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

Linux in the news

Recommended Reading

Sklyarov backs employer despite U.S. deal (News.com). Here's a News.com article (from Reuters) on Dmitry. "'I am extremely disappointed with any implication that I am, in any way, cooperating with the (U.S.) government,' Dmitry Sklyarov said in a news conference. 'I am a man of integrity and as such am doing nothing more than telling the truth, not for or against anyone.'"

10 Linux predictions for 2002 (LinuxWorld). Joe Barr looks forward to 2002 in this LinuxWorld article. "Theo de Raadt of OpenBSD fame, Arpad Gereoffy of the MPlayer project, and Brett Glass will team up to form a new PR firm called Darker Image. The concept is simple, like reverse psychology. For a fee, the team will act as advocates for your competition. Rumors have it that the dynamic trio is already in discussions with Redmond about championing the Free Software Foundation."

Linux in 2002: More security, high-end computing (CNN). CNN looks at what the distributors are up to in 2002. "Michael Tiemann, chief technology officer at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-based Red Hat, said customers are looking for better security for their IT systems, and the company is taking those requests to heart."

2002 in review: Not perfect, but it sure beat 2001 (ZDNet). Here's a set of 2002 predictions, written in the past tense, from ZDNet. "It's pretty clear we've all finally agreed that Linux isn't a desktop operating system. While server sales continued to grow--though more at Sun's expense than Microsoft's--whatever momentum existed for the open-source OS running on your desktop PC seems to have disappeared."

The Year in Internet Law (New York Times). The New York Times asked several legal experts about the most significant events in 2001 with regard to the net and the law. "The trial and appellate courts both ruled that posting and linking to DeCSS were illegal under the DMCA. The motion picture industry won this round of the constitutional fight over the DMCA, but there will be other rounds, and I believe courts will come to appreciate the constitutional deficiencies of the DMCA, even if they didn't in the Corley case." (The Times requires registration).

MS struggles to discredit Linux (Register). The Register claims to have another internal Microsoft memo about its response to Linux. "Much like the support 'communities' that define the Linux experience, the FCS team will strive to build a community to cooperate in winning business against Linux."

Why Microsoft is attacking Embedded Linux (LinuxDevices). LinuxDevices.com looks at why Microsoft is worried about embedded Linux. "Another likely reason for Microsoft's growing concern with Embedded Linux is that major manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard, Sharp, and Motorola have recently begun delivering new consumer devices which contain Embedded Linux. These include handheld computers and TV set-top boxes -- emerging markets with extremely high volume potential, which Microsoft undoubtedly wants to dominate."

Lineo responds to Microsoft attack (ZDNet). Here is Lineo's response to Microsoft's attack on embedded Linux, as carried by ZDNet. "The open source licenses are often spoken of as a disadvantage but they are truly a strong advantage. What they offer you is a choice: Do you want to use existing, freely available code (and contribute the resultant product back to the community) to quickly produce your driver or application or do you want to program from the ground up--increasing the development cycle, but avoiding the derivative work clauses of the open source licenses? This choice is not offered by a closed operating system such as XP Embedded."

Embedded XP or Linux? (IT-Director). IT-Director has sounded off on Microsoft's attack on embedded Linux. "The Linux approach may demand a little extra in terms of development to get exactly what is required but it starts on the right side of the fence. Windows XP may well be the best and most reliable version of the OS ever - but that isn't saying much. It is not a flat racer. In embedded terms, it is a blinkered and rather overweight old nag that will never be able to get down to the correct weight for this race."

Upgrade cycle ensures XP will succeed (IT-Director). IT-Director looks at how Microsoft is forcing businesses into upgrading to XP. "On the other hand, there is an opportunity for the Linux boys here. There is going to be a significant amount of upgrade activity in the next few months and Microsoft Windows is not the only tool in the box (it?s certainly not the sharpest). Wouldn't it be interesting if businesses found an easy way to replace their office systems with a non-Microsoft alternative?"

MP3.com Win In Hand, He Takes Aim At Windows (TechWeb). Here's a TechWeb article about Lindows, or whatever it will eventually be called. "Once Lindows' installed base is large enough, [Michael] Robertson's plan is to have Lindows aggregate Linux applications from sites all over the Web and serve as a virtual clearinghouse for them-much as MP3.com does for music that's available in MP3 format. Robertson steadfastly believes that consumers are ready to download operating systems instead of buying them in boxes off retail shelves."

MS trains legal guns at Lindows (Register). The Register has published a brief article on Microsoft's suit against Lindows. "Microsoft wants to settle out of court i.e. for Lindows to change its name. But unlike most small software start-ups, Lindows has a rich backer."

Why NewsForge hasn't written about Lindows (NewsForge). NewsForge ponders Linux "vaporware". "Shall we talk about (commercial) Linux software companies that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on trade show displays before they had any products to show or sell? Most of those companies are gone now, as in bankrupt, because their products either never made it to market or were so disappointing that no one bought them."

Special issue of Upgrade on free software. The European "Upgrade" magazine has published a special issue on free software. There are articles from Richard Stallman, Ricardo Galli, Jean Paul Smets, and numerous others. They are, however, only available in PDF form. (Thanks to Stèfane Fermigier).

Ten Years After the Future Began (O'Reilly). Here's an OreillyNet article looking at RFC 1287 ten years after its publication. This RFC, entitled "Towards the Future Internet Architecture," made many predictions on where the net would go. "The modest assumption that IP-based networks would be just one of many networking systems is the biggest point on which RFC 1287 shows its age. Indeed, a few interesting concepts from OSI remain in circulation today (LDAP, for instance, derives from the OSI standard X.500.), but the Internet has effectively swept it from the scene."

Reviews

Network Troubleshooting Tools: A Book Review (Linux Journal). Linux Journal reviews Network Troubleshooting Tools, a book on network strategies and tools.

Interviews

Interview: Matt Dillon. KernelTrap talks with FreeBSD kernel hacker Matt Dillon. "The coolest feature of 5.0 is going to be Julian's KSEs -- basically a totally new way of doing userland threading which combines the best of both worlds: The ability for the userland to switch threads without having to drop into the kernel, and the ability for the kernel to detach kernel stack contexts associated with blocked userland threads on the fly. We will theoretically be able to run massively multi-threaded programs with very little overhead."

Interview: Dave Jones (KernelTrap). KernelTrap interviews Dave Jones, a kernel hacker currently employed by SuSE, and the maintainer of the "dj" patches. "There's been some talk recently about how difficult it is to get Linus to accept patches these days. Whilst I've no objection to anyone sending me updates/fixes etc for inclusion that Linus is silently dropping, I've no intention of pushing anything like that to Linus when it comes to the resync. 2.5 is the development tree after all, not mine."

(For those who are interested, the current "dj" patch is 2.5.1-dj6).

Miscellaneous

Dedication Trumps Talent (Linux Journal). Here's a Linux Journal article on how to understand the kernel. "Reading books, articles, HOWTOs and the development discussion are all very well and good, but the only way to learn the kernel is to 'use the source Luke'."

Phrack 58 released. Phrack #58 is now available. Included therein are articles on Linux /proc programming, hacking code into the kernel via /dev/kmem, and more.

Section Editor: Forrest Cook

Next: Announcements