Linux in the news

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Study: Open, closed source equally secure (News.com)

A Cambridge University researcher presented a paper Thursday to a conference in Toulouse, France, where he argued that proprietary software should be as secure as free software. "In his paper, computer scientist Ross Anderson used an analysis that equates finding software bugs to testing programs for the mean time before failure, a measure of quality frequently used by manufacturers. Under the analysis, Anderson found that his ideal open-source programs were as secure as the closed-source programs."

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Supercomputers getting super-duper (News.com)

According to CNET, it's getting hard to keep a place on the list of the world's fastest supercomputers. They summarize various super computer offerings, including everyone's favorite: Beowulf clusters. "A total of 49 of the Top500 systems are such clusters, with 31 of them built by IBM."

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UnitedLinux: Standardizing Linux (ZDNet)

Larry Seltzer at ZDNet Tech Update gives us his take on UnitedLinux. "One day, if Red Hat and other major distributions join UnitedLinux--or even if they were to simply pledge to support the LSB--things will be different. That would be a big deal. But Red Hat hasn't signed on, and from a pure self-interest perspective I can't see why it would jeopardize its enterprise dominance by giving numerous competitors an equal opportunity for application certification."

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Peru bids to break Microsoft stranglehold (vnunet)

Vnunet investigates the rise of open-source software in Peru. "A Peruvian congressman is planning to have Microsoft products banned from government departments and replaced with open-source software. Edgar Villanueva's measure would apply to all software, from server operating systems to databases, word processors and email. If passed, the legislation could be the first of its kind in the world and would be the first legal restriction aimed at Microsoft's dominant operating systems."

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Companies

HP/Red Hat deal offers Linux servers (vnunet)

Vnunet covers the announcement of new HP/Redhat Itanium 2 based servers. "An existing partnership between HP and Linux expert Red Hat will see the pair become the first to market with Linux-compatible Itanium 2-based platforms. As part of the deal, all HP ProLiant servers, blade servers and Itanium 2-based servers and workstations will be available with the certified Red Hat Linux Advanced Server, the companies said."

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HP jump-starts Red Hat's Itanium agenda (News.com)

Red Hat's original plans were to move the Advanced Server to Itanium in late 2003, but the recent partnership with HP has accelerated those plans a year. CNET's Stephen Shankland has a fairly comprehensive article about the whole partnership and the history of the same.

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IBM opens Linux technology center (ZDNet)

Today IBM will announce the opening of a technology center in Mathattan, to lure financial services companies over to Linux. " IBM initially will fund the center in Manhattan with $1 million, helping financial services companies move their software to Linux computers, the company said."

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IBM aims Linux at financial companies (News.com)

News.com reports on IBM's Linux Technology Center. "IBM on Thursday will announce the opening of a technology center geared to lure financial services companies to servers using the Linux operating system. IBM initially will fund the New York center located in the Manhattan area with $1 million, helping financial services companies move their software to Linux computers, the company said."

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Power 4 the People (Register)

The Register examines IBM's Linux strategy. "IBM's attempt to re-capture the Unix server market continues apace. Having fallen well behind Sun and HP during the late 1990s, largely thanks to a complicated customer-confusing product line, parts of the business competing with other parts of the business and Sun's aggressive pursuit of the Internet server market, Big Blue modified its approach in October 2000. It rebranded, consolidated and streamlined its product line, and more closely allied itself to the Linux movement."

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IBM's Intel Linux plans (Register)

The Register covers IBM's plans for Linux. "Rich Michos, IBM's v.p. of Linux servers, says, 'The Intel platform is the fastest growing platform, and Linux is the fastest growing server OS. Each year Linux is becoming more and more important to IBM and it gains a bigger share.' To be exact, Scott Handy, IBM's director of Linux solutions marketing, says that 27% of new servers requests are for Linux servers. 'And, those requests are increasing.'"

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IBM puts partitioning at the front of UNIX battle (IT-Director)

The Register covers IBM's announcement for its new server line. "IBM this week has revealed plans for a new suite of low-end UNIX servers that, it hopes, will enable the firm to spread its influence across territory more used to HP and Sun Microsystems."

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Lindows.com plans flat-fees for OEMs (Register)

The Register has some details about what lies ahead from Lindows.com. "Instead of the usual per-unit fees, systems builders will pay a $500 monthly membership fee, which will entitle them to install the LindowsOS operating system on an unlimited number of computer systems. Lindows.com is also stating that there will be no volume commitments for system builders that sign up to the program, and no software activation codes requiring tracking and auditing."

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LindowsOS licenses herald cheaper PCs (ZDNet)

ZDNet writes about the Lindows.com licensing advantages for systems integrators. "On Monday Lindows.com, which claims its operating system will eventually be able to run popular Microsoft Windows applications, launched its Builder program, which offers system builders technical support, testing tools, LindowsOS Certification eligibility and a software library for $500 per month. The license allows the manufacturer to install the software on any number of systems, potentially allowing massive savings over traditional licensing plans."

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Microsoft to reveal Palladium source code (News.com)

While some Microsoft executives are testifying in court that source code availability damages security, others in the company are actually releasing source code to improve the security. "Microsoft, long a proponent of keeping source code secret, plans to publish the source code to a critical part of its Palladium project to enhance security, a representative of the software giant said Monday."

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MS to eradicate GPL, hence Linux (Register)

As a followup to the the recent CNET article about Microsoft revealing the source code to Palladium, The Register believes that it is a ploy to destroy the GPL and Linux. "It, or a companion chip, will interface with some manner of PKI, current or future, so that only 'authorized' applications may run with privileges."

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Open-source seeks strength in numbers (News.com)

Video-compression provider On2 Technologies will announce today that it will blend its video codec with Ogg Vorbis. "That's the beauty of open source. You now have a huge number of people who if they're interested can work on advancing the code base."

See also the official press release.

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Is Red Hat going to be the next Microsoft? (ZDNet)

Dan Farber over at ZDNet spent some time thinking about their recent interview with Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik. Of particular interest to Dan is Red Hat's position against Microsoft, which he neatly summarizes point by point. Worth a read. "In fact, given that the Linux world is built on a collaborative approach based on the GNU GPL (General Public License), it's hard to imagine how any single open source distributor could totally dominate. Everyone has access to the bounty of source code generated by the huge community of developers evolving the Linux platform."

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More Red Ink For Red Hat (TechWeb)

Information Week examinesRed Hat's continuing efforts to make money. "Linux is on the minds of many IT executives, but not enough to help Red Hat Inc. turn a profit."

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Red Hat looks at a Linux desktop (ZDNet)

Will Red Hat go after the desktop market? Stephen Shankland investigates the question in this article. "Red Hat is warming to the use of the Linux operating system on desktop computers, a difficult market where customers are picky and Microsoft is the leader."

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Red Hat: one of our Operating Systems is missing (Register)

The Register looks into Red Hat's dropping of its eCos embedded operating system.

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What's up with Red Hat's embedded strategy? (LinuxDevices.com)

LinuxDevices.com talks with Red Hat CTO Michael Tiemann about the company's embedded Linux strategy. "Tiemann also pointed out that Venture Development Corporation's recently completed embedded Linux market study determined that the most popular Linux distribution for embedded system development is Red Hat Linux, according to a survey of developers. ''Without even trying, we've won the 'roll-your-own' market,'' Tiemann asserted."

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Sun To Give Away J2EE Server (TechWeb)

Tech Web reports that Sun Microsystems will be giving away a free (as in beer) version of its J2EE Server product for Solaris, Windows, Linux, IBM-AIX, and HP-UX. "But when it comes to enterprise software, "free" is always a relative term. Sun's Schwartz stressed that just because a basic edition of the Sun ONE app server is now free, that does not mean that Sun will decrease its investment in the platform. The app server remains a key cog in Sun's overall enterprise computing framework. "

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Sun, IBM add to Web services arsenal (ZDNet)

ZDNet covers the announcements yesterday from IBM and Sun. "IBM said it will offer a new starter kit that will allow programmers to use the Java language to build and run Web services. [...] Meanwhile, Sun announced [...] a bundle of the company's Solaris operating system and application server software that can be used as a guideline for building Web services."

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Microsoft move triggers Linux promotion (News.com)

News.com looks at Ximian's efforts to woo customers away from the Microsoft platform. "Ximian, a small Boston company pushing use of the Linux operating system on ordinary desktop computers, is offering discounts to try to woo Microsoft customers dissatisfied with a more expensive licensing plan from the software titan. As of May, about two-thirds of Microsoft's customers haven't signed up for a program to offer a subscription-like product update service."

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Business

Linux v. MS v. Unix - who's got the Big Mo? (Register)

The Register looks at exactly where Linux machines are, and are not showing up in businesses. "Wall Street's love affair with Linux companies may have ended a long time ago, but the open source operating system's march into the enterprise continues unabated, if slowly. Indeed, while Linux may have lost its lustre for investors, some banks, including CS First Boston and Merrill Lynch, have given it the thumbs-up and have begun replacing old trading systems and servers with Linux-based kit."

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Interviews

Face to face with Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik (News.com)

A group of CNET and ZDNet journalists have cornered Matthew Szulik for answers on a variety of interesting topics, including Red Hat's competition with Microsoft, Sun, and other Linux companies, strategic alliances, Mozilla, and future challenges. The content is available in Real or Windows Media.

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Behind the Slashdot phenomenon (News.com)

News.com interviews Rob Malda, A.K.A. Shashdot's CmdrTaco, on the Slashdot phenomenon. "To a lot of people, Slashdot is nothing but 12 links to new things every day. To half of our readers, in fact, that's all Slashdot is. But to some of our readers, it's a community that's here to discuss issues that are relevant to this community. There is a lot of value. The bulk of our content comes from other people. There are 6,000 or 7,000 comments on a busy day that other people write and just a dozen stories of just a paragraph or two that we actually generate, that are ours. It is a weird symbiosis of things that are given to us."

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Resources

Playing Files with Vorbis

The third in a four part series of articles on Ogg Vorbis is out. Playing Files with Vorbis covers a number of different players that are available for dealing with Vorbis files.

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Quick! I Need a Book! (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal is running an article that covers the use of HTMLDOC for conversion of multiple HTML files into single HTML, Postscript or PDF files. "Linux offers many document conversion tools and a great many powerful document-generating tools and languages, from old standbys like TROFF and texinfo to tools like TeX and LaTeX, but these are well documented elsewhere. There's one lesser known tool, a bit narrower than TeX, that's perfect for your trifling problem: HTMLDOC."

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Tinyminds.org for Everyone (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal covers the launch of Tinyminds.org. "A new kind of innovative Linux help site is developing, and it's happening quicker than the Mozilla nightly builds. Tinyminds.org is changing the way traditional Linux help sites have done business."

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Usenix Tutorials Answer Deep Questions (Linux Journal)

Another Linux Journal article on Usenix has been published, this one summarizing Mr. Marti's experiences in 3 tutorials. Apparantly, he enjoyed himself and summarized it thus: "If you work in an environment where people consider you the Linux or UNIX expert, you can count on maximizing ROI on your training budget by attending the information-dense Usenix tutorials."

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Reviews

Try a secure virtual Linux (ZDNet)

ZDNet is running a letter that compares the operation of VMware, Virtuozzo, and User Mode Linux.

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Linux: Feelin' Secure (TechWeb)

This TechWeb author is impressed with the security of Linux, and says so in this article. "IT pros navigating a minefield of insecure software and systems are finding safe ground in Linux. That's because the open-source operating systemin part due to its very opennesshas become a model of security."

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ConsoleOne adds NetWare admin powers to Linux (ZDNet)

ZDNet reviewsConsoleOne, a Novell utility for administering NewWare nets. "But Novell is constantly adding to NetWare, incorporating the coolest, newest technologies. One example is ConsoleOne 1.3.3 For Linux, which incorporates Java and Linux with Novell's newest administration utility, ConsoleOne. With it, you can administer your NetWare servers from a Linux workstation as easily as you can from a Windows workstation."

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Sharp unveils Linux-based handheld (News.com)

The successor to the Zaurus SL-5500 has been introduced, but only in Japan, and the bad news is that Sharp representatives say there are no plans to bring it to the United States. "The Zaurus SL-A300 measures 0.5 inches by 2.7 inches by 4.4 inches and weighs 4.2 ounces. It uses Intel's 200MHz XScale PXA210 processor, 64MB of memory and a 3.5-inch active matrix display with a resolution of 320 pixels by 240 pixels. It also has a Secure Digital slot for expansion."

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Miscellaneous

Why Linux-loaded laptops have sold poorly (NewsForge)

NewsForge is running an analysis on the failure of companies to profitably serve the Linux-on-laptops market. "If Dell or IBM -- or someone else -- had been willing to sell me a low-cost laptop with Linux already on it, they would have had a sure sale. I had my credit card out, with plenty of available balance on it, ready to spring $1,500 but not $3,000. Too bad these biggies didn't want my money or my loyalty. Maybe someday they will, and maybe someone else will come along who doesn't sneer at my money-saving nature and wants to do business with me."

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Apache quells scaling doubts (vnunet)

vnunet covers a recent PC Magazine test that reveals "that Apache's Web server running under Linux on four-way servers can scale to compete in performance with Microsoft's IIS Web server running under Windows 2000."

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Sun's open source policy closes doors for Solaris (ZDNet)

ZDNet features an editorial by a Solaris developer that looks at how open-source packages may not easily port to non-Linux platforms. "Since Linux and Solaris are not identical, this means that a growing number of software packages will not work "out of the box" with Solaris. Solaris is becoming a third-class citizen in the free software world."

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Mozilla nabs surfers from Microsoft

ZDNet reports that the Mozilla browser has garnered a small (0.4 percent), market share from the Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer. " Microsoft's iron grip on the Web browser market has slipped ever so slightly since the release of new products from rivals Mozilla and Netscape Communications, Web researcher OneStat.com reported Monday."

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