Linux News for Jan 30, 2001

• Dr. Inder Singh to Keynote Real-time and Embedded Systems Forum, San Jose, California, 7 Feb (Jan 30, 2001, 23:28)
  Dr. Inder M. Singh , CEO and Chairman LynuxWorks will deliver his keynote at The Open Group Real-time and Embedded Systems Forum, being held at the Doubletree Hotel, San Jose, CA on Wednesday February 7th from 11:00-11:30am.


• LinuxPR: GeekCast Multi-tiered Internet Partnership to Deliver Linux DSL Solutions (Jan 30, 2001, 23:23)
  New DSL program with IbssNet, Covad, CAIS, Intercom Online and others should help stream line installations and provide some shelter from the storm of the unstable DSL Marketplace.


• Caldera Systems Security Advisory: MySQL buffer overflow (Jan 30, 2001, 23:07)
  "There is a buffer overflow in the MySQL server that allows an attacker to gain access to the mysql account."


• Red Hat Security Advisory: Updated inetd packages available for Red Hat Linux 6.2 (Jan 30, 2001, 23:02)
  "The inetd server as shipped with Red Hat Linux 6.2 fails to close sockets for internal services properly."


• FreeOS.com: Intrusion Detection Systems for your network: Part II - Installing Tripwire (Jan 30, 2001, 22:52)
  "Tripwire works by checking for the integrity of the existing File System against an existing baseline."


• LinuxPR: Rauch Medien releases their rack-mount 1U Internet server appliance (Jan 30, 2001, 22:45)
  "The RM Internet Server is a complete Internet server solution that can host web-sites and serve emails with the ease of a appliance."


• Enterprise Linux Today: Turbolinux, Big Blue Partnership Going Strong (Jan 30, 2001, 22:40)
  "In the continuation of a partnership between Big Blue and a leading Linux provider, Turbolinux weighed in at LinuxWorld in New York Tuesday with a new Server 6 for IBM's eServer z900 and S/390 mainframes."


• LinuxPR: HP, XFree86, GNOME/GTK+ Join Stellar Lineup at Colorado Linux Info Queest 2001 (CLIQ 2001) (Jan 30, 2001, 22:32)
  "HP joins as the latest in a stellar line up of top level sponsors, while Daryll Strauss (VA Linux, XFree86) and Havoc Pennington (Red Hat, GTK+ and GNOME) sign as speakers to the region's only Linux focused conference and exhibit."


• LinuxPR: NuSphere Contributes Significant Code Enhancement To MySQL (Jan 30, 2001, 22:11)
  "NuSphere "Checks In" New Features To Allow Commercial Transaction Processing for No. 1 Open Source Database."


• TechWeb: Will Sun Take The Linux Plunge? (Jan 30, 2001, 22:08)
  "But now that the new Linux 2.4 kernel is expected to scale up the operating system to support higher levels of multiprocessing, observers said, Sun needs to better outline its Linux stance."


• LinuxPR: Open Source Development Network Unveils freshmeat II (Jan 30, 2001, 22:02)
  "Major Features Enhancement of Web's Largest Index of Linux and Open Source Software."


• Linux.com: Come Join Us [Loki] (Jan 30, 2001, 21:57)
  "Unfortunately for Loki, despite the great quality, they have to fight a lot to get there products known. This has to change."


• CNET News.com: Linux update has corporate appeal (Jan 30, 2001, 21:50)
  "The biggest addition to the release of Linux kernel 2.4.1 is the ReiserFS, which is a journaling file system."


• Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Jan 30) (Jan 30, 2001, 21:22)
  "Python is an open source, interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language."


• SF Gate: Computer Experts Warn of Holes in Net (Jan 30, 2001, 20:34)
  "So far, no exploitations of the flaws have turned up, but system administrators everywhere must race to install a fix released by the software's creator before hackers come up with ways to take advantage of the weaknesses, CERT said during a press conference this morning."


• SearchEnterpriseLinux: Linuxcare CTO: Waiting for 2.4 success stories (Jan 30, 2001, 20:24)
  "What issues are going to come up repeatedly as people update to the Linux 2.4 kernel? ... First of all, they want us to help them to decide if they want to be on the bleeding edge and integrate 2.4 technology into their products and services. One of the good things about the open development process is that people have known for a while what 2.4 looks like. There's no hype. Check the code, baby. It's either in there, or it's not."


• Enterprise Linux Today: Scyld Announces First Commercial Release of Next-gen Beowulf Cluster OS (Jan 30, 2001, 19:27)
  "Joe Barr of Linuxworld states, "The most amazing thing I saw on the exhibit room floor (of ALS) was probably the transformation of the email garden into a Beowulf cluster. Honest. And it only took about 10 or 15 minutes for Scyld Computing to convert the machines on the LAN into a supercomputer."


• LinuxPR: LPI moves to second level of certification program, invites public input (Jan 30, 2001, 18:53)
  "LPI invites intermediate and advanced Linux system administrators to participate in a Job Analysis Survey for the Level 2 program. ...to assist LPI to determine the necessary tasks to be tested by its intermediate-level Linux administration exams."


• Linux Journal: A Matter of Principle: RMS at Linux Expo in Amsterdam (Jan 30, 2001, 18:39)
  "World domination", as Linus Torvalds famously put it, is the popularization of Linux. But this vision resembles the proprietary world where the number of users represents a certain monetary value. "World liberation" is freedom to use the software you want to use. In this philosophy, it's not the number of users that matters, but the number of people whose lives are touched by the freedom that comes with free software."


• Ch@nnelWeb: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It - Q&A with Red Hat's Bob Young (Jan 30, 2001, 18:20)
  "Do you think there should be a formal advisory board or organization set up to oversee the Linux kernel? ...if it's not broken, don't fix it. There may be a better structure for building the kernel, but we don't perceive there is a problem as it is currently being built. There's a more formal structure than it appears from the outside."


• Ch@nnelWeb: Intel's Swope: Linux To Fuel Data Centers (Jan 30, 2001, 17:54)
  "What is the future of Linux? ... For the next couple of years, it's clearly getting Linux technology to meet more and more of the needs of running the data center and doing back-end computational models in the best interest of those running data centers."


• CRN: CRN Interview: Linus Torvalds (Jan 30, 2001, 17:32)
  "How much pressure did you get from Linux companies, whose profits were hanging in the balance until 2.4 shipped? ... None at all, really. To some degree, I got "what do you think the timing will be?" kinds of questions, but absolutely no pressure. Nobody said "we'd really like it for the Christmas season" or anything like that."


• TechWeb: Investment Bank Embraces Open Source (Jan 30, 2001, 17:15)
  "It validates the concept that open source is not just for technology companies alone," said Bernie Mills, vice president of marketing at CollabNet, who said the deal extends his company's reach while showing DrKW is "at the leading edge of technology."


• LinuxWorld: Worlds collide at Linux-on-the-Hudson (Jan 30, 2001, 16:42)
  "As major Linux software efforts can be divided into desktop and server camps, suppliers can likewise be placed in two broad categories: specialty Linux startups, and established vendors that have just recently caught the Linux bug. The former group is under pressure to demonstrate that open source enthusiasm can translate into profitable businesses. The latter group, which can shield its Linux software ramp-up costs under a wider umbrella, has the means to garner attention at the show, and much of this group's activity will be server-related."


• CNET News.com: Intel edges into Transmeta territory with new chip (Jan 30, 2001, 16:12)
  "Intel is releasing two chips that will compete directly with Transmeta's Crusoe processors in the notebook market, and the scary part for Transmeta is that it didn't take Intel long at all."


• CNET News.com: LinuxWorld shows software entering adulthood (Jan 30, 2001, 16:05)
  "The code-sharing, cooperative "open source" programming model that underlies Linux is a "better mousetrap" than the closed-source, proprietary methods employed by Microsoft... Specifically, open-source software naturally shifts priorities away from the companies that sell software--Microsoft and Oracle, for example--and toward the customers that use the software."


• SecurityFocus: BIND holes mean big trouble (Jan 30, 2001, 15:47)
  "Because the majority of name servers in operation today run BIND, these vulnerabilities present a serious threat to the Internet infrastructure..."


• The Register: How LinuxDisk will put a bomb under storage fatcats (Jan 30, 2001, 15:30)
  "Why is this revolutionary? ...the proprietary storage behemoths... are really selling boxes of disks: and disks are very very cheap. Sure, people are also buying a service, but the technology deficit here is negligible, while the price markup is enormous. And that's a natural challenge for a Penguin."


• The Register: Red Hat to bundle Eazel - making it the de facto Linux desktop standard? (Jan 30, 2001, 15:15)
  "With Sun gearing up to bundle Nautilus with Solaris and Dell choosing the software as its own preferred Linux user interface, Eazel now stands a good chance of seeing its code become the de facto standard open source UI desktop."


• Larry Augustin to Speak at The Open Group conference, February 6 (Jan 30, 2001, 14:32)
  Dr. Augustin's presentation will address how Open Source infrastructure is expanding market share in the enterprise and should be invaluable to those deploying Open Source solutions.


• Enterprise Linux Today: CollabNet Helps Investment Banking Software Go Open Source (Jan 30, 2001, 12:39)
  "CollabNet is focusing on enabling an open source development model, for a fee, for companies that want to move a body of code into an open source development model. CollabNet's facilitation of the open source release of a major piece of software by a German investment bank is just the latest development in what may turn out to be a trend."


• LinuxPlanet: From the Desktop: W is for WindowMaker and West Coast (Jan 30, 2001, 12:27)
  This week Brian Proffitt looks at WindowMaker, one fine looking window manager that's based on the legendary NeXTStep interface. Brian reviews WindowMaker and discusses its origins and future with designer Alfredo Kojima.


• Linus Torvalds: Linux 2.4.0-test12 (Jan 30, 2001, 08:30)
  "Could people that had problems with SiS interrupt handling before please give 2.4.0-test12 a final whirl before I release it as 2.4.1?"


• CNET News.com: Compaq adds Steeleye clustering software to Linux servers (Jan 30, 2001, 08:30)
  "Clustering software lets one computer take over for another automatically if the primary machine fails. SteelEye's software extends this "failover" ability to include some higher-end Compaq storage devices as well."


• LinuxWorld: What to expect at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo - Where Linux is whatever you want it to be (Jan 30, 2001, 08:03)
  "Some 22,000 to 24,000 attendees are expected to descend on this week's LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in New York -- pretty clear evidence that IT decision-makers more than ever crave business solutions that leverage the benefits of Linux and open source."


• osOpinion: Playing Squash with Microsoft's .NET (Jan 30, 2001, 07:57)
  "Windows User Migration Plan or WUMP would do the opposite of MS-JUMP. It would be a strategic migration scheme to help .NET captives off of MS proprietary systems and to migrate up to Java, or other MS-free platforms. For every tool, every path, and every kit that Microsoft releases, a corresponding reverse-kit should be developed and released by Java developers and others."


• Ziobudda (Italy): Review of "Beginning PHP4" (Jan 30, 2001, 07:52)
  "Ziobudda reviews the new Wrox's book "Beginning PHP4" for the italian market."


• SJMercury/Reuters: Dresdner backs Linux-based software, a banking first (Jan 30, 2001, 07:30)
  "And in a move that would have once been considered an anathema to the secretive banking world, Dresdner Kleinwort plans to freely release its "openadaptor" plumbing software to programmers in the the wider "open source" community."


• Security Portal: Trinux Revisited (Jan 30, 2001, 07:20)
  "Learning about Trinux will give you instant fame and riches, right? Well, not exactly, but it can offer a compact security solution for your PC. This unique distribution of Linux boots from one or two floppies and inhabits only RAM."


• LinuxMedNews: Fresno III To Discuss Medical Open Source (Jan 30, 2001, 05:47)
  "Fresno III will gather together some of the most active participants in the open source medical software revolution."


• LinuxWorld: Future Computing: The warp and woof of data storage (Jan 30, 2001, 05:34)
  "The major transition that datacenters are currently undergoing is the loss of the ability to say, "This hard disk is attached to that computer."


• AllLinuxDevicesPR: NOW embedded linux gets smaller (Jan 30, 2001, 05:21)
  "The "Compressed Block Device" CBD, a GPL driver, is a demand decompression block device that shrinks file system partitions 2.5 to 3 times. Imagine getting linux 2.4, glibc, Xwindows, Mozilla in to a 16M flash!"


• AllLinuxDevicesPR: Lineo Ships Upgrade Flagship Japanese Embedix SDK (Jan 30, 2001, 05:15)
  "Embedix SDK 1.2-J integrates support with cross-compilations, support for Hitachi SuperH 3 and 4 RISC processors and an integrated development environment to provide developers with greater flexibility and reduced time-to-market. "


• BusyBox 0.49 Released (Jan 30, 2001, 05:00)
  Erik Andersen of Lineo has announced the release of BusyBox 0.49. BusyBox provides a variety of common UNIX utilities in a single executable that can be tailored at compile time, making it ideal for embedded systems.


• LinuxProgramming.com: Editor's Comment: Real Hardware + Internet = Free Virtual Itanium Systems? (Jan 30, 2001, 00:34)
  "Many companies, and nearly all open source developers, can't afford to buy all the testing hardware they need, let alone would like to have, and in many cases, such as Intel's upcoming IA-64 architecture processors, the hardware isn't generally available yet. So what's a cross-platform geek to do?"


• Linus Torvalds: Linux-2.4.0-test12 (Dec 12, 2000, 07:58)
  "Ok, there it is. Noticeable changes from pre8 are mainly (a) new tq list compile fixes and (b) the NetApp snapshot thing."