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Leading itemsLinux, business, and how the two relate seems to be the theme for the week. Here are some interesting developments. IBM is reconsidering releasing a free version of DB2 for Linux, see this Computer Reseller News article for more. The problem is an interesting one: they have received "overwhelming interest from the corporate market." The expected consumers of DB2 were students, hobbyists, and so on - people who are relatively unlikely to want to pay "enterprise database" prices. Instead all these companies, which presumably have money, were showing up. IBM's experience thus closely parallels that of Informix, which also found itself surprised by the amount of corporate interest in its products on Linux. Linux's image no longer entirely matches the reality of its user base. Expect to see even more companies showing up on our doorstep once people begin to figure this out. 1999 is indeed going to be an interesting year. Then there is the case of Creative Labs, their "SoundBlaster Live" card, and Linux. Questions have circulated for a while as to whether this card would be supported under Linux. Until recently the answer was a clear "no." Creative has not released any sort of programming information for this card, so drivers can not be written. The reasoning behind this is unclear. On January 8 Creative sent a note claiming that they were under nondisclosure to EMU, who provides a chip for the SB Live, and thus Creative couldn't release programming information. That excuse might have held water, except for the fact that Creative owns EMU, and thus should be able to find a way around such problems. Creative followed that one with another notesaying flat out that "Creative has no plans of releasing its intellectual property to the general public.." They did state that a Linux driver would eventually appear. The tone moderated somewhat with a later message saying, instead "Creative is not unwilling to provide programming information, there simply isn't any because it hasn't been written." This posting came out at about the same time that Creative put out this job posting, wherein they seek a Linux device driver writer. It seemed that Linux support was of interest after all. LWN had a brief conversation with Jacob Hawley of Creative. He tells us that they have not worked out what the licensing will be for the Linux drivers they write. He fears that the GPL is incompatible with some of their other software products, and is looking at perhaps a variant of the Mozilla license. Meanwhile some sort of binary-only driver for the SB Live card is probably the first thing that Linux users will see. It is all in flux currently, but it appears that Creative is trying to come to terms with Linux and to find a way to do the right thing. Another company is waking up. For now the thing to do is to try to encourage them gently and not flame Creative further. The Bazaar has run into serious difficulties. The Bazaar, of course, is a conference to be held in New York in March; it is styled as a gathering of free software developers and users. The Bazaar's problems, as spelled out in this Slashdot article, stem from their temporal proximity to the LinuxWorld Expo conference. The latter, run by IDG, has pretty well emptied out the pool of possible exhibitors for anything else. Thus a volunteer-run conference in the spirit of free software gets run out by well-funded big business competition. It's unlikely that IDG has any ill will toward The Bazaar; they probably hardly know that it exists. But their impact is being felt nonetheless. We will likely see more of this sort of thing in the future. Meanwhile, it appears from the Slashdot article that The Bazaar has found a benefactor who wants to help make it a success. That is certainly encouraging. |
January 14, 1999
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Sections: Main page Linux in the news Security Kernel Distributions Development Commerce Announcements Back page See also: last week's Security page. |
SecurityLast June, it was first announced that Tripwire, a program that helps monitor an installed software base and report possible compromises, had been turned over to a commercial entity. At the time, we asked if anyone was maintaining the original, free version. The answer appeared to be "No". Recently on Bugtraq, a thread titled "Tripwire Mess" discussed a bug in Tripwire 1.2 and lesser versions. It turns out that this bug is fixed in version 1.3 of Tripwire. Tripwire 1.3 was released by Tripwire Security Systems, Inc in July this year. However, it is not a commercial product. It was released under the same Academic Source Release license as the original tripwire. So for any of you using Tripwire, upgrading to Tripwire1.3 is highly recommended (but requires an email address for confirmation). In afore-mentioned Bugtraq thread, Gene Spafford posted a note explaining why Purdue chose to turn Tripwire over to Gene Kim (the original author) and his company. Purdue was uninterested in doing support for Tripwire and very much wanted to see the code ported to the Windows environment and enhanced. Jon Speer, Product Manager for Tripwire Security Systems, Inc, also posted a note, stating that they intend to provide occasional updates to the original ASR releases, as they did when they released Tripwire 1.3. In a followup phone call, Jon went further to state that they are committed to providing "whatever tools or resources the community requires" in order to support the original ASR version of tripwire. "While we are building a company around the commercial release, we do not want the spirit or functionality of the academic version of Tripwire to die". In the meantime, if you are interested in more news about Tripwire, keep your ears open for reports from the upcoming RSA '99 conference. An updated version of the OpenSSL Project Announcement has been posted. The new announcement indicates that efforts to maintain and improve SSLeay have been merged into the OpenSSL project, to benefit the community. The result of the project should be "a robust, commercial-grade, fully featured, and Open Source toolkit implementing the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL v2/v3) and Transport Layer Security (TLS v1) protocols with full-strength cryptography world-wide." It will definitely be released under an open source license.
The discussion on Bugtraq as to the most secure way to implement
an MTA (Mail Transfer Agent) continues without reaching any
final conclusion. A couple of notes from this week's discussion
that are interesting include one from Illuminatus Primus, describing his ideas on inter-process
communication and one from D.J. Bernstein on the "costs and benefits of splitting
a setuid program into an unprivileged user process and a non-setuid daemon
". The latter advocates the use of getpeeruid(). His
comment, though, that implementing getpeeruid() under Linux would
be a five minute job for a kernel implementor also provoked
response, not because the implementation was difficult, but
because he didn't allow time for careful design and validation.
Note that Aleph One has closed Bugtraq discussion of qmail or
postfix, so future discussions will presumably take place on
the qmail and postfix mailing lists instead.
Donald McLachlan asked Bugtraq for information on past or current
probes/attacks using multicast and followed up with this summary of the responses he received. Actual multicast-based
attacks seem rare, but ideas on how they could be done are not.
Bruce Redmon confirmed last week's report
of a denial of service problem with Oracle8 in this message, forwarded to us by Jason Ackley.
Ben Woodard reported another bug that can crash HP printers. He mentions
that HP has been informed and is working on a
JetDirect flash upgrade to resolve the problem.
Cisco finally released their security notice regarding versions of Cisco IOS software
that crash or hang in response to invalid UDP packets. As
usual, the notice contains information to help determine whether or
not the version of software you are using is vulnerable and how to
get a fix for the problem if it is.
Jon Ribbens filed a note about a buffer overflow in the cgic library.
Continuing reports of vulnerabilities to nmap scans have been
seen this week. Here is the report on Neoware X-Terminals
Sekure SDI filed a report on problems in mSQL with the use of buffers with
unchecked bounds. As a consequence, all versions of mSQL are
vulnerable to a Denial-of-Service attack. The report contains
a pointer to the patch they have provided.
The National Information Systems Security Conference (NISSC)
has issued their Call-For-Papers. The conference will be held the week of
October 18, 1999.
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January 14, 1999 |
Sections: Main page Linux in the news Security Kernel Distributions Development Commerce Announcements Back page See also: last week's Kernel page. |
Kernel developmentThe current development kernel release is 2.2.0pre7. Linus saysthis one is just about there; a few more fixes and 2.2.0 will be unleashed on the world. Alan Cox's 2.2pre7 bug listsays we have a little ground to cover still, though. Alan also has a 2.2.0pre7ac2 patch out there. Bug-fixing work has been going on in an especially high gear over the last week. One senses that the kernel developers really want to get the 2.2 release out the door and done with - it has been a long haul. An especially active area has been memory management. Linus took a hatchet to the memory code with 2.2.0pre5, incorporating much of Andrea Arcangeli's work, but in his own way. Since then many cycles of patches and benchmarks have been passed around, with additional tweaking being done. As of pre7, Linus seems to be reasonably well satisfied with the results, and has put further memory management work on the back burner. H. J. Lu's long-awaited kernel NFS fixes went into 2.2.0pre4, something which escaped our notice last week. Further NFS work has been going on, to the point that NFS over TCP works on the client side (2.2.0 will almost certainly lack the ability to do NFS over TCP as a server). Alan Cox has put together a "hint sheet" for folks trying out the 2.2pre kernels as their first experience with the 2.1 series. Have a look on his web site. It could save you some frustration. One additional hint that people seem to need: the 2.2 kernels are simply bigger than the 2.0 series. They are big enough that the old "zImage" format for the kernel image will no longer work; one must now use the "big zImage" ("bzImage") format for all but the smallest of configurations. Build the kernel with "make bzImage" and otherwise proceed normally. As long as you have a reasonably recent boot loader, all will work fine. The next person who ignores this and asks about the "System is too big" message on the list may not like the responses that come back... Is your distribution 2.2-ready? The new kernel needs a different environment, including current versions of a number of utilities (especially networking), some changes in boot scripts, etc. The results of some discussion are:
As a sign of how much interest there is in the 2.2 kernel series, the size of the linux-kernel mailing list has tripled since the 2.2.0pre series began. The result has been a large increase in traffic on the list, with the result that smoke was seen pouring out of vger.rutgers.edu, the machine which handles the whole thing. Turnaround time on the list grew to over 24 hours at one point; David Miller had to disable anonymous CVS access for a while to allow the backlog to be reduced somewhat. Things since then have stabilized. Printing on SBUS-based UltraSparcs came up again; the official word is that the parallel port driver for SBUS machines is not supported; in fact, it doesn't even compile. Christopher Platt is working on the problem; he posted a patch which gets the driver to the point of compiling and doing some simple things. He's interested in feedback; give it a try and let him know how it goes. A new RAID release has been announced; this release contains bug fixes only. The patch applies against either 2.0.36 or 2.2.0-pre5, so just about anybody should be able to make use of it. When your editor was younger and had time for computer games, he was a fairly avid netrek fan. The netrek folks used to circulate a "frequently offered clever suggestions" list, the idea being to head off recurring discussions on ideas that had been rejected long since. Perhaps the Linux kernel list could use such a document, if the current discussion on whether the Linux kernel should be rewritten in C++ is any guide. Of course, an experiment with C++ was tried back in the dim and distant past, with such poor results that the kernel was reverted back to C almost immediately. The extent to which this was due to the poor quality of the g++ implementation at that time is debatable (and debated), but there is a certain amount of truth to the claim that C++ encourages too much weirdness going on in the background. It is hard for a kernel developer to look at a piece of code and really know what is going on. Thus there is almost no sentiment in favor of C++ among serious kernel developers. The debate does provide the opportunity for some interesting quotes, though...
Just in case you don't get enough kernel news here, a new kernel development newsletter has been started, called Kernel Traffic. Its official launch is supposed to be Friday the 15th, but there is a page at that address now. |
January 14, 1999
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 at LinuxHQ. | ||||||||||||
Sections: Main page Linux in the news Security Kernel Distributions Development Commerce Announcements Back page See also: last week's Distributions page. |
DistributionsCalderaCaldera has announced their OpenLinux Power Bundle, containing Caldera OpenLinux 1.3 and PowerQuest PartitionMagic 4.0 for $89.This ZDnet article covers Microsoft's decision to withdraw its motion seeking to have Caldera held in contempt of court. This is not a major victory for Caldera, but it is an interesting development, for those following Caldera's lawsuit against Microsoft. DebianThe second edition of the Debian Weekly News, covering January 5th through January 12th, is now available. The new edition has been expanded and greatly improved. It now has sections on "Interesting Package Releases", "Packages in Trouble" and "Followups" to previous items. The primary news is also more extensive.Picking a couple of top items from the Debian Weekly News, release-critical bugs for slink now number less than 40, so a deep freeze of slink is planned soon. To further the process, a Bug Squashing Party is being planned. Wickert Akkerman is coordinating this. On another note, a minimal Debian GNU/Hurd system is now available. That should speed up progress on the GNU/Hurd project. Paul Slootman has provided debs for 3.3.2.3a-8pre9v2.1 on the Alpha. He followed up with an addendum warning of problems with the version of X at higher than 8pp. A report to Debian-Sparc indicates that there may be a problem with the resc1440.bin image on ftp.debian.org. The same image from ftp.cdrom.com had no similar error. This report has not yet been confirmed. MkLinuxA vmlinux development kernel with Adrian Sun's updates to the in-kernel HFS support is likely to be available by Wednesday.This article from the weekly MacIntosh publication TidBITS covers installing Linux on the MacIntosh using MkLinux DR3. [contributed by Peter PD Williams] Red HatThis report from Tony Nugent indicates that the perl package shipped with Red Hat 5.2 is broken. In this case, it caused a problem with an older version of majordomo. The report was confirmedby Kayvan Aghaiepour Sylvan. The perl package available with RawHide appears to fix the problem.SlackwareAccording to the slackware change log on ftp.cdrom.com, the current version of Slackware has been modified to remove the user "operator" from the default passwd and shadow files, as well as /etc/aliases.In addition, for users other than root, "." has been restored to the default path (see last week's Distribution Section for details on why it was originally removed.) TrinuxJoey Maier of the Trinux Doc team has provided a handy "Table of NICs and Kernel Modules", to help quickly determine what module is needed for what Ethernet card. Of course, the usefulness of the Table is not limited to Trinux ... |
January 14, 1999
Please note that not every distribution will show up every week. Only distributions with recent news to report will be listed. |
Sections: Main page Linux in the news Security Kernel Distributions Development Commerce Announcements Back page See also: last week's Development page. |
Development toolsJavaThe latest status reports on the JDK 1.2 from blackdown.org indicate that the JDK 1.2 is running on Intel and PowerPC platforms, though currently only with native threads. Ports to SparcLinux and other platforms are underway. Current estimate is a release date "in less than a month from now". No date for "now" is listed, but the page indicated that it was last modified on January 11th.J.P.Lewis announced his network file synchronization utility, version 1.1., developed with Blackdown jdk1.1.7a. Kirk Hutchinson posted a note voicing his opinion that the jdk 1.2 was released way too early and suffers with many problems as a result. Other comments confirmed this opinion, though there were indications that 1.2 contains some significant speed improvements. Hopefully as Sun's code becomes more and more open, we can expect to see some better initial releases, or at least fast fixes for reported problems. In response to many people who offered to help test the Linux port of JDK 1.2, Steve Byrne explained that they are not legally allowed to put out pre-release versions until they pass the JCK (Java Compatibility Kit). Getting the Linux port to pass the JCK is exactly where they are working now. Marcel Ruff posted some hints on running VisiBroker on Linux and a minor update to the hints came from Ron Resnick. On another note, it appears that the java-linux mailing list may be looking for a new home. PerlThe Java Review Service is looking for developers to volunteer as judges for new sections on their web site, including a new section on Perl.An introduction to Perl Tutorial is being held in Boulder, CO from January 26th through the 28th and still has a few openings.
PythonGuido van Rossum has released IDLE 0.2, the latest pre-release of his Tkinter-based IDE for Python. The latest version has a long list of changes, including the ability to write and configure your own IDLE extension modules. See extend.txt in the new release for more details. Separately, he has released ScriptBinding.py to fix a reported problem in the new release.Oliver Andrich has updated his RPM Python distribution, see his note for details. For another report on the Seventh International Python Conference, see this article in the current Dr. Dobbs Journal. And, of course, this section wouldn't be complete without this week's Python-URL. SmalltalkGTK Squeak Smalltalk, otherwise known as GTalk, is a fork in the Squeak source code which "uses the object engine of Squeak 2.1 and binds the GTK+ widget set to Squeak". GTalk uses only native widgets, is highly experimental and far from complete. However, the homepage for GTalk (linked above) provides all you need to get started.VisualWorks 3.0 for Linux has been released. Here is the press release. Some fun points to note, they comment that the port to Linux took less than ten minutes, ran without a hitch and with an immediate speed improvement ... Tcl/tkThis week's Tcl-URL! is now available. It contains some good pointers to excellent information postings on topics such as how to write daemons in Tcl, advice on color palettes and more.
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January 14, 1999 |
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Development projectsGNOMEVersion 0.99.3 of GNOME, called the "Profiling Bonobo Release", is now available. It appears to contain lots of bug fixes, code cleanup, and some speed improvements.Version 0.3.2 of gwp, the GNOME word processor, has been announced. ht://DigGeoff Hutchison wrote in with some notes on ht://Dig. First, he's called for a feature freeze for the upcoming 3.1.0 release at midnight, Friday, January 15, 1999. With the freeze and a few weeks to squash some bugs, the new release should be the most stable yet. Geoff also mentioned that they just brought up a new, dedicated server for htdig.org and will be slowly adding new services. Anyone interested in helping out with any aspect of development should check out the htdig web pages.MozillaAs always, for the latest Mozilla news, we recommend the MozillaZine. Their most amusing item this week is Music to Code By, selections of music currently being listened to by Mozilla developers ...LinuxconfAn Aussie Linuxconf mirror site is now available.WineWine-990113 has been released and is now available at Wine Headquarters.Douglas Ridgway is the New Maintainer for the Wine FAQ, replacing Dave Gardner, who has done an excellent job for so long. ZopeDigital Creations has announced the release of the source code for DCOracle, their Python extension module for Oracle. It sounds like their staff is expanding as well, so expect to see more announcements from them over the coming year. | |
Sections: Main page Linux in the news Security Kernel Distributions Development Commerce Announcements Back page See also: last week's Commerce page. |
Linux and businessCorel Computer has announced their new Netwinder Group Server product, details can be found in their press release. This box is another entry into the increasingly crowded "thin server" market; it will compete with offerings from Cobalt, Technauts, and others. Interestingly, they offer a diskless version, perhaps pioneering the concept of a "diskless server." More interesting configurations can be seen on the product page; systems with a disk start at US$ 1,339. There is a "$100 off" deal in effect for the next month. The system appears to still be running Corel's port of Linux, rather than a straight Red Hat offering; the product page lists things like a 2.0.31 kernel and Apache 1.2.6. Compaq has put out another goodie: Iprobeis a tool to access the performance counter registers in Alpha processors; it can be used for hardcore optimization tasks. It has been released under the GPL, and is available now. The folks at Parasoft have announced an "Internet Store" product, (see the press release) aimed at getting Linux further into electronic commerce operations. "ParaSoft's Internet Store is the world's first fully automated, commercially affordable e-commerce system which can automatically update a retailer's actual inventory when an online sale is made." Raven Software and Activision have released the source for their "Hexen" and "Heretic" games, according to this GameSpot article. A Linux port is one of the things they are hoping to see from that release. A market research firm named Summit Strategies has put out a list of ten "top computer industry trends." Interesting entries (from their announcement) include "Linux Threatens Commercial Operating Systems and Provides Model for Freeware Industry," and "Java Reemerges as a Legitimate Windows Alternative". Press Releases:
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January 14, 1999 |
Sections: Main page Linux in the news Security Kernel Distributions Development Commerce Announcements Back page See also: last week's Linux in the news page. |
Linux in the newsHere, for your enjoyment, is this week's recommended reading:
In the area of Linux and business (including reviews) we had:
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January 14, 1999 |
Sections: Main page Linux in the news Security Kernel Distributions Development Commerce Announcements Back page See also: last week's Announcements page. |
AnnouncementsResourcesMail-archive.com now hosts archives for over eighty different linux and open source mailing lists. They are interested in feedback and are looking for additional lists that need archives. See their note for more information.We forgot to mention last week that Linux Gazette #36 is out; check it out on the Linux Gazette site. EventsThe Wizards of OS is a conference to be held in Berlin in July; their goal is to "...take the current debate about Microsoft and Linux as an occasion to examine the meaning of operating systems as the foundation of the contemporary 'information society'. The event will emphasize the ways operating systems function, their relationships to social systems (politics, economics, culture, education, etc.) and the alternatives to MS operating systems." Some information can be had at their web site, but the announcements they sent out are actually more informative. See part one, which describes their motivations and goals, and part two, which describes their agenda.LinuxCare is running a contest for the best Linux stories, with some cool techno-toys as prizes. Details can be found on their web site. The Chair of the O'Reilly Linux Conference has put out a call for presenters for the upcoming event, which will be held in August, 1999. Interested presenters have until February 15 to get their submissions in. The writeup (in French) from the "Autrans 99" roundtable on free software is available (also in English via Babelfish). Discussion ranged over a number of issues, including security and stability, and how free software is an opportunity for Europe. (Found in NNL). Web sitesJust in case anybody hasn't heard about Linuxberg (the new TUCOWS Linux site), here's their press releaseon the matter.User Group NewsLinux Arverne will be hosting Le Forum at Clermont-Ferrand, France, January 29 and 30. Events include demonstrations of software and a vendor exhibition area.Job OpportunitiesCreative Labs, Inc. has an opening for a full-time, permanent Senior Software Engineer to develop Linux device drivers for the Creative Labs PCI audio product line.Coastal Enterprises Incorporated is looking for a Linux system admin in Maine. |
January 14, 1999
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Software Announcements
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Sections: Main page Linux in the news Security Kernel Distributions Development Commerce Announcements Back page See also: last week's Back page page. |
Linux links of the weekThis week's links are all "tips and help" sites for Linux users with questions. One that just popped up is portico.org, a clearing house of brief tips (mostly one-liners) which is, unfortunately, afflicted with the "small font disease." Tip of the week has fewer entries, but explores them in depth. Some of what's there is quite useful. LinuxHardware.net intends to be a clearinghouse for hardware-related information. |
January 14, 1999 |
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Letters to the editorLetters to the editor should be sent to editor@lwn.net. Preference will be given to letters which are short, to the point, and well written. If you want your email address "anti-spammed" in some way please be sure to let us know. We do not have a policy against anonymous letters, but we will be reluctant to include them. | |
From: "Matt Wilkie" <matt.wilkie@gov.yk.ca> To: <editor@lwn.net> Subject: open file formats Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1999 13:04:13 -0800 Hi, on Jan 7 Zack Brown said: <<snip>> Now I'm not saying everyone should run out and learn TeX. That system has its own problems and limitations. But people should keep in mind that up until now Linux has remained a fully integrated system, with everything talking to everything else. Why should office and productivity suites be above all that? Why should the linux community allow linux to become just a cheaper and more stable version of Windows 98? In the coming months, let's learn to put open file formats and scripted automation on a par with open source. The gimp is a good example of something that does these things already. Let's let the commercial venders know that if they want to run on linux, they have to let linux run on them. <<snip>> and I would like to emphasize Zack's message. In my work as a Geographic Information System technicican closed & incompatible file formats have been my single biggest bane. I have wasted more hours on, and my clients have recieved much bigger invoices because of, and I have spent more money on more software packages, screwing around transferring data.... I just don't want to think about it. But I have to. Everyday. Sadly, it's not a matter of choosing the best tool for the job, but choosing the jobs for the tool, and throwing out (or losing) what doesn't fit. My experience and background is in the Wintel World. Over the last few months, while hanging out at LWN, /., Gnome.org, and the like, hope has been rising and flowering within me. A light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe I _won't_ be condemned to curse the tools I make my living with on a daily basis. Anyway, please, please take heed. 'Free' and 'open' need to be expressed across the board: source code, documentation, file formats, protocols, procedures, everything... It's very important. Well, that's it then. -mw | ||
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1999 12:00:19 -0500 (EST) From: Peter Rasmussen <plr@isgtec.com> To: Barry.Randall@minnesotamutual.com Subject: Re: FUD Hi Barry Randall, You wrote: >From: Barry.Randall@minnesotamutual.com >To: "editor(a)lwn.net" <editor@lwn.net> >Subject: FUD >Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 09:58:27 -0600 > >Dear Linux Daily News > >I'm a dedicated reader, and I appreciate your work in assembling all >the Linux info. It sure makes my life easier. > >One suggestion: please stop referring to any criticism of Linux as >"FUD." You seem to do this reflexively, which makes you look bad. > > [...] > >Sincerely, > >Barry Randall >Equity Technology Analyst >Advantus Capital Management >St. Paul >barry.randall@minnesotamutual.com I have seen this before, especially on slashdot.org, and I would like to say that I disagree with you. Keeping this short, I will dare you to tell me where you saw criticism of Linux being fended off as FUD when it wasn't. And please be careful to explain why that/those article[s] weren't in fact at least partly FUD, because otherwise I will get back to you. Following various mailing lists, eg. on vger.rutgers.edu, you will see plenty criticism, so the Linux community doesn't think Linux is perfect. However, when un/mis-informed journalists wants to add some bad/weak points to Linux in their stories it often comes down to FUD. And because those articles are often read by not-yet-users of Linux it is very important that they are rebutted in a timely and ordely manner. Finally, please withdraw your claim that LWN is "unable to tolerate any viewpoint but your own", as for example these (and your's) letters to the editor are published (hence my email to you) and show that other opinions are in fact tolerated. Therefore your claim is offensive to me. I am in no way related to LWN, except as a reader of their articles. Thank you, Peter | ||