Quick takes aplenty this time around. In Malaysia, Linux users
have gone wireless; in the Netherlands, business gets serious about
Linux; in your mailbox, Microsoft cries out for help; and on their
own pages, even as they cuddle up with GNOMEs, Sun spreads a
little… sunshine… about “public domain software.” And that’s
not all.
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- Curt Wuollet wants to
know “How many got Micro-spammed?”:Just as I thought we were in a lull in the DOJ vs Microsoft
affair, I have noticed a perceptable increase in the covert and
overt FUD campaigns. The last salvo left me curious. I received
spam directly from Microsoft on behalf of the “Freedom to Innovate
Network” bemoaning their current persecution both from the US
government and the EU and explaining that Sun is trying to steal
their trade secrets and they are courageously resisting yada, yada,
yada.Since the mailing came from microsoft.com, I am assuming that
FIN is one of the propaganda organs of MS and the mailing is
genuine.I was wondering what demographic selection could possibly have
me as sympathetic to their cause. Are they selectively targeting
Linux folks? Is it simply blanket bombing? It was certainly
unsolicited email and offered no reply mechanism…. (probably a
good idea if you are MS spamming Linux people) I was disappointed
in that all I could do was remove myself from their mailing list.
Is this a new tactic? Have the mighty sunk so low? Ask around,
let’s figure it out.
- Jerome Makrel
writes:There’s a somewhat older article at Geekcomix News Network. It’s
the humorous opinion/take on a non-technical user’s experience with
computers (Apple in specific) and their recent “conversion” to
Linux use (and how they feel they can never really go back). It’s
funny, and accurate, and indicates that Linux can be used quite
successfully by a non-technical user. The article’s called
iMac Mine.
- Duncan Mac-Vicar Prett
wrote in to let us know about the KOF91 engine, which can form the
foundation for ‘Street Fighter’-like games. KOF91 allows players to
download characters from the net, add backgrounds, and customize
the game. He’s ported it to Linux, GPL’d the source, and he’s
looking for other developers to help him out. His site is located
at http://www2.netexplora.com/koflinux,
and there’s a partial
mirror, too.
- George Mitchell
contributed an item about a company’s attempt to
introduce digital watermarks to MP3’s, making, among other
things, tracking copyright violators easier.
- Paul Eggert caught an
interesting bit of marketing agitprop on behalf of PC NetLink from
the folks at Sun:Q. Why should I use Solaris PC NetLink software instead of
SAMBA, which is in the public
domain?”A. SAMBA is reverse-engineered, unsupported, and does not have
all the functionality of Solaris PC NetLink software. Solaris PC
NetLink software implements core Windows NT services using
Microsoft code ported to the Solaris environment, which should
provide for a greater reliability and compatibility than software
that is reverse-engineered. In addition, Solaris PC NetLink
software provides the full complement of command line net commands
to manage and view Windows NT domains, so an administrator could
administer both Windows NT and Solaris systems from one system.
- Michael Meding provided
us with a link to beta drivers for Matrox
dual-head support under XFree86 4.0.1
- Danny Yee wrote
I believe the spread of the FSF meaning of “free software” at
the expense of the older “freeware” one is a linguistic indicator
of the success of the free software movement. Here I look at
what the
major search engines return on a search for “free
software”.
- Abd Rahman Johari
writes that My-Linux (a Malaysian Linux User Group) is now running
on a “highly dynamic interactive site dedicated to serve and
promote Linux specifically in Malaysia market. Running on RedHat
Linux, Apache Webserver, PHP4 and MySQL this proves itself to be
the best suite to provide access via Internet and Mobile Internet
world (from WAP to 3Gs.)Since WAP is very hot now, our beloved My-Linux site can be
accessed using WAP Devices. The WAP url is http://wap.my-linux.org/ Mobile
people can get update on Latest News, Event Calendar, Job Offers,
Send Feedback and much-much more.”
- Finally, dooby brought
us this word from the business front in the Netherlands.B&B and a few other company’s such as Computer Associates,
Worldcom, KPMG and IT-solutions, are joining forces to services the
dutch market in Linux Services.Antoine Adams, founder and initiator of B&B Groep BV has
gathered all involved company’s and toghther they have started to
services the dutch market and with succes. More and more company’s
are visiting the website of B&B and are talking with this joint
force to solve smaal and large IT-problems.“Finally, the large company’s are realising that their geeky
UNIX administrator also can get ill. I have to admit that RedHat’s
latest release, 6.2, SUN’s Staroffice and especially Unicenter TNG
for Linux by CA are helping us in getting taken serious by
company’s as Sony, Philips and the dutch government. The thing I do
now is give a lot of presentations on the advantages of
Linux-in-business and slowly serious deals are being made.. I’m
happy”.. Antoine Adams CEO B&BThe last year the use of Linux in business organisations have
increased. Everyone knows. But in Holland this has grown so
rappidly that organisations suchs as B&B are working overtime
to do all migrations, building fall-back systems and take care of
Internet Security.The last few months B&B alone installed more that over 1200
Linux servers in around 250 different company’s. (workstations not
included).