The LWN.net 2002 Linux Timeline - May

OpenOffice.org 1.0 is released (announcement).

Red Hat Linux 7.3 is released (announcement).

The GNOME 2.0 release is delayed, again, in the interests of stability.

CD copy protection schemes are defeated with a magic marker, but the movement to ban markers under the DMCA never quite gets off the ground.

The Digital Consumer's Bill of Rights is posted, but doesn't seem to get that far either (Bill of Rights here).

A constitutional attack on the DMCA fails in the ElcomSoft case; presiding Judge Whyte argues that a ban on circumvention devices is constitutional, even if those devices have legal uses.

Caldera International issues an earnings warning and lays off 73 people (press release).

A U.S. Appeals court refuses to hear the 2600 DVD case, leaving the lower court ruling (which said that linking to DeCSS was illegal) intact. The defendants eventually decide not to appeal.

Turbolinux 8 Workstation is released (announcement).

Gcc 3.1 is released (announcement).

The Embedded Linux Journal ceases publication, but lives on as a section within the regular Linux Journal.

Sun donates an unlimited number of copies of StarOffice 6.0 to the Chinese Ministry of Education.

Word gets out that Red Hat has filed for software patents covering some of its kernel work. The company responds with a statement of position which promises that patents will be freely licensed to GPL code.

The ADEOS development project is announced; it promises a way of implementing real-time Linux systems while avoiding the RTLinux patents (announcement).

The UnitedLinux consortium announces it existence; the group, made up of Caldera, Conectiva, SuSE, and Turbolinux, will pool its operating system development efforts in order to save money and offer a more standardized platform. (Press release here).