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Linux in the news

Recommended Reading

Free Software's Stallman strikes back at Microsoft (ZDNet). eWeek covers Stallman's talk at NYU. "Stallman addressed everything from the distinctions between open source and GNU/Linux to his take on how Microsoft might be best broken up by the government, in the aftermath of the Department of Justice antitrust trial."

LinuxUser issue 11 special edition. LinuxUser has published an article on how Microsoft has locked out Unix/Linux clients from UK Government sites. "The second, and far more serious, issue is that individuals and organisations not running Microsoft products are prevented from using the Gateway's authentication service, due to the requirement for proprietary PKI technologies on the client computer. The site claims that other browsers do not give proper support for SSL and digital certificates." A PDF version of this document is also available.

Opinion: A third way for software development (LinuxDevices). Lineo CEO Bryan Sparks talks about whether or not a balance can exist between open source and intellectual property. "Allowing proprietary and GPL code to interact while keeping the two separate is a fundamental process practiced by organizations around the world. For example, if an application or driver runs in user space and makes normal calls to the operating system, the proprietary source code is not required to be licensed under the GPL but may be licensed under a proprietary license if the author chooses."

Linux-based killer robot at Battlebots? Not quite! (LinuxDevices). LinuxDevices.com reports on the entry, or near entry, of a Linux-based robot in the popular BattelBots competition.

Companies

Intel set to rattle server market with Itanium (News.com). C|Net's News.com looks at the upcoming official release of Itanium, Intel's 64 bit processor technology. "For Intel, the chip is the beginning of what it hopes will be a long-running family of workstation and server chips. Though work continues on future versions of the chip, it's also the end of a protracted initial development process. Many people at Intel, and co-developer HP, will breathe a sigh of relief when the curtain raises on the chip, which has been more than seven years in the making."

Linux @ Apple.com (PenguinPPC). The folks at PenguinPPC.org have written their views of Apple's open source initiatives. "Apple has stepped up on loaning equipment to Linux companies and even granting access to the Hardware Quality labs. However, documentation requests were usually answered with 'those documents do not exist.' Apple still is generous with providing loaners but the lack of any hardware documentation reduces coding efforts to reverse engineering games of plug and chug."

Companies fight over CD listings, leaving the public behind (C|Net). A more in-depth look into the Roxio/Gracenote battle that will determine just who can and can't get hold of the CDDB music database. "If Roxio wins, open-source competitors to Gracenote will be legally free to build databases that can't be co-opted by others. If Gracenote wins, other databases relying on individuals' submissions could be considered the property of whatever company collects and formats the data."

Exec shakeup rocks Linux specialist Mandrakesoft (ZDNet). ZDNet gets around to covering the MandrakeSoft employment changes. "Mandrake's U.S. public relations firm would confirm only that there had been a management shuffle and that Poole had left. It would not disclose how many jobs had been lost, but said no further staff reductions were anticipated."

Sharp to display Linux handhelds (C|Net). C|Net reports that Sharp is expected to show Linux-based handhelds at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco in June.

Sun offers Gnome preview for Solaris users (ZDNet). eNews looks at Sun's preview release of GNOME for Solaris systems. "Sun is making significant contributions to the Gnome (GNU Network Object Model Environment) project and is collaborating with other key industry players, including Red Hat Inc., Ximian and Hewlett-Packard Co., to ensure it becomes the leading desktop for Unix and GNU-Linux-based systems, she said."

Business

IBM, Japan PC makers team on Linux (News.com). C|Net looks at the recent joint venture by a group of Japanese companies along with IBM to help push Linux development forward. "'The companies, with a combined total of about 500 engineers working on enterprise-related Linux software development, will share information and divide tasks with a view to making products available over the next year or two, an NEC spokesman said.'"

A Different View (ZDNet). This article provides an introductory look at why IT shops should be using Linux. "Open source can solve specific infrastructure issues, such as the costs for managing the number of software licenses required to keep infrastructure running, along with the extra costs of proprietary software and/or appliances."

Reviews

New handheld aims to bridge digital divide (ZDNet). MSNBC examines the Simputer, a Linux-based handheld aimed at making computing affordable to poor communities. "A local community such as the village panchayat (tax collector's office), the village school, a kiosk, a village postman, or even a shopkeeper should be able to loan the device to individuals for some length of time and then pass it on to others in the community. The Simputer, through its Smart Card feature, allows for personal information management at the individual level for an unlimited number of users."

Interviews

Interview: Hans Reiser (InfoLinux). The Indonesian magazine InfoLinux interviews Hans Reiser the force behind the ReiserFS filesystem. "We are going to add plugins in our next major version, and we hope that plugins will do for filesystems what they did for Photoshop. We will add compression and encryption, and thanks to DARPA funding the encryption will be going into v4.0."

Section Editor: Forrest Cook

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