Linux News for Feb 26, 2001

• Alan Cox: Linux kernel 2.2.19pre15 (Feb 26, 2001, 23:25)
  


• Smart Partner: Red Hat's mad as hell and isn't going to take it anymore (Feb 26, 2001, 23:02)
  "I'd argue that a worldwide monopoly, enforced by business practices that a federal judge has found to be predatory and anti-competitive probably has more to do with killing innovation than anything the open source movement could ever do."


• Linux-Mandrake Security Update Advisory: Zope update (Feb 26, 2001, 22:47)
  "Users can use through-the-web scripting capabilities on a Zope site to view and assign class attributes to ZClasses, possibly allowing them to make inappropriate changes to ZClass instances."


• Tcl-URL! - weekly Tcl news and links (Feb 26) (Feb 26, 2001, 22:39)
  Tcl (Tool Command Language) is used by over half a million developers worldwide and has become a critical component in thousands of corporations. It has a simple and programmable syntax and can be either used as a standalone application or embedded in application programs. Best of all, Tcl is open source so it's completely free.


• Conectiva Linux Security Announcement - sudo (Feb 26, 2001, 22:17)
  "There is a buffer overflow vulnerability in sudo which could be used by an attacker to obtain higher privileges."


• Kernel Cousin Gimp #33 by Cris Flagg (Feb 26, 2001, 22:05)
  Newsletter of the Gimp developers' mailing list prepared by Cris Flagg. The Gimp is a high-end, open-source graphics application which competes with Adobe Photoshop.


• LPI February Newsletter (Feb 26, 2001, 22:03)
  Professional Certification for the Linux Community


• LinuxPR: ActiveState continues Brain Gain: Developers & Management Join From Across the Globe (Feb 26, 2001, 21:42)
  "ActiveState is assembling a substantive team of leading developers and senior management from around the world."


• Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Feb 26) (Feb 26, 2001, 21:37)
  "Python is an open source, interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language."


• LinuxPlanet: Links Provides Multicolumn Text Browsing (Feb 26, 2001, 21:33)
  Who needs a GUI when you have text-based Web browsers like Links available? Yes, you read this correctly: Links (not the more popular lynx) is a great way to render Web pages on a text-based Linux interface, reports Brian Proffitt, especially when you're dealing with multicolumn Web pages.


• LinuxPR: Tcl finds a home: ActiveState supports open source programming language (Feb 26, 2001, 21:30)
  "In addition to providing supported versions of Tcl, core Tcl consulting and Tcl development tools, ActiveState will also soon be hosting the primary Tcl community website."


• Enterprise Linux Today: IBM Business Partners Seize Exploding Linux Market Opportunity (Feb 26, 2001, 21:26)
  "IBM PartnerWorld Provides New Linux Initiatives to Help Partners Expand into New Markets, Attain New Skills and Grow Business."


• Caldera To Users: "Caldera is as committed to Linux as it has ever been." (Feb 26, 2001, 21:07)
  Caldera has sent out an open letter to its user list asserting that the company remains committed to Linux despite a change in its approach to the retail channel. "Caldera Systems assures the Linux community that we are not pulling out of Linux - more specifically that our OpenLinux workstation and server products will continue. What will change is where we focus our sales efforts. Caldera's focus has always been "Linux for business," reads the letter.


• Red Hat Security Advisory: New Zope packages are available (Feb 26, 2001, 21:06)
  "New Zope packages are available which fix numerous security vulnerabilities."


• NewsForge: 2.4 kernel: Always on the go with contributor Werner Almesberger (Feb 26, 2001, 20:56)
  "Swiss born Austrian, Werner Almesberger first tried Linux in January of 1992. Linus Torvalds had just released version 0.12. Almesberger had liked it before but he "didn't want to buy Minix to run it." Gradually, Linux took center stage."


• Slackware Security Advisory: buffer overflow in sudo fixed (Feb 26, 2001, 20:48)
  "Sudo 1.6.3p6 is now available for Slackware 7.1 and Slackware -current. This release fixes a known buffer overflow, which could be used by malicious users to compromise parts of the system."


• KDE.org: The People Behind KDE: Harri Porten (Feb 26, 2001, 20:32)
  "I downloaded the first packages after reading that famous c't magazine article by Kalle Dalheimer. The first application I tried out was kppp. As it wasn't capable of dialing into my university's server back than I send my first patches to the author, Bernd Wuebben."


• CNET News.com/AP: Microsoft: We did not stifle competition (Feb 26, 2001, 20:27)
  "I don't see how you can get a reversal," Judge David Tatel told Microsoft's lawyer at one point."


• ITworld.com: Could Linux be too open for our own good?; NSA's super-secure Linux (Feb 26, 2001, 20:02)
  "This is an entirely different way to handle access permissions, compared to the user/privilege model most UNIX systems currently use. SEL could implement that model along with a granularity that could modify user privileges based on the specifics of what is being executed and what files are being used. Pretty powerful stuff."


• IBM developerWorks: Integrating database access into Linux applications; Building a MySQL-backed Web site (Feb 26, 2001, 19:10)
  "In addition to describing the basic architecture of the MySQL system, this article offers simple examples in both Tcl and C++ that can start you down the path to developing database-aware Web applications."


• InfoWorld: Linux and Itanium alter Sun's gravity: HP's Unix strategy marks shift toward open systems (Feb 26, 2001, 18:35)
  "To overcome the inertia of its flagship OS, HP has opted to open up HP-UX to allow the best of both worlds: Linux's populist appeal and HP's bulletproof, if staid, image to create HP-UX 11i, Hewlett-Packard's most ambitious operating system to date."


• Canada Computes: Opera - A viable Netscape alternative (Feb 26, 2001, 18:30)
  "Enter Opera. Opera has been around for Windows for many years now. It's fast, sleek and is only really lacking Java support. Javascript is supported, but not Java. Since I never use Java, this doesn't concern me. I personally think Java is the worst thing to hit the Web since the BLINK tag."


• InfoWorld: Linux and Itanium alter Sun's gravity: IBM proves its Linux commitment with AIX 5L (Feb 26, 2001, 17:55)
  "In its typically quiet yet productive fashion, IBM is readying its next-generation Unix, AIX 5L, for an April release. The name alone indicates that the new version marks a radical departure from the current AIX 4.3.3: The L stands for Linux."


• Upside: Wind River inside; competition for Linux in embedded devices (Feb 26, 2001, 17:14)
  "There are a number of companies that make embedded operating systems including Microsoft, Palm (PALM) and a variety of Linux companies. But Faucette said, "The threat from Microsoft and Linux is really concentrated in things that look and act like PCs. Lower memory and processor devices are more difficult for those operating systems."


• eWeek: Microsoft puts more heat on open source; Linux developer community responds (Feb 26, 2001, 16:11)
  "Recent remarks by executives add fuel to anti-Microsoft fire in the Linux developer community. ... They're just digging themselves into a bigger hole," said Jim Jagielski, executive vice president of the Apache Software Organization..."


• LinuxPlanet: KDE 2.1: A Desktop Aimed at Grownups (Feb 26, 2001, 15:49)
  The KDE Project may be downplaying the newest release of the K Desktop Environment, but make no doubt about it: KDE 2.1 is a significant upgrade that brings many needed capabilities to the desktop. Dennis E. Powell looks at what's new in KDE 2.1, including LAN browsing, an enhanced Control Center, and the return of the external taskbar.


• Linux.com: Surfing Kernel Code (Feb 26, 2001, 15:46)
  "For someone who's never looked through the source, 145 megabytes of compressed C and assembly sounds daunting. However, it is easy to see why Linus has maintained his benevolent dictatorship over the kernel. All the source is wonderfully organized into modules and directories, which makes things easy to find and understand."


• eWeek: Stop, you're killing me! MS's Allchin's remarks as stand-up comedy (Feb 26, 2001, 15:30)
  "The latest jokester? Microsoft's operating system guru Jim Allchin. This guy should quit his day job as soon as possible and go straight into stand-up comedy. ... I laughed so hard I cried. And I'll bet I wasn't the only one."


• ZDNet: Zend Sticks to Basics; a Linux IDE for PHP (Feb 26, 2001, 15:15)
  "Overall, the Debug Server is the most advanced feature of the Zend IDE. Once we deployed files to a PHP server running Zend Debug Server, we were able to set watches and breakpoints, step through or over our code, stop or pause the debugger, view debug messages, and monitor the resulting output."


• CNET News.com: Ssh! Don't use that trademark; 'SSH' now a generic term, via wide usage (Feb 26, 2001, 14:43)
  "Regardless of its origins, the word has become the generic description for this type of software," said Michael Bednarek, an intellectual property attorney at Washington, D.C.-based law firm Shaw Pittman. ... Bednarek asserts that SSH Communications inadvertently let the name slip into the public domain, similar to how Bayer lost the trademark to "aspirin" in the United States."


• AllLinuxDevices: Half-keyboards: Now Available, Drivers for Linux (Feb 26, 2001, 14:22)
  Part of the challenge of wearable computer design is coming up with a usable and flexible means for input without the bulk of a traditional keyboard. Enter the half-keyboard, formerly just an IBM prototype, now available for purchase, and a Linux driver to take advantage of the device.


• LinuxProgramming.com: Highlight Project: Iozone (Feb 26, 2001, 14:22)
  Iozone is a multi-platform disk benchmarking tool.


• VNU Net: Mainframes are the future of ebusiness; Sun to follow IBM Linux lead with E10000? (Feb 26, 2001, 14:19)
  "A few more such wins could force Sun to be a lot less equivocal about Linux. Could the firm be forced to remake the E10000 as a partitioned Linux server? Well, Sun is losing deals to Unix competitors. It also has a rejuvenated IBM mainframe to contend with, and service providers, one of its key markets, love Linux. Just ask Telia.net."


• Wired: On the Wrong Side of History [Red Hat's CEO Matthew Szulik on Microsoft's Recent Comments] (Feb 26, 2001, 13:40)
  "Remember that rhyme you said as a kid: "I'm rubber, you're glue, everything you say about me sticks to you?" At Red Hat we've been reminded of that lately, as each week seems to bring a new round of Linux and open-source bashing from Microsoft."


• Wired: Red Hat Dares MS to Debate (Feb 26, 2001, 12:47)
  "Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik said that his company is usually apolitical, but he'd relish the chance to wrangle with Microsoft execs in Washington, D.C. -- and tell Congress why the feds should not shy away from open-source software but instead embrace it."


• Salon: The greatest antitrust show on Earth. Again! (Feb 26, 2001, 12:31)
  "Top five reasons we should care about the appellate court hearings on Microsoft -- even though we really don't want to."


• Alan Cox: Linux kernel 2.4.2-ac4 (Feb 26, 2001, 07:36)
  


• LinuxWorld: Make Debian the base standard - apt-get beats RPM (Feb 26, 2001, 07:36)
  "apt-get, Debian's way of updating and upgrading, is the right way to resolve the dependency problems that plague the various distros and ultimately hobble Linux's ability to take over the computing world."


• LinuxSecurity.com: Linux Security Week - February 26th 2001 (Feb 26, 2001, 07:34)
  "Thank you for reading the LinuxSecurity.com weekly security newsletter. The purpose of this document is to provide our readers with a quick summary of each week's most relevant Linux security headlines."


• Security Portal: Weekly Linux Security Digest 2001/02/19 to 2001/02/25 (Feb 26, 2001, 07:30)
  "The main newsworthy event this week was a buffer overflow in sudo that may be a potential security problem. As well, SuSE announced that they will be dropping support for 6.0, 6.1 and 6.2."


• LinuxWorld.com.au: Upgrading your kernel (Feb 26, 2001, 07:25)
  "There are two ways to upgrade a Linux kernel, and they can be divided along these lines: the beginner's method and the I-don't-mind-getting-my-feet-wet method."


• LinuxToday.com.au: Is Linux Un-Australian? (Feb 26, 2001, 04:22)
  "Microsoft doesn't only operate in the United States, and would still have to compete in every other market with free software."


• LinuxPower: GStreamer: The future of Linux Multimedia (Feb 26, 2001, 04:18)
  "One of the projects which recently seemed to burst onto the Linux scene out of nowhere with explosive power is GStreamer. In this interview with project founder Erik Walthinsen we will discover that there was nothing overnight about GStreamer's recent rise to fame at all, rather the hard work off a dedicated team."


• Red Hat Security Advisory: New Zope packages are available (Dec 12, 2000, 23:23)
  "A vulnerablity exists in previously released versions of Zope where users can create new DTML method instances through the Web without having the correct permissions."