Linux News for Feb 25, 2003

• Linux Journal: Why Experix? (Feb 25, 2003, 23:30)
  "The demise of DOS and advent of networking forced me to update the platform, and first I dabbled in Microsoft Windows. I quickly was put off by the unavailability of information on how to write kernel modules and the difficulty of graphics. I want to control everything, not rely on packages that I can't modify and that are guaranteed to become obsolete and unmaintainable. Then I found Linux, or it found me, and the program has been growing happily ever since..."


• Linux Orbit: Coping With Choice: The Double-Edged Sword of the Linux Desktop (Part 1) (Feb 25, 2003, 22:00)
  "In this first part of a three part series, Linux Orbit's editor-in-chief John Gowin takes a look at the choices facing GNU/Linux end users..."


• LinuxPlanet: The Return of PowerCockpit (Feb 25, 2003, 20:30)
  "Turbolinux's departure from the US left some of its toolsets in a state of legal limbo. Now one of the former founders of Turbolinux is bringing one of the more powerful applications back to life: PowerCockpit. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports..."


• KernelTrap: Where The Anticipatory Scheduler Shines (Feb 25, 2003, 19:00)
  "Andrew Morton recently posted some interesting benchmarks comparing the current 2.4 IO scheduler, a 'hacked' version of the deadline IO scheduler in 2.5.61, the CFQ scheduler, and the anticipatory scheduler..."


• LinuxWorld: Opera Shows Graceful, Humorous Response to Microsoft Blunder (Feb 25, 2003, 18:00)
  "I'm going to briefly recount my installation and usage experience with the beta, but this is in no way a review of the Opera browser, beta or otherwise. I'm simply using the beta as an icebreaker, an excuse to voice my opinions on recent happenings in the latest episodes of the Browser Wars..."


• EnGarde Secure Linux Advisory: WebTool (Feb 25, 2003, 17:59)
  "Keigo Yamazaki discovered a vulnerability in miniserv.pl (the webserver program at the core of the WebTool) which may allow an attacker to spoof a session ID by including special metacharacters in the BASE64 encoded string using during the authentication process..."


• Japan Times: Gates Courts LDP Leadership over 'e-Japan' Deal (Feb 25, 2003, 16:00)
  Japan considers Linux. Gates gets on plane. Deja vu...


• CNET News: Open-Source Audio Wins MP3 Player Support (Feb 25, 2003, 15:00)
  "This means Linux interoperability for a portable player that's supported by the manufacturer, not an after-market hack supported by some guy in Johannesburg with a dial-up connection and a copy of Emacs,' [Emmett] Plant said in a letter posted on the Ogg Vorbis Web site..."


• The Inquirer: Linus Torvalds, Itanium "Threw Out All the Good Parts of the x86" (Feb 25, 2003, 14:00)
  "In words that Intel are likely to be far from happy with, the Finnish luminary has stuck the boot into Itanium. Only just falling short of calling the processor Itanic, his responses to some questions on processor architecture are sure to be music to AMD's ears..."


• The Salt Lake Tribune: Linux Could Become Inexpensive Alternative to Proprietary Systems (Feb 25, 2003, 13:00)
  "Russell Weeks, a member of the math department at Logan High School, has removed the traditional operating system from his computer programming lab and replaced it with a free Linux-based program..."


• Gentoo Linux Advisories: apcupsd, vnc, tightvnc (Feb 25, 2003, 12:59)
  Three security advisories from Gentoo Linux.


• Tonight Live: The Day They Stole the Internet plus Lycoris Desktop Linux (Feb 25, 2003, 12:45)
  "The Day They Stole the Internet possibly the most significant technology news of the year so far, the FCC over turns the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Also a review of the new Mozilla beta (finally with spam screening), News from The Desktop Linux Conference, and a harsh warning for Microsoft..."


• ZDNet UK: MS-Opera Battle Reaches Higher Pitch (Feb 25, 2003, 11:30)
  "There has never been much of a relationship between the small Norwegian browser company Opera and software giant Microsoft, but what little there was is over, says Opera..."


• Computerworld.NZ: Do You Really Want a 'Linux Administrator'? (Feb 25, 2003, 08:30)
  "Using Linux as shorthand for everything open source can, however, lead to an unfortunate reality truncation. Despite all the publicity, it seems lots of people and organisations still haven't understood that Linux is only an operating system kernel..."


• Intelligent Enterprise Magazine: The Major Leagues (Feb 25, 2003, 07:00)
  "Python, once a relatively obscure open-source language, may be just what your organization needs..."


• Help Net Security: Interview with Judy Novak, Co-author of "Network Intrusion Detection 3/e" (Feb 25, 2003, 05:30)
  "We just finished up a red team exercise using nothing more than freeware--nmap, nessus, and the Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmark tools..."


• Kernel Traffic #206 by Zack Brown (Feb 25, 2003, 05:00)
  Community Roundup: The latest message traffic from the Linux kernel mailing list.


• Release Digest: GNOME, February 24, 2003 (Feb 25, 2003, 05:00)
  Today's GNOME apps: Karaoke 0.1, MrProject 0.9.1, and COnfigurator for Gnome 0.5.3.


• KernelTrap: Listing Threads in /proc (Feb 25, 2003, 04:00)
  "Ingo Molnar recently posted a patch to the lkml resulting in a significant increase in threading performance when displaying individual threads within the /proc directory..."


• Tectonic: Africa Prepares for Open Source Launch in Geneva (Feb 25, 2003, 02:30)
  "Africa will today take centre stage in Geneva with the planned launch of an organisation aimed at promoting the use of open source software throughout the continent..."


• Linux Journal: India Gets Its First Linux Publication (Feb 25, 2003, 01:00)
  "India's first Linux magazine recently hit the stands, and free software enthusiasts are looking to the Delhi-published magazine to help build interest in non-proprietary software in a country that likes to call itself a (potential) software superpower..."


• Wichita Business Journal: Stratitec Builds $300 Computer for Sam's Club (Feb 25, 2003, 00:20)
  Wonder just what goes into those Linux machines offered online at Sams Club? Here's a local-company-makes-good story out of Kansas that gives the details. [Link repaired. -ed]