Linux in the news

Recommended Reading

Free Culture (O'Reilly)

The full text of Lawrence Lessig's keynote speech at the 2002 Open Source Convention, is up at the O'Reilly Network. "In 1774, free culture was born. In a case called Donaldson v. Beckett in the House of Lords in England, free culture was made because copyright was stopped. In 1710, the statute had said that copyright should be for a limited term of just 14 years. But in the 1740s, when Scottish publishers started reprinting classics (you gotta' love the Scots), the London publishers said "Stop!" They said, "Copyright is forever!" Sonny Bono said "Copyright should be forever minus a day," but the London publishers said "Copyright is forever.""

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MS yanks free Web TTFs (Register)

Microsoft has ended free downloads of their TrueType fonts for the Web, reports this Register article. "Ultimately, this is probably all for the best. While it's undoubtedly irritating to see a much-appreciated resource coldly and suddenly withdrawn by the Beast merely to make alternatives to its licensing extortion less attractive, it's high time that the open-source community got serious about developing some really handsome fonts."

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Embedded Linux Platform Spec achieves 'strawman' phase (LinuxDevices)

LinuxDevices reports on progress towards an embedded Linux Core Platform. "Meeting nine times since kickoff in March, the Embedded Linux Consortium's Core Platform Working Group has achieved consensus on a strawman specification. The document will soon circulate for comment among member companies under the organization's intellectual property rules. This cycle will enable the group to build a completed core platform specification for the global embedded Linux community by year's end. A difficult but worthy goal, the Core Platform is expected to bring order to the market by reducing concerns and silencing competitive disinformation about operating system fragmentation and support."

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Corporate Open Source Collaboration? (Clustering Foundries)

Brian Finley examines how corporate involvment in open source development has changed things. "Now the individuals working on a project are doing it because they're told to, they're adding the features that they're paid to add, and corporations are providing direction to the developers instead of the individuals being self directing. Sure the individuals have a certain degree of autonomy, but they must now work within the scope of the "corporate good" instead of being focused on what they think would be fun or on what they need to get their own job done."

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Penguin Power! (TechWeb)

This article on Tech Web claims that Linux may make it onto corporate desktops by accident. "With so many companies lining up behind Linux enterprise solutions, the top-down theory that the open-source operating system might gain a piece of the corporate desktop market by being a server OS has some merit. Red Hat and UnitedLinux are the two organizations most likely to deliver such a version. But it'll be the big guns of IBM, Sun, Oracle, HP, Dell, and others whose increasingly Linux-based missions could literally push Linux onto the desktop almost as an afterthought."

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Trade Shows and Conferences

LinuxWorld Day 3

Russell Pavlicek has sent us his coverage of LinuxWorld, Day 3. Click below for the full story.

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IBM name calling at LinuxWorld (Register)

The Register covers the LinuxWorld keynote by IBM's Global Services vice president and group executive Douglas Elix. ""Microsoft began calling it a cancer, a threat to intellectual property and the American way," he said. "Yesterday I saw Microsoft's booth in the convention center and had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming," he said."

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Sun readies open source desktop (ZDNet)

ZDNet covers Sun CEO Scott McNealy's LinuxWorld keynote. "Sun cites the fact that Linux has been growing faster on the desktop than in the server market as a primary reason that Sun plans to focus attention on the client side. The new focus also fits neatly into McNealy's goal to do whatever he can to stymie the Microsoft Windows machine, which, in typical McNealy-speak, he called a "welded-shut hairball.""

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Get a Linux desktop--and lose your cozy office! (ZDNet)

Here's an article about Sun's participation in LinuxWorld, with other LinuxWorld observations. "Sun will be able to shove nearly two people into every office--and cube, more likely--because the software will allow them to log on from any workstation, anywhere. McNealy said this proves you don't need Microsoft Windows to do your work, although how Linux would be different from Sun's Solaris OS in powering such a project, I really don't understand."

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Ellison seeks open-source unity (News.com)

News.com covers Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's LinuxWorld keynote. ""We are moving very aggressively, not just to jump on the Linux hype bandwagon, but we're using Linux to run our own business," Ellison said. "We're encouraging our customers to pick Linux because it's cheaper and faster…and more reliable than any other environment around."" Ellison also stated that the lack of an office suite that is equivalent to Microsoft Office is holding Linux back.

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Ellison Pushes Clustering On Linux (TechWeb)

TechWeb covers Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's LinuxWorld address. "All of Oracle's midtier applications will run on Linux by the end of this year, Ellison says. The company's Linux clustering customers already include Dell Computer and the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as several European companies. Market research shows that Oracle's databases and application servers are the No. 1 choices on Linux, he says. "I don't think we've had a single new technology take off as rapidly as clustering on Linux," says Ellison, adding that the company has expanded its strategy of promoting Linux to existing users to others who might not have considered it."

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eWeek coverage of LinuxWorld

eWeek has posted a bunch of articles on the happenings at LinuxWorld.

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Can Linux duck the Redmond death ray? (News.com)

Here's a News.com perspective on Microsoft's presence at LinuxWorld Expo. "Yet at the same time, Microsoft understands that Linux may be the biggest threat to its domination of the desktop since Janet Reno and her legions at the Justice Department. Some Redmond insiders would love to crush Linux, but it?s way too late for that. And so it becomes all the more important to engage the Linux community--if not co-opt it."

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Linux users march on city hall (News.com)

News.com reports that a small but enthusiastic crowd of Linux lovers hit the streets of San Francisco on Thursday. "Led by Michael Tiemann, chief technology officer of Linux seller Red Hat, the group marched the mile-long stretch from the LinuxWorld conference to San Francisco City Hall. There, Tiemann unveiled the Digital Software Security Act, a proposal that would prohibit the state from buying software that doesn't open its code."

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HP's Linux icon chooses politics over paycheck (InfoWorld)

InfoWorld reports that Bruce Perens is leaving HP. "While taking part in a San Francisco rally Thursday in support of proposed legislation that would require California's government IT systems to use open source software over proprietary programs, Perens said his corporate ties are getting in the way of his political ideals."

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No Free Dinner for Free Software (Wired)

Wired News covers a dinner to benefit the Free Software Foundation. "The night's guest of honor? Not, as one might imagine, the FSF's well-known leader; he was in Costa Rica. Instead, the FSF recruited Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig as the main draw for an intimate discussion of the coming battles between the individual artists and hackers who create copyrighted material, and the large technology and media corporations that Lessig says are stifling this creativity."

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Open Sourcers Say Grid Is Good (Wired)

Wired covers reactions to various keynotes at LinuxWorld. "You have to wonder how all this backstabbing business stuff is going to affect the camaraderie of Linux development," Frank Pfeil, a systems administrator from New York, said. "Linux coders aren't all sweetness and light, but we never stood around and mocked each others' work for three days straight at a public event like these big companies have done.""

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International House of Penguins (Wired)

Wired looks at the international flavor of this year's LinuxWorld. "Most prominent was the announcement of a Chinese government-sponsored Linux distribution called Yangfan Linux. Built by a coalition of government, universities and private companies, the distribution will eventually replace Windows on all government computers."

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Linux goes from strength to strength (BBC News)

The BBC News reports from LinuxWorld Expo. "Events and announcements at the 2002 Linuxworld Expo show how the operating system is evolving and how it is being adopted and adapted by the biggest technology companies."

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BlackHat 2002: The White House and Free Software Will Guide the Industry (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal reports from BlackHat 2002. "A focus on security is necessary, but can the government and the Free Software and Open Source communities agree on what that means? For the first time since the September 11th attacks, one of the foremost computer security conventions took place: BlackHat 2002 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The American government embraced the occasion as an opportunity to show the new direction they want to take for dealing with security in cyberspace. Their new approach involves cooperation with the industry, because the next major strike of terrorism very well could be through cyberspace. And any attack on our society could be severe. Fortunately, a lot of progress is being made in the field of security, and a lot of that innovation is coming from the Open Source and Free Software communities. When it comes to issues of security, however, many governments have yet to find a good way to deal with free and open-source software."

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Companies

IBM, Borland Team On Development Tools (TechWeb)

Internet Week reports on the collaboration between Borland and IBM. "Borland Software on Monday said it will work more closely with IBM to create and market development tools for Windows and Linux platforms. Under the deal, IBM will bundle Borland Delphi Studio Architect, C++Builder Enterprise, and Borland Kylix Enterprise trial versions with its DB2 database. In exchange, Borland will bundle the IBM database with the three development tools as well. The two companies will also jointly create a customer portal to help developers migrate from their current tools to the Borland and IBM platforms, they said."

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Orem, Utah-Based Caldera, Partners Announce Debut of New Linux System (The Salt Lake Tribune)

The Salt Lake Tribune covers Caldera International and UnitedLinux. "A public test release of UnitedLinux -- a uniform product based on the "open source," or freely distributed Linux kernel program that has inspired hundreds of versions since its release in 1991 -- is expected Sept. 15, with the final commercial product to appear sometime in November."

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IBM takes eLiza to low-end servers (Register)

The Register examines IBM's new Intel-based eServer x205.

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It's reality check time for Lindows (ZDNet)

ZDNet examines the changing business strategy at Lindows. "Lindows.com chief executive Michael Robertson has said in the past that marketing, rather than technology, was the key to increasing Linux's acceptance in the mainstream market, and the company's marketing has shifted away from Windows compatibility to features such as the company's application download service. The change has led some industry observers to question whether Lindows really has anything to offer that isn't already available in existing Linux distributions."

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LSB certifications confuse Sun's Linux standards story (Register)

The Register looks at LSB compliance and Sun Linux 5.0. "McNealy's comment seems strange given that, according to Sun's own developer resources, Sun Linux 5.0 is "highly compatible with Red Hat Linux 7.2", and differentiated from Red Hat Linux 7.2 only by different RPM package manager versions and installer functions. Now that Raleigh, North Carolina-based Red Hat is one of the first distributors to become LSB-certified, McNealy's comments look increasingly like smoke and mirrors."

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Microsoft lobby opens fire on open source (News.com)

News.com reports on the CompTIA lobbying group's Initiative for Software Choice. "The initiative takes aim squarely at what has become one of the major themes in the software business this year: government use of open-source software, best known as the development model behind the Linux operating system. Governments in France, Germany, Peru and other countries have passed or are considering bills that would encourage the use of open-source software in the public sector." Microsoft is the largest supporter of the group, Intel is also a member.

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Sun needs more Linux partners (ZDNet)

ZDNet looks at Sun's Linux strategy. "Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM partner with one or more OS distributors for kernel integration and support. Sun's limitation in using a version of Red Hat's Linux will likely prevent it from capitalizing on performance enhancements in enterprise applications and database management offered by Red Hat's Advanced Server--drawn from partnerships with Oracle and other ISVs. However, this limitation reflects Sun's plan to target edge-server applications based on LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) and Sun One."

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Turbolinux sells Linux business, name (News.com)

News.com reports on changes at Turbolinux. "Turbolinux has sold its Linux business to Japan's Software Research Associates and in the process has completed its transformation into a proprietary software company. Brisbane, Calif.-based Turbolinux has transferred all of its Linux assets, including its name, to SRA, one of Japan's oldest software firms, Turbolinux said Tuesday. Turbolinux came to prominence by selling a version of the Linux operating system in the Japanese market." The company's new name has not yet been announced.

Internetnews.com also has an article on the Turbolinux story.

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Business

Amazon.com Says Switch to Linux Operating System Has Saved It Millions

According to this article in the Seattle Times, Amazon.com has saved millions of dollars by switching to Linux. "Amazon.com switched nearly its entire computer network to the freely shared Linux operating system not because of politics but because it is helping the company grow and cut costs, Amazon's engineering chief said yesterday. "We wanted the best tool for the task," said Jacob Levanon, director of systems engineering at the Seattle-based Internet retailer. Amazon has become a poster child for the progress Linux is making in large-enterprise computing since the Web giant began using Linux to run 92 percent of its network computers last September."

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Verizon switches programmers to Linux (News.com)

According to News.com, Verizon has switched its programmers to Linux, and is saving bundles of cash as a result. "Telecommunications company Verizon Communications saved $6 million in equipment costs by moving its programmers to Linux computers, the company said Wednesday. The company cut costs by replacing programmers' Unix and Windows workstations with Linux systems that run OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office, said George Hughes, a Verizon executive overseeing the work. The average desktop cost went from $22,000 to $3,000 per developer, he said in a talk at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo."

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Westport Rivers Toasts Open Source (TechWeb)

The Westport Rivers Winery dumped Windows in favor of Linux to save money and support expansion, reports TechWeb. "Westport also wasn't getting the performance it needed. The servers were going through memory like a wedding party through champagne, causing the winery's system to lock up. Microsoft couldn't give Russell a satisfactory explanation as to why this was happening."

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International Organisations Take a Close Look at Linux (Linux Journal)

This Linux Journal article looks at Linux adoption around the world. "GNU/Linux is a suitable tool for organising too, as it was recently pointed out by LINC. "The Low Income Networking and Communication (LINC) Project of the Welfare Law Center has helped many low-income led organizing groups acquire access to the Internet and use technology more effectively," says Dirk Slater, senior circuit rider for LINC at the Welfare Law Center."

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Interviews

LWN talks to CodeWeavers Chief Jeremy White

Employing 12 full-time Wine developers, CodeWeavers is a company that builds business solutions based on Wine. Jeremy White, company CEO, was kind enough to answer a few of my questions in e-mail. Click below to read Jeremy's thoughts on Lindows, free office packages, and a pile of information about Wine.

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Freehackers.org Interviews KDevelop Team

Freehackers.org talks with the people behind KDevelop IDE about the history of the project and their contributions.

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Interview: IBM's Linux Tech Chief (ZDNet)

ZDNet has interviewed Daniel Frye, Director of IBM's Linux Technology Center on topics including the SourceForge Enterprise Edition, IBM's Solaris to Linux migration program, and the future of AIX.

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Interview: Caldera's new CEO (ZDNet)

ZDNet interviews Caldera's new CEO, Darl McBride. "The first four weeks on the job I've spent a lot of time looking for value points, leverage points, if you will, in terms of "what do we do with this company". And I just sent out a letter to shareholders a couple of days ago--I won't bore you with all the details--but there are a couple of interesting things in there that I found out about Caldera that I didn't know before."

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Sun Microsystems' Chief Puts Confidence in Open-Source Momentum

The Seattle Times interviews Sun Microsystems' CEO Scott McNealy. "Sharing is not a new thing. Sharing in our industry would have happened a lot more had (IBM) not grabbed the server monopoly a long time ago, and then (Microsoft) grabbed the desktop monopoly. I've always said A through Z, 0 through 9, grammar, syntax and basic math should not be copyrightable. Microsoft says "I'm going to own the alphabet. I'm going to add new characters. I'm going to charge you extra for the vowels. And I'm going to own grammar and syntax, too."

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MozillaNews interviews David Ascher

MozillaNews has interviewed David Ascher, tech lead for the ActiveState Komodo Mozilla-based IDE.

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Resources

Embedded Linux Newsletter for August 15, 2002

The LinuxDevices Embedded Linux Newsletter for August 15, 2002 is out with lots of stories from the LinuxWorld conference.

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Reviews

Open-Source Databases Hike Enterprise Appeal (eWeek)

eWeek looks at open source databases as they add support for enterprise applications. "A PostgreSQL feature that would enable point-in-time recovery, so that database administrators don't have to restore an entire database after a crash, should be out within six months, said Lockhart, in Wolfville, Nova Scotia."

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Miscellaneous

Secure Linux OS seeks global dominance (ZDNet)

Here's a ZDNet article on security, and the NSA's SELinux. "The lynchpin in SELinux security is mandatory access control, a method that NSA championed as early as October 1998 in a white paper on computer security failures. The problem is, mandatory access control systems can't do a thing if they don't have rules to follow. Having your developers write all those rules would be cumbersome to say the least, a fact not lost on CPI."

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Dodging pop-ups with Mozilla (News.com)

According to News.com, Netscape 7.0 will not include Mozilla's ability to block popup advertising windows. ""Netscape is a commercial offering--it's not in its interest to offer a browser that could kill pop-up ads," said Michael Gartenberg, research director with Jupiter Research. "That's the equivalent of one of the broadcast networks coming out with a digital video recorder that can skip commercials.""

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Linux makes a run for government (News.com)

News.com looks into the process of getting Linux into the US government. "The Cyberspace Policy Institute, established a decade ago at George Washington University, plans to push for Linux to be certified under the Common Criteria, a standard grading of technology required by the United States and other countries before products can be sold into sensitive government applications."

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Linux battle becomes political (BBC)

BBC News reports on efforts by the Initiative for Software Choice lobby to stifle adoption of open-source software by governments. "Many governments like this software because it is cheap, has a ready source of experts to help with problems, runs on a huge variety of hardware and does not lock them into lengthy licence agreements. Some have even gone as far as to mandate the use of open source software in big projects." Thanks to Martin Rowe.

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Linux: Penguin Suitability (NineMSN)

Linux receives some mainstream press coverage from MSN. "Whatever happened to Linux on the desktop? Once upon a time the open, free operating system held a philosophical magnetism that promised to bring down Microsoft. But its reliability and low cost count for nothing at the PC coalface, where Windows rules. It's different in corporate-land. Linux has had a dream run, its acceptance accelerated with support from heavyweights such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard. These companies want Linux to power their back-end servers, but when it comes to the PC, familiarity is more important than cost, and few are familiar with Linux." Thanks to Con Zymaris.

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China targets Windows with Linux-based OS (Register)

The Register looks at Linux in China. "In last month's report on a Chinese effort to build a home-grown Win98, we appealed for further enlightenment on the nature of the project. Well, it's taken a while, but a kindly Chinese speaker has done some digging, and reveals it's Linux-based, and GPLed."

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O'Reilly questions free-SW regs (Register)

The Register discusses comments made by Tim O'Reilly on the politicization of software by radical fringe groups. "Where are these 'radicals' O'Reilly is concerned about? Apparently he's been frightened by a handful of teenage Slashdot trolls. Meanwhile the grownups are making sense, so far as I can tell. So what if they get a bit dramatic to make their point? Drama, like open source software (and skateboarding), is hardly a crime."

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Free speech, free beer and free software (News.com)

Simon Philips writes about open-source concepts on News.com. "The early years of open source have thus focused on free (as in beer) software, so it is still possible to misunderstand. But we have seen a definite shift in thinking. The open-source community has welcomed companies that build commercial enterprises, as long as they act symbiotically rather than parasitically. Today it is clear that open source has matured."

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Call It the U.S. Open Source (Wired)

Wired looks at the use of Linux at the U.S. Open. "Laptop computers running Linux will be used on the tennis courts to collect and transmit scores during the games."

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