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Leading items and editorials

• Grokking the Gimp is available online. Some of you may have seen New Riders' new book Grokking the Gimp (by Carey Bunks), which recently hit the shelves in the bookstores. This book, happily, is also available online. Worth a bookmark, even if you head down to the store to get your own copy. Look for a review on our book reviews page eventually.

• An updated version of Using Samba is online. Jay Ts has set up a web site with a version of Using Samba by Robert Eckstein, David Collier-Brown, and Peter Kelly that has been repackaged for easier download, has better internal linking, and has a number of errors fixed.

  Products like this show the real value of open content licensing. With most books, what the publisher puts out is all that is available. Fixes and improvements happen when the publisher gets around to it, if ever. Using Samba readers need not wait for an improved version - it's already there.

Free documentation is currently in a state similar to that of free software in the 1980's. There is not much around, but what's there is already showing its strengths. The coming explosion of free documentation is going to be fun to watch.

Salon's Free Software Project launched this week. It's another online book, but with a difference. This book is being authored by Salon writer Andrew Leonard, who has been responsible for much high-quality coverage of the free software world over the last year or so. It's a work in progress, with only the first chapter being currently available. The idea is to develop the book interactively, taking and incorporating feedback from readers as things progress. The process, thus, looks very much like that adopted by Eric Raymond for his The Art Of Unix Programming, which also remains at chapter 1.

The full outline for the Free Software Project is available now, though the site warns that everything is subject to change. The book starts with an introduction; drops back to the early Berkeley days (free speech and free software both); passes through GNU, Perl, and then Eric Raymond; then finally gets into Linux in chapter 6. Subsequent chapters look at the motivation of hackers, "Death to Microsoft," freedom issues (i.e. DVD), free software worldwide, and the new economy.

The site lacks any information on licensing for the Free Software Project, leading to the conclusion that it will remain proprietary, at least through its development. Either way, it's likely to be a strong contribution to the history of our community.

Caldera Systems is scheduled to go public on March 16 or 17. As such, it will be the first in the next round of Linux IPOs, and many will be watching to see how it goes. The market has not been so friendly to Linux stocks in recent times - see the LWN Linux Stocks Page for details. It may well be that the peak of "Linux Mania" has passed, and a more rational view is now being taken of these securities. If so, those hoping for another VA-style runup in prices may be disappointed this time around.

Caldera's "directed share program" was quietly rolled out last week. Selected people who have been through the steps will have the opportunity to buy up to 500 shares at the IPO price. We have received a few complaints from people outside the U.S. who feel that the Caldera program overly emphasizes U.S. developers over those in the rest of the world. Caldera has, however, made a substantial effort to include developers worldwide, as is appropriate. People who feel they were unfairly overlooked or who have other issues are encouraged to contact Nancy Pomeroy, nancy@calderasystems.com. Bank of America, which is handling international participation, can be contacted at 415 627 3115, 600 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA. Account forms are due to them via fax (415 913 5530) no later than Friday, March 10th, so move quickly if you have this opportunity. There is still time to get the paperwork in for those who hurry.

[Note that the above paragraph has been corrected from the original, which included some incorrect information. LWN regrets the error.]

In general, the inclusion of non-U.S. developers is a problem that needs to be solved. Linux is a worldwide phenomenon - nobody could ever stamp "made in the USA" on it. Code written outside the US is just as important, and its developers are just as deserving to participate in these directed share programs. The problem, of course, is that securities laws are complicated, twisted, extremely unforgiving, and different in every country. Doing a worldwide directed share program is a difficult undertaking. Many of the smaller companies going public can not easily invest the effort needed to make such a program work.

There is a real market opportunity here for a suitably enlightened securities firm. Assuming that open source continues to grow, there will be more and more companies going public that will owe part of their success to open source software. One would think they would welcome assistance from a company that could make a directed share program work smoothly on a global scale. Here is hoping that somebody tries.

Those wishing to monitor news on upcoming IPOs can find some useful information on Ostman's Alert-IPO site (thanks to Rick Richardson). Information pages on upcoming IPOs include:

• Caldera Systems
• Linuxcare (which was scheduled for the week of March 20, but is now listed as "-TBD-").
• LinuxOne - it's still around, and scheduled for "April."

Amazon.com patents, continued... Tim O'Reilly had a phone conversation about patents with Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos. His writeup of the talk is interesting and worth a read. "To cut the suspense short, while I don't think that we're all the way to a happy ending, we had an extremely productive conversation. We each made some important points that resonated with the other, and while our central disagreement remains unresolved, I think that we've laid out the issues in a way that will lead to fruitful further discussion."

It is good that they are talking, though it appears that a solution is not currently in sight. Meanwhile, LWN's decision to withdraw from the Amazon.com affiliate program has drawn a substantial amount of positive feedback from our readers. We have sent a message off to Amazon explaining our reasons for our withdrawal, but have gotten no response back. If they tell us anything interesting, we'll let you know.

CLIQ registration begins. The Colorado Linux Info Quest has announced the beginning of online registration for the (April 1) event.

Inside this week's Linux Weekly News:

• Security: Duplicate PGP keys.
• Kernel: Out-of-memory performance, the kernel configuration system
• Distributions: Think Blue, HA Linux and WholeLinux debut.
• Development: OpenAL 3D-Audio library, OpenNMS.org.
• Commerce: Bluepoint Linux hits the stock market
• Back page: Linux links and letters to the editor

This Week's LWN was brought to you by:

• Jonathan Corbet, Executive Editor
• Elizabeth O. Coolbaugh, Managing Editor

See also: last week's Security page.

Security

News and editorials

This issue will need to be dealt with, and quickly. The existence of a duplicate key ID could allow falsified mail. If a duplicate key ID can be generated by accident, presumably it can also be generated on purpose, as well. Network Associates was not directly informed of the problem, which was posted today, so no response from them is yet available.

ARIP: Association of Responsible Internet Providers. One result from the long weeks of discussion of distributed denial-of-service attacks on BugTraq has been the creation of a mailing list to discuss potentially creating an organization to promote and recognize responsible behavior on the part of Internet Service Providers (ISPs). David Nesting posted a note summarizing responses to his suggestion that such an organization be created. It contains a pointer to the mailing list, as well as to other organizations that are dealing with this issue, including NANOG (The North American Network Operators' Group) and ISPF (Internet Service Providers' Forum).

Security and Apache: An Essential Primer (LinuxPlanet). LinuxPlanet has a tutorial on securing a Linux/Apache system. "Chances are that your Web site has at least a few pages that you really don't want published to the Internet at large. How do you keep the Black Hats from seeing them, whilst not impeding the access of the White Hats who need the pages?"

New site on Linux security (Upside). Upside ran this article on the launch of LinuxSecurity.com. "Last month's denial of service uproar has intensified attention to Internet security. Coincidentally -- or perhaps not, depending on your viewpoint -- last month also saw the debut of LinuxSecurity.com, a new website completely dedicated to Linux operating system security issues."

Security Reports

Remote vulnerability in nmh. Versions of nmh prior to 1.0.3 can be made to execute arbitrary commands via the mhshow command. Check this note for more details. (First reported March 2nd, 2000.)

• Debian (old)
• Red Hat

dosemu problem in Corel Linux. Corel Linux contains an improperly configured dosemu package, which can allow local users to execute commands as root. Check BugTraq ID 1030 for more details. No other Linux distributions have been reported to be vulnerable.

Fixes for this can be found on the DOSemu site.

mtr-0.42. A new version of mtr, a program that does a full-screen combination of ping and traceroute at a higher speed than traceroute, has been announced, in reaction to problems with management of root privileges. An upgrade is recommended, if you are using this tool.

• TurboLinux

Oracle installer for Linux. The Oracle installer for Linux improperly uses a file in /tmp, leaving it vulnerable to symlink issues, reported Keyser Soze. For more information, check BugTraq ID 1035.

Resources

GNU userv 1.0.0. userv is a program for invoking an executable in situations of limited trust.

How to Write Secure Code. the shmoo group has made available a set of links to information on how to write secure code, an updated version of a list posted on BugTraq a while back.

Section Editor: Liz Coolbaugh

Secure Linux Projects
Bastille Linux
Immunix
Khaos Linux
Secure Linux

Security List Archives
Bugtraq Archive
Firewall Wizards Archive
ISN Archive

Distribution-specific links
Caldera Advisories
Conectiva Updates
Debian Alerts
LinuxPPC Security Updates
Mandrake Updates
Red Hat Errata
SuSE Announcements
Yellow Dog Errata

Miscellaneous Resources
CERT
CIAC
Comp Sec News Daily
Crypto-GRAM
LinuxSecurity.com Linux Security Audit Project
OpenSSH
OpenSEC
Security Focus
SecurityPortal

See also: last week's Kernel page.

Kernel development

The current stable kernel release is 2.2.14. The 2.2.15 prepatch is up to 2.2.15pre13; there will probably be at least one more prepatch iteration before the real 2.2.15 release comes out.

Out-of-memory behavior is one of the remaining issues with 2.2.15. The Linux kernel will, in high-load (or low-memory) situations, promise more memory to processes than it can deliver. If too many processes try to cash in those promises, the system reaches a point where something has to give. The 2.2 series has been criticized for a while for its behavior in out of memory (OOM) situations; there are now a couple of hackers working on making things better for 2.2.15.

Why does the kernel overcommit memory? Overcommiting is done because processes often ask for memory that they will never use. The most common case of this is the fork() system call. A process that forks could, in theory, require two copies of all its writable memory (read-only memory, such as program code, can be shared). But the kernel only makes those copies on a page-by-page basis, when something is actually changed. And, in most cases, the process which forked quickly goes on to exec() a different program, and all that memory is discarded without ever having been touched.

Consider a typical large process - emacs, say. If an emacs user runs a "compile" command, emacs will fork, then run make to do the compile. All that emacs memory - which can be substantial - is never needed in the forked copy of the process. If Linux had to actually provide for all that memory, the capability of the system would be much reduced.

Thus overcommitting is necessary, and works almost all of the time. Occasionally, however, Linux will come up short, and will not have memory to give a process that needs it. One obvious response is to simply put the process to sleep, and not wake it until memory becomes available again. Unfortunately, that road can lead very quickly to most of the interesting processes on the system in uninterruptible sleeps. At that point, they can not even be killed to recover their memory, and the system locks up.

An alternative, being pursued by Rik van Riel and Andrea Arcangeli, is to conclude that the system simply can not carry the current load of processes, and kill one or more of them off. It is not an ideal situation, but hopefully it will leave the system in a running state with most of its processes intact.

But...which process do you kill? The answer turns out to be far from easy. The naive approach might be to kill the biggest process, with the idea that it's the one causing the problem. But the big processes tend to be things like the X window server, the aforementioned emacs editor, or some sort of specialized cranker that is the reason for the system's existence in the first place. Killing those processes can lead to lost work and highly irate users.

Killing processes at random also does not work. If init goes away, there will not be much of the system left to save. A process that is directly manipulating hardware (such as the X server again) may leave that hardware in an unusable state. And so on.

Current attempts at proper OOM behavior try to pick out processes which (1) have run for a relatively short time, (2) are not running as root, and (3) are not doing privileged I/O operations. An OOM killer using those guidelines went into 2.2.15pre12, but was removed from pre13 after some complaints. With luck the kernel hackers will be able to get something more robust together for pre14 which will survive wider testing and give Linux 2.2 decent OOM behavior.

Expect a new kernel configuration system in 2.5. As more options get added to the kernel, the process of configuring them gets more complicated. One of the unsung heroes of kernel development is Michael Elizabeth Chastain, who has maintained the configuration system for a long time. He has been struggling to keep up with all of the new features in the kernel, thus far with success. But the end is in sight.

Anybody who has ever configured a kernel build knows that there is a tremendous number of options to decide on. A quick look in Configure.help for 2.3.50 turns up 1226 options. Simply plowing through all of those can be a chore, but the real problem is with dependencies. Many options only make sense if other options have been selected. Some dependencies are relatively simple - you're only concerned with SCSI drivers if SCSI support has been compiled in. Enforcing such dependencies is not terribly hard.

But dependencies increasingly reach across different parts of the kernel. Enabling PCMCIA SCSI cards only makes sense if both PCMCIA and SCSI have been enabled. The current configuration system has a hard time dealing with dependencies - like the above - that do not follow a nice tree structure.

An additional problem is that with tools like menuconfig and xconfig, there is nothing requiring a kernel builder to pass through the options sequentially. On the other hand, very few people have the endurance to go through a full "make config" anymore. As a result, enforcing dependencies - especially in a way that makes sense from a human factors point of view - is even more difficult.

Configuration options need to be presented in a way that makes the dependencies clear. It's not really a kernel hacking problem - it's a user interface problem. It will be interesting to see what solution comes out.

An ARM Linux kernel developer is being sought. If you are interested in this sort of job, check out the announcement.

PerlOS - the horrible, horrible dream. Have a look at this posting about the upcoming Perl Linux kernel and shudder. "There were also the usual angry messages from new Perl users who had stumbled across the list and were demanding to know why upgrading from Perl 5.005 (the intepreter) to Perl 6.001 (the OS) had replaced Windows."

Other patches and updates released this week include:

• Paul Rusty Russell has written the Linux Kernel Locking HOWTO, which should be required reading for anybody wanting to get into kernel hacking. Why did he write it? "...my pet hamster dressed up in a penguin suit, and appeared to me in a dream, telling me to write documentation for random stuff, and include lots of obscenities."

• Fairsched 0.15, a hierarchical fair CPU scheduler, has been released by Borislav Deianov.

• IBM has released version 0.0.2 of its journaling file system for Linux. It's still far from ready for prime time, but progress is being made.

• A new beta version (0.02) of the InterMezzo high-availability, distributed filesystem has been announced by Peter Braam. It has a lot of cool features, inspired by the Coda filesystem, and is under active development.

• Werner Almesberger has released the seventh version of his "bootimg" patch, which allows the booting of arbitrary kernel images (without the intervention of LILO or other such loaders). Those who want to play with this should note the warning in the README file: "This is experimental code, which may screw up your kernel such that the first thing it does is to corrupt your hard disk beyond repair. Exercise due caution."

• Along these lines, a new version of LILO has been posted which is able to get past the 1024-cylinder boot limit that has plagued PC systems for years.

• SUBTERFUGUE 0.1.1 is out. It is "a framework for observing and playing with the reality of software; it's a foundation for building tools to do tracing, sandboxing, and many other things. You could think of it as 'strace meets expect.'"

• RTLinux 3.0 pre-release 4 is available.

• The "comedi" suite of data acquisition drivers is now up to version 0.7.40.

• Trond Myklebust has released version 0.20.0 of his NFSv3 client implementation.

• Linmodem-0.2.5, the PCI modem driver, has been released. This version "is close to being usable as a real modem for low speeds (V21/V23), and the V34 code has greatly improved (although it is not usable yet)."

Section Editor: Jonathan Corbet

For other kernel news, see:

• Kernel traffic
• Kernel Newsflash
• Kernel Trap
• Linux 2.5.x Porting help

Other resources:

• Kernel Source Reference
• L-K mailing list FAQ
• Linux-MM
• Linux Scalability Effort
• Kernel Newbies
• Linux Device Drivers

See also: last week's Distributions page.

Distributions

Think Blue Linux. You've read about it, now you can get access to it ... a Linux distribution for the IBM S/390. Think Blue Linux is a distribution from Thinking Objects Software, GmbH. The website itself claims to be running on Linux for S/390, which is based on Red Hat 6.1. Both rpms and srpms for the distribution are currently available. (Thanks to Fred Mobach.)

Motorola Computer Group launches high-availability distribution. Motorola Computer Group has announced the release of its HA Linux distribution. This distribution is aimed at telecommunications applications that require very high amounts of uptime; it includes hot-swap capability, and is available for the I386 and PowerPC architectures.

The announcement stimulated a lot of interest in the media this week:

News.com: News.com covers Motorola's new high-availability distribution. "Telecommunications companies, disdainful of computers that crash, would be a powerful new segment of customers for Linux." (Thanks to John Kleint).

ComputerWorld: ComputerWorld writes about Motorola's high-availability distribution. "Motorola said it intends to offer its kernel modifications for hot-swap Peripheral Component Interconnect support, also part of its high availability features, to the open source community. The company said it hopes to see its modifications included in a future version of the Linux kernel."

WholeLinux introduces SuperAuk DSL MultiServer. WholeLinux introduced SuperAuk DSL MultiServer software, a complete shrink-wrapped package that turns an inexpensive PC into a DSL server. WholeLinux is entirely a software product, essentially a Red Hat 6.1-based distribution with an automatic, web-based installer designed to tailor a PC into a DSL network appliance within a few minutes. Along with the e-smith gateway and server, this WholeLinux product demonstrates the blurring between the distribution of an operating system with applications and the creation of a generic product.

LinuxWars: Distribution War III (AboutLinux). AboutLinux has put up the latest in its 'Distribution Wars' series, comparing Caldera OpenLinux 2.3, Mandrake Linux 6.1, RedHat 6.1 Deluxe, and SuSE 6.3. "I hope the other distributions adopt Linuxconf; having a consistent GUI system administration tool would be very beneficial to new users."

Linuxcare Bootable Business Card. The Linuxcare Bootable Business Card, a Debian-based distribution tailored as a rescue disk, is finally available for download. Now you won't have to rush to the Linuxcare booth at every Linux show looking for your freebie ... though that still may be the most fun way to get one!

For those of you with older versions of this card, you might want to note that it has now been improved, allowing installation of Debian GNU/Linux directly from the card and also the use of the X Windows system (depending on hardware). [From the Debian Weekly News.]

PeeWee Linux. Another embedded Linux distribution, PeeWee Linux announced version 0.20 this week on Freshmeat. It is based on Red Hat 6.1.

Debian GNU/Linux

Debian Weekly News. The March 7th edition of the Debian Weekly News covers the past two weeks. The first Release-Critical Bug Horizon was met and has been declared a success, with 20 packages slated for removal. Project leader elections close soon, so vote now if you haven't already!

Linux-Mandrake

Linux-Mandrake 7.0 PowerPack available. MandrakeSoft has announced that its 7.0 release, PowerPack edition, is now available in the U.S.

Linux-Mandrake consultants list. The folks at MandrakeSoft have put up a list of Linux-Mandrake consultants. It currently contains 135 entries in over 20 countries.

Red Hat Linux

Slackware Linux

SuSE Linux

Linux still not ready for desktop, says SuSE (InfoWorld). InfoWorld talks with SuSE CEO Roland Dyroff. "The Linux distributor's next update to its flavor of Linux, Version 6.4, will be released next month, Dyroff said. The new distribution will feature an improved graphical installation interface and a different desktop design. SuSE is also readying for release a new manual for beginning users of the operating system in German and English to coincide with the launch of the new version."

SuSE will zur globalen Linux-Company werden (Yahoo). Yahoo has put up an interview (in German) with SuSE CEO Roland Dyroff. English text may be had via Babelfish.

SuSE says the desktop is in sight (ZDNet). ZDNet UK talks with SuSE's Dirk Hohndel about Linux on the desktop. "So will Linux ever make any sort of dent into Microsoft's formidable 90 percent market share on the desktop? Hondel [sic] reckons the current trend toward the open source model has only one conclusion: that Linux will become as prevalent as Windows on the desktop within the next two to three years."

Section Editor: Liz Coolbaugh

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

Leading
Caldera OpenLinux
Debian GNU/Linux
Linux-Mandrake
Red Hat
Slackware
SuSE
TurboLinux

Also well-known
ASPLinux
Best Linux
Conectiva Linux
e-smith

Progeny
Rock Linux

Non-technical desktop
easyLinux
Icepack Linux
Independence
LibraNet
Redmond Linux
WinSlack

Education
Boston University
kmLinux
LinuxFromScratch
OpenClassroom
Red Escolar

General Purpose
Alzza Linux
aXon Linux
Bad Penguin Linux
BearOps
Black Cat Linux
BluePoint Linux
BYO Linux
CAEN Linux
Cafe Linux
ChainSaw Linux
Circle MUDLinux
cLIeNUX
Complete Linux
Console Linux
Corel Linux
CRUX
Darkstar Linux
DLite
easyLinux
Elfstone Linux
ESware Linux
Eurielec Linux
eXecutive Linux
Fried Chicken
FTOSX
FullPliant
Gentoo
Go!Linux
HA Linux
Halloween Linux
HispaFuentes
IceLinux
Ivrix
ix86 Linux
J-LINUX
JBLinux
Jurix
KRUD
KSI-Linux
Lanthan Linux
Laonux
LASER5
Leetnux
Linpus Linux
Linux Cyrillic Edition
Linux MLD
LinuxOne OS
LinuxPPP
Linux Pro Plus
Linux-SIS
LNX System
LoopLinux
LSD
Lute Linux
MageNet
Mastodon
MaxOS
minilinux
MSC.Linux

NoMad Linux
Omoikane GNU/Linux
PingOO Linux
Plamo Linux
PLD
Project Ballantain
PROSA
Rabid Squirrel
Repairlix
Root Linux
Scrudgeware
Serial Terminal
Sorcerer
spyLinux
Stampede
Stataboware
TechLinux
TimeSys Linux/RT
Tom Linux
Trinux
Turkuaz
Ute-Linux
VA-enhanced Red Hat
Vine Linux
Virtual Linux
WholeLinux
WinLinux 2000
XTeamLinux
ZipSpeak

Country-specific
Argentina
GNU/Linux Ututo
Britain
Definite Linux
Eridani
China
COSIX
Red Flag
France
Linux/MNIS
Italy
LinuxEspresso
Madeinlinux
Vedova
Spain
Linux Esware
Thailand
Kaiwal Linux
Thai Linux Extension

Related Projects
Chinese Linux Extension

Historical (Non-active)
Dualix
Gentus
Giotto
MCC Interim Linux
OS2000
Storm Linux

See also: last week's Development page.

Development projects

The press release also notes that Creative Technology plans to release Linux drivers that will work with OpenAL and is evaluating MacOS and Windows implementations of the OpenAL standard.

Bluebird/OpenNMS.org. Network management tools are an area that we have taken an occasional look at over the years. Tools such as HP's OpenView and others have always appeared promising, but, working in academia, the cost of such commercial systems prevented us from using them. In addition, we never found them widely implemented even in commercial organizations. Here is a humorous look at why this might be true. "Customer: I would like to buy a car Salesman: Great! Here you go. Customer: Wait, this is just a big box of parts! Where is the car? Salesman: This is not just a car! This is a "best-in-class" transportation solution! "

Well, now we're going to get a chance to see if applying open source development principles to the problem can turn this situation around. OpenNMS.org has announced Bluebird, an ambitious project that seeks to build a fully distributed network management platform licensed under the GPL.

OpenNMS.org currently has 9 full time people working on it, 7 developers and 150 community members. Nonetheless, the project is still in its early stages, their latest release being 0.1a. We've browsed through the site and through the email archives (not too hard -- only two months worth available). Bluebird has some real promise, though some user comments mention a lack of white papers or other high-level design notes for the project. They are, like everyone, very much interested in the involvement of additional developers, testers, etc. If you are currently using or building "home grown" tools in your own environment, you may want to take a look at Bluebird to see if you could implement the same functionality within this framework, taking advantage of the work of others and contributing your own.

Now, before everyone sends us a note, yes, we are aware of other open source or free software projects in the network management area. GxSNMP is a project dedicated to creating a GPL based full featured network management application for the GNOME project, for example. They have released several alpha versions of their product, the last, version 0.0.15, back in October of 1999. Projects such as WBEM, CIM, JMAPI, and scotty/tkined were also mentioned by people in the Bluebird mailing list archive. This is a field of work that is going to be very difficult to do well; it is good that we have multiple projects working on it. Hopefully, they can also learn from and contribute to each other. In the end, what matters is that we end up with a truly useable, free network management package (or more than one!).

Application of the week: xcruise 0.24 (Linuxcare). xcruise 0.24 is Linuxcare's application of the week. "xcruise is obviously not a productivity application, but rather an entertaining diversion. Linux: now hiring interplanetary spaceship commanders."

Browsers

Mozilla is having another party. In honor of the second anniversary of the release of the Mozilla source code, mozilla dot party three dot oh is being held April 6th, 2000. If San Francisco is too far to go for a free party (drinks not included), check out the party FAQ for long-distance enjoyment.

Databases

E-commerce

YAMS 0.6.0 released. YAMS (Yet Another Merchant System) has released version 0.6.0, including the addition of the concept of session ids, and various bug fixes.

OpenSales enters untamed territory (Upside). This Upside article is about OpenSales - the folks behind the OpenMerchant e-commerce suite. "OpenSales is attempting to jump start its own open source project in situ, rather than latching onto a pre-existing volunteer-driven project as companies in the Linux and Apache fields have done."

Education

For this week's news, check out the SEUL-EDU Linux in Education Report for March 6. For a highlight of the report, note that both the Yorktown High School in Arlington, Virginia and the Beacon School in New York City have made major commitments to Linux. Check the report for more details.

Games

Interoperability

Wine Weekly News. This week's Wine Weekly News talks about SCSI support, builtin DLLs vs. real files and an unexpectedly ascerbic exchange regarding the installation issues for Wine as it approaches an alpha release.

DOSEmu 1.0.0. The first stable release of DOSEmu has been announced. Of course, this DOS emulator has been around for quite a while and even the beta releases are widely distributed in many Linux distributions.

Office Applications

Check out the Gimp News for more tidbits, including the release of the Gimp 1.1.8 this past Saturday.

On the Desktop

The Return of the KDE Development News! We're very pleased to report that the KDE Development News is back. The original editor, Navindra Umanee, was unfortunately unable to continue his excellent work due to other commitments. Bill Soudan and Prasanth Kumar have picked up this task and are welcoming other contributors. This week's edition starts with some CeBIT coverage, KDevelop news and some good word in the area of KDE-Gnome Collaboration, then finishes with other KDE news tidbits.

For more KDE news, check out Mosfet's site. He has a link to an interview of him done by LinuxUK, miscellaneous development notes and a pointer to the Body Talk project, a project to control KDE with hand gestures. Apparently they have KPresenter, the KOffice presentation package, so that you can control it by moving your body around.

Science

Server Support

Sendmail 8.10.0. A new version of sendmail, 8.10.0, was announced this week. Highlights include more spam control, improved ipv6 and LDAP support and "SMTP Authentication, allowing users to use cryptographic authentication in SMTP to gain additional privileges, such as ability to relay. "

Website Development

Zope Weekly News. This week's Zope Weekly News is now available, with the usual assortment of announcements, new products and documentation links.

Section Editor: Liz Coolbaugh

Project Links
Gnome
High Availability
ht://Dig
KDE
MagicPoint
Midgard
Mozilla
YAMS
Wine
Worldforge
Zope

More Information
AppWatch
Freshmeat
LinuxDev

Development tools

Java

Perl

PHP

Python

This week's Python-URL. Here is this week's Dr. Dobb's Python-URL. As usual, it contains an extensive list of happenings in the Python development world over the last week.

Python 101 cheat sheet. Evelyn Mitchell has made available a Python 101 cheat sheet, a quick reference document for newcomers to the language.

Tcl/tk

Section Editor: Liz Coolbaugh

See also: last week's Commerce page.

Linux and business

Bluepoint is a vendor of Chinese-localized Linux distributions, based in the city of Shenzen. The "Bluepoint Linux 1.0" product is available now, and can be downloaded from their site. It has the look of a Red Hat-derived distribution. Bluepoint claims to have bundling agreements with the three largest Chinese PC vendors, giving it "80% of the Chinese Linux bundling market." Bluepoint's web site also talks about a future embedded distribution and consulting services.

Two web sites are operated by the company, both in Chinese. bluepoint.com.cn is the regular corporate site; they also own openunix.org, which is claimed to be "the most influential Linux site in China." For those of us who don't read Chinese, they also have a few pages in English available.

One of the things Bluepoint claims is support for the Chinese character set at the kernel level. So we pulled down their kernel source package and checked things out. Bluepoint's kernel is a fairly vanilla 2.2.13 one, with the addition of a pair of new codepages and support for a Chinese console. There appears to have been a fair amount of work done to make the console work right - a significant chunk of code has been added. No word on whether it has ever been submitted for inclusion into the standard kernel. Bluepoint has also included an updated set of USB drivers.

Bluepoint also claims a localized version of the X window system. Their X work, however, is explicitly proprietary.

How Bluepoint came to be public is an interesting story. If you dig through Bluepoint's SEC filings, you'll come across this information statement describing a change in ownership of the corporation. It seems that, in February, something called Shenzhen Sinx Software Company was acquired by "MAS Acquisition XI Corp," which promptly changed its name to "Bluepoint Linux Software Company."

MAS Acquisition XI Corp. was owned by a certain Aaron Tsai. It registered its stock with the SEC last year; some interesting things can be found in the registration statement. MAS Acquisition XI went public as a company with no revenue, operations, or even business plan. From the statement:

The Company's purpose is to seek, investigate and, if such investigation warrants, acquire an interest in business opportunities presented to it by persons or firms who or which desire to seek the perceived advantages of an Exchange Act registered corporation. The Company will not restrict its search to any specific business, industry, or geographical location and the Company may participate in a business venture of virtually any kind or nature.

The current market capitalization of the company is on the order of $3-400 million - not bad for a company that few have heard of. That puts them in the same scale as eOn Communications, Applix, and GraphOn. Bluepoint has higher ambitions, though. From the press release: "Management believes Bluepoint Linux in China is similar to Red Hat Linux (Nasdaq:RHAT) in the United States, with a $13 billion market cap, and comparable to VA Linux Systems (Nasdaq:LNUX)."

There is no doubt that the principals of Bluepoint would like to be working with the same sort of market capitalization. That's probably wishful thinking for now - it is hard to get the respect of investors by coming in through the back door. But Bluepoint does appear to be a real company doing some real work, and the Chinese market should eventually be huge. They may eventually get somewhere.

(See also: this announcement from Bluepoint that Bluepoint Linux won a performance test carried out by PC World China Weekly).

Corel news: Corel has been in the news for a few reasons this week, including:

• The resignation of Robert Coates from Inprise's board of directors in protest of the merger with Corel. Mr. Coates does not seem to disagree with the merger itself; it mostly seems to be an issue of how much compensation Inprise stockholders (he is a big one) get out of the deal. The recent decline in Corel's stock price certainly has not improved his outlook on the situation.

  According to this Reuters article, Corel intends to go forward with the merger anyway, without increasing its offer.

• Corel has announced a tour to unveil and promote WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux. Stops include New York, Washington, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tampa, Houston, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa; see the schedule for details.

• Corel also put out this press release hyping its accomplishments ahead of the upcoming stockholders' meeting. Not much new there, but it shows where the company thinks it's heading. Linux remains a central part of their strategy.

O'Reilly releases 'MP3: The Definitive Guide. O'Reilly and Associates has announced the release of the MP3: The Definitive Guide. This book "introduces the power-user to all aspects of MP3 technology. It delves into detail on obtaining, recording, and optimizing MP3 files using both commercial and Open Source methods, and covering four platforms..."

LinuxMall.com and Frank Kasper & Associates complete merger LinuxMall.com and Frank Kasper & Associates have announced the completion of their merger. The new company (which remains LinuxMall.com) will now handle both retail and wholesale distribution of Linux products, giving it a large portion of the Linux marketplace.

LinuxMall.com has also put out this press release presenting itself as a direct challenge to Microsoft. "Recent acquisitions and mergers, including a strategic merger with Frank Kasper & Associates to solidify distribution channels, have poised LinuxMall.com to assume the role of the world's largest 'arms dealer' in the Linux revolution."

German Chameleon Inks Deal with Canadian Dust Puppy SuSE has announced a deal with UserFriendly.org. It seems to involve SuSE using the UserFriendly characters on its web site and marketing materials.

BSDi and Walnut Creek are merging into a new company to be called "BSD Inc." This merger brings together a large vendor of a closed-source BSD variant and a big supporter of FreeBSD, a free BSD variant. They evidently plan to merge the two systems with the final result being still called "FreeBSD," and being primarily an open source product. It's an interesting development - the first big consolidation in the free BSD world. For more information, see this Daemon News article, where we learned everything we know...

Zend PHP Optimizer for free download. Zend Technologies has announced the release of their Zend Optimizer, available for free download. This is a commercial product. "The Zend Optimizer uses multi-pass code optimizations to double the running speed of PHP 4.0 applications. "

New Sendmail Switch product line now available Sendmail Inc. has announced the availability of its new "Sendmail Switch" product line, with prices up to $4500. As a sort of "by the way," they also mention that regular sendmail 8.10 is available for download.

Meet the PeopleBot ActivMedia has announced the availability of the PeopleBot, a (relatively) low-cost robot which is programmable under Linux.

It looks like a fun toy, but with a face only a robotic mother could love. Prices start at $6,000.

TurboLinux and Linksys sign bundling deal. TurboLinux and Linksys have announced a deal wherein the TurboLinux distribution will be bundled with Linksys ethernet adapters. There will be 1.2 million copies distributed in this manner.

MontaVista receives $9 million investment. MontaVista Software, the company behind the "Hard Hat Linux" real-time and embedded distribution, has announced that it has received $9 million in investments.

internet.com acquires LinuxApps.com Internet.com has announced the acquisition of LinuxApps.com.

Section Editor: Jon Corbet.

Press Releases:

Open Souce Products:
• OpenDocs, LLC announced the book Developing Applications for Linux: KDE Edition is now available.

• STFB Inc. plans to change the open source market for Windows application software by offering open source licensing on all of its current and on all of its future accounting and ERP products. These products include Integral Accounting for VB, Integral Accounting for SQL, Integral Accounting for Java and Integral Accounting for Linux.

• VA Linux Systems has formally announced the SourceForge CompileFarm - a set of systems running different distributions allowing packages to be built for all.

  Commercial Products for Linux:

• ABACUS2000 announced LinuxVideos.com, which offers a variety of Linux-related videos.

• Adaptec, Inc. announced that its Ultra160 SCSI product line will support the Itanium processor, the first in Intel's IA-64 processor line. Adaptec's 64-bit drivers are already embedded in the IA-64 Linux kernel.

• Looking for the perfect gift for the Linux geek in your life? Check out this press release about Elfstone Software's Attic Treasures. This disc contains tools, applications and utilities, and much more.

• eOn Communications Corporation introduced the eOn Web Center Software Suite, an application for routing, tracking and responding to e-mail and Internet-based communications in real time.

• PowerCerv Corporation announced that its enterprise application software solutions are certified and functional on IBM Netfinity servers with Caldera OpenLinux eServer 2.3.

• Prolific Inc. introduced ProGenesis 2000, the latest version of its Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software.

• Quadratec Software announced that its backup and restore application, Time Navigator, has added support for VXA-1 tape drives from Ecrix Corporation.

• Three Axis has announced that it will be porting Nanosaur, a Macintosh game, to Linux.

• VirtualSellers.com Inc. announced that its TAME software has been selected for inclusion on the Red Hat Linux Application Library CD (LAL), which will be included with the next version of Red Hat Linux.

• YARC Systems Corporation announced the release of version 1.50 of its Postscript 3 Raster Image Processor software. This release implements full 6 color ICC capability.

  Products Using Linux:

• eConnect announced that the eConnect/RGTecq Linux Transaction server successfully sent a full Internet ATM card with PIN message format to eFunds, which will be the United States Host processor for eCashPad Internet originated transactions.

• eConnect announced its initial global network will consist of host systems in the United States, Ireland, Hong Kong, Australia and the Dominican Republic, driving the eConnect eCashPad transactions which are being routed to the eConnect Hosts by the eConnect/RGTecq Linux servers.

• Framfab has a speaking clock that uses a PC-based server equipped with Linux.

• eDivision.net LLC announced the Linux-based Pop & Server and autoSTUFFER, tools to integrate virtual stores with on-site office computer systems across the fire wall.

• Gateway introduced its first server appliance, the Gateway Micro Server, a 7.3-inch cube that supports up to 100 users with shared applications such as Internet services and e-mail.

• Showstar Online.com, Inc. announced the introduction of its first portal development product Showstar Webmail, which uses Linux servers and SSL encryption.

  Java Products:

• Lutris Technologies has announced that it will be distributing the Enhydra application server on CD at ApacheCon.

  Products with Linux Versions:

• BiTMICRO NETWORKS unveiled "the world's fastest" EIDE solid state flash disk, the ATX35 E-Disk.

• Brooktrout Technology announced that it has doubled the density of the TR1000 high density messaging development platform, which now supports up to 60 channels of voice and 8 channels of intelligent fax on a single card.

• Computational Engineering International released EnSight 7, a major new release featuring a totally revamped graphical user interface (GUI) and the ability to simultaneously visualize multiple models.

• Computron Software, Inc. announced Linux support on Computron's e-Cellerator technology-based product lines.

• CyberStar Computer Corporation announced that they have launched EnetPC v1.0 B2B configurator software with Personal Computer Services, Inc. (PCSI), which allows people to configure the systems they want online.

• Dialogic, a subsidiary of Intel, announced its availability of the DS-3 high-end network interface card.

• Dot Hill Systems Corp. announced the SANnet 3200 and 4200 series of storage systems

• Eizo Nanao Technologies announced FlexScan L661 and L680 18.1" viewable-image flat-panel monitors.

• Eizo Nanao Corporation announced the FlexScan F930, a 21 inch (55 cm) CRT monitor for business, CAD/CAM, graphic design and desktop publishing applications.

• GENROCO, Inc. announced TURBOstorR Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) to Fibre Channel (FC) bridging and routing switch with software drivers for many platforms, including Linux.

• InnoMediaLogic Inc. announced the availability of its HYPER-T3 DS-3/STS-1 adapter for packet voice networks.

• LSI Logic introduced the single chip SYMFC929 dual channel PCI to Fibre Channel protocol controller for 32/64-bit 33/66MHz PCI systems.

• Lugaru Software announced the release of version 10 of the Epsilon Programmer's Editor, a customizable and extensible editor featuring EMACS and Brief key bindings.

• NEON Systems, Inc. announced that its Diplomat product now supports the Linux platform.

• Paramount Technologies, Inc. announced the release of B2B-WorkPlace 7.0, a Web-based procurement service.

• Performance Technologies, Inc. announced the CPC376, the latest product for T1/E1 telecom network connectivity.

• RadiSys Corp. launched the EPC-3306 system controller, a CompactPCI (cPCI)-based single board computer.

• Reliable Software announced a joint collaboration with Swedish-based Klaralvdalens Datakonsult AB to port Code Co-op, a full-featured version control system, to the Linux platform.

• SafeTPay announced a new service that allows consumers to purchase goods and pay bills over the Internet using their existing ATM-card with PIN (Personal Identification Number).

• Spatial Inc. announced 3DShare Enterprise (3DS-e), its Intranet-based, CAD file translation and repair solution.

• Veritools, Inc. announced a Verilog lint checker, HDL Lint v5.0.

• Veritools announced the release of two new products, Ut_batch and the SuperC-SystemC Simulator, for HDL 2000.

• VMware, Inc. announced the production release of VMware 2.0 for Linux now available for immediate download.

• Xenos Group announced the availability of Documorph 2.1, now with Linux support.

  Partnerships, Investments and Acquisitions:

• Andover.Net and T.C.X. DataKonsult AB of Stockholm, Sweden, publisher of the MySQL relational database, announced a joint development program to implement database replication in MySQL.

• Berkeley Systems Design, Inc., better known as BSDI, and Walnut Creek CDROM, the primary backer of FreeBSD, are merging.

• Brocker Technology Group Ltd. announced that their subsidiary Sealcorp Computer Products will be the sole distributor of SGI products in New Zealand.

• eOn Communications Corporation announced an agreement with Progressive Telecommunications Corporation for the purchase and installation of eOn's eQueue 4000 communications server.

• GoAhead Software and Ziatech Corporation announced a strategic partnership to integrate GoAhead's cross-platform high availability software with selected Ziatech CompactPCI solutions. The end result should be available in a Linux version.

• GraphOn Corporation and Tianjin Development Holdings Ltd., announced they have launched a joint venture called GraphOn China Ltd.

• Lynx Real-Time Systems, Inc. announced delivery of Hewlett-Packard Company's ChaiVM, embedded virtual-machine technology on Lynx' BlueCat Linux operating system.

• Merlin Software Technologies announced the signing of an agreement with G.T. Enterprises, India's largest Linux distributor.

• NaviSite, Inc. announced it had entered an alliance agreement with Angstrom Microsystems. As part of the agreement, Angstrom Microsystems will join NaviSite's list of premier development partners, allowing NaviSite to work with Angstrom Microsystems to offer a complete, end-to-end Linux-based e-business system, including hardware, operating system, software and support.

• Qarbon.com and SuSE have announced the "Linux Viewlet Project." "The project is designed to provide millions of Linux developers and users with a database of free Viewlets addressing the widest possible range of Linux questions."

• Quantum Corporation announced that IBM's Netfinity Servers can be equipped with Quantum's new Super DLTtape technology.

• Savoir Technology Group, Inc. became an authorized distributor of SCO's Tarantella Enterprise II Web-enabling software. A Linux version of Tarantella is due out in April.

• TCI Business Innovations and Smart World Technologies announced a new partnership to extend free 56k Internet dialup service to the North American Linux community.

• Tech Data Corp., in conjunction with Caldera Systems Inc., is launching an Authorized Linux Education Center for IT resellers.

  Financial Results:

• Ariel Corp. reported net sales for the year ended December 31, 1999. Ariel's products run on Linux systems.

• EMJ Data Systems Ltd., developer of White Dwarf Linux, announced its second quarter results for the six months ended January 31, 2000.

• eOn Communications Corporation announced financial results for its second fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2000. They make Linux-based communications server products.

• Wave Technologies reports improved 3rd quarter results. A strong demand for Linux certification is cited.

  Personnel:

• Tom Adelstein, Founder and CIO of Bynari Inc. announced the appointment of E. Scott Crist, Chief Executive Officer of Telscape International, Inc. to their the Board of Directors.

• Caldera Systems Inc. announced that it has named Richard Wiltbank director of sales for Caldera Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

• Inprise Corporation announced that C. Robert Coates, CEO of Management Insights, Inc., has resigned from the Board of Directors.

• LAND-5 Corporation announced that Alton G. Keel, Jr. has been named Chairman and CEO.

• Red Hat has announced the appointment of Harold Covert, Adobe's ex-CFO, as Chief Financial Officer. No word on what happened to Manoj George, the previous CFO...

• Tripwire, Inc. announced the appointment of Denise Hayman, successful sales and management professional, as its new vice president of worldwide sales.

  Other:

• Dialogic, a subsidiary of Intel, announced that it has expanded its operating system platform coverage with the addition of support for Linux.

• eLinux.com has announced an affiliate program. They present it as being "in support of the Linux community" ...

• Group 1 Software announced that effective March 15, 2000, the company will add Red Hat Linux 6.1 to its list of supported operating systems and platforms.

• The launch of MaximumLinux.com has been announced. The site comes out ahead of the Maximum Linux print magazine, due on the stands next month.

• TurboLinux has announced the opening of a new Australian office (in Sydney).

Section Editor: Rebecca Sobol.

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

Linux in the news

PBS's Robert X. Cringely has written a column looking at the resurgence of Java. He thinks that the "universal language" aspect of Java is finally heading toward reality. The article finishes with a look at operating systems: "If Java is the universal language, Linux is emerging as the universal operating system. IBM has Linux running on practically every computer technology it makes, including its largest mainframes... Everyone who sells a UNIX operating system is considering the option of ditching their UNIX OS and going with Linux. Why? Because Linux is good, it's cheap, and it has name recognition with everyone right up to the CEO." (Thanks to James Cownie).

Resources:

Here's an Information Week article about open source software and security. "For those who are truly after total security, the ability to grab an application or operating system's source code and modify it to meet their own requirements can have an amazing impact on system security. Again, however, this ability is a double-edged sword. Those who don't have the time or skill to modify an application to suit themselves are left at the mercy of whatever the open-source designer built into the program."

Information Week also looks at Linux training and certification. "While [LPI chair Dan] York acknowledges that adoption by businesses is the primary goal of any Linux certification process, he says there's a slew of other reasons also dictating the need for a vendor-neutral training process."

The latest Linuxcare 'Dear Lina' column looks at problems with diskette drives and Samba performance. "Try using ftp for the same content. Windows boxes come with a minimal ftp client and if it is just as slow, then hon, maybe your hard disk needs a new drummer."

The first issue of LinuxMonth, a new monthly e-magazine, has been released. It includes articles on setup and networking, an interview with UserFriendly author Illiad, and a discussion of "the real issue with LinuxOne."

Here's a "tongue-firmly-in-cheek" Freshmeat piece on "how to" make submissions to the site. "You might be thinking that you are now ready to hack some code and submit it to Freshmeat, but golly gee, whatever should you work on? You could perhaps find a lacking feature in Linux and implement it, or find a radical new concept and make it a reality. But until you've been in this business as long as Stallman, you probably want to take it easy and hone your hacker skills. Clearly, the best way to do this is to reinvent the wheel."

Interviews:

An interview with Richard Stallman has been posted on the olinux.com.br site. "Our community has grown much the way many third-world cities have grown: too fast, and without incorporating the newcomers into civic affairs. Today the Open Source Movement attracts many users to the GNU/Linux system, citing only practical advantages such as power, reliability, and inexpensiveness. That movement studiously avoids mentioning idealistic concepts such as freedom and community, and as a result most of the newcomers have no idea that you can think of free software in those terms."

Byte interviews kernel hacker Andrea Archangeli. "In fact, in the Linux kernel there is one goto for about 80 lines of code. Although all OS kernels have to use gotos for the sake of efficiency, Linux has by far the biggest share of gotos in the source code. As long as geniuses like Andrea understand it, it's OK." (Thanks to Lenz Grimmer).

The Wall Street Transcript interviews Kenton Chow, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Cobalt Networks. "All of our products are Linux-based. Linux is currently the dominant open source operating system platform because of its reliability for Internet-oriented applications. We have been developing Linux systems since 1997, long before the current wave of interest in Linux. However, our commitment is to focus on open source."

Yahoo has put up an interview (in German) with SuSE CEO Roland Dyroff. English text may be had via Babelfish.

Business:

Here's a Forbes article about the future of SGI. "The thinking at this point is that the most likely buyer would be a company like VA Linux, the maker of Linux-based workstations. Acquiring SGI would give that young company established engineering skills, plus entry into businesses that already use SGI systems."

The Australian Financial Review ran this brief article ahead of the upcoming Linux Open Source Expo. "Companies could no longer afford to dismiss Linux as a marginal operating system, industry analyst IDC Australia said yesterday ahead of a major conference in Sydney today and tomorrow."

Here's a News.com article about Linuxcare's IPO. "Of the roughly $56 million it expects to raise, Linuxcare plans to spend $32 million on sales and marketing and $19 million on information technology in 2000, the company said."

ComputerWorld took this look at the upcoming Linux IPOs. "The consensus from the analysts: LinuxCare Inc. (Nasdaq:LXCR proposed) looks promising, but be careful with Caldera Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CALD proposed) and stay away from LinuxOne Inc. (Nasdaq:LINX proposed)."

PC Magazin has run a brief article (in German) about the "LiBex" at linux-investor.de. Thanks to Alexander Stohr for a translated version: "Stock brokers listen! After the comet alike rise of the Linux values on stocks today the SmartHouse Media has brought the first Linux Stock Index into live. Labeled bye the name LiBex (Linux Business Indes) all Linux values that are currently dealt with on market places are covered. Aside to others there are included RedHat, VA Linux, Cobalt Networks and Inprise." Of course, LWN might dispute the claim that the "LiBex" is the first such index...

Dan Gillmor looks at expanding intellectual property rights in this San Jose Mercury column. "When they wrote the Constitution, the nation's founders didn't figure on digital technology's impact. But I'm convinced they would have been appalled by the way greed has overcome the public interest when it comes to intellectual property. The entertainment and information industries are leading the charge. They make no secret of their ultimate goal -- a system where consumers pay each time we read, view or listen to anything. Today, sadly, the forces of greed have the law on their side." (Thanks to Gary Shears).

Here's a Salon article about Amazon.com's affiliate program patent. "But that's precisely why patent experts don't see much of a threat in the Amazon patent. In the time it takes to receive a patent -- typically two-to-three years -- Internet companies are made, merged and dismantled. In an age full of overnight millionaires, patent protection is about as useful as a Commodore 64."

ZDNet looks at O'Reilly's criticism of Amazon's patent behavior. "On Monday, the outspoken book chief published the column and added a petition to Amazon.com requesting it to clarify its intentions. At the same time, O'Reilly asked customers to sign their John Hancocks to the petition. Less than 24 hours later, almost 3,000 people had added their names and comments to the piece."

Upside reports on Linux-based Internet radios. "Nevertheless, in an age when your typical commercial radio advertising break lasts about as long as a Los Angeles car chase, you have to admit there's something slightly rebellious about listening to your favorite Swedish hip-hop station while sitting in Silicon Valley traffic. Maybe that's why it shouldn't be too surprising that Linux, the operating system that lives to give CFOs heartburn, is suddenly popping up as a key building block in the emerging Internet radio market."

Here's a PC World article on the "Yopy" Linux-based PDA. "Featuring a 4-inch full-color display, the diminutive device will come fully loaded with an embedded Web browser and e-mail client. It will also have personal productivity applications and software for playing back MP3 music or MPEG video files."

PC World looks at Linux and Microsoft. "Clearly, if Microsoft loses its stronghold with consumer operating systems, porting its software to the newcomer is the way to stay afloat. But the same corporate Darwinism that helped Microsoft achieve an OS stronghold may also prevent it from acting in its own best interest"

Here's an article (in Norwegian) in Klassekampen which, we're told, claims that the Norwegian government is considering replacing Windows with Linux on at least some government computers. (Thanks to Tom Grydeland).

The Red Herring compares Eazel to a rock band comeback tour. "Now, what remains to be seen is if some software virtuosos can leverage that creativity to add to their list of greatest hits. From the early looks of it, they'll at least have fun trying, even if they're closer to getting their AARP discounts than being the techno-twentysomethings who brought the Macintosh to life."

Finally:

Here is a lengthy introductory article that ran in the Washington Monthly. It is mostly accurate, and it also explores the possible applications of open development processes beyond software. "A real-life example of another possible opportunity for open source comes from Harvard where law Professors Larry Lessig and Charles Nesson have started the Open Law Project, an attempt to try cases using the open-source model. Interested people sign into the Website, read what other contributors have written, and help to develop arguments and briefs." (Thanks to Willard Hall).

This osOpinion column criticises SCO's presence at the Bang!Linux conference in Bangalore. "If you're going to walk into the lion's den, the first thing you should remember is to be careful not to tread on the lion's toes. And when the opening keynote by Tony Baines of SCO appeared dedicated to telling a gathering of Linux users why SCO UNIX was more suitable for server applications than Linux, five hundred lions began to lick their lips."

Here's a brief article in the San Jose Mercury about Linus Torvalds' problems getting a green card. "As he told a congressional hearing on Friday, ``I can only say that I'm happy I'm considered a sure case, because based on my experience with the INS, I'd really hate to be in a category that is considered problematic.''"

Section Editor: Rebecca Sobol

See also: last week's Announcements page.

Announcements

Resources

The multi-lingual LinuxFocus March 2000 edition is now available. This edition contains articles on Linux RT, NEdit, SNiFF+ for Linux, and more.

Here's a review of 'Using Samba', by Robert Eckstein, David Collier-Brown, and Peter Kelly. "The book is aimed at experienced UNIX administrators. The explanations of how Windows works will definitely be of help to these people. However, it is a bit of a pity that slightly more information wasn't included about UNIX for those not familiar with the system."

The second phase of Linsight has launched; it includes Linsider, an investment-oriented page with stock information and such.

Events

Web sites

Linux Stock News put out this press release announcing its latest content coverage including a feature article on Linux in a Wireless World (Part One) and Linux on the Desktop.

LinuxLinks.com announced a metacrawler service to complement its existing search facilities.

User Group News

The Greater Lansing Linux Users Group (GLLUG) of Lansing, Michigan, would like to invite the public to attend our Installfest on Saturday, March 18, from 12:00 noon to 5:00pm. It will be held at the Michigan Library Consortium (6810 S. Cedar Ave., Suite 8, Lansing, MI). For more information or directions to the event, please visit them at www.gllug.org, or email installfest@gllug.org.

The Greater London Linux User group GLLUG will meet March 25, 2000 in London, England.

Software Announcements

Our software announcements are provided courtesy of FreshMeat

See also: last week's Back page page.

Linux links of the week

The OpenBIOS project is working toward the development of a free BIOS system. Thus far, all i386-based Linux users are still dependant on proprietary BIOS code to get their systems going. The OpenBIOS folks are getting close - the kernel "almost" boots.

Section Editor: Jon Corbet

Letters to the editor

Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2000 04:16:40 -0500
From: Ron <rongage@att.net>
To: letters@lwn.net, malda@slashdot.net
Subject: The slashdot effect again damages our name.

Editor:

On Tuesday, Feb 29 2000, Slashdot published a small news item entitled
"USB Forum Becomes Too Greedy".  The gist of this article was about the
decision of the USB standard committee (or whatever they are called) to
charge for the information regarding the upcoming, not yet released USB
v2.0 spec.  The charge is listed as $2500 - in other words, become a
member of the standards committee.

The crowd at Slashdot decided collectively to "DeCSS" this thing.  A
couple of people "broke" into the protected section of the USB.ORG
website and mirrored out the entire documents section.

Granted, the security in the protected section was allegedly weak
(username == password, username == manufacturer_id), but that does not
make for an excuse.  Breaking in is still Breaking in.

What we have done in the eyes of the "members" of the USB committee is
turned into a band of thieves simply because a few people did not agree
with their decision.  As near as I could tell, there wasn't even a
single attempt to contact the USB committee regarding this matter.

This is an example of the mob mentality that can sometimes overtake us
in the support of our favorite Operating System.  We have seriously hurt
what we may have had for a good name with these people - I will be VERY
surprised to see "legal" USB 2.0 support anytime in the near future. all
thanks to a few over-zealous individuals.

I fear that we have just handed ourselves our own defeat on this one.
We all need to step back and make sure we don't screw ourselves like
this on ANYTHING else in the future.  We *had* ally's on the USB
committee (Intel, Compaq, etc...), now, who knows where we stand, if at
all.

To the folks who were part of the break-ins, just a few words.  Please,
while your enthusiasm for Linux is applaudable, THINK before you do
something like this again.  In the real world (where we all must
eventually live), actions like this do NOT work and can lead to SERIOUS
repercussions for EVERYONE.  Just because you got your hands on the USB
2.0 draft documents, do you think they are going to be useful?  Do you
think we will be able to LEGALLY use these ill-gotten drafts?  You folks
were absolutely correct, you will be DeCSSing this thing - you are going
to get everyone and their brother sued for, among other things, theft,
copyright infringment, and who knows what else.  Thanks guys, just what
we all needed, another reason to funnel money into lawyer's hands.

Ron Gage - Saginaw, Michigan
(rongage@att.net)

Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2000 19:42:39 +0000
From: jb <jb@yperite.demon.co.uk>
To: letters@lwn.net
Subject: tech IPOs

Hello,

Regarding your recent excerpt from news.com about high tech IPOs any
potential investor would do well to remember just how far recent IPOs
have "tanked" (as the Thomson analyst Richard Peterson put it). 

A survey of "E-Commerce" in the latest edition of The Economist
(February 26th) quantifies it a bit further: "It is notable that nearly
three-quarters of e-commerce-related IPOs since mid-1995 are now trading
below their issue price."

Invest in good businesses, not the fad of the moment.

To: letters@lwn.net
Subject: open source vs free software
From: Laurent Martelli <martelli@iie.cnam.fr>
Date: 02 Mar 2000 11:14:46 +0100


> Clearly RST chose to release the source code for ITS4 in order to
> show their confidence in their own code, to facilitate bug fixes
> and maybe even to accept improvements from others, but not in
> order to help produce a world where all software is free. This is
> their right. However, they should be strongly encouraged to call
> their software "source-code-provided", not "open source", or the
> value of that term will be diluted.

I think that the term "open source" is already diluted. Or at least,
it does not mean to most people what you think it should mean. "open
source" only refers to the availability of the sources. So RST is
right to used that term in that context. The use of "free software"
would be a lie, but "open source" is pretty accurate I think.

Regards,
Laurent

-- 
Laurent Martelli
martelli@iie.cnam.fr