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LWN.net Weekly Edition for January 2, 2003Obviously incorrect 2003 predictionsIt's that time of year again. Traditionally the first LWN Weekly Edition of the year includes some predictions of what may happen in the near future. It is worthwhile, occasionally, to step back and think about what may be on the horizon, even though the real thing will, as always, include surprises that we are not able to anticipate.Besides, real news tends to be scarce about now. So, without further ado, here's a few Obviously Incorrect Predictions for the next year.
Those are our guesses for what this year holds for Linux and free software. These predictions are offered in the hope that they will be useful, but they come with NO WARRANTY regarding their fitness for any particular purpose or relation to any sort of reality.
Distribution support: how long is long enough?[This article was contributed by LWN reader Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier] Red Hat's recently announced errata policy has drawn some fire from the Linux community for being too stingy. The new policy guarantees that releases will be supported for "at least 12 months from the date of initial release." To look at it another way, it paves the way for Red Hat to end support for products only one year after release. Red Hat's 8.0 release, officially released on September 30 of last year, is slated for retirement on December 31, 2003. Fourteen months is a fairly short life cycle for an operating system, particularly since most companies and users won't be switching to a new release immediately.An end of life policy isn't new to Linux vendors, though such a short life span is. SuSE announced last year that the company would be retiring releases after two years. Caldera and Mandrake also end support for their products after a few years, though they seem to have no posted policy stating a specific shelf life for the products. Some have noted that Red Hat may be trying to move users to its "Advanced Server" product. While the latest "consumer" release of Red Hat is being retired at the end of this year, Advanced Server won't be put out to pasture until 2005. Naturally, Red Hat charges much more for the Advanced Server product. When a company like Microsoft decides to end support for a product, it puts its customers in a fairly unpleasant situation: Be stranded with an unsupported platform that will no longer receive bugfixes and support for new hardware, or buck up the money for upgrades and possibly break support for older applications and face hardware upgrades. Red Hat's customers are in a different position, however, since they possess the full source to their operating system; there's nothing that says that someone else can't maintain a release past Red Hat's expiration date. Companies that specialize in Linux support (e.g. Tummy.com, others) could provide longer-term support for companies (and individuals who happen to have the cash) for a fee. For that matter, there's no reason a savvy admin couldn't continue to patch a system on their own without official errata from Red Hat. If demand is great enough, Red Hat users might even form a community effort to release errata for older releases, though that might be more effort than simply upgrading to new releases or switching distributions. It will be some time before we see just how well, or how badly, Red Hat's policy change goes over with the Linux Community. It's likely that it will draw little attention until the expiration dates start to approach. While many Linux users may complain about having to upgrade or scrounge for patches on their own, there is some justification for Red Hat and other vendors to stop supporting older releases. The Open Source development model moves very quickly, making it difficult for a vendor to continue support for a wide variety of packages that may put out many releases a year. Not only does the vendor need to provide updates for each package, they must ensure that the updates don't conflict with or break other packages that may depend on them. For a company struggling to be profitable while still giving away its software, it may make a large difference in the bottom line.
On the licensing of software patentsUnless it is changed before adoption, the proposed W3C royalty-free patent policy will allow "field of use" provisions. Patented technologies which are included in a W3C standard must be licensed for royalty-free use - but only for implementations of the the standard itself. Owners of patents can still require license payments for any other use of the technology.What this means, of course, is that, if a W3C standard contains patented technology with "field of use" restrictions, no implementation of that standard may be distributed under the GPL. The GPL does not allow that sort of restrictions. Free implementations of such standards can be distributed under BSD-style licenses, so it remains possible to implement the standard in free software. But the range of that freedom has been restricted somewhat. These terms make an interesting contrast with another form of royalty-free patent licensing. Companies like Red Hat and FSMLabs have licensed their patents for use in free software - but only for software licensed under the GPL. BSD-licensed implementations are not covered by these patent licenses. If these trends continue, the proliferation of software patents is going to bring about a partial partitioning of the free software ecosystem. The two types of patent licensing are, essentially, allergic to each other, and can not be mixed. This is not a new situation - mixing free software with different licenses can be problematic even without the additional complication of patent issues. But adding in incompatible patent licensing creates new and dangerous problems. Software patents may well turn out to be one of the more potent weapons against free software in general. Patent infringement lawsuits can be filed against any user of the allegedly infringing software, not just its developers or distributors. A couple of high-profile examples of companies being dragged into court for using a free program would serve to create a great deal of fear, uncertainty, and doubt among all free software users - even if the patent suits are eventually tossed out. The free software will have to step carefully when implementing algorithms covered by patents - and that may well not be enough.
Quick LWN updateThe LWN staff has survived the holidays in reasonably good form. Hopefully the same is true for all of you; we wish you all the best for the new year.Quite a few LWN subscriptions have expired over the holidays - many people, it seems, signed up at the beginning for a three-month subscription, and that has run out. If you are one of those folks, please consider renewing your subscription so you can have access to LWN's premium content and features and stay on top of what's happening in the Linux and free software community. The final version of the LWN 2002 Linux Timeline is now available. Enjoy the first LWN Weekly Edition of 2003, and thanks, as always, for supporting LWN.net.
Security Brief items Postfix 2.0.0[This article was contributed by LWN reader Tom Owen] Wietse Venema released Postfix 2.0.0 on December 23. Originally created as the IBM "Secure Mailer" and released under GPL at the beginning of 1998, Postfix is a drop-in sendmail replacement designed from the ground up to be secure. Venema has a long history in the secure software area; his. TCP Wrappers package has been going into Linux distributions unchanged for five years now. So a new major release of one of his packages is worth a look.The Postfix 2.0.0 release notes list dozens of new features, changes and fixes, mostly consolidations of patch releases accumulated over the last year. The reason for the major version change seems to be to flag some of the changes listed as incompatibilities with 1.1.0. Few of these will cause problems at most sites but virtual domain admins and those receiving mail for users listed in a table (i.e. not in the local /etc/passwd file) will need to read the upgrade notes with special care. Postfix's strong spam control gets a substantial upgrade with extra control over DNS checks and a rewrite of the relay blacklist (RBL) handling code with new configuration directives. Content filtering based on regular expression matching in headers and body is improved with finer granularity, faster processing, better handling for MIME and other attachments, a more expressive regular expression language and more options to deal with the messages that match. The many improvements to MIME handling allow better control over the processing of messages with attachments. Meanwhile, only mail mavens and frustrated crackers will care about the subtle semantic changes in fancier address formats and headers. Sysadmins will mostly be pleased with performance improvements and better logging for Postcript and RBL actions. Features like MacOS X support and the better LDAP client have a narrower appeal. And of course there are occasional items on the way out: Sendmail-style virtual domains are no longer documented.
This part of Postfix was too confusing.
Postfix administrators will be pleased by 2.0.0. They've seen most of it already in the patch releases, and for such a central piece of infrastructure, that's the way it should be. Postfix is still the same straightforward, rather easy to configure mail server, with excellent compatibility as a sendmail replacement and out of the box security. And that may be the most important lesson from Postfix: not the secure, flexible, multi-process, untrusting design, not the reduction in the mailer monoculture, not even the lucid and closely documented code. Just that security and ease of use are, sometimes, compatible.
Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO updatedDavid A. Wheeler has announced the availability of an updated version of his "Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO." "...this version adds new text on handling tmp files where there are tmp cleaners running (true on most real systems - this causes particular problems with mktemp(1)), notes on avoiding buffer overflow in FD_SET/FD_CLR(), and a long discussion on a new attack against web-based systems: session fixation. I also added text about protecting secrets in memory."
New vulnerabilities bugzilla - cross site scripting
cups - multiple vulnerabilities
cyrus-imapd - Remote command execution vulnerability
cyrus-sasl - buffer overflows
Helix Server - buffer overflows
libpng, libpng3: buffer overflow
KDE - command parameter quoting problems
typespeed: buffer overflow
Updated vulnerabilities Heap corruption vulnerability in at
BIND8: Multiple vulnerabilities
bind buffer overflow vulnerability in DNS resolver libraries
Canna server: exploitable buffer overrun
dhcpcd: Character expansion vulnerability
dvips: command execution vulnerability
Filename disclosure vulnerability in fam
fetchmail: buffer overflow
GNU fileutils race condition
Potential remote root exploit in glibc
glibc: DNS stub resolvers contain buffer overflow vulnerability
IM: creates temporary files insecurely
kdelibs: Vulnerabilities in KIO subsystem support
kernel: local denial of service vulnerability
krb5: Buffer Overflow in Kerberos Administration Daemon
lynx: CRLF injection vulnerability
perl-MailTools: remote command execution
Cross-site scripting vulnerability in mhonarc
micq: Denial of service
PHP Remote Compromise/DOS Vulnerability
Mozilla: Privacy leak and other vulnerabilities
MySQL: multiple vulnerabilities
net-snmp: denial of service vulnerability
OpenLDAP2: remote command execution
PHP: vulnerability in mail function
pine: buffer overflow parsing "From:" addresses
Buffer overflow vulnerabilities in PostgreSQL
Local arbitrary code execution vulnerability in Python
Multiple-use vulnerability in Safe.pm
squirrelmail: cross-site scripting vulnerability
File overwrite vulnerability in tar and unzip
Multiple vendor telnetd vulnerability
Tomcat 4.x JSP source code exposure vulnerability
traceroute-nanog: buffer overflow and root exploit
webalizer: reverse DNS buffer overflow vulnerability
Webmin/Usermin vulnerabilities
wget:directory traversal bug
wmaker: buffer overflow in Window Maker image handling code
Multiple vulnerabilities in wordtrans
Problems with libgtop_daemon
Wwwoffle remote privilege escalation vulnerability
Resources PHRACK #60 releasedIssue number 60 of the PHRACK magazine is now available. It looks at kernel stack smashing, IOS exploits, patching static kernels, integer overflows, and several other topics.
Linux Security WeekThe LinuxSecurity.com Linux Security Week Newsletter for December 30 is available.
Page editor: Jonathan Corbet Kernel development Brief items Kernel release statusThe current development kernel is 2.5.53, which was released by Linus on December 23. It contains a bunch of device mapper fixes, an SCTP update, some memory management fixes, an ia-64 merge, some USB updates, a new aic7xxx driver, the new x86 "sysenter" system call mechanism (discussed in the December 19 LWN Kernel Page), and many other fixes and updates. The long-format changelog has the details.Linus's pre-2.5.54 BitKeeper repository contains a large number of patches, most of which are the sorts of fixes that one would expect during a feature freeze. There is also a new bit of compiler trickery to issue warnings when deprecated functions are called, a number of kbuild fixes, a new dev_printk() function for standardized device error reporting, the removal of the much disliked hugetlb system calls (in favor of hugetlbfs), a new "kmalloc for each CPU" API, and more loadable module fixes. The current stable kernel is 2.4.20. Marcelo has not released any 2.4.21 prepatches since December 18.
Kernel development news Fixing up the shared page table patchOne patch that is still apparently being considered for 2.5 is the shared page table code. Since this patch makes significant changes to the VM subsystem, it is worth looking at why it is interesting, and what its prospects are.Shared page tables do exactly what one would expect: they allow processes to share their page tables. The primary application of this technique is at fork() time; when a process creates a new child, the two processes share the same low-level page tables. These tables are shared in a "copy on write" mode; when either process changes memory both the page being changed and the page table that point to it are copied. The idea is that if the new process calls exec() before changing much memory, much of the page table copying overhead can be avoided entirely. Shared page tables can also save significant amounts of memory when large processes (or large shared memory segments) are involved, but the fork() overhead is the real driving force behind this patch. The 2.5 kernel has a significantly slower fork() than 2.4, as a result of the reverse mapping VM code. Copying page tables requires copying the reverse map entries, which slows fork() down. Shared page tables, it is hoped, can eliminate that copy and get fork() back to something close to its 2.4 performance. So it was a little disappointing when Andrew Morton ran some benchmarks and discovered that shared page tables made fork() even slower than it was before. The optimization, it seems, is really a pessimization - at least when relatively small processes are involved, which is the case that matters to most users. Dave McCracken figured out what is going on. Most smaller processes, it seems, have three distinct areas of writable memory, being the data area, the stack, and the C library's data area. On most systems, a single page table page holds enough page table entries to map 4MB of actual memory. Unless the process is fairly large, then, there will be exactly one page table page for each of the three writable areas, or three in all. The shared page table patch thus allows the deferral of the copying of three pages worth of page table entries. As soon as either process changes the memory mapped by one of those page table pages, that page can no longer be shared and all page table entries within that page must be copied. Unfortunately, even a process which does nothing but call exec() will almost certainly write memory in all three areas, requiring the unsharing of all three page table pages. In other words, the shared page table patch is introducing the extra overhead required to share and unshare page table pages, but, in most cases, all of those pages will have to be unshared and copied anyway. So the extra overhead just makes things even slower than they were before. There are a couple of things that can be done to address this problem. Dave posted a relatively simple fix: simply do not share page tables unless the forking process has at least four pages worth. It turns out that, if even one page table page need not be copied, the sharing overhead is worthwhile. So, if you turn off sharing in the case where it doesn't help, you get back to where you were before, and can enjoy the benefits of page table sharing for very large processes. A more involved approach would be to spread out a process's writable memory so that it is mapped by more than one page table page. Writable process memory comes in numerous distinct chunks; a look at the /proc/.../maps entry for the emacs process being used to write this article shows 33 separate, writable virtual memory areas (VMAs). If each VMA is mapped on its own 4MB boundary, and thus has its own page table page, then writing in one VMA does not require copying the page table entries for all the other VMAs. Andrew Morton gave this approach a try, and saw a 5-10% speedup. Performance is improved, in other words, but is still far short of what a 2.4 kernel can do. The bottom line appears to be this: the shared page table patch, while providing some benefits, is failing in its goal of mitigating the extra fork() overhead brought by the reverse mapping VM. Unless somebody finds a way to address this problem, shared page tables seem unlikely to find their way into the 2.5 kernel.
Manipulating multiple address spacesBack in November, LWN covered a patch by Jeff Dike which made some User-mode Linux improvements possible. Jeff needed a mechanism which would allow him to create multiple address spaces for a single Linux process, manipulate those address spaces, and switch the process between them. The interface he came up with was:
This interface gets the job done, but it's not too surprising that Linus did not like it. Performing virtual memory management operations via a magic /proc file is just not the most elegant way of doing things. Cleaning up the first step - creating new address spaces - is relatively easy. It's just a matter of adding a new create_mm() system call. But then how does one manipulate that new space - mapping in a file, or changing protections, for example? The system calls which normally perform these functions (mmap(), mprotect(), ...) are not set up to have a separate address space passed in as a parameter. One could create a whole new set of system calls that take that extra parameter, but that is a task that gets messy in a hurry. So Linus has come up with another idea. Why not add one more system call (mm_indirect()), which would invoke any other system call in the context of a different address space? mm_indirect() would simply switch the calling process over to the new address space, invoke the real system call of interest, then switch back. In this way, all system calls could be made to manipulate a different address space without the need to modify any of them. This solution will work for UML, and is thus likely to be implemented. It may eventually lead to a number of currently unimagined "coprocess' applications as well. One question remains unanswered, however: is this sort of change really 2.5 material, or does it get to wait for the next development series? (As an aside, we look forward to seeing the results of Jeff's work running UML with the valgrind memory debugger. Chances are it will turn up a lot of previously unnoticed memory bugs in the Linux kernel.)
The end of the hugetlb system callsThe hugetlb (or "large page") patch was covered here last August. This patch added a couple of new system calls allowing a suitably privileged process to create anonymous memory using the large page capability of most modern processors. Using large pages cuts down on page table overhead, and, crucially, optimizes the use of the processor's address translation cache. The result is that applications using large memory arrays (Oracle, in particular) run faster.The large page capability is seen as useful by most developers, but there has been a long series of complaints about the system call interface. The system calls do pretty much what one would expect: allocate a large page region, free it, share it with others. But not everybody sees the need for a new set of system calls for performing what is (mostly) standard memory operations. Then, there is the issue of permissions. The ability to allocate huge pages can not be handed out to just anybody, since it is a good vehicle for the creation of denial of service attacks. That means that root access is required to make use of the large page capability. Call them superstitious, but many users are reluctant to run Oracle with root access. Meanwhile, William Lee Irwin added hugetlbfs - a RAM-based filesystem which uses large pages. An application wishing to create a memory region with large pages can create a file in a hugetlbfs directory, then use mmap() to map it into its address space. Sharing is nicely handled by the filesystem itself, and need no longer be done with a separate system call. And the permissions problem is solved by allowing a system administrator to set protections on the hugetlbfs filesystem which fit the site's needs. The filesystem interface provides a more flexible interface to the large page facility. So, as of 2.5.54, the system call interface will be removed. All this could lead one to wonder why the hugetlb patch wasn't done this way in the first place. The whole point of the kernel peer review process, after all, is to keep poor interfaces out of the kernel. Linus's answer to this is simple: the patch simply was not much discussed prior to merging because the companies behind it are still unused to open code development. In fact, some companies have rules which forbid the sorts of conversations needed to develop in an open source environment.
So not only did you have a feature that is mostly useful only to a
smallish group of people - you had that group of people not used to
open communication in the first place, AND you had rules that made
some of the important part of the communication illegal in the
first place.
Still wonder why it wasn't widely discussed during development? Intel engineers would basically take people aside in private at conferences talking about what kinds of improvments Oracle was seeing. Developing code in the open seems like the only way to work for many developers. This episode is a good reminder that not everybody, yet, has really come to understand how the free software development process works.
Patches and updates Kernel trees
Core kernel code
Device drivers
Documentation
Janitorial
Kernel building
Memory management
Networking
Architecture-specific
Security-related
Benchmarks and bugs
Miscellaneous
Page editor: Jonathan Corbet Distributions News and Editorials 2002 retrospective2002 was year of belt-tightening and consolidatation in all technology sectors. A return to reality after the excesses of the dot com boom. Most distribution companies fared well though there were layoffs and struggles to find sources of real, sustainable income.To that end, MandrakeSoft launched the "Mandrake Clubhouse" at the end of 2001. Club members have provided a steady source of income for MandrakeSoft, almost enough for the company to break even, but at year's end the company is still struggling financially. If you are a Mandrake user it is your best interest to join Mandrake Club (or Mandrake Corporate Club) and buy Mandrake products from the MandrakeStore to help support the distribution. This is MandrakeSoft's answer to the question, "How do you make money with free software?" In September MandrakeSoft announced the release of Mandrake Linux 9.0, codenamed "Dolphin." One of the first distributions to be certified by Linux Standard Base. LWN.net released the "new and improved" LWN Distribution List. Changes to the list were heavy for the first few months of 2002, and minor updates continue. The list remains a cumbersome flat file, with over 300 distributions currently listed. We still plan to move the list to a database. Perhaps in 2003. Caldera International released Caldera OpenLinux Workstation 3.1.1 and Caldera OpenLinux Server 3.1.1 at the end of January. We could not have predicted at the time that this would be last release of OpenLinux. Caldera International became The SCO Group at the end of August and the next release was called SCO Linux 4.0 powered by UnitedLinux. Speaking of UnitedLinux, this collaborative effort released version 1.0 on November 19, 2002. (UnitedLinux powers distributions by SCO, SuSE, Conectiva, and Turbolinux.) LSB-certified distributions. Distributions from MandrakeSoft, Red Hat, and SuSE receive LSB certification in August. Debian GNU/Linux Three candidates vied for Debian Project Leader, Bdale Garbee, Raphaël Hertzog, and Branden Robinson. Elections. Bdale was elected in April. Cryptographic software showed up in the main archive for the first time in March. The long awaited woody release, Debian GNU/Linux version 3.0 came out in July. In November a fire in the computing facilities of Twente University destroyed several Debian services, which were quickly restored. Red Hat also looks for ways to spend less. This year support has been cut for Alpha and Sparc ports, and there's even an "end-of-life" date for the most recent release. The Limbo beta was released in July, with the first taste the company's controversial Bluecurve desktop. Limbo became Red Hat Linux 8.0 in October. Red Hat's more stringent trademark requirements went into effect with that release. SuSE Linux also announced an end of life for older distributions as the new UnitedLinux powered versions are released. Slackware Linux 8.1 was released June 18, 2002. Sorcerer GNU/Linux, a source-based distribution, came out in January and quickly gained popularity. By March the development team had grown and with that growth came creative conflicts. Kyle Sallee, original author of Sorcerer, pulled the source from the site. But the source was out there and two new projects forked from the old code. Now there are three projects as Sorcerer is joined by the forks SorceMage and Lunar-Penguin. Easy to use desktop distributions proliferated, some garnering considerable press coverage. Lycoris Desktop/LX, Xandros Linux, Lindows OS, Desktop ROCK Linux (dRock), Debian Desktop, EvilEntity Linux, LibraNet GNU/Linux, and ELX, Everyone's Linux are just a few desktop Linux projects that started or gained momentum during 2002. Libranet GNU/Linux took a stab at making a sustainable income by setting up a pay for download scheme. All in all, a turbulent year for Linux distributions. We leave with a prediction for 2003. This will be the year that we will see some change in the major players. Either two major companies will merge, or at least one will get out of the Linux distribution business. Of course that has been predicted before.
Distribution News Debian GNU/LinuxHere is the Debian Weekly News for December 24, 2002 with news about the IPv6 Mini-Conf prior to the Linux Conference Australia; the Debian Mini-Conf; the first anniversary of the German debianforum; and more.The Debian Weekly News for December 31, 2002 reflects on the past year and on the future.
Gentoo Weekly NewsletterThe Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for December 30 is out. It looks at a new kernel development strategy, the new release schedule process, and several other topics.
Mandrake LinuxThe Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter for December 27, 2002 is out. This week's top story: MandrakeSoft's Future.Mandrake has updated urpmi and mdkonline packages available for 8.1 and 8.2. These updates bump up the version of urpmi and mdkonline to those found in Mandrake Linux 9.0, which offer more features and better support for updating packages via urpmi and Mandrake Online.
Red Hat LinuxRed Hat has sent out an announcement for a new beta release, called "Phoebe." Among other things, it includes a bleeding-edge glibc with the new Native POSIX Thread Library included (along with, presumably, a suitably patched kernel).Here is a press release for new releases of Red Hat Linux for IBM's iSeries, pSeries, and zSeries enterprise server platforms. Red Hat has announced a new policy for errata support for Red Hat Linux products and gives the end-of-life dates for currently supported products. Red Hat Linux PowerTools (6.2, 7, and 7.1), all Red Hat Linux releases for the Alpha and Sparc architectures, and Red Hat Linux 7.1 for the IA64 architecture are no longer supported. End of life dates for Red Hat Linux 6.2 through 8.0 are also specified in the announcement. Updated packages for Red Hat Linux 7.1, 7.1K, 7.2, 7.3, and 8.0 are now available that fix a bug in the ext3 file system, discovered in the previous errata kernel. The bug has the potential to cause data loss if the file system is used in a non-default way.
SCO LinuxThe SCO Group has announced that Argo21 will provide SCO's technical support services in Japan for SCO Linux 4.0 powered by UnitedLinux.
Trustix Secure LinuxTrustix has released a minor bug fix for apache, with general config file cleanup. The new version behaves consistently with or without SSL enabled. Previously, the normal web server at port 80 would go away if you enabled SSL.Trustix has also released a minor bug fix for rpm. A check was added to see if configure.in is newer than configure before trying to run libtoolize and _initdir macro was added.
New Distributions Qplus-PQplus-P is ETRI's embedded Linux solution for internet appliances such as PDA, Digital TV setopbox and webpad. Target Builder is an embedded Linux development toolkit tightly coupled with ETRI Qplus-P . It provides many features for developers to build embedded Linux systems. These features include configuration, dependency checking, conflict resolution, project management and deployment support to the target system. Using Target Builder, developers can make fully functional operating systems easily and quickly. See this article on LinuxDevices.com for additional information. Version 1.0 was released December 16, 2002.
Minor distribution updates Arch LinuxArch Linux has released v0.4 (Dragon) with major feature enhancements. "Changes: NFS mounts were added to the init scripts. The install script was improved. The install CD layout was modified to run from an initrd. The rc.d scripts were modified to kill with .pid files or pidof. rc.sysinit now handles UTC times (user patch). Module depenencies are only updated if required. All packages were rebuilt with gcc 3.2. pacman now supports multiple servers and respositories."
Astaro Security LinuxAstaro Security Linux has released v3.380 with major bugfixes. "Changes: This version is the second beta before 4.0. There are a lot of big and small improvements and bugfixes, such as Radius-based Surf Protection Profiles, and fixes in the SMTP and HTTP Proxy."
BBIagent RouterBBIagent Router has released v1.6.0 with minor feature enhancements. "Changes: The Linux kernel on the boot image was upgraded to version 2.4.20. User-defined settings can now be saved to the diskette and restored automatically when the router is booted up."
GENDISTGENDIST has released v1.4.7 (stable) with minor bugfixes. "Changes: A workaround was implemented for the mke2fs bug/feature, so small initrds with a large number of inodes should work now. A minor bug in the ShellLinux example was fixed: the attributes of shared libraries are now restored after copying them with objcopy."
IPCop FirewallIPCop Firewall has released v1.2 with minor feature enhancements. "Changes: DNRD was replaced with DNSMASQ. Updated software includes Speedtouch, Snort, SSH, and a PPTP client. New modules include ip_masq_ipsec and ip_masq_h323. Multiple languages were added (German, French, Turkish), as was configuration backup/restore, support for the Pulsar PCI ADSL card, static DHCP leases, aliasing on the red interface, dial-on-demand ADSL, and proxy graphs."
Phayoune FirewallPhayoune Secure Linux has released Phayoune Firewall 0.3.3, the initial release of this CD-ROM firewall distribution.
PXES Linux Thin ClientPXES Linux Thin Client has released v0.5.1-16 with major feature enhancements. "Changes: Support for the i586 family of processors has been added."
RxLinuxRxLinux has been busy. In the last couple of weeks RxLinux has released v1.2.3, followed by v1.2.4, which added Mplayer to play movies on a diskless machine. Version 1.2.4-w was released soon after that, with a graphical user interface added to build rxnode without using an rxmaster; and more code cleanup.
SmoothWallSmoothWall has released v1.0 with major security fixes. "Changes: This release includes updates 1 through 21 from the previous version, which cover a great number of functionality updates and security fixes."
TopologiLinuxTopologiLinux released v2.0 beta, adding NTFS support. The 2.0 Release Candidate 1 is also out, adding Licq and Wine.
WarewulfWarewulf has released v1.7 with minor bugfixes. "Changes: An 'option routers' was added to dhcp-build to point to the DHCP master admin_ip. Some logic was added to 'nodebuild' to look for a mounted /proc in the virtual node image. Several bugs in 'nodeupdate' were fixed, along with a bug in the warewulfd init script that was prematurely setting the status of nodes to 'READY'. A bug where 'nodeadd' was forgetting to add the 'enable' field to node.conf was fixed, and it does not try to enable a clust_dev if it differs from admin_dev. Some weirdness in the warewulf-node RPM was fixed, and a binary 'strings' was added to the virtual node filesystem."
WISP-DistWISP-Dist, a part of the LEAF project, has released v2397 with minor bugfixes. "Changes: This is a maintenance build with various bugfixes and small improvements."
Distribution reviews Bootable Business Card nears 2.0 release (Linux Journal)Linux Journal checks out the upcoming release of the LNX-BBC rescue disk. "LNX-BBCs can be used to rescue ailing machines, perform intrusion post-mortems, act as a temporary workstation, install Debian, and perform many other tasks that we haven't yet imagined."
Showdown: The Penguins Prepare for a Shootout (OfB.biz)Open for Business begins a multi-part series of distribution reviews with a look at Xandros Desktop 1.0. "If initial presentation was the measure of quality, Xandros would have all of the other distributions beat right from the start; this company definitely understands the importance of first impressions. When the installer first boots up, rather than being greeted by a text-based progress bar or scrolling boot messages, this distribution starts up in style with a flashing Xandros logo that fades away once things are ready to go. It might not do much for you once your ready to use the system, but it did make for something different than the normal monotony of the boot system (which also often scares new GNU/Linux users)."
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol Development Mailman 2.1 announced![[Mailman]](/images/ns/mailman.jpg)
A new version of
Mailman,
a Python-based mailing list management system with a web-based
user interface,
has been announced.
A summary of features for this version of Mailman includes:
If you are interested in trying out Mailman, the online Mailman documentation is a good place to start.
System Applications Audio Projects Ogg TrafficTwo new editions of Ogg Traffic are out with a bunch of Ogg Vorbis audio compression software news. Topics in the December 22, 2002 edition include: Converting FLAC to Ogg Vorbis, Transcoding Ogg Vorbis to Ogg Vorbis, Preaching the Gospel of the Fish, and Speex Beta 4 Released. Topics in the December 29, 2002 edition include: FUD-Busting, Recompressing Ogg Vorbis files, and Using oggenc to convert FLAC to Ogg Vorbis.
Database Software MySQL 4.0.7 is releasedVersion 4.0.7 of the MySQL open-source database is available. This release addresses a security issue, users are encouraged to upgrade ASAP.
Education Linux in Education ReportIssue #86 of the Linux in Education Report is out. Topics include games for kindergarteners, a proposal for producing audio books, a Sun deal that gives StarOffice 6.0 to Danish students, the GNU/LinuxIndia newsletter, a plea for help maintaining the English version of the DrGenius user's manual, and a bunch of new educational software releases.
Electronics GTKWave 2.0.0pre1-20021220Version 2.0.0pre1-20021220 of GTKWave, an electronic waveform viewer, has been announced as part of the GEDA snapshot 20021220. New features include an XML trace save/load format, work on analog traces, code cleanup, better analog support, and more.
Mail Software Sendmail 8.12.7 availableVersion 8.12.7 of Sendmail has been released. "It contains a fix for smrsh, support for Berkeley DB 4.1 (requires at least 4.1.25), fixes to enforce STARTTLS restrictions between sessions/transactions, some config file changes to deal with bogus DNS entries and to enforce tls_client restrictions, as well as a change to the default submit.cf file to use 127.0.0.1 instead of localhost as the address of the MTA."
Milter newsNew topics on the Milter mail filtering site include: Spamass-Milter 0.1.3 Released, Passing values from sendmail, How do you adjust internal milter timeouts?, and more.
Peer to Peer Mobile P2P messaging, Part 1 (IBM developerWorks)Michael J. Yuan shows how to work with the Wireless Messaging API on IBM's developerWorks. "SMS-based peer-to-peer mobile messaging could become mobile commerce's killer application. The J2ME Wireless Messaging API (WMA) provides SMS capabilities for mobile Java clients. In this first installment of a two-part series on mobile P2P messaging, Michael J. Yuan discusses the design and usage of the WMA, and presents a sample application to demonstrate key concepts. He'll also discuss some server-side Java SMS solutions."
Printing CUPS 1.1.18 availableVersion 1.1.18 of the CUPS Print System has been released. Most of the changes involve security issues and bug fixes, see the Release Notes for the full story.
LinuxPrinting.org NewsNews from LinuxPrinting.org includes the release of version 2.9.1 of the Foomatic printer driver database, and instructions on using the Epson Stylus CX3200 and CX5200 for scanning.
Web Site Development Midgard 1.4.4 releasedVersion 1.4.4 of the Midgard open-source web application server has been announced. Changes include lots of bug fixes and a few enhancements. Thanks to Henri Bergius.
Zope Members NewsThe most recent headlines on the Zope Members News include: ZServerSSL Rides Again, silva-0.9_installer_macosx-1.0 released, NeoPortal Content Pak 0.9a2 released - NeoPortal User Manager Tool added, NeoPortal Library 0.9a2 released, Silva 0.9 released, How-to Build Simple ZClass - updated to zope 2.6.x, MailBoxer 2.1.5, RemoteUserFolder public release, Interbase / Firebird Adapters, and Formulator 1.3.1 released.
Miscellaneous New hsflinmodem releaseSeveral new versions of the Conexant HSF softmodem driver have been released, see below for details.
Desktop Applications Audio Applications JACK Rack 1.0.1 availableVersion 1.0.1 of JACK Rack, an audio effects connection system, has been released. This version features minor bug fixes.
Sweep 0.5.13 releasedVersion 0.5.13 of the Sweep audio editor and playback tool has been released. New features include bug fixes and a new fade in/out capability.
ZynAddSubFX 1.0.3 releasedVersion 1.0.3 of the ZynAddSubFX open-source software audio synthesizer has been released. This version features bug fixes, a new VU meter, split keyboard functionality, and more.
GNUsound 0.5 availableVersion 0.5 of the GNUsound multitrack audio editing package is available for download. Change information is in the source code.
Desktop Environments FootNotesHeadlines on the GNOME desktop FootNotes site include: Pan 0.13.3 released, GIMP 1.3.11 released, Ruby-GNOME2-0.2 is now available!, Interview with the Gnomemeeting Team, Red Hat Beta Released!, Release of GnuCash 1.7.6 ''Santa's got a brand new bag'', GTK+ user interface libraries, version 2.2 released, Gnumeric 1.1.14 is now available, GARNOME 0.19.5: ''Intergalactic War'', GNOME Development Series Snapshot 2.1.5 released, Dropline GNOME 1.3.1 Now Available, and more.
KDE-CVS-Digest for December 20, 2002The December 20, 2002 edition of the KDE-CVS-Digest is out. "This week we cover updates on the security audit, Kroupware issues, bugfixes and lots of new features in KDevelop, Konqueror, KDEPrint, Kig (a program for exploring geometrical constructions), as well as Proklam updates (see KMouth also) as a further step towards improving accessibility capabilities in KDE."
KDE-CVS-Digest for December 27, 2002The December 27, 2002 edition of the KDE-CVS-Digest is out. "Subjects discussed include the conclusion of the security audit, KMail merge problems, bugfixes and lots of new features in Kate, Kig, Gwenview, Krdc, kgpg, Konstruct, Kopete, Cervisia, KDevelop, KOffice and Kalzium. And much more."
XFree86 4.2.99.3 Snapshot availableSnapshot 4.2.99.3 of XFree86 is available. This release will evolve into version 4.3 after the bug testing cycle is complete.
Games New Pygame entriesThe latest entries on the PyGame site include Pyddr 0.5.8, which is a dance-dance revolution clone, and Sulk 0.24, a Space Hulk replica.
Your First Micro Java GameDavid Fox writes about Java game development for mobile phones on O'Reilly. "The Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) of J2ME is a subset of the standard Java you know and love, with a few minor modifications. Writing a basic MIDlet game is simple as apple pie. This article will show you how to start cookin'."
GUI Packages GTK+ user interface libraries 2.2Version 2.2 of the GTK+ user interface libraries have been released. This release features: Multihead support, support for the fontconfig and Xft2 libraries, new font support in Pango, improved ports, gdk-pixbuf enhancements, and support for new X extensions and standards.
Qt Script for Applications 1.0 beta1Trolltech has announced the release of version 1.0 beta1 of Qt Script for Applications, which has been released under the GPL. "Qt Script, an easy-to-learn, multiplatform interpreted scripting language. Qt Script is based on the ECMAScript standard (as is JavaScript) . Qt Scripter, a multiplatform IDE which developers can make available to their end-users. Qt Scripter (screenshot) can be used to write and edit code, to visually design forms, and to run and debug scripts."
LibGGI 2.0.2/LibGII 0.8.2 releasedTHE GGI Project has released new versions of LIBGGI, a cross-platform graphics API, and LIBGII, a stand-alone system for handling input devices.
FLTK DevelopmentsNew software for FLTK, the Fast, Light ToolKit includes: flPhoto 1.0, and VolSuite 2.3.0.
Interoperability Kernel Cousin WineIssue #149 Kernel Cousin Wine is out. Topics include: Wine-20021219, Implementation of wineboot, Compile Time Comparisons / Tips, Compile Time Comparisons / Tips, COM Conformance Test Suite, and Running Cygwin Apps Under Wine.
Kernel Cousin WineIssue #150 of Kernel Cousin Wine has been released, check it out for the latest Wine development news.
Office Applications TeXmacs 1.0.1 releasedVersion 1.0.1 of the TeXmacs typesetting system has been released. New features include a redesigned user interface, improved converters, the addition of several structural editing primitives, reorganized style files and packages, an improved documentation system, and more. (Thanks to David Allouche.)
AbiWord Weekly NewsIssue #121 and Issue #122 of the AbiWord Weekly News are out with lots of AbiWord word processor development news.
AbiWord Weekly NewsIssues #123 and #124 of the AbiWord Weekly News are out with even more AbiWord word processor development news.
Gnumeric 1.1.14Version 1.1.14 of the Gnumeric spreadsheet has been released.
Web Browsers mozillaZineThe latest mozillaZine topics include: ExtremeTech Preview of Phoenix, Extra Two Weeks Added to 1.3 Beta Cycle, Honey, Hyatt's Coming Round for Christmas Dinner!, New Default Theme for Phoenix, Judge Orders Microsoft to Include Sun Java in Windows, Gecko Runtime Environment Overview, Guide to the New Bugzilla Flags Used by drivers@mozilla.org, and Independent Status Reports.
Languages and Tools Caml Caml Weekly NewsThe December 17-31, 2002 edition of the Caml Weekly News is out with the latest Caml news.
The Caml Light / OCaml HumpThis week, the new software on The Caml Hump includes the Sleep Student Parser, Planets for simulating planetary systems, the ocamledefun defunctiorizer, and the CamlGL OpenGL bindings for OCaml.
Java Compiling Java with GCJ (Linux Journal)Per Bothner talks about GCJ on Linux Journal. "One reason relatively few projects use Java has been the real or perceived lack of quality, free implementations of Java. Two free Java implementations, however, have been around since the early days of Java. One is Kaffe (www.kaffe.org), originally written by Tim Wilkinson and still developed by the company he cofounded, Transvirtual. The other is GCJ (the GNU Compiler for the Java language), which I started in 1996 at Cygnus Solutions (and which this article discusses). GCJ has been fully integrated and supported as a GCC language since GCC version 3.0."
From black boxes to enterprises, Part 3: Hands-on JMX integrationSing Li finishes his series on JMX Integration in the third article on IBM developerWorks. "In this third and final article of the JMX series, Sing Li will use an actual Network Management System (NMS) to monitor a Java application instrumented with JMX, revealing the typical techniques used in NMS/JMX integration, as well as some of the common difficulties that may be encountered when deploying JMX."
Java Media Development with QuickTime for Java (O'Reilly)Chris Adamson writes about the use of QuickTime with Java. "Now that Sun's Java Media Framework can't even play MP3s anymore support was removed in August due to what Sun calls a "licensing issue" its collection of supported media formats and compression schemes (codecs) has dwindled to near-uselessness. The JMF's powerful plug-in architecture allows developers to expand JMF's capabilities, however, and that's exactly what this article will do, by using the rival media API, Apple's QuickTime for Java."
Lisp CL-SDL 0.2.0 releasedVersion 0.2.0 of CL-SDL, which provides Common Lisp bindings for the Simple DirectMedia Layer and OpenGL multimedia libraries, has been released.
CL-PDF 1.0 releasedVersion 1.0 of CL-PDF, the Common Lisp library for generating Adobe Acrobat documents, has been released.
First public release of CL-PPCREThe first public version of CL-PPCRE, the Portable Perl-compatible Regular Expressions for Common Lisp, has been announced. CL-PPCRE is a regular expression library for Common Lisp that features Perl compatibility, among other things.
Perl Parrot v0.0.9 'Nazgul' released (use Perl)Use Perl mentions the release of version 0.0.9 of the Parrot compiler.
This Week on perl5-porters (use Perl)The December 16-22, 2002 edition of the Perl5-Porters Digest is out. Topics include: version object updates, new warning discussed, a bit of language design, and a Perl birthday present.
This Week on perl5-porters (use Perl)The December 23-29, 2002 edition of the Perl5-Porters Digest is out. Topics include: Implicit localisation of $DIGIT variables, Defining lexical aliases, %INC on Windows, EOL agnosticism, Iterator classes and memory leaks, and more.
PHP PHP 4.3.0 releasedPHP 4.3.0 is out. Changes in this release include a new command line interface, a new streams API, an improved build system, the inclusion of the GD library, a number of security fixes, and more; see the announcement for details.
PHP NewsThis week, the PHP News features the PHP Look Back, which summarizes PHP development in 2002, an announcement for PHP 4.3.0, and a new release of the PHP Manual CHM Edition.
PHP Weekly SummaryTopics on this week's PHP Weekly Summary include: PHP 4.3 RC4, php-cgi vs. php-cli solved, PHP#, fixes for uniqid() and range(), and more.
Python Python 2.3a1 releasedThe first Python 2.3 alpha release is now available. Python 2.3 concentrates mostly on library enhancements, rather than changes in the language itself. Click below for the announcement; you can also head over to this page for a detailed description of what's in this release.
This week's Python-URLDr. Dobb's Python-URL for December 23 is out with the latest from the Python development community.
Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Dec 30)The weekly Dr. Dobb's Python-URL is available, with news and links for the Python community.
The Daily Python-URLThis week's Daily Python-URL article topics include: Python 2.3a1 released, PyZine: Year in Review, Sort in Python, Guide to Python introspection, A Python & XML Companion, The Daily Chump Bot, PyRapi version 0.2 has been released!, and more.
Charming Python: SimPy simplifies complex models (IBM developerWorks)David Mertz introduces SimPy on IBM's developerWorks. "The stochastic behavior of real-world systems is often difficult to understand or predict. Sometimes it is possible rigorously to demonstrate statistical properties of systems, such as average, worst-case, and best-case performance features. But at other times, pitfalls of concrete designs only become evident when you actually run (or simulate) a system. In this article, David takes a look at SimPy, a Python package that allows you to very easily create models of discrete event systems."
Ruby The Ruby GardenNew topics on the Ruby Garden include the Ruby track at OSCON 2003, and debugging END{} section.
The Ruby Weekly NewsTopics on this week's Ruby Weekly News include: Build problems for FOX, FXRuby and FXScintilla?, Ruby on IRC, and RAA.your_project(name).freeze!. New Ruby software includes: RTrans 1.01, RDoc template system modification, RubyCocoa 0.4.0, Ruby-GNOME-0.2, Radical 0.6, Test::Unit 0.1.6, Ruby Document Bundle, and XTemplate.
Tcl/Tk Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!The December 26, 2002 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! is out with the latest Tcl/Tk development news. Read about stdout manipulation, the making of Christmas stars, the Toucan desktop IDE for Palm OS apps, Tcl puzzles, and much more.
Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!The December 31, 2002 Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! is available. Topics include the Tcl Scripting Language Components for Delphi, learning grid semantics, Tcl use at Verizon, disconnecting in-process GUI applications, Tcl under KDE, an introduction to Yorick, Tcl Wiki pages for educational software, and more.
XML From XML-RPC to SOAP: A Migration Guide (O'Reilly)Rich Salz writes about XML-RPC and SOAP on O'Reilly. "As you might expect from the name, XML-RPC is a way of using XML to send classic Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) over the net. XML-RPC's use of XML is very simple. It doesn't use namespaces. It doesn't even use attributes."
What Is RSS? (O'Reilly)Mark Pilgrim writes about RSS in his first article in the "Dive Into XML" series on O'Reilly. "RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites, including major news sites like Wired, news-oriented community sites like Slashdot, and personal weblogs. But it's not just for news. Pretty much anything that can be broken down into discrete items can be syndicated via RSS: the "recent changes" page of a wiki, a changelog of CVS checkins, even the revision history of a book. Once information about each item is in RSS format, an RSS-aware program can check the feed for changes and react to the changes in an appropriate way."
Debuggers GDB 5.3 releasedVersion 5.3 of GDB, the Gnu Project Debugger, has been released. New features include: improved GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance, gdbserver support for multi-threaded applications on some targets, and support for C/C++ preprocessor macros. Several new multi-arched targets are now supported, the Fujitsu FRV architecture has been added, and some obsolete configurations have been removed. See the release notes for more details.
Miscellaneous Jext programmer's editorA few new changes have been added to the Jext programmer's editor. The changes are summarized as: "two new plugins (Server Mapping and Jump) and an update of SQL Console which now accepts connections to any JDBC compliant database!"
Page editor: Forrest Cook Linux in the news Recommended Reading Is $200 the magic number for PCs? (ZDNet)ZDNet looks at dirt-cheap computers, most of which run Linux. "But it's hard to find a $200 PC with Windows. Versions of Microtel PCs with Windows XP cost about $70 more than their Lindows counterparts, pushing them to $300 or more. Meanwhile, Linux has been catching up to Windows in compatibility. Lindows 3.0 lets PC owners view Windows files, while other applications such as StarOffice offer Linux PC users the ability to view and edit Microsoft files."
What's ahead? Take the annual quiz (SiliconValley)Dan Gillmor has posted his annual predictions column. "Microsoft will ... file meritless but tactically useful patent lawsuits against open-source software developers in an effort to stop Linux and other products emerging from the volunteer community."
Copyright extremists shouldn't control information (Townhall.com)Townhall.com is running a column on copyright by Phillis Schlafly - not somebody we would normally look to as an ally. "The purpose of copyright law is to provide incentives and protection to authors to create and publish original works, not give corporations the power to control the flow of information. We should not permit copyright extremists to exploit current laws for that goal, and we should reject their demands that Congress give them even broader power to control and license information."
Companies Microsoft alters message to counter Linux (The Daily Camera)LWN's local newspaper, the Daily Camera has an article on Microsoft's changing strategy for dealing with Linux. "Microsoft can tout potential savings and commission studies, but those efforts won't be any more effective in securing customers than its past tactics, Enderle said. "To make that argument it really needs to be made by practitioners, not by the vendor itself," the analyst said. "To make it stick you really need company (information technology) managers to stand up.""
Business Matsushita, Sony developing Linux platform for consumer devices (LinuxDevices)LinuxDevices covers the partnership between Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic) and Sony Corporation. "In what may well represent one of the most significant milestones of the rapidly emerging Embedded Linux market, Matsushita and Sony today jointly announced that the two companies are collaborating to create an embedded Linux operating system for consumer devices. To provide added perspective, LinuxDevices.com brings you this Special Report which includes the text of the Matsushita/Sony announcement, and also provides a roundup of some of the many international news stories surrounding this important development . . ."
Seeing through the Linux-Windows TCO comparisons (LinuxWorld)Joe Barr revisits IDC's Total Cost of Ownership study in this LinuxWorld article. "When you read about a TCO study in the press these days, you're not reading news. You're reading marketing material. More likely than not, you're reading a report sponsored by the vendor. If the comparison is against products from another vendor, the sponsor is the one whose ox was not gored. The recent IDC report proclaiming that Windows is cheaper (in some cases) than Linux is an excellent example."
Linux Adoption Businesses Leverage Mainframe Hardware, Software To Run Linux Apps (TechWeb)TechWeb covers two businesses that have successfully moved their operations to Linux. "[Boscov's] had spent some time considering Linux as a potential alternative to client/server systems, but "got religion" when CIO Harry Roberts saw an IBM demonstration of Linux running on the mainframe first-hand at an industry conference."
Legal Studios Sue Maker of DVD Copy Software (AP/Yahoo)Here's an AP story on Yahoo about the 321 Studios DMCA case. "The movie studios say the software contains the power of digital piracy, and asked the court to enjoin 321 Studios from selling it or distributing it. The studios also seek damages from any proceeds derived from the company's software sales. 'It's like somebody selling a digital crowbar. It's like breaking into the castle if you will,' said Patricia Benson, an attorney for the studios." Of course, "analog" crowbars remain legal...
Supremes Intervene in DVD Case (Wired)Wired is running an Associated Press article on the California DVD case. The Supreme Court, it seems, has decided to jump into the case and determine wither Matthew Pavlovich could be sued in California after all. "The California-based DVD Copy Control Association argued that California was the proper venue because of the movie industry's presence in that state. Lawyers for the association told the Supreme Court that the stay was needed to keep Pavlovich from reposting the decryption program on the Internet."
Greece, Denmark (and no-one else) make EC copyright deadline (Register)The Register reports that Greece and Denmark have signed up for the European Union's controversial Copyright Directive (AKA Europe's DMCA). "It's best to see this as a delay -rather than a derailment - of the controversial measures, fiercely advocated by the film and music industry. The software industry, most notably the Business Software Alliance (BSA), has also lobbied hard for the introduction of the directive as an important means to fight piracy. It's unhappy that new-piracy fighting laws have failed to materialise by Christmas."
Interviews Sklyarov reflects on DMCA travails (News.com)News.com talks with Dmitry Sklyarov about the DMCA and the Elcomsoft trial. "The meeting took place here during a break in the trial at a restaurant across the street from the boxy, gray corporate apartment his company has kept since it became the target of U.S. prosecution 17 months ago. The interview was given with the understanding it would not run until the ElcomSoft trial ended and Sklyarov was no longer under the terms of the government agreement."
Duval Clears Up MNF Controversy (OfB.biz)Open for Business talks with Gaël Duval, about MandrakeSoft's new Multiple Network Firewall. "MandrakeSoft's new Multiple Network Firewall ("MNF") specialty Linux distribution has been on the forefront of the computer news for the last week, not so much because of its technical merits, but because of what appeared to be a reversal in the company's policy on licensing. The distribution's creator and company co-founder, Gaël Duval, was kind enough to return to our hot seat and discuss both the licensing controversy as well as some other points about MNF."
Resources LinuxDevices.com Newsletter for Dec. 19, 2002The LinuxDevices.com's Embedded Linux Newsletter for December 19, 2002 is now available, with all the latest embedded Linux news.
Reviews GNU Bayonne 1.2 (Linux Journal)Linux Journal looks at the GNU Bayonne project. "GNU Bayonne is the telecommunications application server of the GNU Project. With the introduction of embedded SQL support, we are now actually close to having what I hope will be a new stable Bayonne base release, 1.2. Ideally, I would like to introduce a 1.2 release in late January, around the time of LinuxWorld in NYC. However, there are a number of specific things that I think need to happen before we can do a 1.2 release."
Linux Becomes Accessible to Average Users (Saint Paul Pioneer Press)Remember the installation nightmare stories that were so common only a couple of years ago? Well this newspaper article isn't one of them. "Frustrated with crashes on a borrowed Windows 98 laptop, I returned it and ditched Microsoft, installing Linux instead of Windows 95 on an old 133-megahertz Pentium PC (yes, original Pentium, not Pentium II or III)."
Linux Network Servers: A Book Review (Linux Journal)Linux Journal reviews Linux Network Servers by Craig Hunt. "I have read very few books that target the intermediate level Linux user/administrator so well and so precisely. This book is a masterful effort at providing more depth and utility than a beginner's book, while at the same time, not getting bogged down with minutia, as a more comprehensive book covering a single topic might."
Miscellaneous Free Software at Rosenzweig and Maffia (Linux Journal)Linux Journal takes a look at what the New York Linux Scene (NYLXS) has been up to. "In July, we started to take more concrete action in trying to do something to stimulate business for Free Software in the NYC community. We had already established a jobs posting site which has helped hook up employers with candidates. But this hasn't been enough. A committee has been formed in NYLXS to try to take on first hand the task to driving sales for Free Software. We've dubbed this effort, 'The Free Software Chamber of Commerce'."
Page editor: Forrest Cook Announcements Commercial announcements Another MandrakeSoft cash crunchMandrakeSoft, it seems, is facing another cash crunch. The company has put up a call for assistance asking for its users to join MandrakeClub, purchase Mandrake products, and, for "qualified investors," buy into the (ongoing) share offering. MandrakeSoft expects to hit the breakeven point in the (northern hemisphere) spring, but it has to get there first.
Sponsorships Double for Desktop Linux SummitDesktop Linux Summit has announced that it has doubled the number of sponsors for the Desktop Linux Summit to be held in San Diego, CA on February 20 and 21, 2003.
Resources Linux Gazette, January, 2003The January, 2003 issue of the Linux Gazette is available; it includes articles on undeletion, Ruby programming, EcolNet, and more.
ZCAN updated (use Perl)Use Perl covers the release of an updated version of "The Zen of Comprehensive Archive Networks", a document that covers the creation and maintenance of language archive sites.
Upcoming Events The Open Source WeekendAn series of events called the Open Source Weekend will be held on January 25 and 26, 2003 in Ottawa, Canada.
OSCon 2003 Call for ParticipationA Call for Participation has gone out for the O'Reilly Open Source Software Convention 2003. Proposals are due by February 15, 2003.
Linux Bangalore/2002 slidesAn online slide show has been posted for the Linux Bangalore/2002 conference that was heald earlier this month.
34 papers on real-time Linux (LinuxDevices)LinuxDevices.com has published the proceedings from the Fourth Real-Time Linux Workshop held December 6-7, 2002 in Boston, MA at the Computer Science Department, Boston University. The conference was organized by the Real-Time Linux Foundation. Twenty-six of the papers are available as PDF downloads from LinuxDevices.com.
Year-End Sale on Damian's Seattle Classes (use Perl)Damian Conway is considering offering some Perl classes in Seattle, Washington from January 13-17, 2003 if there is sufficient student interest.
FOSDEM InterviewsThe first in a series of FOSDEM speaker interviews has been announced on the GNOME FootNotes site. The series begins with Michael Meeks on the topic of GNOME.
Return of the Independent Game Developer? (O'Reilly)Chromatic covers the recent Independent Game Developer's Conference on O'Reilly.
Eugene, Oregon is a surprising little powerhouse of game development. Originally home to now-defunct Dynamix, it still boasts a handful of experienced developers, managers, and artists. These days, it's home to Garage Games, the folks behind the popular Tribes 2.
Eugene is also the home of the (potentially) annual Independent Game Developers Conference. Conceived in the middle of September, this early November event drew around a hundred artists, developers, fans, and press to three days of talks, demos, and conversations.
Reports from XML 2002 (O'Reilly)Eric van der Vlist reports on word processor developments at the XML 2002 conference.
Events: January 2 - February 27, 2003
Software announcements This week's software announcementsHere are the software announcements, courtesy of Freshmeat.net. They are available in two formats:
Page editor: Forrest Cook Letters to the editor "The Little Mermaid"
Page editor: Jonathan Corbet
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