OpenLearning - Linux Education Programs and Courseware... (Jul 31, 2000, 19:24)
  "OpenLearning is a series of comprehensive education programs that include instructor-led training and multimedia courseware targeting eSolutions Providers (eSPs). eSPs are VARs, ISPs, ASPs, consultants, MIS professionals -- anyone providing eBusiness solutions for their customers."


• BW: LinuxSolve Launches vHost, Industry's First Secure Linux-based Virtual Web-Hosting Solution... (Jul 31, 2000, 18:32)
  "Capable of hosting as many as 200 web sites, the LinuxSolve vHost is one of the most robust web-hosting solutions of its kind."


• TLS: The Great Napster Debate! Or, why corporate America has lost the war... (Jul 31, 2000, 18:01)
  "How will it impact the existing business model? Well it basically turns it on its ear. Like every evolutionary step, it will end one business model by creating a new model. These models are starting to evolve as we speak."


• GeekNews.org: Day Two of Defcon (Jul 31, 2000, 17:35)
  "Today was the day that Defcon has shown that it has really outgrown the Alexis Park Hotel's facilities. The number I heard was ~5000 people had registered. The meeting rooms for the 3 tracks hold a total of ~1800 people. Do the math."


• Suck.com: Before the Body's Cold [The Mozilla Project] (Jul 31, 2000, 16:44)
  "Mozilla is dead, or it might as well be. No matter how many people are exhausting themselves by pounding on the corpse's chest, the best thing the population of the Net can do - both for the good of the Mozilla Project and for themselves - is strip what they can from the body, say a fond farewell and get on with their lives."


• Inter@ctive Week: Cold War In A Digital Age (Jul 31, 2000, 16:01)
  "...who are the latter-day Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels whose manifestoes moved both the Chinese government and the U.S. Senate to action last week? ...Linus Torvalds, who fashioned Linux... and Shawn Fanning, who invented the Napster music exchange technology..."


• LinuxPR: LinuxCertified.com announces weekend certification bootcamp (Jul 31, 2000, 15:31)
  "...September 16-17th in San Francisco bay area (south bay). ... Attendees get a powerful Linux laptop..."


• LinuxPR: LinuxSure.co.uk wins support of UK2.NET's RAQ3 customers. (Jul 31, 2000, 14:01)
  "For just £35 british pounds a month, you can rent a Cobalt RAQ3 server with email support."


• MacWeek: X on X, at last (Jul 31, 2000, 13:36)
  "This year, if I had to pick the one announcement that received almost no press, and yet is of critical importance to Mac OS X, it would have to be Tenon Intersystems' announcement of an X Windows package for Mac OS X."


• Apache Today: Apache Guide: Apache Authentication, Part 2 (Jul 31, 2000, 12:34)
  "In this article, I'll talk about using databases for authentication, rather than the standard text-file htpasswd files."


• LinuxDevices.com: Coollogic intro's new Linux-based set-top box (Jul 31, 2000, 10:55)
  "Coollogic Inc. today announced the Internet Ready 7200, a Linux-based set-top box that offers easy-to-use Internet access with advanced audio and video technologies for improved Web surfing on TVs."


• LA Times: Let's Give a Toast to Prohibition, Circa 2000 (Jul 31, 2000, 08:43)
  "Did copyright laws motivate the thousands of computer enthusiasts who shared in developing the open-source Linux operating system? Did these laws motivate the young people who have written so much freeware in recent years?"


• osOpinion: What do YOU want in an IBM Crusoe powered ThinkPad? (Jul 31, 2000, 08:33)
  "I still spend a fair amount of time reading and thinking in front of the screen. The minimum operating power figures for the Crusoe indicate it should do very well in these idle modes as well as having a very efficient sleep mode. I often can't get my current laptop to sleep for even a day without running out of batteries, which is ridiculous."


• osOpinion: Ease of use and "UI": A lesson in idiocy? (Jul 31, 2000, 08:26)
  "So, what does "easy to use" and "user friendly" mean exactly? That is an interesting question, since both phrases are extremely ambiguous and subjective. What I consider to be "user friendly" or "easy to use", might be horribly complex for the next person (and vise versa)."


• LinuxPR: WebTop DBA 1.0 Release For Informix Databases (Jul 31, 2000, 08:11)
  "WebTop DBA, also known as WDBA, an open source browser-based data base reporting and administration tool, is now available."


• Linuxnewbie.org: Getting your backspace key to work (Jul 31, 2000, 07:47)
  "Several of the newer distributions seem to have a problem with the Backspace key when using kdm, xdm, or gdm (a.k.a. run-level 5). For some reason (unknown to me) they will make the Backspace key into a Delete key."


• Duke of URL: Linux Buyer's Guide #3 (Jul 31, 2000, 07:41)
  "Pat once again takes a look at the three Linux machines you want, and discusses the state of Linux hardware and latest advancements."