2004 Linux Timeline: April [LWN.net]

This release marks the return to community development of the X Window System under governance open to all contributors for the first time since the founding of the X Consortium in 1988.

-- Jim Gettys

The X.Org Foundation releases X11R6.7, the first post-XFree86 release (announcement).

SCO's motion to dismiss the Red Hat suit is denied, but the trial is put on hold pending the outcome of the IBM case (Groklaw coverage).

The 2.6.5 kernel is released (announcement).

Linux in the defense environment is the classic Trojan horse scenario--a gift of 'free' software is being brought inside our critical defenses. If we proceed with plans to allow Linux to run these defense systems without demanding proof that it contains no subversive or dangerous code waiting to emerge after we bring it inside, then we invite the fate of Troy.

-- Dan O'Dowd CEO, Green Hills Software

The Yankee Group claims that switching to Linux is prohibitively expensive (press release and obligatory DiDio quote).

Progeny Debian 2.0 is released (coverage).

Mandrakelinux 10.0 Official is released (announcement).

Martin Michlmayr is re-elected as Debian Project Leader (voting results).

Sun and Microsoft make a deal; Sun gets $2 billion and the two agree to work together.

Lindows (the distribution) becomes Linspire (press release).

Lindows (the company) files for an IPO (Form S-1).

BayStar demands its money back from SCO (letter).

It looks like I'm going to have to reconsider something I'd been taking for granted -- that Linux on the desktop, and especially the laptop, was a non-starter in the operating systems race. While I wasn't paying sufficient attention, the proverbial tortoise has been playing some serious catch-up.

-- Dan Gillmor

Open Source Risk Management certifies that the Linux kernel is free of copyright infringements (PDF press release).

Red Hat decides to disable SELinux in Fedora Core 2 after testing makes it clear that some difficulties remain (announcement).

The Public Patent Foundation challenges Microsoft's FAT filesystem patent (press release).

The Netfilter Project gets an injunction against Sitecomm stopping the distribution of Sitecomm's products in Germany until its GPL violations are resolved (announcement).

If instead, it turns out there are significant numbers of people who believe their participation in Debian is really more about proving that they are Holier Than Stallman, those that *are* interested in making something useful for their users have their choice of either (a) trying to see if they have the votes to shut-out the fanatics, (b) try to build something useful that uses Debian as a base, and leaves the insanity behind, or (c) join the Fedora project, or some other distribution.

-- Ted Ts'o

The Debian Project changes its social contract; the new wording requires the distribution to be "100% free" and causes another delay in the sarge release.

Linuxant gets caught circumventing the kernel's GPL module check (coverage).

Gentoo chief architect Daniel Robbins resigns.

Gentoo Linux 2004.1 is released (announcement).

Turbolinux 10F is released (announcement).

Gcc 3.4 is released (release notes).

MontaVista gets $7 million in venture investments (press release).

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