Linux in the news

Recommended Reading

Linux and politics at CES (Linux Journal)

The Linux Journal looks at the political undercurrent and the Linux-based toys at the Consumer Electronics show. "While the big cheeses of the consumer electronics industry make obeisance to Big Hollywood over the issue of customer control of PCs and entertainment devices, the mood at the Consumer Electronics show seems to call out for a move the other way, toward badly-needed reform for the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)."

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D-word dissection (InfoWorld)

This InfoWorld article examines the disruptive nature of open source software. "AS THIS WEEK'S issue of InfoWorld considers disruptive technologies, now is a good time to consider the disruptive nature of open-source software. The subject is due for attention, given the recent comments I've received suggesting that open source is a form of "antibusiness communism."" Thanks to Don Waugaman

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The Cathedral IN the Bazaar (Open)

Open looks at changes in the open-source landscape. "Times have changed. Evidence shows that Red Hat is no longer 'The Open Source company.' We have seen how Open Source as a business is much more than Linux. We have learned that Open Source is a multidimensional thing. Right at this moment, lessons from collaborative development and free distribution are being adopted into mainstream software business models."

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Trade Shows and Conferences

Consumer Electronics Show Offers Picture of TV's Future (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

The Las Vegas Review-Journal covers the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and Sony's Linux-based devices. "In his keynote address on the first full day of the Consumer Electronics Show, Ando described his company's efforts to create integrated systems that let devices interact seamlessly. He imagined a Linux-based platform that will let data pass from digital cameras, digital video disk recorders to televisions, ferried by broadband."

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Cartel's copyright control loosening (SiliconValley)

Dan Gillmor has posted an optimistic column from the Consumer Electronics Show. "A notable aspect of this year's consumer-electronics show was the attention these issues are drawing. In previous years, copyright has been a topic of discussion. Now it's in the forefront of people's attention -- and it's about time."

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Companies

Welcome to the browser jungle, Safari (News.com)

News.com covers Safari, a new web browser from Apple based on KDE technology. "Porten, an engineer in Oslo, Norway, with Trolltech who wrote the original version of KDE's JavaScript interpreter (KJS), said Apple's choice would not only raise awareness and adoption of the software, but boost KDE's development efforts."

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Apple's Open Source Ventures (Linux Journal)

Here are two Linux Journal articles covering the latest open source ventures from Apple. This one about Safari, and this one about Apple's new version of X11 Windowing Environment.

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SCO to seek fees from Linux users (ZDNet)

Here's a ZDNet article with a plausible view on what SCO is really planning to do to extract money from some Linux users "Sources said SCO plans to charge for use of two software 'libraries,' essential packages of pre-written software that higher-level programs routinely call on to perform basic operations such as opening files. A source said SCO libraries that accompany the SVR4 and OSR5 versions of Unix may be used with UnixWare and OpenServer, respectively, but using them in conjunction with Linux is prohibited by the software's license."

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SCO says it has made no decision on Unix "IP" (NewsForge)

For those of you who have been wondering about the reports that SCO plans to attempt to enforce Unix patents against Linux users: this NewsForge article contains a statement from the company saying that no such action is planned - for now. "SCO has significant UNIX intellectual property dating back to the company's purchase of AT&T's Bell Labs UNIX technology. Our UNIX IP is a significant asset and for several months we have been holding internal discussions, exploring a wide range of possible strategies concerning this asset. We've reached no final decisions on any course of action."

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Linux Adoption

From the Editor: Bigger, Better, Faster (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal looks at Linux in the Enterprise. "The diversity of success stories in this issue makes it clear that any company that tries to compete with Linux in a fair fight will lose. So it's going to be an unfair fight for a while, with the non-Linux vendors pulling shenanigans such as bogus software patents, FUD-based marketing, copy-restricted content, carefully placed ``donations'' and ``campaign contributions'', and who knows what else."

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Microsoft should 'fear the Penguin' (vnunet)

Vnunet looks at a report from Goldman Sachs that says Linux is moving into the heart of corporate IT infrastructures. "Goldman Sachs said that Linux will expand from running web or storage servers because of its reliability and the cheap hardware it can be deployed on. It also expects Linux to become the dominant operating system on the higher-end servers of the enterprise data centre, where mission-critical functions are run and most IT budget is spent."

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Legal

Lexmark invokes DMCA in toner suit (News.com)

News.com covers the latest fun use of the DMCA - protecting the lucrative printer cartridge market. "In a 17-page complaint filed on Dec. 30, 2002, [Lexmark] claims the Smartek chip mimics the authentication sequence used by Lexmark chips and unlawfully tricks the printer into accepting an aftermarket cartridge. That 'circumvents the technological measure that controls access to the Toner Loading Program and the Printer Engine Program,' the complaint says."

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Music, Tech Groups OK Copyright Plans (AP)

Yahoo is carrying an Associated Press article claiming that the RIAA, the Business Software Alliance, and the Computer Systems Policy Project have reached a deal regarding lobbying of Congress on digital rights management. The RIAA will argue against requirements for copy protection in digital devices. In exchange, the BSA's and CSPP's member companies (i.e. Microsoft, Adobe, etc.) will fight legislation which would broaden fair use and copying rights. "The agreement politically isolates the powerful Motion Picture Association of America, which was noticeably absent from the deal's participants. The MPAA has aggressively supported new government requirements for built-in locking controls on new devices, such as DVD recorders."

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Music and Computer Companies Agree on Antipiracy Plan (NY Times)

The New York Times covers the agreement between the RIAA, the BSA, and the CSPP. "The recording industry's agreement with the computer trade groups marks a departure from its longtime alliance with the motion picture industry on the antipiracy front and underscores their divergent concerns. The music industry may already have taken the hardest hit from digital piracy that it will have to face, as it begins to experiment with technological copy-protection on compact discs." (The Times requires registration).

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Copyright truce excludes key voices (News.com)

News.com is running a column on the BSA/CSPP/RIAA deal. "Ideologically, the recording industry groups and the information technology groups have never been far apart. They've used similar tactics to combat piracy, ranging from sending cease-and-desist letters to Internet service providers to joining law enforcement in raids on CD and software reproduction facilities. With the rise of peer-to-peer networks, the piracy threats they face have never looked more similar."

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Interviews

The Creative Penguin: Tackat and Everaldo Talk on KDE Art (Ofb.biz)

Here is an Open for Business interview with Torsten Rahn and Everaldo Coelho. "Every one sees them all the time and would probably miss them if they didn't exist. What are they? Icons! Torsten Rahn and Everaldo Coelho, the predominant icon duo in the KDE artist world, and creators of virtually all of the icons you see in KDE, spent some time with Open for Business' Timothy Butler discussing how the new Crystal icon theme came about, how it ended up replacing Mr. Rahn's HiColor theme, and the overall importance of icons to the enterprise desktop."

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Lack Of A Viable Business Model Is Stifling Software Innovation (TechWeb)

TechWeb interviews Dave Winer, and talks about the software industry. "But the open source community is not so good for creating good desktop software, for the simple reason that good desktop software requires hard work in user interface design and usability testing -- watching actual users interact with your product. That kind of work is painstaking and often humiliating for developers, Winer said. Developers doing usability testing will find that test users can't figure out how to work what the developer thought was brilliantly intuitive software. Developers demand to get paid for that kind of thing."

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Resources

LinuxDevices.com Newsletter for Jan. 9, 2003

Here is the latest issue of the weekly LinuxDevices.com Newsletter. Get caught up with all that is happening in embedded Linux.

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Reviews

Scaling Linux to New Heights: the SGI Altix 3000 System (Linux Journal)

The Linux Journal looks at SGI's new Linux-based supercomputer - from the point of view of one of the engineers involved in its creation. "We used the following patches from these projects: CPU scheduler, Big Kernel Lock usage reduction improvements, dcache_lock-usage reduction improvements based on the Read-Copy-Update spinlock paradigm and xtime_lock (gettimeofday) usage reduction improvements based on the FRlock locking paradigm.

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Steal This Book? A Publisher Is Making It Easy (NY Times)

The New York Times brings Prentice Hall's "Bruce Perens' Open Source Series" into the mainstream with this article. " Even though photocopying the entire book or making a printout of the electronic version would violate no copyright law, Prentice Hall is betting that most people will not bother, preferring to pay for the convenience of the book itself." (The NY Times is a registration required site.)

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Kevin Mitnick's 'lost' bio (The Register)

The Register takes a look at Kevin Mitnick's book, The Art of Deception, and also prints the auto-biographical chapter that the publisher's left out of the book. "After high school I studied computers at the Computer Learning Center in Los Angeles. Within a few months, the school's computer manager realized I had found a vulnerability in the operating system and gained full administrative privileges on their IBM minicomputer. The best computer experts on their teaching staff couldn't figure out how I had done this. In what may have been one of the earliest examples of "hire the hacker," I was given an offer I couldn't refuse: Do an honors project to enhance the school's computer security, or face suspension for hacking the system. Of course I chose to do the honors project, and ended up graduating Cum Laude with Honors." Thanks to Paul Sladen

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