Linux in the news

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Spam's tenth anniversary is today (Netcraft)

Netcraft looks at ten years of spam. "Ten years ago today, spam as we know it was born. On 5 March 1994, a message was posted to some Usenet newsgroups by a law firm called Canter and Siegel, advertising their services for the U.S. Green Card lottery. It sounds mild enough today, but at the time that move and its follow-ups provoked increasing outrage across the Net. Many were appalled that "netiquette" - the unspoken rules that hitherto had maintained order in cyberspace - had been breached, sensing perhaps that things would never be the same again."

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cat /dev/DiBona/brain: ASK Me No Questions, I'll Tell You No Lies (Linux Journal)

Chris DiBona begins a Linux Journal column series with a discussion of why he went over to challenge/response spam filtering. "Initially, I was taken aback by the finality of such a system, but over the past few months, I determined that Kirk is right--I simply don't have the time to mess around anymore. If I know you, don't worry, your e-mail goes through; if I don't, ASK requires one step that you need to take only once. I don't think this is a lot to ask of people who e-mail me out of the blue."

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The Developer's Dilemma (TheFeature)

TheFeature is running an article that looks into cell phone programming issues. "With any luck, Nokia's new ports of scripting languages, like Python, for cell phones will engage a new generation of fledgling programmers. It'll have to be somewhere other than the United States, of course, unless Verizon really is brought down by the AT&T/Cingular merger."

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The SCO Problem

The Memo is Legit (Groklaw)

Groklaw has a nice summary of the veracity of the SCO memo posted by Eric Raymond, SCO's spin on the whole thing, and the interesting metadata found in the DaimlerChrysler complaint. "If you want your eyes to bug out, take a look at what Microsoft's loathesome metadata has revealed -- up until February, SCO was planning a DMCA action against the Bank of America, and they planned to ask the judge to impound all Linux software in the BofA's possession during the trial."

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CA blasts SCO, disputes Linux license claim (ComputerWorld)

According to this ComputerWorld article, some of the companies named by SCO as having bought "Linux licenses" see things differently. "SCO Chief Financial Officer Bob Bench on Wednesday confirmed that Computer Associates was one of four publicly named companies to sign up for SCO's Intellectual Property (IP) License for Linux -- a US$699 license that SCO says that Linux users must purchase in order to avoid violating SCO's copyrights. On Thursday, however, a CA executive said that his company had purchased no such license, but had instead acquired a large number of licenses for SCO's UnixWare operating system as part of a US$40 million breach of contract lawsuit settlement in August 2003 with SCO investor The Canopy Group Inc."

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Microsoft And SCO Group: What's So Secret? (TechWeb)

TechWeb calls on Microsoft to explain its dealings with SCO. "The mystery behind Microsoft's arrangement with SCO could be cleared up, and maybe some of the speculation put to rest, if Microsoft would disclose more details about how it plans to use SCO's technology. But it won't. I've asked for that information four times in the past 12 months, but Microsoft will only discuss its plans in the broadest terms, and even then unconvincingly."

Comments (8 posted)

Perens: SCO's Tapestry of Lies

Bruce Perens has posted a new editorial on the SCO case. "SCO has run its campaign against Linux for over a year now, kiting their stock from fifty cents to over twenty dollars on many statements that, it is turning out, weren't true. When a company makes unfounded assertions for a month or two, it can be dismissed as a mistake or wishful thinking. When the distortions go on for a full year, it becomes difficult to explain their behavior as anything but a deliberate fraud meant to hurt Linux for Microsoft, their financial backer, while bringing SCO Millions in stock windfalls."

Comments (3 posted)

SCO March 3, 2004 First Quarter Teleconference - Transcript (Groklaw)

For those of you who missed the delightful SCO earnings conference call last week - or who wish to relive the experience - Groklaw has posted a transcript of the event.

Comments (2 posted)

Companies

Microsoft Demos Windows XP Service Pack 2 (TechWeb)

Here's a sign of where things are going: this TechWeb article about a new Windows XP service pack is mostly devoted to Microsoft's response to Linux. "Microsoft is also clearly mapping out its future product strategy and road map, which is unavailable from the Linux community, [Microsoft manager Kevin Wueste] said. 'You have to go to 80,000 community Web sites to figure out what all the (Linux) architects are doing and then maybe put a strategy together,' he said. It is impractical for customers and partners to bet on such a model, said Wueste." Perhaps Mr. Wueste should read LWN instead :).

Comments (19 posted)

Linux Adoption

From code war to Cold War (BBC)

BBC News is running a strange article about the "war" between free and proprietary code. "So now would be a good time to start thinking about how we persuade governments that market in software may eventually need to be regulated, just as the market in electricity, water and food is, and that that regulation may well include a statutory duty to disclose source code and allow it to be used elsewhere." (Thanks to Paul Sladen).

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The highest Internet Access Center in Europe uses KDE ! (KDE-France.org)

KDE-France.org looks at the use of KDE in the French alps. "Our reporter was amazed to discover that the users of the cyberbase, most of them without any knowledge of the OS they were running, were using KDE with proficiency. The main problem for foreigners seemed to be the peculiarities of the French keyboard but there were some Qwerty keyboards available." (Found on KDE.News)

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Open source gets serious (USA Today)

USA Today looks at the growing acceptance of Linux and reviews five desktop-oriented distributions. "In terms of end-user training requirements, Lindows, Lycoris and Xandros present the least costly options for switching to a Linux desktop interface. Libranet and Mandrake may require more training but are still worth considering."

Comments (12 posted)

Legal

EU tightens rules on piracy (CNN)

Here is CNN's coverage of today's EU IPR directive vote. "Using fast-track procedures, the European Union assembly, meeting in Strasbourg, France, voted 330 to 151 with 39 abstentions to pass the measure. EU ministers were expected to sign off on the new rules against counterfeiting by the end of the week."

Comments (3 posted)

Interviews

Five years of bringing Linux to the Feds first-hand (NewsForge)

NewsForge talks with Tim Bogart, of the Northern Virginia Linux Users Group (NoVaLUG), about the LUG's participation in FOSE, the Federal Office Systems Exposition. " How did the first FOSE appearance come about? Did you ask FOSE or did FOSE ask you? Tim: Actually I annoyed them until they agreed to open a dialog. I pestered them for about three months. Then Red Hat had their IPO ... more phone calls ... then VA Linux ... then I got to talk to them. It was nothing but bulldog tenacity that got us in there. "

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Two interviews at Presence-PC

Independent French magazine Presence-PC has translated two recent interviews into English. This interview with Richard Stallman looks at the GNU project and the state of the Hurd. Then Denis Oliver Kropp talks about DirectFB. "Denis Oliver Kropp: I'm a 22 year old developer from Berlin and the main developer of DirectFB. My company "convergence GmbH" is developing an MHP (Multimedia Home Platform) implementation on top of a GNU/Linux/DirectFB system."

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The People Behind KDE: Zack Rusin (KDE.News)

KDE.News interviews Zack Rusin in its People Behind KDE series. "The guy I'm interviewing this week is remembered among his friends for trying to enforce a passionate relationship on a Ximian person, sleeps with his laptop and is one of KDE's most outgoing developers. The man who cut his famous dreadlocks and emerged with a clean crew cut, it's Zack Rusin!"

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Interview with Quanta: Eric Laffoon (TechDigest.org)

TechDigest.org talks with Eric Laffoon, Quanta/kdewebdev project leader. "The one thing I would like to say is that I have become a very strong supporter of open source software. I very much want to empower people around the world to have a better life and I believe there is a battle in the world around us over control of power and money. There always is, only now it's focusing on the most substantial invention since the printing press, the internet. Five hundred years ago our world changed with the ability to easily share knowledge. I believe that amazing developments or oppressive freedom turn on what happens in the next 5-10 years on the internet and I take it seriously." (Found at KDE.News)

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Interview with Doug Turner and Chris Hofmann (New Mobile Computing)

New Mobile Computing has an interview with Doug Turner and Chris Hofmann of the Minimo project. "Minimo, is really two parts -- it is an effort which aims at providing a small embeddable browser for small devices. We think we have done a good job at this. The second aim is to provide a best-of-bred application for small devices. We have just started to work on the second aim. You should expect to see some very good UI for Minimo in the next few months."

Comments (1 posted)

Reviews

Improved memory management in the 2.6 kernel (developerWorks)

developerWorks examines some of the improvements in the 2.6 kernel. "The 2.6 Linux kernel employs a number of techniques to improve the use of large amounts of memory, making Linux more enterprise-ready than ever before. This article outlines a few of the more important changes, including reverse mapping, the use of larger memory pages, storage of page-table entries in high memory, and greater stability of the memory manager."

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Networking improvements in the 2.6 kernel (developerWorks)

IBM developerWorks looks at networking improvements in the 2.6 kernel. "The new Linux 2.6 kernel offers many improvements over the 2.4 version. One area of technical advancement is in the kernel networking options. Although there are enhancements in most of the files associated with the networking options, this article focuses on major feature improvements and additions that affect entire sections rather than on specific files."

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Miscellaneous

Inside TLDP (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal looks at the evolution of the Linux Documentation Project. "Linux environments tend to change at a rather high speed, so do the docs. Sooner rather than later, submissions about new protocols and applications reach TLDP, outdating older documents. The main problem here is TLDP maintainers usually are rather soft-hearted, so partly out of melancholy, partly out of respect and sometimes partly because of the lack of volunteers for upgrading a document, they tend to archive everything."

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Next-Generation File Sharing with Social Networks (O'Reilly)

Robert Kaye writes about the evolution of peer to peer networks on O'Reilly. "Combining file sharing applications with social networks enables people to create a trusted network of their friends to keep out the bad guys. The definition of bad guys is up to the user to determine -- in a lot of cases, the bad guys would be the lovely folks slinging lawsuits. But these networks can easily be used for legitimate non-infringing uses, such as sharing personal information with a network of friends while keeping it out of reach of marketers and identity thieves."

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