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

Linux in the news

Recommended Reading

Linux standard eases programming (News.com). C|Net looks at the impact of the newly released LSB (Linux Standard Base). "Further standardizing Linux is a key part of making it easier for companies to make software that works on Linux. But [executive director for the nonprofit Free Standards Group Scott] McNeil doesn't believe it will remove the need for companies to certify their software as working with a particular version of Linux."

Linux: At a Turning Point? (IEEE Computer Society). This article from the IEEE Computer Society discusses some of the perceived problems with Linux and shows, in most cases (though not all), that the problem is mostly in the perception and not the implementation. "The LSB has already released the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, which SuSE and other companies are using. FHS aims to standardize file and directory locations within Linux systems, which would make it easier for the different distributions to run and compile applications without developers having to write multiple versions of their programs. The LSB expects to complete version 1.0 of its overall standard this summer."

Jargon File 4.3.1. Eric Raymond released a minor update to the Jargon File today with few new entries but lots of minor corrections.

Why is Microsoft Attacking the GPL? (Linux Journal). An editorial from Linux Journal uses historical context to examine some of the possible reasons Microsoft has accelerated its attacks on Linux. "Business history teaches the following lesson: When a market-dominating firm engages in a FUD campaign of this magnitude, it's not merely because they're scared of competition from a new market entrant. Often, it's because the new market entrant is seen to challenge the business model that has enabled the market-dominant firm to make huge gobs of money."

Is BSD the tortoise? (ZDNet). The BSD world is to Linux as the tortoise is to the hare, or so this ZDNet article says. And even Apple would do best to let them continue unabated. "If Apple didn't have to allocate engineers to maintaining Apple-only variants, it could spend more time improving and innovating its OS. Hiring Jordan Hubbard will hopefully add considerable momentum to the improvement of this situation. Such improvement would benefit Apple and its customers, but would also provide ample benefit to the FreeBSD community in the long run as well."

Hoax virus alert targets MP3 (Register). The Register reports on a hoax warning to MP3 users about a virus in downloaded music files. "Jack Clark, European product manager at Network Associates, said that it was impossible to spread malicious code through MP3 files, which are data files that cannot execute by themselves." Others consider the possibility of an MP3 virus to be a real threat, see this week's LWN letters section for more on the topic.

Linux On Steroids (TechWeb). TechWeb looks briefly at the Sandia National Labs Linux-based supercomputer cluster software known as Cplant.

Companies

IBM prods Linux toward bigger servers (News.com). IBM releases several new software components to help make Linux perform better on high end computing systems. "IBM's JFS isn't the only journaling file system in development. Others include ext3, ReiserFS and XFS, version 1.0 of which SGI released in May."

Caldera looks to make money from Linux (IT-Director). IT-Director thinks Caldera's per-seat license makes reasonable business sense if Linux is to penetrate further into the IT world. "It points out in its press release that this is aimed at commercial users who should not be too concerned at the $59 price tag. At the same time Caldera will be enhancing the credibility of its own business as well as the overall view of the Linux marketplace without taking too much away from any individuals."

Solaris blueprints still open to viewing (News.com). Sun has reversed its decision to end the program allowing users to view, but not change, the Solaris source.

VA Linux Scaling Back (Wired). Wired News reports on the changes at VA Linux. "In a press release issued Wednesday afternoon, VA Linux CEO Larry M. Augustin called the shift in strategy a logical move. 'Our differentiating strength has always been our software expertise,' Augustin said."

VA Linux quits hardware ahead of PC bloodbath (Register). Here is The Register's take on VA's change in direction. "VA says it expects its revenues to decline steeply - with its burn rate cut to $8 million a quarter. On that reckoning, its $70 million cash pile expires by early next year, and it remains to be seen if VA will by then be attractive enough to be acquired by one of the more Linux-clueless commodity box shifters such as Dell, or as an in-house development team for one of the big five consultancies."

VA Linux Gives Up The Hard Stuff (Forbes). Forbes says that VA's statement that the shedding of its hardware business is a shift in strategic focus is like saying a leg amputation is a minor abrasion. "The market sure didn't like the news. By midday, shares of VA Linux fell more than 20% to about $2.50. That compares quite poorly to the company's record-breaking IPO back in December 1999, when shares of VA Linux soared 733% to a close of $250."

VA Linux to slice 150 jobs (San Francisco Chronicle). The SF Chronicle chimes in on VA Linux System's decision to get out of the hardware business. There's some introductory information about Linux in there too. "What has come to be known as the Linux operating system is actually a hybrid computer backbone based on the GNU operating system developed by free software advocates beginning in the early '80s. Linus Torvalds, a Finnish programmer, developed a groundbreaking core, or "kernel," for the system, which then took on a derivative of his name in computer speak."

VA Linux quits hardware ahead of PC bloodbath (Register). Further examination of the VA turnabout, this time from The Register. "We've bored you all silly before by praising the genuinely subversive potential of plug-in file and print or NAS appliances based on free software. Despite employing both SAMBA project leads, VA has neglected to exploit its expertise. The margins on this kind of business - just ask NAI or Sun's Cobalt team - are wafer thin. But equally it lends itself to a high-volume OEM model - and no one's really tried that either."

Reviews

India to Compute on the Cheap (Wired). Wired covers the Simputer project. "The Simputer looks and feels like a bulkier Palm. It uses three AAA batteries and an Intel strong-arm chip. It has 32MB of RAM and 16MB of Flash memory and runs on the free Linux operating system. It also features a gif-image touch screen, e-mail and Net access when connected to a working telephone line. And most importantly, it has a smartcard reader that enables the machine to be used on a shared basis."

Pentium 4 Gone Budget? (DukeOfURL). The DukeOfURL reviews Pogo's Pentium 4 Verona running Linux. "What does this all have to do with Pogo's latest revision of their new famous Verona? That's simple. Most of the major media outlets were predicting the Pentium 4 to be in that upper-bracket of pricing, that is, the $2500 range. Pogo has recently come along and shattered some of those early predictions with one much lower than that -- try $999."

Interviews

Red Hat guns for MS database space (Register). Red Hat European VP Colin Tenwick is interviewed by IT-Analysis.com about his company's upcoming database launch. The interview was posted on The Register. "Certainly we will be operating in a very similar space to Microsoft yes. But that isn't our target market just yet. We have a product that is perfect for departmental use, anything less than 100 seats essentially, and we will be looking for wins in this space. The first people that we will be targeting will be the existing Linux and open source users."

SuSE Interview (Linux Online). Linux Online interviews SuSE Vice President for Marketing Heiner Maasjost. "Home and small business users will find everything they'd expect in a desktop system - without having to pay the big license fees. You get software such as Netscape Navigator for Web-browsing; Acrobat Reader for reading and printing .pdf files; StarOffice for word processing and other familiar office tasks; the sophisticated computer graphics program GIMP; and e-mail and organizer tools."

Section Editor: Forrest Cook

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