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Leading items and editorials

At this point, the table of contents and first chapter are available. The impression gained from these pieces is that Eric is seeking to distill the programming principles that have made Unix into the longest-lived and most widely ported operating system in history. These principles are to be combined with some relatively modern views of programming ("use interpreted languages") to make a sort of design handbook for the next round of cool applications.

Those of you lucky enough to have Kernighan and Plauger's The Elements of Programming Style can imagine that Eric's book will be something similar, but presumably (hopefully) without the Fortran code.

Eric's summary of "the basics of Unix philosophy" is:

• Write small pieces connected by clean interfaces.
• Design programs to communicate easily with other programs.
• Robustness is the child of transparency and simplicity.
• Design for simplicity; add complexity only where you must.
• Design for transparency; spend effort early to save effort later.
• In interface design, obey the Rule of Least Surprise.
• Programmer time is expensive; conserve it in preference to machine time.
• Avoid hand-hacking; write programs to write programs when you can.
• Use smart data so program logic can be stupid and robust.
• Prototype, then polish. Get it working before you optimize it.
• Distrust all claims for ``one true way''.

The introduction promises to use a bunch of case studies in future chapters to illustrate How Things Are Done; they include the Gimp, Mutt, Fetchmail (of course), RPM, and others.

This looks to be an interesting project. Even those that disagree with Eric must credit his ability to describe this community to the world as a whole. Let's give Eric the feedback he's looking for, and keep him honest. The result should certainly be worth reading.

Linux 2.4 to go up against Windows 2000? Linus Torvalds' announcement that a pre-2.4 code freeze is coming soon couldn't help but spark speculation that the 2.4 kernel would be released at about the same time as Windows 2000, which is supposed to come out on February 17, 2000. To see how far this speculation can go, consider this article in VNUNet.com. One quick quote gives a lot of food for thought:

Colin Tenwick, vice president and general manager European operations for Red Hat, confirmed that the kernel would be released formally to the Linux community the same time as Windows 2000.

One question comes immediately to mind: what does Mr. Tenwick know that puts him in a position to "confirm" the shipping date of the 2.4 kernel? Linus has certainly not committed to any such plans. Best, however, to give Mr. Tenwick the benefit of the doubt and assume that the press misrepresented him.

But building any sort of expectation that the 2.4 kernel will come out when W2K does is a big mistake, for a number of reasons. First and foremost is that Linux development has never been fond of deadlines in general, and certainly is not driven by the release plans of large vendors of proprietary software. That will not be changed just because a big commercial operating system release is due.

This sort of expectation also sets Linux up for some bad press. There is - at least in your editor's mind - a large chance that the 2.4 kernel will not be released by February 17. The code freeze has not yet happened, and there is a lot of work still to be folded into the 2.3 kernel. Testing and bug fixing comes thereafter, and can not be hurried. If the world somehow comes to see February 17 as the 2.4 deadline, there will be a lot of negative press when said deadline is "missed."

It's also worthwhile to bear in mind that, even if 2.4 came out tomorrow, the mainstream distributions would not be shipping that kernel for some time. Integrating a new kernel into a distribution - and making sure that everything works - is a big effort. One can say with great confidence that, when W2K ships, there will be no available Linux distribution with the 2.4 kernel.

And that is not a problem in any way. Linux software "ships" when it is ready, not before. As a result, it (usually) actually works and is useful when it arrives.

The 1999 LWN Linux Timeline is out. In the spirit of last year's popular 1998 Timeline, LWN is proud to present version 0.8 of our 1999 Linux Timeline. Have a look, and be amazed at all that has happened in the Linux world over the last year.

Why version 0.8? Because there is no way we can possibly pull together this much stuff and get it right on the first try. We're looking for feedback on the things we left out. In particular, we would like to document more major releases by free software projects. There will be an intermediate release, with version 1.0 happening shortly after the end of the year.

Free software to be obligatory for the Brazilian government? Here is the text of a proposed Brazilian law (in Portuguese) which would make the use of free software obligatory for the Brazilian government. English text may be had via babelfish, but the combination of Babelfish and legalese is a little rough... (Thanks to Cesar A. K. Grossmann).

Boycotting Amazon.com. Richard Stallman has called for a boycott against Amazon.com. Amazon, it seems, is trying to use its patent for "one click ordering" against competitor Barnes & Noble. LWN agrees that the exercise of software patents to restrict what others can program is wrong. One hopes that Amazon gets the message.

In fact, a message may well get through, though not quite the one RMS is after. Consumers in general don't really understand software patents, but they understand well the idea that "Amazon wants to make us click a lot of times." If a boycott is successful, it will be because of the convenience issue. In that case, the the immediate goal (reining in Amazon's behavior) may be achieved, but the lesson on patents may be lost. A broader, successful boycott campaign should seek to tie the two issues together.

LWN, like an unbelievable number of other sites, is a member of Amazon's affiliate program. We have never pushed books too hard on our readers, but it is possible to get through to Amazon via our book reviews page. We have communicated to Amazon that its behavior is likely to bring about our withdrawal from the affiliate program, and we are working on alternatives. LWN supports the boycott, and will act accordingly.

Inside this week's Linux Weekly News:

• Security: New US cryptography regulations up for comment.
• Kernel: 2.4 kernel pool, 32-bit UIDs, PCMCIA, threads.
• Distributions: Linux-Mandrake 7.0 beta, Empire Linux, more lists of distributions.
• Development: Apache optimization patches, Real Time Linux Workshop, Linux Knowledge Base.
• Commerce: Microsoft tells us how to remove Linux, Corel's ups and downs
• Back page: Linux links of the week, 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

Draft II was then published on December 17th. It includes these paragraphs on software not to be subject to the export regulations:

e) Unrestricted Encryption Source Code

(1) Encryption source code controlled under 5D002 which would be considered publicly available under Section 734.3(b)(3) and which is not subject to an express agreement for the payment of a licensing fee or royalty for further commercial production or sale of any product developed with the source code is released from EI controls and may be exported or re-exported without review under License Exception TSU, provided you have submitted written notification to BXA of the Internet address (e.g. URL) or a copy of the source code by the time of export. Submit the notification to BXA and send a copy to ENC Encryption Request Coordinator (see Section 740.17(g)(5) for mailing addresses).

(2) You may not knowingly export or re-export source code or products developed with this source code to Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan or Syria.

(3) Posting of the source code on the Internet (e.g., FTP or World Wide Web site) where the source code may be downloaded by anyone would not establish "knowledge" as described in subparagraph (2) of this section. In addition, such posting would not trigger "red flags" necessitating the affirmative duty to inquire under the "Know Your Customer" guidance provided in Supplement No. 3 to Part 732.

John Gilmore, of the Center for Democracy and Technology, posted a note to a couple of mailing lists encouraging developers of free software cryptography projects to review the regulations and consider how it would impact their work. Comments should be sent to Jim Lewis at the Bureau of Export Administration. Overall, the paragraphs above appear to be a good step in the right direction and are somewhat reminiscent of similar paragraphs in the SAFE bill (PDF format) which is still floating around the House and Senate.

The Philosophy of Security: Windows and Linux (Unix) compared. Bruce Schneier's Crypto-Gram, mentioned below, includes a pointer to this ZDTV article by Simson L. Garfinkel, which compares and contrasts the security philosophies behind Windows and Linux. Actually, only the title says "Linux" while the story itself talks of the "Unix" philosophy. His approached is fairly balanced, pointing out advantages and disadvantages of both, but with a clear distaste for claims that Windows is "secure". "A Windows NT computer could have a security hole that allows anyone on the Internet to shut it down, but if nobody knows about the problem, then Microsoft would say the system is fundamentally secure. " (Thanks to Jeremy Allison.)

Emphasizing the seriousness of the ssh/RSAREF problem, segfault.org has a note up about the impact to their site from a break-in traced back to the ssh exploit. If you are using ssh 1.2.X and haven't yet moved to the international version, please take the time to do so as soon as possible.

Security Reports

Current versions of linuxconf disable the HTTP interface by default and are therefore safe unless you have explicitly enabled that interface. Making sure your version of linuxconf has the HTTP interface disabled might be a good idea for the time being. If you are using a version of linuxconf prior to version 1.11, you might also want to consider upgrading to a newer version.

wu-ftpd configuration issues. This paper was posted this week describing problems with wu-ftpd servers configured to allow uploads as well as downloads.

Procmail and sendmail. Michal Zalewski posted a note to BugTraq detailing one bug in procmail and 4 bugs in sendmail, none of which he had developed exploits for, but all of which he felt were "dangerous". No responses to this post have been seen as of yet.

Y2K issues and distributed denial-of-service attacks head the list of current security issues in CERT's Special Edition Summary, released December 17th.

*BSD Reports. Two vulnerabilities were reported in FreeBSD this week, including a root exploit in xsoldier and kmem exploit in wmmon. The xsoldier exploit could impact other operating systems while Linux has been judged to not be impacted by the wmmon exploit.

Commercial Products. Cisco has issued an advisory regarding vulnerabilities in the Cache Engine that could allow someone to arbitrarily replace the contents of a web site within a cache, called "polluting the cache". The vulnerabilities reported only affect Cisco Cache Engine prior to version 2.0.3. An upgrade is recommended.

Updates

Resources

Pikt 1.8.1 has been released containing a fix for a "non-trivial" bug that caused sporadic lookup failures. An upgrade is recommended.

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
Linux Security Audit Project
OpenSSH
OpenSEC
Security Focus
SecurityPortal

See also: last week's Kernel page.

Kernel development

Sparc64 support is being merged into 2.3.35, currently available as a prepatch. This architecture should be working as of the next release, but 32-bit Sparc is in poor shape. Dave Miller says "It is hoped that sparc32 can be in working order by mid January but no promises." This might be an area where suitably skilled kernel hackers could help out a lot.

What else needs to go in before 2.4? The number of requests is large, of course, and a lot of them are not going to happen. One endangered request which has picked up a lot of support, however, is 32-bit UIDs. Without the larger user ID numbers, networks with large numbers of users will find themselves in trouble - and perhaps looking at other operating systems. Even Linus has said that he wants to find a way to get 32-bit UID support in, if possible. Given the list of people supporting it, this enhancement will probably slip in somehow.

Note that this change should not cause problems for applications - the C library has been treating user IDs as 32-bit values for some time.

When will 2.4.0 come out? The folks at Tummy.com have announced another "when will the kernel come out?" pool - this one for 2.4. Last time around, the winner pegged the release time for 2.2.0 to within about 45 minutes. Let's not be so sloppy this time, OK? There will be a fabulous prize for the winner, though they have not figured out what it is yet...

The current stable release remains 2.2.13, unchanged since October. Alan Cox has had a 2.2.14 prepatch (currently 2.2.14pre16) ready for some time, except that there is a persistent IDE problem that refuses to go away. Some users report a "buffer list corrupted" error, followed by any of a number of unpleasant happenings. 2.2.13 does not have this problem, it was introduced later. Clearly, 2.2.14 can not go out in this shape; if the problem resists for too long the kernel developers may revert to the 2.2.13 IDE code just to get something out.

PCMCIA confusion. Where are the current PCMCIA drivers? This question, according to PCMCIA developer David Hinds, is "more complicated than it should be." The PCMCIA code has been integrated into the 2.3 kernel series, sort of. That process is still incomplete. Meanwhile, David has been applying fixes and updates to his standalone version of the drivers, since that is the version still in almost universal use.

David has been trying to keep Linus up to date, but Linus has evidently started reworking some of the 2.3 PCMCIA code on his own. There is now, thus, a fork in the Linux PCMCIA implementation. David is working on fixing things up, but the situation is a bit of a mess for the time being. Hopefully this will get straightened out before 2.4 comes out.

Threads confusion. A long thread started when Rasterman put a note on his news/diary page stating that he couldn't use Linux threads because all threads run in a single processor (even on SMP systems) and thus provide no performance increase. In fact, that is not the case. Linux does try to keep threads together on a single processor because there are performance benefits to doing so. But this processor affinity is weaker than the attractive force of an idle CPU. If multiple threads want to work simultaneously, and a CPU is idle, threads will move over.

However, sharing the same memory context across multiple CPUs has performance problems of its own. For truly high performance on multiprocessor systems, it is probably better to create a shared memory mapping and create multiple processes with fork(). Then each processor can run with its own memory context, and things will go faster.

User-mode kernel 0.2-2.3.31. Version 0.2-2.3.31 of the user-mode kernel port has been announced. This project has ported the Linux kernel to itself - it runs as a set of processes under another Linux kernel. As such, it's suitable for people who want to play with the kernel safely.

Should the Intel processor serial number be available under Linux? Current kernels simply disable the serial number feature, seeing it as a privacy problem with no redeeming features. Some have said, however, that this approach is a bit heavy-handed, that it is better to make the serial number available - even if as an option which defaults to "off." It looks like the Pentium III patches will provide that option, but not everybody is happy. Some see it as the classic foot in the door; once the serial number is an option, somebody will put out an application that requires it, and soon everybody will need to enable it. The end result probably depends on the distributions - if they enable the serial number by default, applications may use it.

Other patches and updates released this week include:

• Chris Wing posted the latest version of his 32-bit UID patch.

• NFS-utils 0.1.5 was released by H.J. Lu.

• Devfs is up to version 150. Version 99.10 has also been released for the 2.2 kernel.

• Logical Volume Manager 0.8 has been released. This is apparently the version that is shipping with SuSE 6.3.

• PPSkit 0.9.0 has been released by Ulrich Windl.

• Dimitris Michailidis at SGI has released version 0.3 of the kernel profiling module.

• Andreas Gruenbacher posted a pair of proposed system calls for the manipulation of access control lists.

• Paul Rusty Russell released netfilter 0.1.13, followed quickly by version 0.1.14.

• The Yoke Linux Kernel Driver v0.3.3 was released; Yoke is a "union block device" that appears to do RAID-1 disk mirroring.

• DinX 0.2.0 was announced by Ben Williamson; it is a kernel module which performs simple window system-like tasks. It's aimed at small, embedded situations.

Section Editor: Jon Corbet

For other kernel news, see:

• Kernelnotes
• Kernel traffic
• Kernel Newsflash

See also: last week's Distributions page.

Distributions

More lists of distributions. In addition to the lists of distributions we've mentioned before, at Kernelnotes and Woven Goods (see right-hand column), there are a couple of additional lists that have been growing and developing. LinuxLinks now has over 100 distributions on their list (for anyone who has been counting, there are now 108 in our columnar list). We don't necessarily agree with their definition of a distribution since many of those listed seem to be resellers, rather than developers, of distributions, but they have a few listed that we haven't gotten to yet, such as ESware Linux, a Spanish-based distribution. (Note that ESware's site thinks that the use of javascript to reconfigure your browser windows is cool...)

Linux.com is also moving into the area of cataloguing distributions, with 20 or so links to either distributions, or distribution-related sites, like Linuxberg's mirror site which provides mirrors of many of the popular distributions.

A new mini-distribution, Empire Linux, is available for download but apparently has no home page. It is in alpha (0.1 release).

Caldera OpenLinux

Debian GNU/Linux

No Debian Weekly News for this week, it appears, presumably they are taking a break for the holiday season.

Linux-Mandrake

Linux PPC

Slackware Linux

The Slackware Changelogs for the month of December are quiet, listing only some minor changes to ncurses in the current tree.

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

Apache

There is currently some resistence to incorporating these patches into the mainline Apache source. Reasons have to do with coding style, and with a lack of desire to make massive changes to the critical parts of Apache 1.3. Some of these patches may well appear in Apache 2.0, however.

Education

Embedded Linux

More news from the Workshop came from Phil Wilshire's daily reports:

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3

Linux-SRT. Linux-SRT is an extension to the Linux kernel to support soft real time. As they explain on the website, Linux-SRT lets you "specify a desired Quality of Service (QOS) for real time applications. You can assign a certain percentage of the CPU to each task. This is more precise than the standard scheduler (which makes no guarantees) and more flexible than the all-or-nothing POSIX real time priorities." This is not a new project, but Martin Keegan dropped us a note to point out that we had not mentioned it before.

Gaming

Gnome

The Gnome Summary is on holiday this week and may they have a merry one!

KDE

An interview with KDE developer Uwe Thiem has been published. "What excites you the most about KDE application development at this point in time? UT: That's probably KDevelop, though I am a developer myself and my point of view might be biased a bit. The fact is, this software will boost development of KDE applications to another level of magnitude because it makes it so easy to write good KDE applications-- including online help, translations to other languages, and painting icons. This beast is hot."

Linux Knowledge Base

Midgard

Mozilla

PHP

Wine

Zope

Amos Latteier has started a series of articles on Zope and XML, the first of which is now available at XML.com.

Section Editor: Liz Coolbaugh

Project Links
EmbedLinux.net
EMLAB
linux-embedded.com
Gnome
High Availability
ht://Dig
KDE
MagicPoint
Midgard
Mozilla
PHP
YAMS
Wine
Worldforge
Zope

More Information
Freshmeat
LinuxDev

Development tools

Java

The release goes on to state that IBM contributed to 80% of the API definitions for Java. Note that none of this means that IBM's JDK will be open source. They are still working from Sun's original source code, so they are constrained by Sun's licenses just as the Blackdown team are. IBM is committed to maintaining compatibility with Sun's API: "IBM will continue to implement the specifications for the Java server APIs and to ensure compatibility with the technology specified in Sun's J2EE. IBM will not, at this time, support Sun's branding strategy. We're going to do the code, but not use the J2EE brand."

MP3 support has been added to Tritonus, the JavaSound implementation for Linux, in its latest development version. This integration is considered "alpha" and has several limitations.

Perl

Also on the event front, the German Perl Workshop 2.0 has also put out a call-for-participation. The Workshop is scheduled for March 8-10, 2000, in Sankt Augustin, FH Rhein-Sieg, Germany (near Bonn).

Pith, a perl-based Hurd translator has been made available.

Python

It mentions that MetaKit, "a portable embedded database engine in C++ which also lets you work in Python and Tcl", has been released under an open source license, in this case, an X/MIT-style license.

Tcl/tk

Section Editor: Liz Coolbaugh

See also: last week's Commerce page.

Linux and business

The issue is one of attitude. Microsoft is saying something like "now you've had your fun, time to get that toy off your system and get serious." For all that Linux zealotry can hit extreme levels, there is no "Removing Windows HOWTO." Instead, a quick check turns up documents like:

• The Linux ``Linux-DOS-Win95-OS2'' mini-HOWTO.
• The Linux+FreeBSD mini-HOWTO.
• The NT OS Loader + Linux mini-HOWTO.
• Win95 + WinNT + Linux multiboot using LILO mini-HOWTO
• The SMB HOWTO.

The Ups and Downs of Corel. Corel's stock, which peaked around $43 on the NASDAQ recently, is now back down into the low teens. The latest reason for this decline can be found in this release describing Corel's fourth-quarter performance. Corel, it turns out, is back to losing money again, despite expectations to the contrary.

Corel, of course, is counting on Linux to make things better again. The company is off to a good start with a respectable distribution and a number of key distribution agreements. Corel today also announced taking a 1/3 stake in LinuxForce, a Philadelphia-based provider of support services. LinuxForce is supposed to help fill out Corel's service and support offerings around Linux.

Corel has also announced a partnership with Creative Technologies, which is intended to bring more audio and video products to Linux.

Meanwhile, Corel's distribution hits the store shelves this week. It will be interesting to see how the market responds.

LNUX == Linux? For your amusement, here's a Reuters article about Creative Technology. "Shares of Creative Technology (NasdaqNM:CREAF - news) pushed higher in early trade on Friday, buoyed by another record close on the U.S. technology-laden Nasdaq, and plans to support the Linux (NasdaqNM:LNUX - news) operating system." (Thanks to Bill Kent).

Here's another one: this press release from "ShesGotItTogether.com." "The benefits from the Linux (NASDAQ: LNUX) operating system and OC-3 connection are significant with respect to reliable, high-speed connectivity and enhanced network security."

People who have spent years in the middle of Linux can lose track of just how hard it can be for "outsiders" to understand what is going on. The idea that Linux is not a company - or owned by a company - takes some getting used to.

Red Hat announces results, stock split. Red Hat has announced its quarterly results. Revenues were $5.4 million, up from $4.4 million last quarter. They report a loss of $3.4 million for the quarter. There will be a two-for-one stock split, effective December 27 with the new shares issued around January 7, 2000.

Quicknet releases drivers under the GPL. Quicknet Technologies, Inc., makers of low-cost, single port telephony cards, has announced the release of drivers for its cards under the GPL. Quicknet has coordinated its work with Alan Cox and the drivers were included in the Linux kernel as of his 2.2.14pre15 prepatch.

Linuxcare and Motorola sign a deal Linuxcare has announced a support deal with the Motorola Computer Group - this deal is a bit unique in that they are supporting Linux in embedded applications. Linuxcare will also be supporting Motorola's training programs.

Linuxcare has also signed a support deal with Informix, see the press release for some details.

TurboLinux and NEC have also signed a support deal. The announcement describes a deal where NEC supports TurboLinux (the distribution) on its systems (in Japan), and TurboLinux (the company) provides backup support.

Atipa announces a new firewall box. Atipa Linux Solutions has announced a new Linux-based firewall appliance. It fits into a 1U rack slot, and start at $3500.

Xybernaut announces Linux partnership with SBS e.V. Xybernaut has announced "a partnership with the Software Zentrum Boblingen/Sindelfingen e.V. ('SBS'), a consortium of over fifty software development companies, to establish a center of excellence for Linux application development and support."

More Linux web sites get bought. The world's attention may be on Linux IPOs, but there seems to be quite an active market in Linux web sites as well. The latest to be bought is LinuxStart.com, which was grabbed by Internet.com. There is a press release announcing the acquisition, but not much information is to be had there.

The other news in the acquisition department is a purely unsubstantiated rumor, but the source is reliable: LinuxNow.com ("the most complete Linux reference") has been acquired by the Linux Mall. Evidently it will be run by the same crew, but as part of a larger operation.

Eltrax brings restaurant software to Linux. Eltrax has announced that its "SQUiRREL" restaurant management system is available for Linux - in fact, it has been in beta test for a year. The Linux "application gap" gets narrower every day, as more of these specialized vertical applications become available...

Aether Intelligent Messaging available. Aether Systems has announced the availability of its "Aether Intelligent Messaging" product for Linux. This product is a wireless messaging system meant for mobile applications and such; they claim it is the first such available for Linux.

Python Essential Reference announced. New Riders has put out a press release announcing the publication of the Python Essential Reference. (LWN reviewed this title back in November).

Red Hat certified memory. H.Co Computer Products announces that its memory has been certified by Red Hat. Of course, memory incompatibilities with Linux have been fairly low on the list of most people's problems...

Press Releases:

Commercial Products for Linux:
• Continuus Software Corporation announced its plans to port the Continuus Change Management Suite to Red Hat Linux 6.1.

• Creative Technology Ltd. announced expanded support for the Linux OS.

• CyberStar Computer Corporation announced that they will support the Linux operating system on its entire line of desktop PC's and fileservers.

• Eicon Technology announced the release of Linux drivers for its PCI bus ISDN server adapters, the DIVA Server BRI-2M and the DIVA Server PRI-23M.

• eLinear announced that WebCAS, eLinear's proprietary web site content management system, is now available for Linux based systems.

• eShare Technologies announced its support of the Linux operating system for its web-based communication products.

• Mission Critical Linux put out this press release detailing their products and support for Linux.

• National Technical Systems Inc. announced the release of its "Linux Test Suite," for validating Linux operating systems ported to hardware platforms.

• Perle Systems announced its intention to provide comprehensive LINUX support across its complete range of serial connectivity and RAS products.

• QSound Labs, Inc. and 4Front Technologies announced iQ for Linux, a software plug-in for XMMS.

  Products Using Linux:

• Eagle Wireless International, Inc. announced that it will offer Linux as one of its standard operating systems for its Convergence Set-Top Box, marketed by BroadbandMagic.com.

• eConnect claims it has developed the first Linux-based transactional server (LTS) for the purpose of receiving incoming Internet cash payments by ATM card and PIN. They also announced that Kanakaris Communications will test the system.

• Emperor Systems launched a TV-Linux+Java=LAVA product, a Real-Time Operating System and Application Software layer for TV systems.

• Intellibarter.com will launch its Linux, PHP and MySQL-based website Dec. 25, 1999. The site allows people to trade unwanted presents.

• SSE Telecom, Inc. announced that it has begun shipping beta units of its new iP3 broadband satellite Internet gateway platform.

  Java Products:

• Chartwell Technology Inc. announced the release of the Linux version of CasinoCasino, its complete suite of JAVA based Internet games.

• Epic Data International Inc. announced the full product release of EPIConnect: Warehouse Edition, a software application for the SAP R/3 logistics system.

• Servlet Inc. announced SOHOConnection, a zero-cost, zero-administration, platform-independent network proxy, available for download at http://www.servlet.com/soho2/.

• Tower Technology Corporation announced that its TowerJ 3.1.4 Java deployment solution for Linux has been nominated for Best Virtual Machine in JavaWorld Magazine's Readers' Choice Awards.

  Products with Linux Versions:

• Computer Associates International, Inc. announced the open beta of ARCserveIT for Linux platforms. Free for download by registering at www.cai.com/products/betas.

• Information Exchange announced Outside In Viewer Technology Version 6.0, a file filtering and viewing software development kit.

• Inprise Corporation announced VisiBroker 3.3 for Delphi.

• Mediascape announced Artstream, a full featured vector illustration and page layout system, is now available for Linux.

• Oriole Systems Inc. announced it has developed a complete turnkey e-business software package, which will be ready for resale in the first quarter of year 2000.

• SERENA Software, Inc. announced that its eChange Man product now supports Linux.

• Spatial Inc. announced the release of ACIS 6.0, the latest version of Spatial's solid modeling kernel for CAD/CAM/CAE systems.

• StarBurst Software announced it has optimized a version of OmniCast software to support reliable and scalable content distribution management on Linux-based operating systems.

• WebEasy, Inc. announced the integration of its OFX application server with Princeton eCom's electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) systems to handle high volumes of financial transactions initiated by Quicken software clients.

• Zideo.com will introduce a comprehensive presentation of its data compression technology at Midem 2000.

  Partnerships, Investments and Acquisitions:

• Applix, Inc. announced its office in the UK has established a new partnership with LinuxIT, one of Europe's largest Linux software resellers and distributors.

• Communication Intelligence Corp. (CIC) announced that it has completed an agreement with MiddleSoft Inc. to license CIC's Jot handwriting recognition system and e-signature software development kit, InkTools, for use on the Linux operating system.

• Corel Corporation and S3 Incorporated's Professional Graphics Division announced a new partnership to deliver 2D/3D graphics to the Linux desktop.

• Covalent Technologies, Inc., provider of Apache Web server e-commerce solutions, announced that it has closed $5 million in first round funding.

• Global Media Corp. announced its signing of a contract with Inner City Broadcasting Corp. of New York, NY.

• GraphOn Corporation announced it has expanded its UK and Netherlands distribution by signing a strategic partnership agreement with leading edge software solutions distributor, E92 Plus.

• IBM and the University of New Mexico announced a joint research project to integrate IBM RS/6000 SP supercomputing technology running AIX with Linux superclusters.

• International Internet, Inc. announced that its has joined the LinuxMall.com Referral Program.

• LinuxOne, Inc. has entered into an exclusive Distribution Agreement with the Sichuan International Economy, Science & Technology Promotion Association, which provides for the distribution of all LinuxOne products throughout Southwest China.

• Microtest Inc. announced a distribution agreement with the Japanese firm, Ark Information Systems to distribute Microtest's Linux-based optical storage appliance, under Ark's brand name.

• Navarre Corporation announced that it has entered into distribution agreements with Loki Entertainment Software and Cybernet Systems Corporation.

• Network Associates, Inc. announced a solution to enable third party developers and service providers to easily embed the market-leading McAfee VirusScan engine into Linux-based e-business applications, Internet appliances, and managed service offerings.

  Other:

• Digital Media Online announced the launch of CreativeLinux.com an Internet community for professional content creators working on Linux-based systems.

• LinuxBusiness.com wants your help in building a huge repository of different ways to use Linux in corporate environments.

• Oracle put out this press release touting its Oracle Technology Network (OTN). "Oracle's Internet Platform is built on Java, XML and Linux -- the foundation Internet technologies -- and it's all available to developers for free on OTN."

• Silicon Valley Research, Inc. announced the availability of Y2K upgrades for all of their software. Users of SVR products may also choose to migrate to these new Linux based products as part of the Year 2000 Compatibility upgrade.

• Terian Technologies is giving away free computers with Red Hat Linux to qualified VARs and resellers who complete a short questionnaire at http://www.terian.com.

• Unific.com announced the launch of a Linux help section.

• Xceed Inc. announced the formal launch of its Linux Solutions Team.

Section Editor: Jon Corbet.

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

Linux in the news

The Red Herring ran this article trashing Corel, CEO Michael Cowpland, and his Linux strategy. "Mr. Cowpland's pursuit of instant gratification by capitalizing on the Linux hype is as transparent as the open-source code he purports to worship."

Morningstar analyst Pat Dorsey says that Linux companies are seriously overvalued. "Sure, some companies might run successful businesses by making Linux easier to use and offering technical support for the systems, but no business model based on service and support is ever going to approach the incredible level of profitability of a Microsoft-style 'pay us for breathing' business."

Kernel:

Pro-Linux.de has put out a description (in German) of the 2.4 kernel. It's a straightforward survey of the changes and new features. English text is available via Babelfish.

NTK marvels at the upcoming 2.4 kernel code freeze and its coincidence with Windows 2000. "...a disaster comparable to Y2K, as every First Adopter on the Net simultaneously hoses their machines in their eagerness to uncover the new bugs in these latest versions..."

Events:

EE Times reports from the Real-time Linux Workshop in Vienna. "Developers of embedded-Linux systems established some common ground at a gathering last week, as they laid the foundation to build common threads among their various efforts and also decided to back Cygnus Solutions' EL/IX as a common applications programming interface (API) for embedded Linux."

VARBusiness ran this brief article about The Bazaar. "The Bazaar, presented by Earthweb, was true to its name with a freer feel, more men with beards than suits, robust t-shirt and Linux CD giveaways, and even children running around the exhibition space. But that didn't mean there wasn't a business side to this event."

Linuxcare:

Here's an article in the Red Herring about Linuxcare's latest financing round. "Linuxcare set out to raise $25 million, and was offered a total of $300 million, Mr. Sarrat claimed. A number of Japanese banks were among those shut out of the round."

The National Post reports on the purchase of the Puffin Group by Linuxcare. "In its effort to try to capitalize on the growing worldwide interest in the revolutionary, open source operating system, Linuxcare will swoop up Puffin Group's small but highly regarded group of Linux developers and gain a foothold into the Canadian market."

This article in Inter@ctive Week talks about Linuxcare and its potential IPO plans. "Existing technical support organizations, such as IBM's Global Services, or consulting organizations, such as KPMG International, are likely to increase their existing Linux expertise. But even so, said Michael Hoch, an analyst at the Aberdeen Group, they are unlikely to reduce the potential of Linuxcare's market, because Linuxcare provides a deeper level of technical support. IBM, which already offers Linux on its Netfinity servers, contracts with Linuxcare for that support, he noted."

Red Hat:

Here's News.com's take on Red Hat's quarterly results. "The company attributes its strong quarterly revenues growth partly to an increase in the number of total enterprise customers, to 60 from 34 last quarter; the expanded scope of service offerings it provides by supporting popular open source applications; and the recent acquisition of Cygnus Solutions."

Newsbytes looks at Red Hat's plans in Asia. "Mark White, the new general manager for Linux distributor Red Hat Asia Pacific said that the firm has yet to decide upon a location for its regional headquarters, which will oversee operations in Greater China, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Korea and India."

ZDNet covers a talk by Bob Young. "Robert Young, chairman of Red Hat, said Sun Microsystems has failed to learn from the open source model of software if it has turned away from establishing an international standard for Java."

PC Week worries about where Red Hat is going. "Could it be that the heads of Linux vendor Red Hat's top managers are growing too large for their own hats, red or otherwise? With the company's stunningly successful IPO and aggressive acquisition strategy, it seems that Red Hat's leaders are listening more to Wall Street's panderers of quick wealth than to the customers who use the product."

This Reuters article talks about today's runup in the price of Be Inc. stock. "Shares of Be Inc. , a developer of an operating system for digital media and Internet appliances, rose about 48 percent on Thursday, amid market rumors that the company could be acquired by Red Hat Inc."

Corel:

News.com looks at Corel's latest partnerships. "The company has licensed Bitstream software that will allow Linux to display Postscript and TrueType fonts. Creative Labs' sound card driver has been released into the open-source programming community that collectively writes Linux. And a new driver for S3's latest video card, which uses IBM's Fire GL chip, will be bundled with Corel Linux."

Corel is the focus of the Motley Fool's "Daily Double" column. "With a spotty history of creating shareholder value, seeing the stock trading at near 80x forward profit estimates may give some value investors a fear of heights. However, if you're looking at Corel's $1.6 billion valuation against Red Hat's $16 billion market capitalization, Corel represents a downright Linux bargain even at today's levels. Of course, further research is the best medicine to decide whether there is any real fire to go with all the Linux smoke."

The Red Herring has posted this followup piece to its previous anti-Corel article (see recommended reading). It seems the author got some email... "I say, choose the OS you'd like to use, and may open source and Linux prevail. But please don't mandate that everybody buy the stock of the corporation of your choice so that certain individuals can benefit financially from a software movement that purports to be free of greed."

Reuters looks at Corel's stock price. "The recent shine on Corel Corp. shares got roughed up a bit on Monday in a round of pre-Christmas profit-taking."

ZDNet looks at Corel's fourth quarter loss. "The latest profit warning is bad news to investors that bought into Corel at the peak of its Linux hype. On November 12, Corel closed just under $9 a share. Less than a month later, Corel closed above $39."

Business:

Salon ran this article about Richard Stallman's call for a boycott against Amazon.com. "Stallman is both a visionary and a crank, and something tells me that Jeff Bezos is not losing sleep over his manifesto. But the same network magic that leverages the information on Amazon's hugely successful and convenient Web sites also has the capacity to turn quiet arguments into raging wildfires of protest."

News.com ran this article about HP's work to port Linux to the PA-RISC architecture. "The work sponsored by HP closely parallels the Trillian effort to bring Linux to the 64-bit chip family Intel plans to launch next year with the introduction of its Merced processor. Intel, HP, IBM, VA Linux Systems and several other companies are participating in that initiative."

Bob Metcalf talks about Sendmail, Inc. in this InfoWorld column. "If buying commercial sendmail becomes popular, then maybe free open-source sendmail will go the way of ITS. This is probably also what the capitalists developing Windows 2000 have in mind for Linux. May the best software win."

LinuxPower talks with the developers at Loki Entertainment Software. "So when you buy one of our games you support Linux gaming in two ways: 1) by showing others that Linux products can be successful, and 2) by supporting our efforts to create all the open source tools necessary to create games on Linux with all the features and advanced technologies of any Windows game."

News.com writes about Covalent Technologies. "Covalent sells technical support and enhancements for the Apache Web server, much like Red Hat provides services based around the Linux operating system."

Also from News.com: this report on Sun offering SparcLinux in its online store. "Sun may also be positioning itself to stave off the advances of Dell Computer, which in the third quarter captured the top spot in Windows NT workstations, according to International Data Corp. (IDC)."

This Red Herring article is about the Andover.net IPO; it focuses more on the mechanism than the company. "Andover.net chose to work with W.R. Hambrecht because, according to Bill, philosophically they meshed. W.R. Hambrecht was able to extend the bidding process to all Linux developers, and for a company that relies on its developers for its success, that makes sense."

Linux News and Care has run a comparison (in German) of three ICQ clients. English text is available via Babelfish. (Thanks to Peter Kis).

According to ComputerWeekly, Racal Defence Electronics is looking at putting Linux on its desktop systems. There is a pilot program in place now. "If the pilot is successful, it could lead to one of the largest implementations of Linux on the desktop. Steve Lewis, one of Racal's IT executives who is leading the project, said the move was a bold step for the defence contractor, but the potential cost savings had proved to be too attractive to ignore." (Thanks to Ian Harper).

The Ottawa Citizen ran this introductory article, which concentrates on the confrontation with Microsoft. "There's never neutrality in the bleachers when David takes on Goliath -- and that's why there's been a lot of cheers heard since Linux took on the dominant Microsoft Windows for leadership in the computer operating system market."

SmartMoney.com comments on the flood of press releases from "Linux wannabe" companies. Evidently such releases have the desired effect of raising stock prices - at least for a while. "Linux lunacy led Zap.com (ZPCM), an Internet search engine, to inform the world on Dec. 9 that it just added several Linux-related Web sites to its list of the 200 best Internet sites.... Is it too cynical to suggest the release was intended to give Zap.com's stock a zap - especially since its share price was falling in the days preceding the announcement? Zap.com's stock rose nearly 33% from Dec. 9 to Dec. 12, before giving back some of those gains." More "wannabe" announcements can be found in last week's LWN commerce page. (Found in NNL).

Here is a mostly introductory article in the Sunday Times which emphasizes the recent stock market activity. It is not entirely accurate. "Linus Torvalds, who was a 21-year-old graduate student at Helsinki University when he wrote the Linux operating system in 1991, deliberately gave away the source code on the internet so that programmers could modify it for their own use. The only condition he imposed was that they share their modifications with everyone else and never make money out of Linux." (Thanks to Andres Kruse).

Installation Stories:

Jerry Pournelle installs Red Hat 6.1 and Word Perfect, has trouble with both, but comes out pretty pleased. "Let's hope Corel decides to revisit its counterproductive policy of non-support for the Linux installation process, before it winds up shooting itself, and by extension the entire Linux effort, in its collective feet. Linux truly has the potential to fulfill the Macintosh's promise of being the OS for 'the rest of us,' and I for one want to see that potential realized to its fullest. The next step will be the Corel Office Suite for Linux, available sometime next year." (Thanks to Chris Walton).

Here's a classic Linux is hard to install article from USA Today. "To get my printer to work, I must first learn a powerful yet hard to use word processor called the vi text editor. Vi (pronounced vee-eye) is all command lines -- no menus, no point-and-click, just glowing letters on a blank screen."

Section Editor: Rebecca Sobol

See also: last week's Announcements page.

Announcements

Resources

HPC-Linux mailing list. A mailing list to support development of Linux for high-performance computing has been announced. The list, which is hosted at SGI, is intended to be a mechanism to help coordinate efforts and push Linux forward in this area. Subscription information is in the announcement. (Thanks to James Cownie).

Events

Linux Expo 2000 North America (Montreal). The Linux Expo 2000 North America, being held in Montreal, Canada, in April, has announced keynote speakers: "Bob Young (CEO, Red Hat) Larry Augustin (CEO, VA Linux), Michael Cowpland (CEO, Corel) and Dirk Hohndel (VP Strategic development, SUSE)." Gosh, do you remember when conferences had only a single keynote speaker? One wonders if all speakers will be so designated someday.

The GNU/Linux Conference and Expo in Bangalore will happen February 25-27 in Bangalore, India. Speakers include Richard Stallman. See the web page for more.

Web sites

User Group News

There is also a new LUG starting up in the Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario area. Details in the announcement

Yet another new LUG is being set up in Leicester, UK. Here's the announcement

Software Announcements

Our software announcements are provided courtesy of FreshMeat

See also: last week's Back page page.

Linux links of the week

LinuxOrbit is mostly a collection of pointers to articles and reviews elsewhere on the net, with a bit of original content thrown in as well. Its contribution comes in the form of organization - it is possible, for example, to find all the articles about GNOME easily. There is also a forum area.

Section Editor: Jon Corbet

Letters to the editor

Date: Sat, 18 Dec 1999 18:47:01 +0000
From: kevin lyda <kevin@suberic.net>
To: letters@lwn.net
Subject: LNUX == linux?

Fascinating.

I was wondering when someone would notice.  I'm glad VA Linux used LNUX
for their stock ticker, because it's just one more way to get the name
Linux in the mouths of suits.  Lots of people are clueless that Linux
exists so the more ways they can find out the better.  To complete the
lot it would be nice if LinuxCare went with LINX, or LNXC.

However I was rather curious that the rather noisy "Red Hat is Evil,
Nasty, And Should Be Dragged Across Ye Olde Hot Coals Because They're So
Commercial And Stealing The Linux Name" choir was ever so silent on VA's
ticker choice.  If Red Hat had chosen it, whew.  I suppose if
slashdot.org surviced the posting frenzy following it both the MySQL and
Apache developers could point at a real world case of their software
handling 100 million hits a second.  In fairness Linux is part of VA's
name.

Again, I'm glad for VA, and I think it's great that they picked the name
they did.  I'm very happy in general with companies like VA, RedHat,
SuSE, and TurboLinux for their commitment to free software. 
Particularly the first two since they're nearly 100% behind it.  Neither
the press's inability to understand a rather simple system like Linux
(no one company owns it you freaks!) or the above mentioned choir who
just seem to yammer on for no rational reason impress me though.

Good luck VA, keep getting the word out!  

Kevin
-- 
kevin@suberic.net                              Nutrition Facts
fork()'ed on 37058400		       Puns: 100% RDA  (% good puns: 0)

Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 16:41:44 -0500
From: "Jay R. Ashworth" <use-reply-to-address@gte.net>
To: editor@lwn.net
Subject: Ok, Damnit, RMS...


<sigh>

I'm at the end of _my_ rope, now.

> However, one problem may be hard to solve: the LSB is mainly dealing 
> with issues at the operating system level--and is therefore in effect 
> calling the GNU operating system "Linux".

GNU doesn't _have_ an operating system.

GNU has a large, admittedly well done set of utility programs, a
compiler and some frameworks, and, well, ok, maybe you can call _EMACS_
an operating system, but I wouldn't.  :-)

And maybe they'll have an OS kernel Real Soon Now<tm>.

Maybe.

Much, unless I'm very much mistaken, of at least one of the *BSD
operating systems ships with a large collection of GNU utilities.  Does
RMS expect us to start referring to that system as GNU/BSD?

Hell, I can get the Skunkware CD from SCO, and load lots of his code on
my Open Server 5 box.  Must I then call it GNU/SCO?

I have no quibble with the POV that the GNU developers have labored long
and hard, and, in the main, produced some exceptional free
reimplementations of the traditional Unix utility set.  But it took them
10 or 12 _years_ to get even close to having a kernel to talk about...
and obviously, the problem isn't _that_ big; Linus went from 0.01 to
.99pl12f (which I ran successfully for many moons...) in about a year
and a half.

So I think that it's a bit disingenuous of RMS to take the approach he's
taking; let's try to keep our arguments coherent, shall we?  At best,
from the standpoint of "would we be getting any work done here?", the
balance tips towards Linux/GNU -- notwithstanding how much GNU code
there is, it wouldn't run very fast without a kernel underneath.

(Damn, it's uncomfortable dressing down a legend... :-)

Cheers,
-- jra
Jay R. Ashworth
Ashworth & Associates
An Interdisciplinary Consultancy in Advanced Technology

Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 16:07:43 +0100
From: Michael Neuffer <neuffer@alpha.mz.rhein-main.de>
To: lwn@lwn.net
Subject: Your current LWN issue


>Despite some difficulties here and there, the VA Linux directed
>share program appears to have gone well. This program allowed
>developers (as recognized by VA) to invest in a small number of
>shares at the IPO price. Many of the difficulties encountered by Red
>Hat (which had to blaze the initial trail for others to follow) were
>avoided. 

Unfortunately this is not quite true. Deutsche Bank Alex Brown
failed to do their work properly to file to legal paperwork
so that all of the German developers and reportedly the developers
of a bunch of other countries were left out, in spite of VA wanting 
them to take part. Also communication between DBAB and the participants 
was very problematic, some didn't get any information from DBAB after the 
first mailing and were not able to reach them over the service phone.


Mike

Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 23:16:59 +0000
From: Sid Boyce <szb50@amdahl.com>
To: letters@lwn.net
CC: rsimpson@ewrcsdra.demon.co.uk
Subject: RE: Binary only modules

Anyone following the huge thread in the kernel mailing list will have
seen all the arguments and exactly where the weight has come down. The
one raised here by Richard Simpson is yet another legitimate one, but
binary-only drivers would not only impact non-x86 users. A driver in
source form could very quickly be fixed whatever platform is affected,
far more responsively than "blindary-only" stuff which could only be
fixed by the guy with the source code.
	Despite the persistence of the original requester, both Linus and Alan
have invented no end of new ways of saying no-way.
Regards
-- 
... Sid Boyce...Amdahl(Europe)...44-121 422 0375 
Any opinions expressed above are mine and do not necessarily represent
 the opinions or policies of Amdahl Corporation.