Linux News for Oct 31, 2000

• LinuxWorld: KDE dominates first European LinuxWorld Expo (Oct 31, 2000, 23:47)
  "Two trends were in evidence at the Expo: Linux in embedded appliances and Linux as a platform for enterprise resource planning (ERP)."


• LinuxPR: Timpanogas Research Group Announces Appointment of Andre Hedrick as CTO (Oct 31, 2000, 23:32)
  "Mr. Hedrick will have overall responsibility and authority over all of TRG's Linux Development efforts."


• Enterprise Linux Today: PartnerAxis Opens Linux Channel Door to Manufacturers & Solutions Providers (Oct 31, 2000, 23:21)
  "PartnerAxis Announces Availability of Linux Channel Consulting Services and Initial Development Of Their E-Marketplace For The Linux Channel."


• Enterprise Linux Today: MSC.Software Delivers Significant Linux Cluster Technology to Dana Corp. (Oct 31, 2000, 23:16)
  "By providing Dana with a turnkey computing appliance, based on MSC.Linux cluster technology, we are serving their needs by delivering outstanding price-performance engineering simulation."


• NewsForge: Information wants to be autarchic (Oct 31, 2000, 22:42)
  "You can't fault Stallman for expecting hackers to be intelligent enough to grasp the subtleties of the language. But let's face it, the free moniker just isn't working out. Perhaps the name needs to be changed. And since RMS is obviously too busy with public speaking engagements to take the time, we hauled out Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus for him."


• CNET News.com: TurboLinux plans IPO as investor wariness wanes (Oct 31, 2000, 22:30)
  "Although our new business plan focuses on sales in United States and international markets, we have only limited experience in selling our products outside of Japan."


• Seattle Times: Hacking may have hurt key Microsoft strategy (Oct 31, 2000, 22:09)
  "Microsoft's Silicon Valley competitors, while acknowledging no company is immune to hacker attacks, say Windows has greater security challenges than older, more mature systems built on Unix and a Unix spinoff, Linux."


• Enterprise Linux Today: Open Software Platform Enables End-to-End Global Service Automation (Oct 31, 2000, 21:46)
  "HostingDirector 3.0 is designed to be an open software platform that should enable providers to achieve revenue growth through offering pay-per-use applications, while reducing administrative costs and facilitating customer acquisition."


• Linus Torvalds: Linux-2.4.0-test10 (Oct 31, 2000, 20:56)
  "Ok, test10-final is out there now. This has no _known_ bugs that I consider show-stoppers, for what it's worth."


• Enterprise Linux Today: OEone And Tatung Join Forces To Deliver Internet Computer Solution To Market (Oct 31, 2000, 20:51)
  "The centerpiece of the agreement is an exclusive arrangement between the two parties to fully integrate OEone's Linux-based Operating Environment and web applications with Tatung's All-In-One plus additional custom computer designs."


• Enterprise Linux Today: SuSE Linux for S/390 Available Today (Oct 31, 2000, 20:48)
  "With the general availability of SuSE Linux Enterprise Server for S/390, SuSE supports more IBM server platforms than any other commercially available Linux distribution."


• Red Hat Bug Fix Advisory: Updated svgalib package available (Oct 31, 2000, 20:13)
  "The sgvalib package in Powertools 7 is broken when compiling apps with svgalib support."


• LinuxPR: Lutris Technologies Partners with NEC To Deliver Enhydra To Pacific Rim (Oct 31, 2000, 19:59)
  "In addition to distributing Lutris Enhydra in Japan, NEC will provide frontline customer support to companies building and deploying Enhydra applications, and will offer local training and certification programs."


• LinuxPR: E-Democracy Project at FreeDevelopers.net gets started (Oct 31, 2000, 19:55)
  "The objective of the project is to have e-voting free software ready for the next presidential election in 2004. Currently, proprietary systems are being deployed for that purpose and FreeDevelopers wants to remedy that situation, because secret code has no legitimate place in free, democratic elections."


• LinuxPR: Sun Wah Hi-Tech & PolyU to establish Sun Wah-PolyU Linux Training & Development Centre (Oct 31, 2000, 19:53)
  "The Centre aims to foster development for Linux professionals and promote the use of Linux in Asia."


• O'Reilly Network: The Jabber Jihad: Universal Instant Messaging (Oct 31, 2000, 18:52)
  "America Online has said it supports the idea of a universal protocol for open instant messaging, and some parties are asking the FTC to make this a prerequisite of approving AOL's merger with Time Warner. The company appears to be dragging its feet, possibly to drag out its proprietary advantage. But with workarounds like Jabber, is that a problem?"


• Enterprise Linux Today: Caldera OpenLinux Leads Linux Distros In Varbusiness Annual Report Card (Oct 31, 2000, 18:15)
  "Solution-Provider Partners Place OpenLinux Above Other Distributions Surveyed"


• eWeek: Security dominates agenda at federal Linux conference (Oct 31, 2000, 17:54)
  "What Linux needs is a successful intrusion detection system that meets the requirements of the federal government... no Linux best security practices are included in the Federal best security repository."


• AllLinuxDevices: Lineo And IDT Offer Embedix For Mips-Based Integrated Processor (Oct 31, 2000, 17:09)
  "The Embedix operating system on the RC32334 is particularly appropriate for extremely cost-sensitive embedded applications in communications and consumer markets including home gateways, SOHO routers and Internet appliances. Customers can utilize some of the broad range of software written for the Embedix operating system to reduce system development cycles, based on a well-supported software kernel."


• Duke of URL: Pogo Gigahertz System Review (Oct 31, 2000, 16:56)
  "The people over at Pogo Linux have done it again. They just came out with their new AMD Thunderbird Gigahertz system, which they have dubbed Altura. Before you ask, I don't know what the name means. Pogo's last offering we reviewed was one of their Winux systems. This machine strays from the Winux configuration in the fact that it doesn't include VMware, but does include an impressive dual boot setup that easily outclasses many other comparable offerings from other companies."


• 32BitsOnline: VMWare 2.0.2: Linux inside Windows NT (Oct 31, 2000, 16:31)
  "How can an operating system be a guest when no partitioning is required? It's simple. Unlike dual booting, which requires a hard drive partition for each operating system, all operating systems under VMWare reside on a virtual partition, stored as a file on your real partition."


• Linux.com: The Penguin (Humor; parody of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven") (Oct 31, 2000, 16:11)
  "Once upon a Tuesday dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
  Installing the same version of Windows once more."


• AsiaBizTech: IBM Japan to Install 15,000 Linux Servers in Lawson Stores (Oct 31, 2000, 16:11)
  "Lawson plans to link Loppi terminals to the mobile phones and personal digital assistants and begin offering various new services, including music distribution and the printing of photos taken by digital still cameras, from the spring of 2001. The addition of the Linux servers will enable the Loppi multimedia terminals to store a large volume of data and expand the service menu."


• The Register: MS moves to block court briefs - Caldera skeletons rattle? (Oct 31, 2000, 16:06)
  "Hollaar knows where quite a few bodies are buried, but Microsoft says he has 'apparently forgotten' that he 'became acquainted with the source code of Microsoft's operating systems in the Caldera and Bristol cases pursuant to protective orders that strictly prohibit him from using that knowledge for any purpose other than preparing his testimony in those cases.'"


• Linux.com: Installing Red Hat 7 (Oct 31, 2000, 15:58)
  "Being new to this whole Linux scene, you've determined to install what is known as one of the easier distributions, Red Hat 7. This guide will take you through several steps, which will ultimately leave you with a dual-boot system."


• LinuxNews.com: FreeOS Spreading the Linux Word from India (Oct 31, 2000, 15:44)
  "FreeOS.com, an India-based free operating system resource center, is doing its part to ensure that free and open source software is available in India and is being promoted in other countries."


• InfoWorld: Italians revolt against Microsoft supremacy; demanding that government use open source (Oct 31, 2000, 15:14)
  "We have started something that will be very difficult to stop," Cammarata said. "They will not be able to ignore this appeal. I already have confidential responses assuring me the government will take it seriously."


• What Linux Distribution do VARs Like Most? It's Definitely Not Red Hat Linux (Oct 31, 2000, 14:26)
  In its annual survey of VARs and their direct experiences with Linux distributions, VARBusiness comes to some interesting conclusions -- more notably that VARs are not enamored with Linux as a network operating system, and that the VARs consider LinuxOne to be the equal of Red Hat.


• LinuxPlanet: From the Desktop: E Stands for Enlightenment (Really, I Promise) (Oct 31, 2000, 13:41)
  Many people were first exposed to Enlightenment as the former default window manager for GNOME -- and to this day many GNOME users swear by it. But, as Brian Proffit learns in an interview with Rasterman, the future of Enlightenment isn't in acting as the window manager for a specific environment or providing applications: it's to unify the Linux desktop by appealing to both KDE and GNOME users.


• Business 2.0: Who Could Replace Linus Torvalds? (Oct 31, 2000, 13:19)
  "What happens under the eminently plausible scenario wherein Torvalds, widely regarded as the 'benevolent dictator' of the Linux operating system, and synonymous with the Linux project in the public mind, decides to quit? Or retires to a desert isle? Or gets sick? Or gets hit by a bus?"


• AllLinuxDevices: Editor's Note: Closing The Ranks Around Pikachu (Oct 31, 2000, 12:47)
  What's going to keep the Linux-based Indrema from world domination? Kevin Reichard looks no further than his own living room and answers "It's the games, stupid." The fact that the folks making the games have no reason to buck the gravy train they've grown fat on doesn't hurt either, he argues. Are console games an untouchable market for open source software?


• Hardware Notes: Keeping Things Simple via Hardware (Oct 31, 2000, 12:29)
  Q: How many surgeons does it take to change a light bulb?
  A: Why change it? The new one will just burn out, and you'll have to change it again. Let me take out the socket and you'll never have to worry about it again.

  This joke, such as it is, highlights one of the interesting phenomena in the Linux landscape, namely how surgeon-esque some of us (including yours truly) can be. The problem, if it can be called that, is that the Linux user base has traditionally been dominated by programmers, and if there's one thing nearly programmers believe at the DNA level, it's that you can, and should, do almost everything in software. Unfortunately, this isn't universally true, as seen in two examples of things that can be done more conveniently in hardware than in software: Specialized/programmable keypads, and removable disk drive enclosures.



• Salon: Triumph of the free-software will [Andrew Leonard follows up on 'Who Cracked Microsoft?'] (Oct 31, 2000, 12:26)
  "I can shrug off the expletives or accusations that I am a Microsoft floozy, but it's a little less easy to be blasé in the face of the "shame on yous" and "you should know betters" that filled up my in box over the weekend. It's as if my mother was pursing her lips, shaking her head and wondering how a boy she raised could ever turn out so wayward. Those who knew my coverage of free software best were most dismayed -- I had betrayed them."


• A Microsoft Windows Code Infection: How Likely Is It? (Oct 31, 2000, 10:55)
  One of the possibilities raised by the possible Microsoft code heist was that of purloined Windows code "infecting" otherwise legitimate open source or free software projects, forcing developers back to the drawing boards or, worse, into litigation. Paul Ferris took a few moments to discuss the possibility with Jeremy Allison of the Samba project, and drew some conclusions.


• Linux.com: Introduction to Networking, Part 1: Physical Media (Oct 31, 2000, 09:04)
  "Physical Media refers to the actual wires of the network that are use to carry the signal. This is the primary focus of this article."


• LWN: An analysis of Turbolinux's IPO filing (Oct 31, 2000, 08:56)
  "The company is planning to raise $60 million from this offering, and wants to trade under the symbol TLUX."


• Perl.org: Larry Wall's Altanta Linux Showcase Talk: Camel Lot #6, The Once and Future Perl (Oct 31, 2000, 08:48)
  "On October 14, Larry gave a keynote at the Atlanta Linux Showcase."


• osOpinion: The Source of the Problem: A Look at the Effect of the Recent Crack on Microsoft (Oct 31, 2000, 08:04)
  "Here, the Microsoft marketing trust card fails on the broadest level. Microsoft is asking us to, "trust our ability to provide security," right after they've been robbed."


• osOpinion: To John C. Dvorak: A Word To The Wise (Or Other-Wise) (Oct 31, 2000, 07:49)
  "But mostly I am intrigued by your formula for success in the May 29, 1990 PC Magazine. "So, all we need is a platform that the core influencers all agree on and we're off to the races. How important is initial massive software support? It's not."


• NewsForge: Time for Microsoft to fix its security problems (Oct 31, 2000, 06:01)
  "Reporters asked whether the hackers had somehow 'compromised' the company's software by taking a peek at files of source code. Of course, Ballmer and all the others solemnly maintained that nothing had been compromised. Such a silly question. Source code, particularly beta or alpha level stuff, is going to be of little use to anyone except Microsoft, unless the hackers also got most of the accompanying documentation and related libraries. Such code certainly isn't going to be "held hostage," as the Wall Street Journal suggested, or be "auctioned off to criminal elements.'"


• Kernel Traffic #91 By Zack Brown (Oct 31, 2000, 03:12)
  Mailing list threads from the Linux Kernel Development Team.


• AllLinuxDevices: Square D and Red Hat To Create Power Management Solution With Embedded Linux (Oct 31, 2000, 01:38)
  "In addition to the standard metering required of plant engineers, the new Square D POWERLOGIC system using Red Hat Embedded Linux can collect and deliver critical information to accounting, purchasing and resource management systems. The POWERLOGIC system also features an intuitive graphical user interface that lets users quickly collect, analyze and respond to power management conditions."


• MGON.com: Linux with Loki [Interview with Scott Draeker] (Oct 31, 2000, 00:43)
  "We are starting to see problems with new versions of the distributions coming out this fall. At this stage our recommendation would be that whatever you are using is fine, but you might want to hold off on upgrading."


• Enterprise Linux Today: Turbolinux Files Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering (Oct 31, 2000, 00:13)
  "Turbolinux develops Linux-based software solutions for Internet and enterprise computing infrastructure, including reliable, available and scalable operating systems for workstations and servers and software clustering solutions for computing traffic management and peer-to-peer distributed computing."