Linux News for Dec 06, 2001

• TechTarget.com: HP's standards-based blade program is an industry first (Dec 06, 2001, 23:10)
  "Hewlett-Packard, meanwhile, took note of the failures and has been at work on its blade offerings, but with an open-standards approach (CompactPCI). The CompactPCI standard was developed by a consortium of more than 700 companies to increase availability and reduce computing costs."


• Latest release of OpenOffice (build OO641B) Available for PPC Linux (Dec 06, 2001, 23:10)
  "This binary should run on any ppc linux system with glibc 2.2.1 or higher, XFree86 4.0 or higher, etc. This includes YellowDogLinux 2.0 and 2.1, SuSE 7.3, MandrakeSoft 8.1, and DebianPPC (has been tested under Debian Sid)."


• ServerWatch: Sun Goes After Wintel/Lintel Vendors with New Server (Dec 06, 2001, 20:35)
  "For Sun, this represents an entry-level offering for the enterprise at a time when the company is losing market share to low-end servers based on Windows 2000 Server and Linux."


• Embedded.com: Is Embedded Linux a Bust? (Dec 06, 2001, 19:54)
  "In the embedded world Linux is even less than an OS; it can't even manage real time events -- at least not in the native distribution. Unless Linux is bolted on top of a traditional embedded RTOS, your system might have a killer file system but be unable to handle asynchronous events in a timely manner."


• Linux Kernel 2.4.17-pre5 Released (Dec 06, 2001, 19:21)
  Changelog, link within.


• Tom's Hardware: How To Run Windows Inside Linux With Win4Lin (Dec 06, 2001, 17:52)
  "Finally, for those of you who have been waiting for office applications to materialize before giving Linux a try, wait no more: Win4Lin is just what you have been looking for. You really can use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint inside Linux, and with a GHz+ machine, you should not really notice any performance problems for these applications." More in-depth than most Win4Lin reviews.


• NewsForge: Making Linux look harder than it is (Dec 06, 2001, 17:12)
  "Could the biggest problem with Linux usability be that most of the people teaching newbies to use Linux are too smart and know too much?"


• IT Director.com: Linux Attacks Outlook Market (Dec 06, 2001, 15:19)
  "The IT world is split into two major camps, those who employ proprietary software tools, and Open Source fanatics. Clearly there are some realists who are psychologically equipped to asses any technology purely on its capabilities and fit with existing infrastructures without recourse to gut level opinion, but these individuals are few and far between."


• Linux Weekly News for December 6, 2001 (Dec 06, 2001, 14:09)
  This week: Linux Kongress; Evolution and proprietary software; Bad news in DMCA cases; Fun with wu-ftpd; OpenSSH updates; A mini review of KRUD 7.2; SnapGear offers uClinux distribution.


• O'Reilly Network: System Failure and Recovery Practice (Dec 06, 2001, 13:15)
  "UML virtual machines are nearly identical to physical machines in their behavior, except that they are far more convenient to configure and boot. This makes them ideal for system administrator training and practice. In particular, they are very well-suited for creating admin disasters in order to practice recovering from them. I will be describing the creation of and recovery from three disasters, plus the creation (but not recovery) of a fourth."


• SourceForge Clustering Foundry: Introduction to Single System Image Clustering (Dec 06, 2001, 09:59)
  "The purpose of this article is to introduce Single System Image (SSI) Clustering. First we will look at what clustering is and the various problems a clustered platform solves. Then we generally define what a SSI cluster is and look at various forms and degrees of SSI. From there we focus on the Open SSI Cluster Project - the goals, the benefits SSI clustering can bring and the application areas for SSI clustering."


• Tommy Hilfiger Chooses IBM and Linux for e-business Infrastructure (Dec 06, 2001, 09:41)
  "IBM today announced that Tommy Hilfiger Corporation has chosen IBM, eOneGroup and Linux for its new e-business infrastructure as the company works to expand its presence among thousands of U.S. specialty retailers, as well as its worldwide manufacturing facilities and employees."


• Debian Security Advisory: local root in wmtv (Dec 06, 2001, 08:41)
  "wmtv can optionally run a command if you double-click on the tv window. This command can be specified using the -e command-line option. However since wmtv is installed suid root this command was also run as root, which gives local users a very simple way to get root access."


• AbiWord Weekly News #72 by Jesper Skov (Dec 06, 2001, 06:36)
  "Much hacking on plugins this week and a few bugs closed. 0.9.6 is on the horizon..."


• KDE.news: KDEPrint Site Goes Live (Dec 06, 2001, 04:19)
  "The site is chockful of information including pretty screenshots, a description of new KDEPrint features slated for KDE3, information, presentation, and general documentation including a faq, handbook, and tutorials."


• Alias/Wavefront Ships Maya 4 For Linux (Dec 06, 2001, 03:16)
  "Alias|Wavefront, an SGI company, announced that it has begun shipping Maya 4 for the Red Hat Linux operating system."


• NewsForge: Secured against disaster: Governments look to Linux to avoid viruses (Dec 06, 2001, 02:03)
  "Perhaps your company doesn't think replacing Windows with Linux is worth the hassle. But if their systems crashed because of Code Red or Systran or Goner -- or perhaps all three, have them take a look at SELinux, and -- have a conversation."


• Bugtraq: SSH Vulnerability Scan (and ScanSSH tool) (Dec 06, 2001, 00:56)
  "Scans of the Internet show that system and security administrators must react and update their SSH servers ... at this writing (3 Dec 01), over 30% of all SSH servers appear to have the CRC32 bug."


• VA Linux Systems, Inc. Changes Its Name To "VA Software Corporation" (Dec 06, 2001, 00:39)
  "VA Linux Systems, Inc. announced at its annual meeting today that shareholders voted to change the Company's name to "VA Software Corporation." The name change is effective immediately."