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Linux in the newsRecommended Reading Hacker says he leaked info on Unix flaw (News.com) News.com reports that a hacker claims to have stolen three unreleased security advisories from a corporate computer and posted them to a public mailing list. "The online vandal, who uses the monicker "Hack4Life," said Wednesday that he stole advisories detailing flaws in a common set of Unix code, the Kerberos authentication system and some implementations of encryption for Web sites. He claims to have stolen them from a firm that had been working with the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) Coordination Center, a clearinghouse for security information."
XFree86 dust-up questions X11 model (Register) Here's the Register's take on the split in the XFree86 project. "Key Linux kernel developer Alan Cox agreed that the project needed a wake-up call, but didn't think a splinter project by Packard could cause too much harm: "X has to evolve, X has to do cool stuff, X has to let people break stuff, X has to delegate trust to driver maintainers far more," he wrote. "To me it doesn't matter if Keith and friends spin off an "Xperimental" or XFree itself changes, but that change is vital to the future of X11.""
Trade Shows and Conferences Open Source in Government Conference Wrapup (NewsForge) NewsForge covers the recent "Open Standards/Open Source for National and Local eGovernment Programs in the U.S. and EU" conference held in Washington DC last week. "One GSA (General Services Administration) representative felt that this conference's primary benefit was that it showed him he was not alone; that there was more open source being used in more places within the federal government than he had thought. Not only that, he said he learned some helpful tricks from some of the sessions and -- best of all -- hooked up with several people from other agencies whose needs are similar to his, with whom he can cooperate on several projects, thereby increasing development and deployment efficiency even more."
Companies Intel plans Linux support for Centrino (News.com) News.com reports on Intel's plans to support Linux on Centrino. "Although the Linux support software for Centrino is working at Intel's labs, it hasn't been fully tested and full completion of the project hinges on the timing of requirements from computer makers, company spokesman Scott McLaughlin said Monday."
Lindows CEO attacks Intel's Centrino Linux lockout (Register) The Register looks into allegations made by Lindows.com CEO Michael Robertson. "Intel is going through a major internal struggle over desktop Linux, and the pro-Microsoft marketing droids are currently winning, according to Lindows.com CEO Michael Robertson. As evidence, Robertson puts forward the lack of Linux support for Centrino, the mysterious blocking of his company's request to participate in an Intel roadshow, and the last minute pullout of Intel speakers at his Desktop Linux Summit earlier this year."
Red Hat slips into the red (News.com) News.com looks at Red Hat's quarterly results and prospects for the near future. "Even though [Red Hat Linux 9] will boost Red Hat revenue, the company's attention will remain on the premium product, Chief Executive Matthew Szulik said in an interview. 'You're not going to see any aggressive promotion with it,' he said. Advertising and promotion might increase sales, but it also increases expenses 'in a business that is not that interesting to the company,' Szulik said."
Linux Adoption A provincial German town drops Microsoft for Linux (Boston.com) Boston.com looks at the German city of Schwaebisch Hall, which is switching over to Linux. "The open-source software can be freely copied by the more than 400 new Linux users employed by Schwaebisch Hall, which is encouraging them to copy the software on their work computers for home use... By year's end Schwaebisch Hall, working with Nuremberg-based SuSE and IBM Germany, will have switched all 300 desktop computers and 15 servers recording tax payments, business licenses and library checkout records." (Thanks to Ashwin N.)
Linux lines up its best shot (vnunet) Vnunet thinks the Linux revolution is still a long ways off. "There is no shortage of pundits who believe that Linux is taking off. IDC, Gartner, Aberdeen and the Robert Francis Group all predict a massive upsurge in the employment of Linux, at some stage soon. That said, whenever analysts agree on something, they are usually wrong."
Legal Public to chime in on copyright law (News.com) News.com reports that the Library of Congress' Copyright Office will hold a series of public hearings to decide what changes, if any, should be made to the section of the DMCA that restricts bypassing copy-protection schemes. "Anyone with strong feelings about the DMCA, one way or another, may submit a request by Apr. 1 to testify during the public forums, the Copyright Office said in its announcement. The hearing dates in the U.S. capital will be Apr. 11, Apr. 15 and May 2. The dates and locations in California have not been set yet."
Resources Ten Security Checks for PHP, Part 1 (O'ReillyNet) O'ReillyNet looks into building a secure web site with PHP. "It is extremely easy to write applications that contain unintentional security holes. This is demonstrated by the range of common web applications, including PHPMyAdmin, PHPShop and FreeTrade, that have contained major security holes. The source code is often required to identify these holes, but it is common to make the source code of these applications available to the public. This article provides five steps to help identify or avoid such security holes in applications written using PHP."
Reviews Time for Users to Start Testing 2.5 (Linux Journal) Linux Journal looks at the 2.5 Linux kernel. "A lot of people ask me, "When do you think the 2.6 kernel will be released?" My response to that question usually is, "Well, how well is the 2.5 kernel working for you?" Inevitably, during the resulting conversation where I plead with the person to please at least run the kernel once on their hardware, they respond with one of the following reasons why they have not tried 2.5:"
Red Hat liberates low-end Linux (News.com) News.com looks at the upcoming Red Hat 9 release. "The Raleigh, N.C.-based company has just completed splitting its product line in two: the slow-changing premium Red Hat Enterprise Linux version for businesses and the free Red Hat Linux version for enthusiasts. Establishing the RHEL option for conservative customers freed up Red Hat to accept more flexibility with the RHL line, said Matt Wilson, manager of Red Hat's base operating system, in an interview Tuesday."
Mozilla Tightens Up (eWeek) eWeek evaluates Mozilla version 1.3. "Mozilla 1.3 also includes a demonstration of a capability, code-named Midas, that will be supported in future versions of the browser. Midas lets Web developers add rich-text editable controls to pages using standard script commands. We found this feature interesting but were not sure why it was included--there are already standards-based ways to do basically the same thing across all browsers."
An update on RTLinux (LinuxDevices) LinuxDevices.com delves into RTLinux. "The RTLinux dual-kernel operating system was first introduced back in 1995. Today, RTLinux is well known worldwide as a means to gain "hard real-time" performance from a Linux-based system environment. In this article, Victor Yodaiken, Michael Barabanov, and Cort Dougan -- three key figures in the creation, evolution, and maintenance of RTLinux -- summarize the state of RTLinux eight years later."
Miscellaneous Too cool for secure code (Register) Jon Lasser takes programmers to task for insecure software in The Register. "It would be nice if we could expect that our programmers would act more like airline pilots than fighter pilots: that they acknowledge, and accept, the responsibility that they take for the well-being of others. Until they take this step, I doubt that the quality and security of the code that we all rely on will improve."
Page editor: Forrest Cook |
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