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If you have strong opinions on this change, please let us know. Unless the screams of agony are very loud, we almost certainly will not go back to the old format. (And, don't worry, we have no plans to use frames, Java, pop-up windows, etc...).

A minor change we did make was the combination of some of our sections. Both project development, previously listed under Free/Open Source software, and compiler-specific development news (Java, Perl, Python, etc.) which was listed under Software Development are now combined into one section titled Development. In addition, the Links of the Week and Feedback sections can be found on our new Back Page.

The ISN mailing list provided information on the SAFE bill, H.R. 695, a bipartisan bill with over 250 co-sponsors. This posting states that the SAFE bill would prohibit the Government from imposing mandatory "back-door" access to private communications, affirm the rights of American citizens to use whatever form of encryption they choose within the United States and relax the outdated export controls on encryption technology. Both the original bill and the much modified current form can be found by searching for H.R. 695 here.

The original form of this bill was one to warm the hearts of most of us here. It is somewhat difficult to sift through the modified form of the bill to be sure that the original intent, "Freedom to use encryption", "Freedom to sell encryption", and "Freedom to export encryption", has not been lost. Any lawyers willing to take a peek and provide some feedback?

From a brief perusal, it still includes it shall be lawful for any person within any State, and for any United States person in a foreign country, to use any encryption, regardless of the encryption algorithm selected, encryption key length chosen, or implementation technique or medium used and the ability to export without a license any software, including software with encryption capabilities ... that is in the public domain for which copyright or other protection is not available under title 17, United States Code, or that is available to the public because it is generally accessible to the interested public in any form.

Because of this, we strongly recommend that you voice your opinions to your representatives in favor of this bill. This year is an election year, which should increase the responsiveness of your representative to such contacts. Tightened restrictions on encryption are continuing to show up, demonstrated by the recent Telecommunications Law 1998 enacted in Spain.

See also: last week's Security page.

Security

Although the original license of ssh was somewhat restrictive, this new version will deeply impact the free exchange and usage of this very critical tool. For now, continued use of ssh version 1 is the only available option (if you cannot afford or are uninterested in commercial licensing options), but the licensing changes may put some oomph and heightened interest into the psst project, a totally free replacement for ssh which is still in the development stages.

On another front, this post covers a potential copyright infringement with ssh. It seems legal action is likely to result.

Some unpleasantness has been found in the NFS server package; it appears to affect all distributions. We currently have information on fixes for Red Hat, Caldera, and TurboLinux. No word from the debian-security-announce list as of yet.

Cisco has made a response to the PIX fragmentation problems that have been previously reported. Temporary workaround should be out in mid-September; meanwhile, if you see an actual attack based on this, they are ready to provide tactical assistance. Further improvements are promised for the future, which is good, since new problems with PIX continue to be reported.

The minicom problems reported this week are old and should not be present in the latest version of minicom, version 1.81, which was released in April. If you are already running the latest version from your vendor, you should not be affected.

Buffer overflow problems have been found and verified in nslookup, due to the way sscanf is used. A patch for the problems is expected shortly. No vendor fixes were announced as of press time. Theo de Raadt published a first cut at a patch to resolve the problem.

SGI published a report on security problems with seyon. The compromise is based on the fact that the SGI installation of seyon is setuid root. So far, TurboLinux and Debian have officially noted that their installations of seyon do not appear to be vulnerable, since they are not installed setuid. No version of Linux has been reported to ship seyon setuid root.

CERT has published their normal Summary of Recent Activity, covering the months of July and August.

Certification for Security Professionals is a new topic, with ISN reporting on the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) designation available from ISC2. Someone is making money at this. Somehow it seems unlikely Bugtraq contains many people with this certification, yet they continue to be the best place to start looking for security expertise in our community ...

See also: last week's Kernel page.

Kernel development

Version 7 of the 2.0.36 stable kernel pre-patch has been announced. Alan Cox's announcement describes the changes. This may be the last before the 2.0.36 release, so now is the time to gripe if something is not working.

There have been some complaints that the 3c59x driver in 2.1.120pre does not work. If you are seeing this problem, David Miller would like to hear from you. He needs to know which cards are showing problems so that he can work on a fix.

Users of the 2.1 kernel NFS daemon should be aware that it suffers from a number of security problems. These are being worked on, now that Alan Cox has called them out, and should be history by the time 2.2 comes out. H.J. Lu has, meanwhile, released a new version of knfsd with more fixes in it. There have been some reports of compilation failures with this release, though. Another may be forthcoming early next week.

Version 3 of Rik van Riel's "out of memory killer" patch is available. This patch enables the system to kill carefully-chosen processes in desperate memory shortage situations. Rik says this version "might even work" and declares it ready for beta testing. The intent is to get the bugs ironed out so that this change can go into the 2.2 kernel. Here is the patch for 2.1.118; give it a try and let Rik know how it works.

Rik also posted a summary of 2.1 memory management issues in response to a request. Check it out if you're interested.

A new version of the SMP FAQ is available. It includes a new section on SMP programming with some useful info. Check it out at The home site in France or at the U.S. mirror.

William Henning wrote to let us know that he has added results for a Deschutes P-II to his kernel compilation benchmark article.

New versions of the floppy tape (FTape) driver and utilities have been released. Current versions are now ftape-4.02 and ftape-tools-1.07. These are bugfix releases.

Version 0.51 of the RAID driver has been released. This release incorporates a lot of changes, see the announcementfor more info. This is an alpha release, and comes with a suitable set of warnings.

Much discussion this week centered around possible implementations of "forked" files for Linux. Forked files, as implemented in MacOS, NT, and other systems, allow the storage of metadata in parallel with the normal contents of disk files. Uses for this capability include storing an icon with an executable file, or "attaching" applications to individual files to allow reasonable things to happen when a file icon is invoked by a user. In other words, much of the perceived need for this capability comes from the graphical desktop arena.

There are a number of advocates for a kernel-based implementation of forked files. Reasons behind this approach include efficiency, maximizing transparency of access to forked files, minimizing changes to user space libraries, and keeping users from reaching "around" the fork implementation and corrupting things. An outspoken member of this camp is Hans Reiser, who sees his "reiserfs" file system development as an ideal vehicle for this sort of capability.

In opposition are those who feel that forks should be implemented in user space. Reasoning on this side says that kernel bloat will be minimized, normal Unix file semantics will not be messed with, and that it is easier and more flexible to implement these capabilities as a user space library. The need to retain Unix file semantics is important: otherwise tools like tar or cp break, network protocols like NFS, FTP, and HTTP become unable to cope with forked files, and applications (like KDE) which run on multiple systems can not use the new capabilities without becoming system dependent.

There is also a crowd that claims that forked files are useless and unneeded, no matter what the implementation is.

A feature like forked files would not go in before kernel 2.3, certainly, if it goes into the kernel at all. So the various parties have some time to argue about it.

Since we're a weekly publication, chances are we'll be behind a rev or two on the kernel release by the time you read this page. Up-to-the-second information can always be found atLinuxHQ.

See also: last week's Distributions page.

Distributions

Caldera

Debian

The Debian folks have released Hamm-JP, a large add-on to the 2.0 release for Japanese users. This looks like an impressive bit of work. The Debian Project Manual is an updated version of the Debian History Document in sgml format. An html version is also available.

Debian-policy has accepted the following guidelines for updating policy documents.

Debian released security updates or notes on a variety of software packages over the past week, including hylafax, cfingerd, mutt, ncurses, eperl, lpr, apache and bsdgames.

Mandrake

The high points of the newsletter include the integration of the latest Red Hat updates, updated Netscape, XEmacs and KDE packages and some security modifications.

Red Hat

S.u.S.E.

Lenz Grimmer wrote in to let us know that the first official releaseof the S.u.S.E. FAQ is now finished.

Trinux

A mailing list has been created for those interested in trinux development. Here the announcement if you want to sign up.

Stackguard

Please note that not every distribution will show up every week. Only distributions with recent news to report will be listed.

See also: last week's Development page.

Development tools

Java

Michael Hamilton sent in a tip on how he uses WINE plus Borland's JBuilder to speed up Java compilation under Linux by a factor of ten.

Perl

O'Reilly & Associates released this reporton the recent Perl Conference. It covers the winners of the Best User Applications prizes, the LDAP release and more.

Python

Registration for the Seventh International Python conferenceis now open. The conference is in November, so start making your plans now.

Development projects

A new e-zine has been created to report on Mozilla developments. It can be read here. They appear to be just getting started, but, with luck, it will develop into a useful resource.

Not directly Linux related, but interesting anyway: Ted Nelson, inventor of the whole "hypertext" concept and the force behind the longest-lasting vaporware software project in history (Xanadu) has finally produced some code. Read this article in Technology Review to learn about "Zigzag" "ZigZag is to numerical spreadsheets, business databases and other applications what hypertext was to text--a fundamentally new, if initially disorienting, principle for organizing information." Zigzag does run under Linux (it seems to be written in Perl), but it has, alas, been released as shareware.

See also: last week's Commerce page.

Linux and business

Pick announced the release of D3 Linux v.7.1 with Red Hat Linux v.5.1. The integration of Pick with the glibc version of Linux has been requested by many customers for a while now and will make many people happy.

If you are interested in Linux drivers for the NEC PowerVR 2nd generation video cards, there is someone who could use your letter to help further the cause.

Software AG's version of DCOM for Linux is now available for download, you may get it at their web site. While this is a nice thing to have, at least for some people, it is worth noting that this is hardly free software. The release is binary only, of course, and the license forbids commercial use or redistribution.

Press Releases:

• Apokalypse, the Linux-based operating system for PowerPC based systems, announced the inclusion of a PC emulator and MacIntosh compatibility library with the distribution and McClone
• MessageNet Systems, creator of the Linux-based Silent Messenger system, announced several recent sales to major clients
• Netbeans has announced a distribution partnership with NETSALES
• GoLive, a web publishing system which runs on Linux.
• Stalker Communigate, a "unified messaging server".

See also: last week's Linux in the news page.

Linux in the news

Here's another article on NASA's crime-fighting Beowulf cluster. This one is in the Washington Post, and is more detailed than some of the others.

Speaking of Beowulf, Milan Hodoscek pointed us to this story in Government Computer News. This one discusses the LOBOS cluster running at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Software Magazine chose Linux for its cover article for September. Thanks to Stuart Luppescu for pointing this out. The article is in depth, clear and includes snippets from interviews with a large number of people, pro-Linux, pro-NT, pro-SCO and more. See also the editor's letter introducing this issue. "...be prepared for considerable fear mongering from your Unix vendors. Linux is their worst nightmare. It's delivering on all the promises that Unix vendors made but never kept."

India ready to toe Linux linesays Express Computer, an Indian weekly. "In the price-sensitive Indian market, Linux presents itself as an extremely cost- effective proposition." (Found on the Linux Reviews and Articles site).

The Australian APC Magazine has an extensive series of articles on Linux entitled "A penguin for all seasons." There is a section on history, a comprehensive review of distributions, and a discussion on the penguin.

A longish article in the Ottawa Citizen talks about Corel and their bet on Linux. It is a reasonably balanced article on whether such a move makes business sense. They predict that the heyday of Linux is still three or four years away. Meanwhile, "Linux has given Corel the promise of a fresh start that's all the sweeter because Microsoft is so far not a direct threat."

C|net interviews Sun's John McFarlane, talking mostly about the NT threat. McFarlane is pretty dismissive of the whole thing, while being very supportive of Linux. "A Linux desktop is not a Windows desktop."

Living With Linux (Part 2)in MSNBC is a surprisingly positive article considering (1) the source, and (2) the fact that the author subjected himself to the ordeal of installing Slackware entirely from diskettes. "In my opinion, Linux is just a few revisions and applications away from gaining broad acceptance." Thanks to Didier Legein for the pointer to this one.

Richard Stallman in the news: there is a summary of a talk he gave in Christchurch, New Zealand available. See also this lengthy article in Salon about rms.

PC Week has a review of Xi Graphics' "MaXimum CDE/OS" Linux distribution.

This article in Network Computing gives a rosy view of the future of Linux, and suggests that they will be increasing their coverage in the future. "Its architecture is a proven one, and there's little doubt in my mind that Linux will continue to add market share--particularly if it manages to stay pure and compatible. And if it does, we'll treat it exactly the same as we treat any other operating system in the enterprise. You'll see us do reviews on it and with it. It seems that the freebie's time has come."

FUD of the week: This "@lex" column in Smart Reseller. Ad hominem attacks often indicate desperation, so what is one to make of something like: "I'd like to listen to you explain how the client should bet his business on an application -- however good -- that's written by a snot-nosed high school kid with terminal acne and no social life"? Thanks to Sean M. Shore for sending this one in.

More FUD: The Death of Windows in Windows Magazine. "Still, Linux is not completely like OS/2; it has some fatal flaws of its own. For example, like UNIX, Linux comes in multiple and incompatible flavors, isn't backed by a blue-chip company and has very low awareness within corporations."

Yun Ye put us on to this article in the Far Eastern Economic Review. It's of the general "what is Linux" variety, mostly positive, though with the support FUD and some other inaccuracies ("There's even a downloadable program called Wine, which allows users to read Microsoft Word documents on a Linux system, though it doesn't always run smoothly.")

Last week we featured this article from The Press (Christchurch, NZ) as an example of FUD for their statement that the Linux community has no interest in standards whatsoever. Now they actually seem to have published a brief correction of sortsafter having received a number of responses from the Linux world. Said responses are not to be seen, but, based on the results, some of them, at least, must have been well done.

Jan Gruber wrote in about this editorial (in German) in c't. It seems to be arguing for a more user-friendly Linux. Those of us who are not German-capable can read the Babelfish approximation (hit "translate" when you get there), but it seems to be more impenetrable than usual. ("History does not repeat itself, at the most as farce - and Linux is in danger to increase this to the lubricant comedy and to repeat the history of Unix and of OS/2 at the same time. A view over the edge of plate does NOT.")

As a follow-on to the Motley Fool article mentioned last week, some "fools" have started doing informal surveys of shelf space in bookstores to see whether Linux is really growing or not. A couple of preliminary results can be found hereand here. Highly scientific it isn't, but interesting nonetheless. Thanks to Jonathan Day for pointing this out to us.

Last week's LWN included a pointer to an article in German in the Rheinische Post. For those of us who don't read German, M. Leo Cooper has not only produced a translation into English, but he got permission from the paper to publish it as well. Thanks!

This article in Embedded Systems Magazine is about using ethernet in, yes, embedded systems. They briefly mention RT-Linux as a possible OS to use in this context. Continuing with the ethernet theme, there is this article in Network Computing about gigabit ethernet. The interesting thing here is that, to test the various gigabit ethernet offerings, they employed a 48-node Linux cluster.

"Project Heresy" is back. This C|Net series was one of those "we'll try Linux for a month" exercises back in May. Now they "...are back to keep you in touch with Linux as it moves past the verge and into the mainstream." New audio broadcasts begin the day this newsletter is published, and continue every Thursday thereafter. See the Project Heresy web page for more.

Freeware phobia in ComputerWorld talks about the "lack of support" fear that some feel when dealing with free software. They do a credible job of discussing out the increased reliability of most free software, and they talk about the quality of free support. They do pass over the paid support options with just a brief mention, however.

MacWorld reviews the Cobalt Qube. They have some complaints, but like the system overall. "Even nontechnical users can set up the Qube, and Cobalt's clever software takes the pain out of administration. The Qube is a true winner."

Atul Chitnis wrote in to let us know that PC Quest, one of India's leading Personal Computing magazines, announces its 1998 User Choice Awards in the September issue, hitting the stands today. Linux, we hear, will be showing up as the number 2 "Network Operating System" for the first time, pushing Novell out of that spot.

See also: last week's Announcements page.

Community News

Resources

And here is one of the first things we learned from that list: French-speaking Linux users now have their own magazine. It is called simply Linux Magazine, and its first issue has just come out.

Dave Whitinger has added "linux-news-ldp" to his collection of Linux news mailing lists. This one carries news on updates to the large and growing set of Linux HOWTO's. To sign up, drop a note to linux-news-ldp-request@threepoint.com with "subscribe" as the subject.

Web sites

A new e-zine dedicated to the various free BSD variants has been announced. Check out Daemon News to see how our friends in the Berkeley camp are doing.

Events

Another event to attend: ApacheCon is the first conference around the Apache web server. It's happening October 14-16, and registration is open now.

User Group News

A new LUG has formed in Stuttgart, Germany. If you are interested, send mail to linux@vipcom.de.

The inaugural meeting of the Sioux Falls, South Dakota (Sioux-land) Linux User's Group will be held September 8th.

If you are a GNU/Linux user in the Lexington, Kentucky area, you may want to check out the temporary home page for the Lexington Linux Users Group.

Software announcements

See also: last week's Back page page.

Linux links of the week

At the opposite end of the technical spectrum, we have a white paper on reiserfs, the in-development file system mentioned in this week's kernel section. Included here is a fair amount of detailed design information, benchmark results, and more.

Feedback and corrections

We did finally get a reply from Linux International regarding the whole Linux trademark issue and the LSA. They confirmed that events were essentially as we had reported them last week. The LI did not ask the LSA to stop using the term "Linux," only to stop challenging its trademark status. Meanwhile, LI has an attorney writing a document on the proper use of the Linux trademark; it should be available shortly.