Linux in the news

"World's largest display" lights Paris skies (and runs Linux) (LinuxDevices)

LinuxDevices.com covers Project Blinkenlights' transformation of Tower T2 of the Bibliothèque nationale de France into what is claimed to be the world's largest computer screen. "Arcade is the second (and largest) building-sized computer screen created and installed by Project Blinkenlights. The first, unveiled last year in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Chaos Computer Club, was located at the famous Haus des Lehrers office building in Berlin. One change since the earlier version is the ability to control the brightness of each pixel, which results in a grayscale display that allows for sophisticated, large-scale animations glowing into the Paris night life."

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Professor posts digital device hit list (News.com)

News.com reports on professor Ed Felten's list of products that may be affected by Senator Fritz Hollings' CBDTPA bill. "So far, Fritz's Hit List features a catalog of unlikely devices Felten said would be regulated under the law. They include common objects such as baby monitors and automobile navigation systems as well as seemingly innocuous toys such as the Shop With Me Barbie toy cash register, the Sony Aibo robot dog and Big Mouth Billy Bass."

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California Community Colocation Project Takes Off (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal writes about the California Community Colocation Project. "The California Community Colocation Project, or CCCP, was launched in February 2002 as the world's first formal non-profit to focus exclusively on the needs of the not-for-profit colocation community. The CCCP is a project of the Online Policy Group of San Francisco."

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Lulu: Technology Under a Big Top (Wired)

Wired reports from the Lulu Tech Circus. "The OpenSaurus project's exhibit was also packed throughout the weekend. The OpenSaurus folks used Linux software and salvaged hardware to build bots that smashed up other old computers and assorted hardware."

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LINUX Blade Servers May Cut In On UNIX At AOL (TechWeb)

Will AOL be powered by Linux? According to this TechWeb article evaluations are under way. "AOL Services has installed 56 IBM BladeCenter servers -- 14 "server-on-a-board" systems per chassis -- running Red Hat Linux 7.3 to route a portion of the Web traffic that's now handled by its Unix-based back-end routing servers. If they deliver the advantages in cost, scalability, and performance that Norman Koo expects, AOL will replace all 800 Unix systems with blade servers during the next five years. "Blades do more work, take up less space, and use less power," says Koo, executive director of corporate technology at AOL Time Warner."

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HP Joins Eclipse, Supports Open-Source Tools Project (TechWeb)

TechWeb covers HP's entry into the Eclipse open-source consortium. "The Eclipse project is aiming to create an open-source "framework" that lets third-party vendors "plug in" specialty development tools. The idea is to let developers work within a single framework -- including things like user interface and shared services like source-code management or debugging -- for all their development."

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Clustered Linux shines on commercial TPC-C test (Register)

The Register reports on Hewlett Packard's clusters, which run Oracle's 9I Real Application Clusters (RACs) clustering software. "To prove that Linux is an option in the data center using clusters, HP tested an eight-node cluster of ProLiant DL580 servers, which use the Profusion chipset co-developed by Compaq and Intel and which can scale to eight Pentium III Xeon processors in a single system. The DL580s that HP tested used the 900MHz versions of the Pentium III Xeon processors, each equipped with 2MB of L2 cache memory. Each node had 4GB of main memory, yielding a cluster with 64 processors and 128GB of main memory."

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MandrakeSoft releases latest Linux (News.com)

News.com takes a quick look at the latest release from MandrakeSoft. "The new version includes a "supermount" feature that lets programmers skip traditional commands to access removable media such as CD-ROMs. It also has integrated intrusion-detection tools and utilities, encrypted communications support, encrypted file systems and secured authentication features."

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Purple boxes--or purple haze? (ZDNet)

ZDNet comments on Sun's latest Linux offering. "Sun's plan is to offer x86-based Linux machines built using off-the-shelf parts (put together in somebody else's garage, not Sun's) which will be sold in lots of 100. The generic hardware is complemented by a mostly generic array of Linux desktop software. The catch--besides having to buy these boxes in bunches of 100--is that you have to buy a server to go with them. So, essentially, Sun is ready to sell you 100 low-cost razors if you buy one of their blades."

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Is Linux taking over the enterprise? (ZDNet)

ZDNet Australia looks at the increasing use of Linux in the business world. "In recent years, Linux has proven itself a credible alternative server operating system, and application support has also improved greatly. These days, the question is not whether you can use Linux, but where you can best use it. Is there more to Linux than Apache and file and print serving?"

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Linux gets a break (Economist)

The Economist writes about Linux gains in the retailer market. "If IBM likes it, then it must be all right. That, at least, is what supporters of Linux, an operating system for computers, are hoping. Unlike Microsoft Windows, Linux holds no secrets for programmers. Its source codes can be read like an open book, which makes them easy to adapt to individual needs and cheaper to buy. After years in the doldrums as Microsoft forged ahead in market after market, Linux is making a comeback—and in an unexpected market. Thanks to its stability as an operating system and the fact that it can be made secure, Linux is fast catching on among retailers." Thanks to Thomas Blankenhorn.

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NOIE to host Linux hoedown (iTnews)

iTnews reports on plans by the Australian government to investigate Linux. "Growing demand from government CIO's for critical Linux information has prompted Australia's peak IT advisory body to step in with plans to conduct a government sector Linux seminar by the end of the year. The National Office of the Information Economy (NOIE) will invite departmental CIO's and chief technology officers to attend an in-depth enterprise Linux briefing." Thanks to Con Zymaris.

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IBM Scores Two More Linux Wins (eWeek)

IBM's most recent Linux customers are covered by eWeek. "[Regal Cinemas] is also testing a new, in-theater, Linux-based kiosk that will enable movie patrons to purchase tickets or retrieve tickets purchased from an online service."

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Interview: Itanium evangelist (IBM developerWorks)

IBM's developerWorks features an interview of David Mosberger on the future of Linux on IA-64. "David Mosberger has been a 64-bit Linux guy since day one. While pursuing a graduate degree at the University of Arizona in the early '90s, Mosberger led the Linux port to the Alpha processor and soon found that his Linux hobby was taking up as much time as his graduate work. He joined an Internet research group within Hewlett Packard in 1997, and a few years later the Swiss-born Mosberger jumped at the chance to contribute to the Itanium port (see Resources for a links to Mosberger's personal page and the IA-64 Linux project), where he is now lead kernel architect. Since 1988, he has written the first IA-64 back end for the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), wrote much of the IA-64 toolchain support, and implemented much of the IA-64-specific parts of the Linux kernel."

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Guardian Digital succeeding with Open Source security products (NewsForge)

NewsForge talks with Guardian Digital's Dave Wreski. "We are earning a living. A lot is due to the Open Source model -- the services we're able to provide are in conjunction with the software we've developed in association with the work of thousands of programmers across the world."

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Embedded Linux Newsletter

The September 26, 2002 edition of the LinuxDevices Embedded Linux Newsletter is out, with the latest Embedded Linux news.

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Introduction to netfilter/iptables (IBM developerWorks)

Mugdha Vairagade explains how to set up IP filtering with Linux 2.4. "The netfilter/iptables is the IP packet filtering system that is integrated with the latest 2.4.x versions of the Linux kernel. This system facilitates greater control over IP packet filtering and firewall configuration on Linux systems, be they systems connected to the Internet or a LAN, servers, or proxy servers interfacing between a LAN and the Internet. Mugdha Vairagade provides an introduction to the netfilter/iptables system, how it works, its advantages, installing and configuring, and how to use it to configure firewalls on Linux systems to filter IP packets."

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Spectral Analysis with Linux Systems and the Merlin DSP Project (Linux Journal)

Gordon Miller discusses sound cards and the xspect power spectrum analyzer in this Linux Journal article. "Linux, however, has proven to be stable and well appointed with program and documentation development packages. In particular, the OSS sound driver for the Linux kernel (2.4.6 on my system) works well with SB16 type sound cards."

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Visualizing Data in Real-Time (Linux Journal)

In this Linux Journal article, Bruce Johnson explains how real-time data monitors differ from traditional debugging tools. "Historically, real-time data monitors were associated with proprietary, real-time operating systems (RTOSes) and sometimes required the use of special-purpose compilers. Today, however, real-time data monitors are available for applications running under Linux and compiled with standard GNU compilers. Consequently, many developers are beginning to recognize the benefits of real-time data monitors not only in traditional real-time applications but also in a wide variety of embedded and general-purpose applications."

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Installing a Sony CRX195A1 CDRW Drive in Red Hat 7.3 (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal discusses CDRW drives in Linux. "I told the tech that I knew the drive wasn't supported in Linux, but would it work? Immediately, I was told no. I thanked him and tried again with a different technician, three times to be exact, and each time I was told by a different person that the drive wouldn't work. I figured I was being told it wouldn't work because they didn't know the real answer and couldn't be bothered to check. Armed with an educated guess and a sense of adventure, I purchased the drive."

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Red Hat's new Linux seeks to unify (News.com)

News.com covers the release of Red Hat 8.0 and the Bluecurve desktop. "Red Hat's Bluecurve airbrushes out some differences between KDE and Gnome, altering icons and menu selections KDE or Gnome users would otherwise see and making them look the same."

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Apache: More than a Web server (ZDNet)

ZDNet reviews some of the software that works with the Apache web server. "When most people hear the phrase "Apache," they think of the Apache Web server, also commonly referred to as "Apache HTTPD." However, the Apache Software Foundation has a number of projects that are just as interesting as its flagship Web server."

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VxWorks to Embedded Linux: a Success Story (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal has an article that looks at one school's switch from the proprietary VxWorks embedded operating system to Linux. "The recent introduction of Linux into the embedded sector has been one of the most exciting changes in the last few years. Based on the open-source model, it offers new possibilities to embedded engineers traditionally used to commercial operating systems. At our university, EUSS, we train students to develop embedded products. Until last year, our lectures and lab sessions were based on a commercial real-time operating system. Now we use Linux, and this fact has opened our minds and given us possibilities for a future evolution."

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New Gigs for Linux Wonder Boys (Wired)

Here's a Wired article looking at where various people from the Linux Bubble Days have ended up. "Another Red Hat founder who's recently landed a 'real job' is former CTO Marc Ewing, who is now founder and publisher of a glossy $12.50-per-issue climbing magazine called Alpinist, set to launch in November."

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