Linux News for Dec 27, 2000

• Zope 2.2.5 b1 released (Dec 27, 2000, 23:45)
  "This release contains a number of bug fixes, and includes all Hotfixes to date."


• O'Reilly Network: Insecurities in a Nutshell: SAMBA, pine, ircd, and More (Dec 27, 2000, 22:24)
  "Problems this week include symlink problems with joe, pico, and samba, a buffer overflow in bftpd, and problems with pine."


• ZDNet: Linux Laptop SuperGuide (Dec 27, 2000, 21:41)
  "The staff at the Linux Hardware Database have put together the ultimate guide to finding the perfect Linux laptop."


• ComputerWorld: Think tank warns that Microsoft hack could pose national security risk (Dec 27, 2000, 21:26)
  "In a report released this month titled "Cyber Threats and Information Security: Meeting the 21st Century Challenge," the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) concluded that the government and the private sector should be concerned about the "trustworthiness" of future Microsoft products in the aftermath of the hack into the company's network."


• Linux Orbit: Instant Messaging on GNU/Linux Part 1: AIM (Dec 27, 2000, 21:20)
  "So whats a GNU/Linux user to do? Is there an alternative to these proprietary clients? Can GNU/Linux users even join the IM party?"


• The Register: Changing lightbulbs the Whistler, Win98 and Linux way (Dec 27, 2000, 20:51)
  "Red Hat 7.0 seemed the logical Linux choice because of availability and USB and 810E support, but I ran into a number of issues that made it look like it was more trouble than it was worth."


• NewsForge: Linux and love; the Gerard Beekmans story (Dec 27, 2000, 20:39)
  "Gerard Beekmans started Linux From Scratch, his guide to building a Linux Operating System from the bottom up, for two reasons. First, because he didn't like the way existing distributions dictated organization and ultimately had more control over his operating system than he did."


• Apache Today: Apache::VMonitor -- The Visual System and Apache Monitor (Dec 27, 2000, 19:16)
  "It's important to be able to monitor your production system's health. You want to monitor the memory and file system utilization, the system load, how much memory the processes use. Whether you aren't running out of swap space and more. All these tasks are feasible when one has an interactive (telnet/ssh/other) access to the box the web server is running on, but it's quite a mess since different Unix tools report about different parts of the system."


• Wired: Vaporware 2000: Missing Inaction - 2.4 Kernel Makes #4 (Dec 27, 2000, 17:53)
  "4: A New Linux kernel: Linus Torvalds promised a new kernel for Linux, version 2.4, by December. Where is it? Er ..."


• Smart Partner: Microsoft Is Dead; Long live its reincarnation (Dec 27, 2000, 17:33)
  "Microsoft also is delivering Microsoft Media Server services from, believe it or not, a Linux platform. Who ever would have thought that Microsoft would approve delivering anything off a non-Windows platform?"


• Ch@nnelWeb: Balance of Red Hat Sales to Shift (Dec 27, 2000, 17:12)
  "Despite a slumping stock price, Red Hat CEO and president Matthew Szulik expects partners to get squarely behind the Linux software company, so much, in fact, that they will tip the balance of software sales generated by the Research Triangle Park, N.C., company to third parties."


• InfoWorld: With IBM's support, Linux can look forward to ringing in the new year on a high note (Dec 27, 2000, 16:58)
  "Is IBM's support isolated? Yes. Is that support impactful in and of itself? Perhaps not. But with the recent layoffs and stock devaluation of various Linux distributors, the Big Blue nod acts as a vital impetus to boost momentum in the open-source development community."


• Fortuitous.com: Fortuitous Technologies Linux training manuals now GPLed (Dec 27, 2000, 16:25)
  "Fortuitous Technologies is proud to present the Linux community with our Linux Fundamentals course curriculum. We hope that it will be beneficial to trainers and companies alike who seek high quality course materials for Linux at a low cost."


• AllLinuxDevices: A Trio of Tips for the HandSpring Visor: USB, Eyemodules, and Word Processing (Dec 27, 2000, 16:23)
  "There are a lot of interesting Linux handhelds in various stages of completion, but many of us will continue to use our trusty PDA's with their native operating system intact. Here's a quick look at making the Visor work with Linux USB support, getting your eyemodule to work with a handy Python program, and how to deal with your word processing needs when the space in the coach section of the plane's a little crowded for the laptop."


• LinuxWorld: Silicon neurons in an analog world (Dec 27, 2000, 16:12)
  "The advanced processors that emerged from Carver Mead's Caltech laboratory mimic the analog response of natural systems. ...an analog design utilizing the full range of output voltages will always have better power efficiency than its digital counterpart."


• LinuxWorld: Linux lyrics for the holidays (Dec 27, 2000, 15:54)
  " 'Twas the night before deadline when all of us groused, Not a server was stirring, not even the mouse; 'Cause Windows was hung with a bright blue screen glare, In need of a service pack that wasn't there."


• The Register: EFF's Gilmore calls for CPRM hardware boycott (Dec 27, 2000, 15:42)
  "Users, says Gilmore, should demand a policy declaration from vendors that they eschew "covertly controlled hardware", and only buy products that are truly open, he argues in a post to the C2 crypto mailing list."


• LinuxPower: Linux user interface: Strength of diversity or a stranglehold of inconsistency? (Dec 27, 2000, 15:32)
  "...I think and hope that the long term situation will improve... due to more and more old and inflexible applications being replaced with newer, more flexible ones and at the same time the flexibility and intuitivity of Linux applications will increase with incremental improvements in theme-technologies and due to influence from people like the usability experts at Eazel."


• LinuxPower: No money in Hackerdom, Version 1.0 (Dec 27, 2000, 15:17)
  "I am going to make the argument that Hackers do not generally Hack because they have to for work. Instead, it is their passion, their life, in a dramatic way. Also, I'm going to make the argument that, and this is not how ESR feels, Hackers can be non-contributing authors to the code base of the world. That code base is better known as Open Source or Free Software today."


• The Register: Copy protection hard drive plan nixes free software - RMS (Dec 27, 2000, 14:55)
  "If users accept the domination of centrally-controlled data, free software faces two dangers, each worse than the other: that users will reject GNU/Linux because it doesn't support the central control over access to these data, or that they will reject free versions of GNU/Linux for versions "enhanced" with proprietary software that support it."


• NetRaider Project: Building a Basic Unix Web Browser (Dec 27, 2000, 14:40)
  Our particular itch is that currently available browsers for Unix are either too large, too unstable, rely on third-party software or are proprietary. Enter NetRaider: small, fast, independent and free (we are working on the 'stable' part ;-)). Though currently tested only on Linux, we have the strong intention to make it available on as many Unix platforms as possible.


• MozillaQuest: Sneak Preview of Mozilla Milestone 0.7 -- Release Expected This Week (Dec 27, 2000, 14:31)
  "Would you like a sneak preview of Mozilla 0.7? If so, you can download and try the 24 December 2000 Mozilla Mtrunk build."


• LinuxPlanet: .comment: Ain't Anti-Aliasing Amazing? (Dec 27, 2000, 13:25)
  When it comes to handling typefaces and fonts, Linux does an extremely poor job; in fact, its poor handling of fonts is probably one of the biggest reasons why Linux hasn't made more inroads on the desktop. That's why the newsgroups were buzzing with the news that anti-aliasing was now possible on the Linux desktop under KDE 2.0 and XFree86 4.02. But, as Dennis E. Powell reports, he found it virtually impossible to set it up on his Linux desktop -- even after some personal assistance from Keith Packard and Waldo Bastian.


• Upside: The year for open source (Dec 27, 2000, 13:07)
  "This place seems about as good as any to reflect on the past 12 months. Like most of the people stopping here to fill up their gas tanks and grab an In-N-Out double animal burger for the road, the open source community, or at least the businesses around open source software, seems to be in a hurry to reach an unclear destination."