Linux News for Oct 17, 2006

• XYZ Computing: Three Reasons to Use GNOME (Oct 17, 2006, 22:30)
  "KDE is popular, highly customizable, and, no matter what your tastes are, you will probably agree that it can look good..."


• eWeek: Are Accurate Delivery Dates Too Much to Ask For? (Oct 17, 2006, 21:45)
  "Have we gotten so used to release to manufacturing dates being fiction that we're buying lies instead of products...?"


• Community: Why There is Better Driver Support in 64-bit Linux Than 64-bit Windows XP (Oct 17, 2006, 21:00)
  "Recently someone bought be a copy of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and I thought I would give it a try. This is what happened..."


• OSWeekly: Proof Why Closed Source Operating Systems are Failing (Oct 17, 2006, 20:30)
  "As the battle between Microsoft and software vendors continues to rage on in the foreground, it seems like a lot of people have completely forgotten about the common user and their experience with the OS..."


• Free Software Magazine: Interview with Jon "Maddog" Hall About the Upcoming LinuxWorld UK (Oct 17, 2006, 20:00)
  "I was lucky enough to interview Jon 'Maddog' Hall, one of the speakers of the upcoming LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in London..."


• Linux-Watch: There Is No Oracle Linux (Oct 17, 2006, 19:30)
  "I don't care how many times you hear stock analysts say that Oracle is about to launch its own Linux. It's just not going to happen..."


• Network World: 2006 is a Bad Year for All Software, Linux Included (Oct 17, 2006, 19:00)
  "So far this year's reported vulnerabilities for apps and operating systems already exceeds last year's total..."


• Linux-Watch: Debian Team Settles Several Contentious Issues (Oct 17, 2006, 18:30)
  "The Debian community has been fighting within itself over several very contentious issues, but in the last few days the group has reached conclusions that should allow it to get its next Linux distribution out the door..."


• KernelTrap: Linux: ext4 Merged Into -mm (Oct 17, 2006, 18:00)
  "With the release of the 2.6.19-rc1-mm1 kernel, the ext4 filesystem was merged into Andrew Morton's -mm tree for further testing..."


• Techworld: Open-Source Legal Protection Given for 160 Projects (Oct 17, 2006, 17:30)
  "Open source systems provider OpenLogic has announced it will provide legal protection for more than 160 projects in its open source library..."


• Computerworld Australia: Google Gets Slack with Software Updates (Oct 17, 2006, 17:00)
  "Maintaining a large number of Linux servers to power its search and Web application services is at the heart of Google's business and, until now, has remained a closely guarded secret..."


• LinuxDevices: Linux Makes Mot Tops in PDA/Smartphone Growth (Oct 17, 2006, 16:30)
  "Strong Linux smartphone sales in China helped Motorola achieve the highest overall year-on-year growth among the top five vendors in the PDA/Smartphone market, according to Gartner..."


• internetnews.com: Novell Gearing up a NAC Solution? (Oct 17, 2006, 16:00)
  "Novell today officially rolled out its Novell Access Manager 3 solution, claiming that it is the first to integrate all aspects of access Management..."


• Linux.com: FSF Should Separate GPLv3 Changes (Oct 17, 2006, 15:30)
  "The process of producing the third version of the GNU General Public License (GPLv3) may not be doomed, but, as Linus Torvalds and other kernel developers heat up the rhetoric, it does seem stalled..."


• Digit: PlayStation 3 to Run Yellow Dog Linux (Oct 17, 2006, 15:00)
  "Sony's PlayStation 3 set to move in on personal computers with the release of the Linux operating system for the device..."


• Red Hat: Another Slip in the FC6 Schedule (Oct 17, 2006, 14:30)
  "Over the weekend we ran into a few more bugs with Fedora Core 6 that we decided were important enough to fix..."


• LinuxElectrons: Firefox 2 Release Candidate 3 Now Available (Oct 17, 2006, 14:00)
  "Firefox 2 Release Candidate 3 (RC 3), the latest preview release of the next version of the Firefox browser, is now available..."


• Andrew Morton: Linux 2.6.19-rc2-mm1 (Oct 17, 2006, 14:00)
  Incremental changelog, links within.


• Goodbye Freespire... (Oct 17, 2006, 14:00)
  Back in August, I got caught by the Ubuntu/X Window update bug. Because I was in a hurry and didn't yet understand the nature of the bug that bit me, I grabbed the most available distro available to me at the time: a copy of Freespire 1.0 that I'd picked up at LinuxWorld.

  Regular LT readers, may recall that my experiences with Freespire were less than stellar. Well, after a couple of months putting up with the various idiosyncrasies of Freespire and its generically named application set, I have decided to move on.



• KernelTrap: Linux: NVIDIA Binary Graphics Driver Exploit (Oct 17, 2006, 13:30)
  "A recent security advisory announced today by Rapid7 explains, "the NVIDIA Binary Graphics Driver for Linux is vulnerable to a buffer overflow that allows an attacker to run arbitrary code as root...'"


• Liux.com: ApacheCon 2006 Wrapup (Oct 17, 2006, 12:45)
  "ApacheCon 2006 ended its week-long run in Austin, Texas, on Friday. The event proved that Linux is not the only brightly shining star in the world of free and open source software..."


• Linux Journal: At The Sounding Edge (Oct 17, 2006, 12:00)
  "Over the next two or three entries I'm going to provide summaries of activity represented on some of the mail-lists most relevant to the development and use of audio software for Linux..."


• Linux.com: CLI Magic: Use cURL to Measure Web Site Statistics (Oct 17, 2006, 10:30)
  "cURL is a handy command-line network tool whose name stands for 'client for URLs,' but think of it as a 'copy for URLs'--it can copy to or from a given URL in any of nine different protocols..."


• ZDNet Australia: Seven Steps to Increase Linux Security (Oct 17, 2006, 09:00)
  "Ask a network administrator in any large organisation to compare Linux with network operating systems like Windows NT or Novell, and chances are he'll admit that Linux is an inherently more stable and scalable solution..."


• HowtoForge: The Perfect Setup--Mandriva 2007 Free Edition (Oct 17, 2006, 07:30)
  "This is a detailed description about how to set up a Mandriva 2007 Free Edition based server that offers all services needed by ISPs and hosters.."


• Phoronix: ATI X1000 + fglrx Q4/06 Update (Oct 17, 2006, 06:00)
  "On the morning of April 12, 2006, Phoronix had delivered the world's first look at the Radeon X1000 series running under GNU/Linux..."


• developerWorks: Building a CDT-Based Editor, Part 3: Basic CDT Parsing (Oct 17, 2006, 05:15)
  "This analysis, called parsing, is a vast subject that continues to provide computer scientists with new avenues of research..."


• dot.KDE: KOffice 1.6 Released (Oct 17, 2006, 04:30)
  "The KOffice team is proud to announce the 1.6.0 release of its office suite..."


• Advisories, October 16, 2006 (Oct 17, 2006, 03:45)
  Today's security advisories: Seamonkey (Gentoo Linux) and xinit (Ubuntu).


• Free Software Magazine: Free Software is a Weak Mode of Production (Oct 17, 2006, 03:00)
  "The success of GNU/Linux and other free software projects is annoying. Free and open source development doesn't fit neatly in the box of standard business practices and is therefore a problem..."


• Seopher: Only 24.7% of Users are Afraid to Dual Boot (Oct 17, 2006, 01:30)
  "61% of users are afraid of dual booting Linux? Well, the initial poll from the regular readers of the site provided this statistic..."


• PolishLinux: What do Dependencies Have to Do with Free Software? (Oct 17, 2006, 00:45)
  "There is one huge difference between the free and non-free software that has some very practical implications in the way we use it..."


• (Re)Discover OpenOffice.org Impress (Oct 17, 2006, 00:37)
  I think OOo Impress is a fine piece of software.

  It imported my old PowerPoint slide shows without complaint. It does basic animations and slide transitions. I can even push my slides out to HTML code, as Flash or as a PDF, as an added revenue enhancing bonus to audience members, if I so choose.

  So why don't people use it?



• -stable: Linux 2.6.17.14 (Oct 17, 2006, 00:00)
  "Unless something major comes up, this is the last release of the 2.6.17 kernel branch..."


• -stable: Linux 2.6.18.1 (Oct 17, 2006, 00:00)
  "We (the -stable team) are announcing the release of the 2.6.18.1 kernel..."