Linux News for Aug 30, 2001

• Network World Fusion: Report: IBM, Intel come to aid of struggling SuSE Linux (Aug 30, 2001, 21:39)
  "Open-source software maker SuSE Linux has narrowly avoided insolvency after investors agreed to a new round of financing, according to a newspaper report. Backers will provide the struggling German company with 50 million euros ($45.5 million) in fresh funding, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said in its Thursday edition, citing unnamed industry sources."


• The Register: MS Hailstorm is no threat - Torvalds (Aug 30, 2001, 21:30)
  "Linus Torvalds capped an hour of debate over the future of Linux by dismissing the threat posed by Microsoft's Hailstorm caper."


• Progeny Linux Systems Halts Work on Linux NOW, Debian-Based Distribution to Continue (Aug 30, 2001, 20:20)
  "Ian Murdock confirmed the details of the letter he sent out and said the company's Linux distribution: Progeny Debian GNU/Linux, will continue to be sold as a shrinkwrap product and target of services. The distribution is an enhanced version of the Debian GNU/Linux's "Woody" or testing branch."


• PCWorld.com: Geeks, Nerds Rally at LinuxWorld Penguin Bowl (Aug 30, 2001, 19:59)
  "LinuxWorld's own version of the Weakest Link game show, The Golden Penguin Bowl, proves that knowing the difference between TCPIP and CPIP as well as the breed of parrot in Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch can come in handy."


• Linux 2.4.10pre2 Is Out (Aug 30, 2001, 17:48)
  The second Linux kernel 2.4.10 pre-patch is available for download.


• LinuxProgramming: Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Aug 30) (Aug 30, 2001, 17:37)
  All that's new in the Python world.


• Boston.com: Celebrating a decade of Linux (Aug 30, 2001, 16:23)
  "Microsoft understands its peril, but rather than moderating its behavior, the company has spent the past several months denouncing open source as literally "un-American." Yet all that's being subverted is Microsoft's unchallenged domination of the industry. And in the best possible way, too -- not by federal antitrust lawyers, but a bespectacled geek from Finland."


• BetaNews: Sun Details StarOffice 6 (Aug 30, 2001, 15:38)
  "This week at LinuxWorld, Sun Microsytems is demonstrating the latest incarnation of its popular StarOffice Suite several weeks after placing a teaser on its Web site to gauge public interest. While details have not yet publicly emerged, BetaNews was able to catch up with Sun to get the scoop on version 6.0."


• Community: Linux.conf.au 2002 Call for Papers Released (Aug 30, 2001, 15:27)
  "The Linux.conf.au 2002 organisers have released the call for papers . This conference is to be held from the 6th to the 9th of Feburary, 2002 in Brisbane, Australia. It is Australia's 3rd national Linux conference, and focuses on Linux and open-source related software."


• Alan Cox: Linux 2.4.9-ac4 (Aug 30, 2001, 15:06)
  Configure.help updates, ns83820 driver fixes and updates, Merge an additional ide-floppy fix, Orinoco update, Voodoo 1/2 frame buffer console, more. Links, changelog within.


• Andrea Arcangeli: 2.4.10pre2aa1 (Aug 30, 2001, 15:03)
  Several fixes in the latest from Andrea Arcangeli.


• Linux Weekly News for August 30, 2001 (Aug 30, 2001, 12:49)
  Leading items and editorials: Dmitry is indicted; VA going proprietary?; Linux as a sound business choice.


• NewsForge: When VA was the news (Aug 30, 2001, 11:45)
  "Raymond suggested that VA's problems were due in part to conservative IT managers, and that the only way to get these managers to buy software instead of simply downloading it and using it required `hanging some proprietary tinsel off the product.` Raymond suggested strongly that VA's strategy and value proposition continued to be focused on `the service contract.` Unfortunately, there is little evidence to suggest that `conservatism` or a corporate reluctance to embrace Linux had much to do with VA's problems."


• Conectiva Linux Security Announcement - openldap (Aug 30, 2001, 10:36)
  "The PROTOS[2] project conducted several protocol tests with many different LDAP servers. It was verified[3] that OpenLDAP versions before 1.2.11 and 2.0.8 (from the 2.0.x series) have a remote denial of service vulnerability that allows a remote attacker to disrupt the service."


• Immunix OS Security Advisory: xinetd (Aug 30, 2001, 10:31)
  "Solar Designer has audited the xinetd 2.3.0 source code for many different possible vulnerabilities; the 2.3.1 release represents his patches being merged into the standard xinetd source. His audit was fairly thorough and found too many problems to report them all here. 2.3.2 fixes a heap overrun, with the fix due to Trond Eivind Glomsr=F8d. Steve Grubb contributed many other fixes, though none appear to be directly security-related. Suffice it to say that it is only a matter of time before the problems fixed here are turned into exploits; we recommend all users running xinetd upgrade soon."


• Enterprise Linux Today: LVM Developer Mauelshagen Awarded First OSDL Enterprise Achievement Award (Aug 30, 2001, 09:04)
  "Mauelshagen was recognized for his work on the Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM), a software solution that addresses the need of large enterprises to manage data storage. It allows data center class users to virtually re-allocate and/or resize disk storage to meet changing capacity needs."


• SiliconValley.com: Linux has come a long way [LinuxWorld overview] (Aug 30, 2001, 07:32)
  "[Caterpillar employee Bill] Mount says the company is interested in expanding its use of Linux, primarily for economic reasons. While Linux is free, a license for Windows 2000 costs about $1,000. The savings quickly adds up for a huge multinational like Caterpillar, which uses thousands of computers, he said."


• CNET/Yahoo!: Microsoft learns from its enemy--Linux (Aug 30, 2001, 06:02)
  "Linux's success in low-end servers led the company to revise its server product line, said Doug Miller, director of competitive strategy for Microsoft's Windows division. And Microsoft learned that it needs better interactions with the programmers who use Microsoft products."


• CNET/Yahoo!: Making Linux usable tops Torvalds' list (Aug 30, 2001, 01:20)
  "The biggest development in Linux in the past year has been a more refined user interface, Linux founder Linus Torvalds said Wednesday, deprecating the deeper work that remains his own domain."


• Wired: Linux Might Be Too Big for Tux (Aug 30, 2001, 00:43)
  LinuxWorld is more corporate now, says the author: "This year the marketers have attacked. Now, it's virtually impossible to walk around LinuxWorld without hearing pitches from company reps extolling the benefits of Linux for 'mission-critical applications in the enterprise,' or some such drivel." Ximian is held up as a good example of a company that retains the traditional enthusiasm of open source developers.