The third GPLv3 draft

The original plans had called for the third draft of the GNU General Public License update to come out late last year. Needless to say, things didn't happen that way. Between trying to address concerns raised from various directions and responding to the Microsoft/Novell deal, the Free Software Foundation ended up having to slip its schedule; as a result, eight months have passed since the second draft was released. One could well argue that a major license update should not be made in a hurry, and thus the delays are not problematic. In any case, the wait is over: the new GPLv3 draft is available. In many ways, the draft resembles its predecessors; in others, it has changed significantly. This article will focus on the differences.

One area of conflict has been the anti-DRM provisions. The relatively uncontroversial language stating that GPLv3-licensed works are not "technological measures" has been reworked slightly to give it a more international focus:

The previous draft had been specific to the DMCA, but anti-circumvention laws are a global issue, so this change makes sense.

The "anti-tivoization" provisions have been the source of much of the disagreement over this license. The new draft changes those sections significantly - though the intent remains the same, and people who did not like the previous versions are unlikely to feel better about the new language. In previous drafts, signing keys required to convince hardware to run a given binary were deemed to be part of the source code, and thus a required part of the (required) source distribution. The drafters decided that extending the definition of "source code" in this way was not the best idea. So, instead, we now have "installation information":

The license goes on to say that, if GPLv3-licensed code is shipped as part of a product, the installation instructions must be made available as well. Actually, it's not anywhere near that simple, for a couple of reasons. The first is this concept of a "user product," which is new in this draft:

The actual requirement for the shipping of installation information is:

One might well wonder what is going on here. In the explanation materials sent to LWN with the license draft, the FSF states:

The nature of these innocuous business models is not spelled out. What it comes down to, though, is that gadgets intended to be sold to businesses will be exempt from the "installation instructions" requirements. This seems strange; it may well be businesses which would have the most use for the ability to change the code running in devices they purchase. The FSF has been saying that the right to replace the software in a device is required for true software freedom; why is that right now less important for devices which are not "user products"?

This exemption could prove to be a big loophole. Many years ago, your editor bought a digital audio tape deck. The rules for DAT decks in those days specified that they must implement the "serial copy management system" - a couple of bits in the digital audio data stream which indicated whether another deck was allowed to record that stream or not. It turned out that decks intended for "professional use" were exempt, however - musicians, after all, might actually want to make copies of their work. As far as your editor could tell, the difference between "professional" and "consumer" decks (at the low end, anyway) consisted of a pair of rack-mount ears; "professional" decks were available at the local guitar shop. Anybody could get a SCMS-free deck with little trouble. The exemption for devices which are not "user products" looks similar; with this language, the FSF may well be setting us up for a flood of "business use" gadgets which happen to available at the local big-box technology store.

The "additional terms" section has been simplified a bit. The second draft included the optional requirement that, if the covered code is used to implement a web service, the users should be able to get the source via that service. This requirement, intended to close the "web services loophole," is absent from the third draft.

The termination rules still allow any copyright holder to terminate the license if it is violated. There is a new escape clause, though:

An opportunity to fix a GPL violation is consistent with how the license has been enforced so far.

The patent language has changed significantly as well. The second draft included a covenant not to enforce any relevant patents against recipients of the software; in the third draft, instead, an explicit patent license is granted. This change is apparently intended to make the patent grant language look more like that found in other licenses.

The change which will attract the most attention, though, is the language aimed at the Microsoft/Novell deal; it does not look like anything found elsewhere. It starts by broadening the definition of a "patent license" to include things like covenants not to sue, thus covering the Novell non-license. There is a clause saying that if you distribute covered code under the protection of such a license, you must arrange for all recipients - anywhere - to have the same protection. Then there's this part:

The FSF is still considering whether it should grandfather in deals made before this draft was released.

The restriction to deals involving software companies is strange; it will just cause the next deal to be done by way of a patent-troll corporation. The prohibition only applies if the payments are based on the number of copies distributed, meaning that the next such deal will look like a fixed-sum payment - we will never know how that sum was calculated. There are enough loopholes in this section that it seems unlikely to slow down the next patent shakedown in any significant way. If the grandfather clause is added, it will not even affect Novell, the target of this whole thing.

There is an interesting new exception in this draft:

The posted version of the Affero GPL is version 1; your editor was not able to find any mention of a second version anywhere. The FSF must know something the rest of us are not yet privy to.

Finally, there is explicit support for signing away the right to decide on future license changes to others:

There are various other tweaks - providing source by way of a network server is now officially allowed, for example. In many ways, GPLv3 is shaping up exactly as it was supposed to: it is bringing the license up to contemporary, worldwide standards and is evolving in response to input from the community. Your editor anticipates that the new anti-DRM and anti-Novell language will be the subject of significant criticism, however. They are developing the complex, baroque nature of code which has been repeatedly patched far beyond its original design. That language may require some work yet.

The current plan calls for the FSF to accept comments on this draft for the next 60 days, after which the final draft will be released. One month later - around the end of June - the GPLv3 will become official. The FSF claims to be actively looking for comments, so now is the time for anybody who has remaining concerns to speak up. Regardless of whether certain high-profile projects move to GPLv3, we all will be working with code covered by this new license. It's important that we help the FSF get it right.

Comments (55 posted)

Beryl and Compiz: back together again?

Once upon a time, just over one year ago, the Compiz window manager hit the net. Compiz, which features fancy 3D effects, was the result of some months' worth of behind-closed-doors work at Novell. There was an enthusiastic reception, and others began to hack on the code. It didn't take long, however, before some of those others found that it was hard to get their changes back into the Compiz mainline. Eventually one of those developers, Quinn Storm, got tired of carrying an increasing collection of external patches. The result was a fork, and the Beryl project was created.

These events can be acrimonious, and the Compiz/Beryl fork was no exception. Beryl developers complained that Compiz was run as a Novell fiefdom which was uninterested in patches from the outside. On the Compiz side, Beryl's decision to relicense the code from the MIT license to the GPL meant that code could flow from Compiz to Beryl, but not in the other direction. In early 2007, a Compiz site administrator vandalized Beryl's site, an act which must surely mark a low point in relations between the two projects.

During this time, development on both sides continued, with Beryl quickly developing a reputation for bells, whistles, and an unbelievable number of configuration options. Compiz took a more conservative course, working on getting the core functionality working in a way which seemed, to its core developers, to be right. Despite all of this, the differences between the two code bases are apparently less than one might think. No major architectural change have happened; instead, most of Beryl's additions come in the form of plugins.

Recently, though, the Beryl developers started to ponder some more sweeping changes. According to Robert Carr, the conversation went like this:

The result was that the two projects started talking again. As of this writing, it would appear that Beryl and Compiz have come to an agreement to end the fork and join back into a single project. Should things happen this way, the results for eye-candy fans should be good. There are a few details which need to be worked out first, though.

One of those is licensing. The fact that Beryl's work is licensed under the GPL means that, for the two projects to merge, one of them must be relicensed. It looks like Beryl will be the one to give here, moving its core back to the MIT license. The number of contributors is evidently sufficiently small that this sort of change is still feasible.

Then there is the issue of how to merge the changes in the code. According to Mr. Carr, agreement has been reached on most points, at least with regard to the core changes. In the past, Compiz leader David Reveman has not been receptive to Beryl code:

It seems that the situation is different now:

The merge is probably helped by the Compiz project's plan to split the code into "core" and "extra" modules. Much of what is currently in Beryl will, it seems, slip into compiz-extra with little trouble.

So if licensing and code are not problems, what are the potential sticking points in this merger? It seems that there are two of them: naming and leadership. The Beryl side is pushing for a new name and structure which would enable a clean start for the entire project. Without that, they fear, one side or the other will probably get the short end of the stick. Mr. Reveman responds:

From reading the discussion, one gets the sense that the leadership issues have not yet been the subject of serious discussion. Some sort of project management model will have to be worked out, or the newly merged project will run a risk of falling victim to the same tensions and forking again.

There should be an answer, though. It would be a sad day if these two projects could come together, resolve their technical and licensing differences, then drop the whole thing because they cannot agree on the name. Some great progress has been made on reunifying one of the most unpleasant forks in our community; it seems like the remaining issues must somehow be amenable to a solution.

Comments (8 posted)

Working with raw images on Linux

This article is part of the LWN Grumpy Editor series.

Your editor's exploration of high dynamic range (HDR) techniques inspired one comment suggesting that photographic topics should be avoided in the future if your editor wishes to avoid looking foolish. As it happens, fear of looking foolish would make this particular job almost impossible to do; when one writes for an audience that knows more than the author, occasional foolishness will inevitably result. Even for authors who are not so inherently foolish as your editor. So, foolish or not, here is a followup to the HDR article; this week's topic is working with raw files.

Most digital cameras are set to produce JPEG files; for many applications, such files are more than good enough. But most decent cameras support other formats, and a vendor-specific raw format in particular. The raw format contains something close to what was measured by the sensor, with a minimum of processing in the camera. These files are large, unwieldy, and in a proprietary format, which argues against their use in many situations. But, by virtue of holding the original image data, raw files give the photographer a much wider range of options later on. Much of the processing normally done in the camera (white balance, histogram adjustment, etc.) can be tweaked later on. For this reason, people who do photography for a living often prefer to record in the raw format.

Even for the rest of us, who have no hope of earning a living that way, raw files can keep creative options open. For people who like to play with HDR techniques there is an additional advantage: the camera typically record 12 to 16 bits of data for each channel - rather more than fits into a JPEG file. That, in turn, means that the dynamic range of raw files is significantly higher - assuming, of course, that the camera has a sensor which can meaningfully record data at that resolution. The extra range can be used to increase detail in images in a number of ways, including the use of tone mapping techniques.

Raw file formats are created by camera manufacturers, who generally feel no need to document their work. They will usually sell you a tool for decrypting their raw files - but, strangely enough, Linux support is usually missing from the feature list. Fortunately, the free software world benefits from the work of Dave Coffin, who has set a task for himself:

The result is dcraw, which comes awfully close to meeting that goal. It supports a huge list of cameras, and it does so at a high level of quality - arguably better than the vendor's tools. It is a command-line tool, aimed at batch operation or invocation from other programs; dcraw can be run from a gimp plugin, for example. Just about anything one wants to do with a raw image file is supported by dcraw.

The only downside is that processing raw images can be an interactive process. If one wants to make adjustments, a command-line tool can get tiresome after a while. The answer to that complaint is the UFRaw tool, which is built on dcraw. UFRaw allows adjustment of the white and black points, gamma curve, white balance and more - all with immediate visual feedback. When the desired result is achieved, it can be saved in a number of formats.

UFRaw is not perfect. It's one of those applications that thinks it's clever to remember where the last image was stored and put the next one in the same directory. Your editor, instead, expects programs to default to the directory they were started in, or, failing that, to the directory where the source file was found. It's aggravating to save a file then have to figure out where the application decided to put it. UFRaw is doubly obnoxious in this regard because it immediately exits after saving the file. The non-resizeable window is also annoying. One assumes these little difficulties can be dealt with eventually; meanwhile, the core functionality is good stuff.

What sort of results can one expect? Here are three versions of the window view photo featured in the HDR article:

Original	UFRaw edited	Tone mapped

(See this page for larger versions of the pictures).

Some quick editing with UFRaw was sufficient to bring out a fair amount of detail in the plant in the foreground - though the background lost some contrast as a result. The tone-mapped photo does better at maintaining contrast throughout the frame. The end result is not as complete as the full HDR image (visible here), but it does show that raw files contain information which can be recovered later on to improve the picture. Taking a single raw image is much easier than the full bracketed HDR technique, and it allows tone mapping techniques to be used on subjects which stubbornly refuse to stand still for a few minutes while several shots are taken.

One thing worth noting in conclusion: we should not take our ability to work with raw images for granted. Vendors like Nikon and Sony are known for encrypting their raw formats. The language they use to justify themselves will look most familiar; consider this advisory from Nikon regarding its NEF format:

In other words, photographers are being locked out of their own images for their own benefit. All of the usual counterarguments apply here; photographers might just have their own idea of where there benefit lies. And what happens to those raw images a decade or two from now, when the vendor has long since ceased to support the format and, even if one can find one's single legal backup copy of the software, it refuses to run on currently available systems? Fortunately, we have dcraw, which will document the reading of these formats indefinitely.

So far, vendors' attempts to encrypt raw files have been broken in short order. Chances are that trend will continue. But there is little difference between breaking into a raw image file and turning off the copy protection bits inside a PDF file. The stage is clearly set for an ugly battle, probably involving the DMCA, when some vendor decides to turn nasty.

Photographers have been worried about this issue for a few years now; efforts like the OpenRAW project have been working, with little success, to get camera manufacturers to open up their formats. Adobe has been pushing its Digital Negative format as a standard; it would be a step in the right direction, but this format still has mechanisms for the embedding of vendor "private" information. At this time, there does not seem to be a clear solution in sight. We must deal with cameras just like we deal with many other types of hardware: we have to figure out how it works ourselves.

Comments (13 posted)

Metasploit 3.0

The Metasploit Framework, a popular open source framework for penetration testing and security tool development, has just released its 3.0 version that provides many new features. The framework has been completely rewritten from version 2, moving from Perl to Ruby in the process. In many ways, Metasploit 3 seeks to be the swiss army knife of network vulnerability research and testing, providing a wealth of tools for security researchers.

At its core, Metasploit provides a means to launch an exploit at a particular host, execute the payload and provide a shell that communicates with the payload. The exploits provided with the framework are known vulnerabilities for various operating systems and the payloads are different ways to execute a shell on the exploited machine. This allows users to probe hosts for susceptibility to known attacks and to combine those attacks with different ways of getting a shell in an attempt to avoid firewall and intrusion detection rules. In addition, Metasploit makes it easy to add new payloads and exploits so that a researcher can develop or work with entirely new vulnerabilities using the familiar framework interface.

Once Metasploit has connected to an exploited system, an irb (interactive ruby) shell from within the framework can be used to script access to any accessible process on the remote system. Because it provides a means to read and write the memory of those processes, credentials like passwords could be grabbed or processes could be backdoored in various ways. Another interesting feature allows an attacker to route all Metasploit traffic through a compromised host, potentially bypassing firewalls and routers. This is just a small sample of the tools that are provided; this is a very potent toolkit.

There are two main interfaces to Metasploit, a console interface as well as an AJAX-enabled web interface that is driven with Ruby on Rails. Both provide tab-completion of commands and arguments and are very convenient to use. The web interface, however, feels rather sluggish, even running on the local machine; it is mostly provided to allow demonstrations of using the tool. There is also a command-line interface that can be used from scripts and the like, but the console is the main interface workhorse.

The release comes with both a user and a developer guide and both are quite readable and useful. The developer guide lays out the rationale behind the switch to Ruby which makes for an interesting read. It notes that Windows compatibility was one of the major reasons for the switch, which makes it rather surprising that deficiencies in either Ruby for Windows or Windows itself make some features (the entire console interface for instance) usable only on Linux or other UNIX systems.

Metasploit was already an incredibly useful tool and it would appear that version 3 takes a big step forward. As with all security tools, it can be used for good or ill, but it is most certainly an essential arrow in the quiver of anyone tasked with or interested in computer security.

Comments (3 posted)

cups: denial of service

Package(s):	cups	CVE #(s):	CVE-2007-0720
Created:	March 26, 2007	Updated:	February 7, 2008
Description:	Previous versions of the cups package could be forced to hang via a client "partially negotiating" an ssl connection. In this state, cups would not allow other connections to be made, a denial of service.
Alerts:	Gentoo 201412-11 emul-linux-x86-baselibs 2014-12-11 Mandriva MDVSA-2008:036 cups 2007-02-06 Mandriva MDKSA-2007:086 cups 2007-04-16 Red Hat RHSA-2007:0123-01 CUPS 2007-04-16 Gentoo 200703-28 cups 2007-03-31 Foresight FLEA-2007-0003-1 cups 2007-03-25

Comments (none posted)

evolution: format string error

Package(s):	evolution	CVE #(s):	CVE-2007-1002
Created:	March 27, 2007	Updated:	February 27, 2008
Description:	A format string error in the "write_html()" function in calendar/gui/ e-cal-component-memo-preview.c when displaying a memo's categories can potentially be exploited to execute arbitrary code via a specially crafted shared memo containing format specifiers.
Alerts:	SuSE SUSE-SR:2007:015 PHP, moodle, tomcat5, lighttpd, asterisk, libarchive, xpdf, evolution, kvirc, wireshark, gd, opera, clamav, gimp 2007-08-03 Gentoo 200706-02 evolution 2007-06-06 Red Hat RHSA-2007:0158-01 evolution 2007-05-03 Foresight FLEA-2007-0010-1 evolution 2007-04-05 Fedora FEDORA-2007-404 evolution 2007-04-04 Fedora FEDORA-2007-393 evolution 2007-04-04 Mandriva MDKSA-2007:070 evolution 2007-03-27

Comments (1 posted)

file: arbitrary code execution

Package(s):	file	CVE #(s):	CVE-2007-1536
Created:	March 22, 2007	Updated:	May 30, 2007
Description:	The "file" utility incorrectly checks the allocated heap memory size. If a remote attacker can trick a user into looking at specially crafted files with file, arbitrary code can be executed with the user's privileges.
Alerts:	Gentoo 201412-11 emul-linux-x86-baselibs 2014-12-11 Red Hat RHSA-2007:0391-01 file 2007-05-30 Slackware SSA:2007-093-01 file 2007-04-04 Gentoo 200703-26 file 2007-03-30 Debian DSA-1274-1 file 2007-04-02 Fedora FEDORA-2007-391 file 2007-03-30 Red Hat RHSA-2007:0124-01 file 2007-03-23 Mandriva MDKSA-2007:067 file 2007-03-22 rPath rPSA-2007-0059-1 file 2007-03-22 Ubuntu USN-439-1 file 2007-03-21

Comments (1 posted)

firefox: FTP PASV port-scanning

Package(s):	firefox seamonkey	CVE #(s):	CVE-2007-1562
Created:	March 23, 2007	Updated:	June 4, 2007
Description:	According to this advisory, the FTP protocol includes the PASV (passive) command which is used by Firefox to request an alternate data port. The specification of the FTP protocol allows the server response to include an alternate server address as well, although this is rarely used in practice.
Alerts:	Fedora FEDORA-2007-0066 seamonkey 2007-06-01 Fedora FEDORA-2007-0050 galeon 2007-06-01 Fedora FEDORA-2007-0001 epiphany 2007-06-04 rPath rPSA-2007-0112-1 firefox 2007-05-31 Foresight FLEA-2007-0023-1 firefox 2007-05-31 Fedora FEDORA-2007-0001 yelp 2007-06-01 Fedora FEDORA-2007-0001 firefox 2007-06-01 Fedora FEDORA-2007-0001 devhelp 2007-06-01 Fedora FEDORA-2007-554 firefox 2007-05-31 Fedora FEDORA-2007-549 yelp 2007-05-31 Fedora FEDORA-2007-549 firefox 2007-05-31 Fedora FEDORA-2007-549 devhelp 2007-05-31 Fedora FEDORA-2007-549 epiphany 2007-05-31 Red Hat RHSA-2007:0402-01 seamonkey 2007-05-30 Red Hat RHSA-2007:0400-01 firefox 2007-05-30 rPath rPSA-2007-0062-1 firefox 2007-04-04 Ubuntu USN-443-1 firefox 2007-03-27 Foresight FLEA-2007-0001-1 firefox 2007-03-22

Comments (1 posted)

mysql: denial of service

Package(s):	mysql	CVE #(s):	CVE-2007-1420
Created:	March 22, 2007	Updated:	May 21, 2008
Description:	MySQL subselect queries using "ORDER BY" can be used by an attacker with access to a MySQL instance in order to create an intermittent denial of service.
Alerts:	Red Hat RHSA-2008:0364-01 mysql 2008-05-21 Mandriva MDKSA-2007:139 MySQL 2007-07-04 rPath rPSA-2007-0107-1 mysql 2007-05-23 Gentoo 200705-11 mysql 2007-05-08 Ubuntu USN-440-1 mysql-dfsg-5.0 2007-03-21

Comments (none posted)

squid: denial of service

Package(s):	squid	CVE #(s):	CVE-2007-1560
Created:	March 23, 2007	Updated:	April 3, 2007
Description:	Due to an internal error Squid-2.6 is vulnerable to a denial of service attack when processing the TRACE request method. This problem allows any client trusted to use the service to perform a denial of service attack on the Squid service.
Alerts:	Red Hat RHSA-2007:0131-01 squid 2007-04-03 Gentoo 200703-27 squid 2007-03-31 SuSE SUSE-SR:2007:005 xine-lib, tomcat, unrar, squid, file 2007-03-30 Mandriva MDKSA-2007:068 squid 2006-03-22

Comments (none posted)

xmms: BMP handling vulnerability

Package(s):	xmms	CVE #(s):	CVE-2007-0653 CVE-2007-0654
Created:	March 28, 2007	Updated:	July 26, 2011
Description:	xmms suffers from vulnerabilities in its handling of BMP images. Should a hostile image be included in an xmms skin, it could lead to code execution on the user's system.
Alerts:	Fedora FEDORA-2011-9421 xmms 2011-07-16 Fedora FEDORA-2011-9413 xmms 2011-07-16 Debian DSA-1277-1 xmms 2007-04-04 Mandriva MDKSA-2007:071 xmms 2007-03-29 Ubuntu USN-445-1 xmms 2007-03-27

Comments (none posted)

Kernel release status

The current 2.6 prepatch is 2.6.21-rc5, released on March 25. It contains a number of fixes, including a set for timer-related regressions. Says Linus: "Those timer changes ended up much more painful than anybody wished for, but big thanks to Thomas Gleixner for being on it like a weasel on a dead rat, and the regression list has kept shrinking." See the long-format changelog for the details.

Several dozen fixes have been merged into the mainline git repository since -rc5 was released.

The current -mm tree is 2.6.21-rc5-mm2. Recent changes to -mm include a new lumpy reclaim patch, an updated deadline staircase (formerly RSDL) scheduler, a number of futex enhancements, and the integrity management patch set (see below).

The current stable 2.6 kernel is 2.6.20.4, released on March 23.

For older kernels: 2.6.16.45 was released with several fixes on March 26.

In the 2.4 world, 2.4.34.2 was released on March 24; it only contains two changes. 2.4.35-pre2 is also out with a rather larger set of fixes.

Comments (none posted)

Quotes of the week

-- Andrew Morton

-- Rusty Russell

-- Greg Kroah-Hartman.

Comments (10 posted)

Application-friendly kernel interfaces

The "hugetlb" feature of the kernel allows applications to create and use "huge" pages in memory. These pages use a special page table mode which allows a single page table entry to provide the translation for up to 16MB of contiguous memory (on some architectures). The advantage to doing things this way is that references to the entire huge page only take up one slot in the translation lookaside buffer (TLB), and that can have good effects on performance.

Access to huge pages is through the hugetlbfs filesystem. Hugetlbfs is a virtual filesystem much like tmpfs, but with a twist: mappings of files within the filesystem use huge pages. It's not possible to do normal reads and writes from this filesystem, but it is possible to create a file, extend it, and use mmap() to map it into virtual memory. This interface gets the job done, but it's evidently a little too involved for some application programmers.

To make life simpler, Ken Chen has proposed /dev/hugetlb. This device is much like /dev/zero, except that it uses huge pages. Applications can simply open the device and use mmap() to create as much huge-paged anonymous memory as they need. The patch is simple and seemingly uncontroversial; Andrew Morton did note, though:

He goes on to observe, however, that getting yet another library distributed widely can be a difficult task - to the point that it's easier to just add more functionality within the kernel itself. He concludes: "This comes up regularly, and it's pretty sad."

In a separate message, Andrew talked about how kernel interfaces should be designed in general:

In many cases, the C library fills this role by providing a more application-friendly interface to kernel calls. But there are limits to how much code even the glibc developers want to stuff into the library, and things like a friendlier huge page interface may be on the wrong side of the line. A separate library for developers trying to do obscure and advanced things with the kernel might be the right solution.

The right solution, Andrew suggests, is to have a user-space API library which is maintained as part of the kernel itself. That would keep oversight over the API and help to ensure that the library is maintained into the future while minimizing the amount of code which goes into the kernel solely for the purpose of creating friendlier interfaces. Somebody would have to step up to create and maintain that library, though; as of this writing, volunteers are in short supply.

Comments (7 posted)

Deferrable timers

The dynamic tick code featured in the upcoming 2.6.21 kernel seeks to avoid processor wakeups by turning off the period timer tick when nothing is happening. Before stopping the clock, the kernel must decide when it should wake up again; this decision involves looking at the timer queue to see when the next timer expires. In the absence of other events (hardware interrupts, for example), the system will sleep until the nearest timer is due.

Many of these timers should, in fact, run as soon as the requested period has expired. Others, however, are less important - to the point that they are not worth waking up the processor. These non-critical timeouts can run some fraction of a second later (when the processor wakes up for other reasons) and nobody will notice the difference. So it would be nice if there were a way to tell the kernel that a specific timer does not require immediate action on expiration and that the processor should not wake up for the sole purpose of handling it.

Venki Pallipadi has created such a way with the deferrable timers patch. There is just one new function added to the internal kernel API:

    void init_timer_deferrable(struct timer_list *timer);

Timers which are initialized in this fashion will be recognized as deferrable by the kernel. They will not be considered when the kernel makes its "when should the next timer interrupt be?" decision. When the system is busy these timers will fire at the scheduled time. When things are idle, instead, they will simply wait until something more important wakes up the processor.

Venki appears to have gone to great length to minimize the changes required by this patch. So, in particular, the timer_list structure does not change at all. Instead, the low-order bit on an internal pointer (which is known to always be zero) is repurposed as a "deferrable" flag. The result is that the timer_list structure does not grow to support this new functionality, at the cost of requiring all code using the internal base pointer to mask out the "deferrable" bit.

The patch, as presented, only affects timers used within the kernel; no code has been changed to actually use deferrable timers yet. There could be potential in extending this interface somehow to user space. Our user space remains full of applications which feel the need to wake up frequently to check the state of the world; these applications are a real problem for power-limited systems. If those applications truly cannot be fixed, perhaps they could at least indicate a willingness to wait when nothing important is going on.

Comments (2 posted)

Integrity management in the kernel

Certain patches seem to pop up occasionally on the kernel lists for years. One of those is the whole integrity management patch set from IBM; these patches were last covered here in November, 2005. They are back for consideration yet again. Integrity management still looks like it is not ready for inclusion into the mainline, but it is getting closer; at some point it will force consideration of some interesting questions.

The core idea behind integrity management is providing some sort of assurance that the files on the system have not been messed with. David Safford described it this way:

The current patches work, at the lowest level, by defining a new set of security module hooks for an "integrity provider." The provider can hook into system calls which access or execute files and check the integrity of those files; should it conclude that Bad Things have happened, access to the files can be denied. On top of that is the EVM ("extended verification module") code, which checks the integrity of files (and their metadata) by checksumming them and comparing the result with a value stored as an extended attribute. The IBAC (integrity-based access control) module can then use EVM and the LSM hooks to allow or deny access to files based on the conclusions reached by the integrity checker.

All of this can work using a passphrase supplied by the system administrator, but the intended mode of operation uses the trusted platform module (TPM) built into an increasing number of computers. With cooperation from the system's BIOS, the TPM can do an effective job of checksumming the software running on the system. The TPM also performs basic cryptographic functions, like signing the checksums used to verify the integrity of files. The key aspect of the system, though, is that the TPM can be set up to create these signatures only if the checksums for the running system match a set of pre-configured values. The end result is that the checksums associated with files cannot be changed on another system or by booting a different kernel - at least, not in a way which preserves their value as checksums. If the system holds together as advertised, it should be able to prevent attacks based on changing the files used by the system.

Beyond that, this system supports remote attestation: providing a TPM-signed checksum to a third party which proves that only approved software is running on the system.

There are clear advantages to a structure like this. A Linux-based teller machine, say, or a voting machine could ensure that it has not been compromised and prove its integrity to the network. Administrators in charge of web servers can use the integrity code in similar ways. In general, integrity management can be a powerful tool for people who want to be sure that the systems they own (or manage) have not be reconfigured into spam servers when they weren't looking.

The other side of this coin is that integrity management can be a powerful tool for those who wish to maintain control over systems they do not own. Should it be merged, the kernel will come with the tools needed to create a locked-down system out of the box. As these modules get closer to mainline confusion, we may begin to see more people getting worried about them. Quite a few kernel developers may oppose license terms intended to prevent "tivoization," but that doesn't mean they want to actively support that sort of use of their software. Certainly it would be harder to argue against the shipping of locked-down, Linux-based gadgets when the kernel, itself, provides the lockdown tools.

For now, that issue can be avoided; there are still plenty of more mundane problems with this patch set. But, sooner or later, the integrity management developers are going to get past the lower-level issues; they have certainly shown persistence in working on this patch. Based on his prior statements, Linus is unlikely to oppose the merging of these modules once they are ready. Whether the rest of the development community will be so welcoming remains to be seen.

Comments (6 posted)

How to vote in the Debian Project Leader election

Those who looked at the statistics packaged with the second call for votes in this year's Debian Project Leader election noticed something interesting: 54 ballots, so far, have been rejected by the election system. That is rather higher than last year's total (14, at the end of the election). So, it was asked, what's going on and how does one actually manage to cast a valid ballot this year?

The problem, as it turns out, is that one of the candidates (Raphaël Hertzog) has a non-ASCII character in his name. Evidently, this is the first time such a name has shown up on the Debian ballot. Mr. Hertzog's difficult name is creating trouble for certain Debian developers who are using electronic mail clients which, it seems, have not entirely kept up with the times. Debian, it seems, is shipping software which cannot send a valid vote in its own elections.

A number of possible remedies have been discussed. Asking Mr. Hertzog to change his name seemed like a bit of a non-starter, though he did indicate his willingness to accept a non-accented version of his name in the ballot. It was suggested the the vote-accepting software could be fixed to accept ballots with corrupted names or to accept a non-accented alternative, but the Debian project secretary (Manoj Srivastava) is not enthusiastic about those ideas:

Finally, it was also suggested that developers with non-ASCII names should simply be ruled ineligible for the Project Leader position, but that eminently sensible idea fell on deaf ears as well.

So, for Debian developers who are having trouble voting, the options seem to come down to this: "I think your options are to send in an ascii armored encrypted ballot, or use mutt or gnus to send a proper PGP/MIME signed ballot. Either should work." Then, perhaps, the Debian developers can work on fixing various old mail clients for etch+1.

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pure:dyne 2.3.52 release

Pure:dyne is a GNU/Linux Live CD distribution for media artists. "The pure:dyne project provides tools and an optimized platform to try out and work on a large range of applications. It comes with optimized and tested software such as Supercollider, Icecast, csound, Packet Forth, fluxus and much more, including of course Pure Data and a great collection of essential externals and abstractions (PDP, PiDiP, Gem, GridFlow, RRadical, PixelTango ...). The Studio "classics" have not been forgotten (Ardour, LADSPA, seq24, Audacity ...) and numerous essential graphics software are also bundled (Inkscape, Gimp, Blender ...)."

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Ubuntu 7.04 Beta released

Ubuntu has released the first beta for version 7.04, aka Feisty Fawn. Desktop highlights include a Windows migration tool, easy-to-install codec wizards and plug and play network sharing with Avahi. "Ubuntu 7.04 server edition adds support for hardware facilities that speed up the use of virtual machines as well as other improved hardware support, making it an excellent choice as a web, database, file and print server, the fastest growing area of Linux server use." The full release notes can be found here. The Kubuntu beta is also available.

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Announcing XORP Release 1.4

Release 1.4 of XORP, the eXtensible Open Router Platform, is available. "The major new feature with this release is: OSPFv3 (draft-ietf-ospf-ospfv3-update-14.txt) In addition, this release contains numerous bug fixes." XORP is released under the BSD license and builds on DragonFlyBSD-1.8, FreeBSD-6.2, Linux Fedora Core6, Linux Debian-3.1 (sarge), NetBSD-3.1 and OpenBSD-4.0.

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Terra Soft Released YDL v5.0.1 for Apple PowerPC

Terra Soft has released Yellow Dog Linux v5.0.1 for Apple G3, G4, and G5 computers. Yellow Dog Linux v5.0.1 adds more than 500 package updates to the operating system released last fall for the Sony Computer Entertainment PLAYSTATION(R)3 with support for the former Apple PowerPC product line.

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Debian announcements

Debian developers have voted for a general resolution that will enable those developers currently allowed to perform combined source and binary packages uploads to also perform binary-only packages uploads for the same set of architectures.

A call for testing of the sarge to etch upgrade path has gone out. "Any upgrade tests that could be done over the next days to verify this procedure would be most welcome. Please file a bug in the BTS against "upgrade-reports" with your results."

A second call for votes was followed by another call for votes in the Debian Project Leader Elections. Votes must be received by the end of April 7, 2007.

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Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring: Here Comes The Spring

Mandriva is announcing the upcoming release of its new distribution: Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring. Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring provides Metisse (another 3D window manager) and the newest versions of Compiz and Beryl 3D-accelerated desktops. Mandriva will also distribute O3Spaces Workplace as part of the Corporate Server 4 and Mandriva Linux Powerpack+ 2007 Spring editions. O3Spaces Workplace is an enterprise extension for OpenOffice.org.

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YaST, LiMaL, libzypp mailing lists now @openSUSE.org

OpenSUSE has new mailing lists for the discussion of the YaST, ZYPP and LiMaL projects. YaST is the installation and configuration tool for SuSE Linux. libzypp is the integration of SUSE's yast2 Package manager and Ximian's libredcarpet. LiMaL (Linux Management Library) provides a system library style, object oriented way of access to the operating system.

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March meeting of PC-BSD Core

PC-BSD is a desktop operating system featuring KDE 3.5, based on FreeBSD. Tim McCormick, lead developer of PC-BSD, has posted a summary of the March meeting of the PC-BSD core team. Topics include documentation and product life-cycle.

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Gentoo Weekly Newsletter

The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for March 19, 2007 looks at the Dell Linux survey, Gentoo/Java changes, Firefox 1.5 upcoming removal, Developer of the week (welp) and several other topics.

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Ubuntu Weekly News: Issue #33

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for March 24, 2007 covers Feisty Fawn's beta release, newly approved Ubuntu members, the big effort the "Ubuntu Desktop Effects" team is doing, and all the buzz about Ubuntu going on in the press and the blogosphere.

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DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 195

The DistroWatch Weekly for March 26, 2007 is out. "As expected, the developers of the Ubuntu family of Linux distributions announced their beta releases late last week, edging towards that last month of intensive debugging before the final release. Other distributions are also hard at work: Mandriva has announced details about the upcoming Mandriva 2007 "Spring", KNOPPIX has delivered a new CeBIT DVD to the attendees of the popular show in Hannover, and Fedora is expected to publish its third development build, version 7 test3, in just a few days. In other news, Red Hat unveils plans for a new desktop distribution, Ian Murdoch criticises the project he founded for lacking strong leadership, and François Bancilhon is dismayed by the decision of the French Assemblée Nationale to choose Ubuntu over Mandriva for its Windows-to-Linux migration."

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Mandriva Linux Spring 2007 Edition to Arrive Soon (Linux Electrons)

Linux Electrons looks forward to the release of Mandriva 2007 Spring. "What is the key innovation of Spring? The breakthrough technology presented last January during the Solutions Linux event in Paris: Metisse, an innovative window management technology. Unlike the widely known 3D-accelerated desktops with the "cube" effect and other visual enhancements, Metisse offers an innovative way to manage windows: only the windows move, making the possible variations endless! Metisse is not a 3D-accelerated desktop but a Human-Computer Interface (HCI) technology that revolutionizes the user experience."

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Here come the RHEL 5 clones (Linux-Watch)

Linux-Watch looks at the upcoming release of Startcom Enterprise Linux AS-5.0.0 and other RHEL 5 clones. "Of course if you go with a cloned RHEL, while you get the code goodies, you don't get Red Hat's support. Various Red Hat clone distributions, such StartCom AS-5, CentOS, and White Box Enterprise Linux, are built from Red Hat's source code, which is freely available at the Raleigh, NC company's FTP site. The "cloned" versions alter or otherwise remove non-free packages within the RHEL distribution, or non-redistributable bits such as the Red Hat logo."

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Review: Dreamlinux 2.2 (Linux.com)

Linux.com reviews Dreamlinux 2.2. "When it comes to choosing a Linux distribution, people tend to stick with the major players, such as Ubuntu, SUSE, or Fedora. However, every once in a while a distro comes along that offers a look at Linux in a new and fun way. One such distribution is Dreamlinux, a Morphix-based implementation of Linux that can be run from a single CD or installed on a hard drive. Dreamlinux 2.2 aims to offer a full range of desktop applications while providing a wealth of multimedia tools for easy production of professional-grade media."

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KDE 4 gets more Hot New Stuff

Since KDE 3.3 was released in 2004, KDE applications have used the KDELibs library KNewStuff to implement a simple interface for downloading and installing content from a centralized server. Its successor, KNewStuff 2 (KNS 2), is gearing up to give KDE 4 users new options for uninstalling content, content synchronization, the ability to rate content directly from the application interface, a dramatically faster interface, and more. KNewStuff 2 will be compliant with the FreeDesktop.org GetHotNewStuff specification (GHNS), developed as a cross-desktop standard based on the original KNewStuff design.

Like its predecessor, KNS 2 will act as a sort of per-application package management system for content. HotNewStuff content differs by application, ranging from visual themes for Amarok to object position data for KStars. In KDE 3, Hot New Stuff can be installed in participating applications via a KNS 1 dialog which lists content by user rating scores, download rate, or release date.

Arguably the most noticeable improvement to KNS will be the content data caching feature, which should make the interface significantly faster. Content data primarily consists of preview pictures and metadata such as the name, description, and rating of each content item. In KDE 3, the user must wait for this content data to download before the KNS dialog appears. The KNS 2 dialog will open immediately with cached data and update the cache transparently in the background. The interface will be updated with new data as it arrives - though KNS' exact protocol for updating its interface based on this data will not be finalized until the KDE 4 Usability and Accessibility Review period from May 8th to June 1st.

KNS 2 will introduce Desktop Exchange Service (DXS) support. KNS 1 presents content items in lists sorted by highest rating, most downloads, or release date. The ratings it uses come from user ratings made through web-interfaces such as KDE-Look.org. By using DXS, content providers will be able to integrate this rating system directly into applications by using a CGI-like script. If application developers support DXS, users will be able to upload content ratings and even leave text comments without having to open a web browser. Additionally, DXS integration will add support for content searching by keyword and allow users to "subscribe" to content and be notified of updates.

Content management will also be greatly improved in KNS 2. It will keep a record of content files and files extracted from content archives. KNS 1 is not capable of uninstalling content, but KNS 2 will be able to do so by simply referring to its record of installed files and deleting any associated with a content item. Like version one, KNS 2 will be able to recognize when content has been updated. Although KNS 2 is not capable of automatically downloading updated content, it will indicate to the user that the update is available.

KNS 2's content management features will also resolve some distribution issues that occur with KNS 1. In the event that an application ships with some content data already installed, KNS 1 is not able to detect it and will indicate to the user that it is not installed. Moreover, it cannot indicate to the user whether or not this content is the latest version or not. KNS 2 will recognize these content packages and treat them like any other content it has installed.

In addition to being able to upgrade installed content through the KNS 2 interface, KDE 4 users will be able to automatically synchronize some content over the Internet or a private network. Content providers can offer automatic synchronization by listing references to files on a network rather than the files themselves. When the application attempts to access this quasi-installed content, it will have to fetch it from the server using KIO rather than a local directory. In this way, the content will always appear up to date to the user.

KOrganizer is among those applications that will benefit greatly from synchronization functionality. Users may use KNS 2 to install public calendar listings, for instance, holidays or company events which will then appear alongside the users' own calendar entries in KOrganizer. If KNS 2 installs these calendars as remote links rather than local content, users will be kept aware of newly added events or other calendar changes.

KNewStuff2 will be included in KDELibs for KDE 4. Lead developer Josef Spillner is already well into the coding of KNS 2. He quips, "There is already more code for it than what its predecessor had, although more might not always be better." He is currently working to integrate KNewStuff with the SVN development version of KDELibs 4, marking the implementation of basic downloading and uploading functionality. Spillner plans to release a new developer tutorial soon.

Spillner believes the developer tutorial for KNS 1, which walked KDE 3 application developers through implementing GHNS functionality, was partly responsible for his library's fairly wide adoption. KDE 3 applications such as Korganizer, Kopete, SuperKaramba, Amarok, and many KDE Edutainment applications such as KStars all use KNS to deliver content such as interface themes and templates to users.

There is reason to believe that KDE 4 applications will adopt KNS on a wider scale than was seen in KDE 3. Spillner notes that several common hesitations that prevented application developers from adding KNS support in KDE 3 have been fixed. He writes, "The inelastic installation methods turned out to be the obstacle which probably prevented more apps from using it." KNS 2's uninstallation functionality should eliminate this obstacle. Moreover, he believes that developers will not have to write as much code to integrate KNS, as "simple configuration files" have replaced what previously required lines of code, in many places.

KNewStuff2 also retains two features from its predecessor that perhaps saw less use than they deserved: data verification and uploading. Since KDE 3.4, the KNewStuffSecure class has allowed application developers to implement md5 hash and gpg signature checks for Hot New Stuff. Unfortunately, this class is currently separate from the original KNewStuff. By integrating these verification features into KNS 2, it may prove more visible and popular among developers. KNS 1 is capable of handling user uploading without requiring a web interface, though there has been almost no implementation outside a few of Spillner's own games. KNS 2 will also support uploading, and may switch from using the FTP protocol to the more secure WebDAV. HotStuff server administrators could then allow users to register to upload content or do so anonymously.

For KDE 4, Spillner is also removing what is perhaps the greatest barrier to KNS integration: server requirements. KNewStuff must get its content from a server running HotStuff. For KDE 3 applications, this often meant that application developers needed to build and maintain their own HotStuff server. Shortly, however, KDE will begin to offer a general HotStuff server and a web interface at data.kde.org. The Oregon State University Open Source Lab has agreed to host the server on a Xen box alongside the KDE news site, The Dot. Spillner still encourages developers to run their own HotStuff servers, but general distribution points such as data.kde.org and KDE-Look.org will be available for those developers who do not want to burden themselves.

Spillner is setting his sights on KDE Games and KOffice integration for KNS 2. Many KDE Games applications already implement KNS, but Spillner would like to see adoption throughout the entire Games module. At least one of KOffice's many components, the database manager Kexi, already uses KNS. Spillner sees the remainder of KOffice as another excellent opportunity for KNS growth: "In organizations, there is often a need for keeping templates up to date regarding the corporate design, contact data and so on. KNewStuff could be of great use here." Organizations could host a GHNS server for employees and synchronize templates among them using KNS 2's remote content synchronization feature.

The GHNS specification is broadly defined by the "idea of collaborative work" statement posted on its website: "Free desktops empower their users to work together over the internet, and share their ideas, artwork, scripts and files. The missions of GHNS is to provide the necessary infrastructure on the client, the server and the protocols in between." More specifically, the specification outlines the GHNS standard for distributing and centralizing data.

The GHNS project has developed or inspired both server-side and client-side implementations of this standard. Client-side GHNS software includes KNS and the SDLNewStuff Python library for games. Additional client implementations include the incomplete Get Hot New Stuff for Java and the unmaintained GNOME Art. Spillner notes that the SDLNewStuff library has had significant adoption among game designers for sharing content such as level designs and themes. He writes, "In Chess, for example, fiddly game positions are exchanged in the standard PGN format. Using KNewStuff or other GHNS client libraries, those can easily be retrieved from within the game."

Server-side GHNS software consists of the HotStuff web interface and backend scripts, as well as the DXS service. Major content providers supporting the GHNS specification include KDE-look.org and KDE-apps.org. Spillner credits KDE-look.org's historical support for KNewStuff as prompting the standardization of GHNS.

As with most FreeDesktop.org-endorsed specifications, Spillner intends for GHNS to have a cross-desktop appeal. In areas where desktop content overlaps, such as wallpapers - where nearly any desktop can use the same data files, the benefits of cross-desktop GHNS compatibility is obvious. With the lapse of GNOME Art, KDE has become - once again - the only desktop which has significant support for GHNS. Spillner would like this to change in the coming months. In his words, "My main focus right now is on development, but advocacy will certainly become more important again once KNewStuff2 is in a state where we can show off with it and trigger proponents of other desktops to rival it."

Development on KNS 2's content management dialog has only just begun. Spillner will be designing the interface in collaboration with KDE Usability experts. Spillner plans for the interface to be very customizable by application developers. As an example, he describes an interface for dynamically listing content in menus, like Live Bookmarks. Spillner will give a comprehensive presentation on KNewStuff 2 at the Akademy 2007 conference in Glasgow, Scotland June 30th to July 8th.

Comments (4 posted)

Firebird sub-release 2.0.1

Sub-release 2.0.1 of the Firebird DBMS has been announced. "This is the first sub-release since the 2.0 release in November, 2006. It adds no new features (those are coming in v.2.1) but provides a large number of bug-fixes and a few improvements. It is highly recommended that v.2.0 installations be upgraded to get the benefits of these."

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PostgreSQL Weekly News

The March 25, 2007 edition of the PostgreSQL Weekly News is online with the latest PostgreSQL DBMS articles and resources.

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BusyBox 1.5.0 released

Unstable version 1.5.0 of BusyBox, a collection of command line utilities for embedded systems, is out with a lot of new features. "Since this is a x.x.0 release, it probably does not deserve "stable" label. Please help making 1.5.1 stable by testing 1.5.0."

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Samba 3.0.25 pre 2 released

Version 3.0.25 pre2 of Samba has been announced. "This is the second preview release of the Samba 3.0.25 code base and is provided for testing only. This release is *not* intended for production servers. There has been a substantial amount of development since the 3.0.23/3.0.24 series of stable releases. We would like to ask the Samba community for help in testing these changes as we work towards the next significant production upgrade Samba 3.0 release."

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Metasploit Framework 3.0 released

Version 3.0 of the Metasploit Framework, a development platform for creating security tools and exploits, is available. "Version 3.0 contains 177 exploits, 104 payloads, 17 encoders, and 3 nop modules. Additionally, 30 auxiliary modules are included that perform a wide range of tasks, including host discovery, protocol fuzzing, and denial of service testing."

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Announcing Django 0.96

Version 0.96 of the Django web development platform has been announced. "The primary goal for 0.96 was a cleanup and stabilization of the features introduced in 0.95. The release notes cover the few backwards-incompatible changes, but for most people the upgrade process should be simple. One particular change affects users of MySQL on older servers: If you get an error about Django requiring a newer version of MySQLdb, you'll need to either upgrade MySQLdb to 1.2.1p2 or later, or switch your DATABASE_ENGINE setting to "mysql_old"."

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Plone 3.0-beta1 is out

Version 3.0-beta1 of the Plone web development platform has been released. "With this release the Plone 3.0 tree is now feature complete: all new features are included this release. Some are optional and not enabled by default (iterate staging, OpenID authentication, the new NuPlone skin)."

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Silva 1.6 Final released

Version 1.6 of Silva has been released. "Infrae has released version 1.6 of the Silva content management system. This release brings a range of improvements and several key new features, such as automatic PDF and Word file fulltext indexing, Atom/RSS feeds from containers, ‘classic’ list-based menu rendering, and additions to the documentation. Performance has been significantly improved by changing how containers are published and optimizing calls to the metadata service."

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CLAM 1.0 released

Version 1.0 of CLAM, a software framework for research and application development in the audio and music domains, is out. "We are very happy to announce the CLAM 1.0 "Berlin" release while having splendid views of the Alps in the flight to Berlin for the Linux Audio Conference. This release is indeed a major milestone for the project and it opens a door to the development of exciting new features, so keep tuned! Apart of these big changes expect also bug fixes (yes 1.0 have bugs) as we move on."

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Vamp audio analysis plugin API 1.0 released

Version 1.0 of the Vamp Plugin API and software developers kit has been announced. "Vamp is a plugin API for audio analysis and feature extraction plugins written in C or C++. Its SDK features an easy-to-use set of C++ classes for plugin and host developers, a reference host implementation, example plugins, and documentation. It is supported across Linux, OS/X and Windows. The Vamp plugin API is also used by the Sonic Visualiser audio visualisation and analysis application."

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GNOME Software Announcements

The following new GNOME software has been announced this week:

• Gimmie 0.2.6 (new features and bug fixes)
• GNOME Power Manager 2.18.1 (bug fixes and translation work)
• Gnome Subtitles 0. (new features and bug fixes)
• gThumb 2.10.0 (new features)
• Libgda/Libgnomedb 2.99.6 (new features, bug fixes and translation work)
• libxklavier 3.2 (bug fixes)
• Mergeant 0.66 (API changes, new features and translation work)
• Vala 0.0.8 (new features and bug fixes)

You can find more new GNOME software releases at gnomefiles.org.

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KDE Software Announcements

The following new KDE software has been announced this week:

• CoverPrint 1.2 (new features)
• Decrypt and Extract Here Service Menu 1.1-4 (bug fix)
• dosbox-pykde 0.1.0 (unspecified)
• improved offline web browsing 0.5 (patches for KDE 3.5.2)
• Ingutie Alpha 0.3 (unspecified)
• k3b 1.0 (release for Ubuntu 7.04)
• kamix 0.6.5 (bug fixes)
• kbtv 1.2.4 (unspecified)
• kdesvn 0.11.2 (bug fixes and translation work)
• kdesvn 0.11.1 (new features, bug fixes and translation work)
• kdevelop 3.4 (release for Kubuntu 7.04)
• Kflickr MOCKUP 1.0 (test release)
• Kima 0.7.1 (new features, bug fixes and translation work)
• kiwi 1.9.14 (new features, bug fixes and translation work)
• KMess 1.5-pre2 (bug fixes)
• kopete-otr 0.1 (initial release)
• KpassDNS 0.2 (new features and bug fixes)
• KRename 3.0.14 (bug fixes)
• Marble 0.3 (beta preview release)
• mp3CONVERT 0.2 (unspecified)
• Qtpfsgui 1.8.3 (new features and bug fixes)
• QuadKonsole 2.0.2 (new feature and bug fix)
• Rosenkoenig 0.6 (unspecified)
• TorK 0.14-beta (new features and bug fixes)
• webarchiver plugin 0.4 (patches for KDE 3.5.2)
• WengoPhone 2.1 rc2 (bug fixes)

You can find more new KDE software releases at kde-apps.org.

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The Road to KDE 4: Updates and Addenda (KDE.News)

Troy Unrau looks at changes to KRunner, logout screens, Dolphin, KDE job progress improvements, okular, Kalzium and KOffice in his Road to KDE 4 series. "Well, so far I've published a dozen articles about KDE 4 over the last 12 weeks. A lot of content has been covered, but there is rapid progress still being made on those topics. So, in no particular order, this week's issue deals with addenda and updates to the last 12 articles, so that you can see some of the rapid progress happening as KDE races forward."

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Xorg Software Announcements

The following new Xorg software has been announced this week:

• makedepend 1.0.1 (bug fix)
• xf86-video-ati 6.6.191 (new features and bug fixes)
• mkfontdir 1.0.3 (util macros change)
• xf86-video-intel-1.9.93 (new features and bug fixes)
• xf86-video-nv 2.0.1 (bug fixes)
• xserver 1.2.99.903 (new features and bug fixes)
• xload-1.0.2 (bug fixes)

More information can be found on the X.Org Foundation wiki.

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ASCO 0.4.6 released

Version 0.4.6 of ASCO, a Spice circuit analyzer, is out. "Changes since ASCO 0.4.5: * Improvements in the RF module functionality. * Include support for logarithmic search space for the existing variables. * Code refinements and bug fixes. The dormant code for the RF module has been revised. Some new functionalities have been added. Corrections to compile in win32 and better work with Qucs simulator are included."

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Covered 0.5 released

Stable release 0.5 of Covered, a Verilog code coverage analyzer, is available. "This is a new major release of Covered, containing many new features, enhancements, and general improvements to the 0.4.x stable release."

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Layout editor 20070319 announced

Release 20070319 of Layout editor, An integrated circuit MEMS layout editor, has been announced on the Open Collector site. "Beside a lot of bugfixes the new version supports multiply undo's and more fill styles."

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Mirth 1.4 Released (LinuxMedNews)

LinuxMedNews has announced the release of Mirth 1.4. "The Mirth project is announcing the release of Mirth 1.4, with HL7 v3, X12 (HIPAA X12N), EDI (UN/EDIFACT) and XML message support. Mirth 1.4 includes over 60 bug fixes, improvements and features, as well as a new, powerful development and mapping environment."

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Ember 0.4.3 released

The WorldForge game project has announced the release of Ember 0.4.3. "Ember is a 3d client for the WorldForge project. It uses the Ogre 3d graphics library for presentation and CEGUI for its GUI system. This release includes the new libwfut library for media updates, removing the need for an external java updater. It also adds a lot of bug fixes."

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Dia v. 0.96 released (GnomeDesktop)

Version 0.96 of Dia, a diagramming tool, has been announced. "This version introduces import and export of Visio VDX files, improves the font rendering, adds a sheet of BPMN objects, and has numerous other fixes and improvements. Visio VDX interoperability has been added by Ian Redfern. It is still in a beta stage, but should help those in diverse environments or who want to migrate away from Visio. The font width issues that have plagued Dia the last several releases should now be fixed, both for zooming and for printing."

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Urwid 0.9.8 announced

Version 0.9.8 of Urwid, a command line user interface package, is out. "This release improves Urwid's performance by 70% to 450% (reducing running time by 41% to 82%) for some benchmarks. New base classes have been introduced for widgets, canvases and list walkers. Some bugs have been fixed. Python 2.2 or later is now required."

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Canorus 0.2.5 is out

Version 0.2.5 of Canorus has been announced. "Canorus development team is happy to announce the new release of Canorus - a free cross-platform music score editor, version 0.2.5. The release took lots of effort from core developers, various contributors, testers and translators. This release mostly brought huge under the hood changes. Among others, the most notible features are the new GUI and LilyPond support."

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GMIDImonitor 3.2 released

Version 3.2 of GMIDImonitor, a GTK+ application that shows MIDI events, is out. "New in this release: * Fix bug causing stalled midi events after burst followed by silence * Decode jack midi reset message (by Edward Tomasz Napierala) * Add some instructions about using GMIDImonitor."

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Qtpfsgui 1.8.3 released

Stable version 1.8.3 Qtpfsgui is out with one new feature, bug fixes and improved documentation. "Qtpfsgui is a Qt4 graphical user interface that provides a workflow for HDR imaging."

Comments (none posted)

Swfdec 0.4.3 released

The swfdec 0.4.3 release is out. This is the version of swfdec contains the updates that make it able to play videos from YouTube. "Swfdec still is development software, but has also followed a rigid no-crashes-allowed policy. I believe it's stable enough now to be installed as a default plugin for people that can live with occasional crashes of their browser."

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Gran Paradiso Alpha 3 Released (MozillaZine)

MozillaZine has announced the release of Gran Paradiso Alpha 3. "Gran Paradiso Alpha 3, an early developer milestone aimed at testers and web application developers, has been released. This is the third milestone on the path to Gecko 1.9. As mentioned earlier, Gran Paradiso is the project codename for Firefox 3. This milestone includes support for Animated PNG (APNG) images and several backend changes for layout, rendering and web applications support."

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Croquet SDK 1.0 Released

Version 1.0 of the Croquet software development kit has been released. "The kit provides developers with a flexible tool to create virtual spaces with built-in networked telephony and a 'late-binding object-oriented' programming language that allows multiple users to jointly create, animate or modify 3-D objects and dynamic simulations. Developers can also import and share resources, such as 2-D web applications or multimedia content, from their own systems. Working together across multiple locations, they can change simulations while they are running and work together to create new applications -- all in real time." The software can be downloaded from the Croquet Consortium site.

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Caml Weekly News

The March 27, 2007 edition of the Caml Weekly News is out with new Caml language articles.

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Weekly Perl 6 mailing list summary (O'Reilly)

The March 21, 2007 edition of the Weekly Perl 6 mailing list summary is out with coverage of the latest Perl 6 developments.

Comments (none posted)

Shed Skin Optimizing Python-to-C++ Compiler 0.0.21

Version 0.0.21 of Shed Skin Optimizing Python-to-C++ Compiler has been announced. "I have just released 0.0.21, which comes with the following changes: -important type inference fix/cleanup -support for 'bisect', 'collections.deque' and 'string.maketrans' -improved 'copy' support -support for 'try, else' construction -some optimizations ('dict[..] += ..', "''.join(sorted(str))") -several minor bug fixes".

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Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links

The March 22, 2007 edition of the Python-URL! is online with a new collection of Python article links.

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Ruby Weekly News

This week's edition of the Ruby Weekly News looks at pulling text from XML documents, interactive help in irb, an upcoming regional conference in North Carolina and more.

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Tcl-URL! - weekly Tcl news and links

The March 27, 2007 edition of the Tcl-URL! is online with new Tcl/Tk articles and resources.

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The Future of XSLT 2.0 (O'Reilly)

Kurt Cagle discusses XSLT 2.0 on O'Reilly. "Kurt Cagle provides some compelling arguments for the importance of XSLT 2.0 in XML applications as we move forward."

Comments (none posted)

Pydev 1.3.1 Released

Version 1.3.1 of Pydev and and Pydev Extensions are out with many new features. "PyDev is a plugin that enables users to use Eclipse for Python and Jython development -- making Eclipse a first class Python IDE -- It comes with many goodies such as code completion, syntax highlighting, syntax analysis, refactor, debug and many others."

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PHP OpenID 1.2.2 released

Version 1.2.2 of the JanRain PHP OpenID library is out with bug fixes and optimizations.

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Clearing up anti-GPL3 FUD (Linux-Watch)

Bruce Perens looks at some common misconceptions about the GPLv3. "There's been a lot of talk about GPL version 3: whether it goes too far to be acceptable to business, whether the Linux kernel developers will ever switch to it, whether our community will fork or undergo unrest over it. Much of that talk is based on a poor understanding of the GPL3 terms, and with release of the new license imminent, it's time to clear that up."

Comments (65 posted)

Ian Murdock: Making Solaris more like Linux (ZDNet)

ZDNet attended a talk by Ian Murdock shortly after his move to Sun. "You can make a real argument that Solaris innovated more than Linux in the last few years—such as DTrace and ZFS—but usability stands in the way of appreciating that,' Murdock said. 'Part of what we are working on is closing the usability gap so that it doesn’t stand in the way.'"

Comments (10 posted)

Open source at CeBIT 2007 (Linux.com)

Linux.com has this report from CeBIT 2007. "Traditionally, most companies that work with open source software cluster at the Linux Park in Hall 5, and this year was no exception. Nor was there any exception to another CeBIT tradition, namely the release of a new version of Knoppix, which is now at version 5.2. However, this time Klaus Knopper -- Mr. Knoppix himself -- wasn't handing out free disks and answering visitors' questions. Instead, German publisher Heise was selling copies of its C't magazine containing the latest version of Knoppix."

Comments (none posted)

Report from the Decibel Hackathon (KDE.News)

KDE.News has a report from the Decibel Hackathon. "At the Decibel Hackathon sponsored by NL.net and basysKom GmbH in Darmstadt, Germany last weekend, hackers from the KDE community met to discuss the handling of contact data in KDE 4. Read on for a summary of the event."

Comments (none posted)

Guademy 2007 Event Report (KDE.News)

KDE.News covers GUADEMY 2007. "The first Guademy event finished yesterday at the university of A Coruña, Spain. Organized by the GPUL (Grupo de Programadores y Usuarios de Linux), the Linux User Group of A Coruña, it was an event which brought together people from the GNOME and KDE camp (thus the combination of "GUADEC" and "aKademy" that forms the name of the event)."

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News And A Review: LAC2007 & Rosegarden 1.5 (Linux Journal)

Dave Phillips looks at the annual Linux Audio Conference and Rosegarden 1.5. "The review: The developers at 64Studio recently announced the release of version 1.2 of my favorite audio-optimized Linux distribution. Among its many additions and improvements this update brings Rosegarden 1.5 to the 64-bit desktop studio. It's been quite a while since I considered the program in detail (I profiled a much earlier version in my Book Of Linux Music And Sound), so I decided the time had come for me to spend some quality time with the latest Rosegarden."

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Emulex driver shipping with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (CTR)

Computer Technology Review reports on support for RHEL 5 by Emulex. "Emulex Corp. has announced the availability of its Linux driver for Emulex LightPulse HBAs (Host Bus Adapters) as part of the new Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 distribution from Red Hat Inc. Emulex LightPulse HBA customers will as a result benefit immediately from the new virtualization, clustering, and manageability enhancements available in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 distribution, the company added last week."

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Novell details new Linux and management offerings (Computer Business Review)

Computer Business Review covers Novell's latest announcements. "Novell Inc has unveiled a new thin client desktop Linux offering and started the beta testing for SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 Service Pack 1 as part of a slew of announcements made at its BrainShare user conference. The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company also detailed new groupware, and systems, security and identity management products, as well as customer momentum for its Open Workgroup Suite."

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Oracle claims Yahoo as Linux convert (ZDNet)

ZDNet reports on a deal between Oracle and Yahoo. "Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison announced the company's first prominent Linux customer Tuesday: Yahoo. But Red Hat hasn't been pushed aside at the Internet company. Ellison cited the Yahoo deal as the first real evidence of progress from Oracle's high-profile attack on Linux leader Red Hat that began in October. Oracle is cloning Red Hat Enterprise Linux, selling support for less than Red Hat's list prices."

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Oracle joins Linux patent commons (Linux-Watch)

Linux-Watch reports that Oracle will become a licensee of the Open Invention Network. "By doing this, Oracle opens the doors to making some of its patents available royalty-free to any company, institution, or individual that agrees not to assert its patents against Linux."

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Can You Legally Rip a DVD? Trial to Test 'Fair Use' (PC Mag)

PC Mag covers a trial between the DVD Content Control Association and the Kaleidescape regarding the copying of DVDs. "On Wednesday, a key copyright trial began in San Jose, as Kaleidescape Systems and the DVD Content Control Association went to court in a case expected to test the concept of "fair use". Kaleidescape manufactures the Kaleidescape System, essentially a DVD jukebox, connected via Ethernet to a separate player box. Users can insert a DVD and rip it to the installed hard drive, for later viewing upon a television screen. To the DVD CCA, the suit is a simple breach of contract of the terms of the Content Scrambling System, the encryption method that secures the millions of standard-definition DVDs sold worldwide."

Comments (2 posted)

Victims fight back against DMCA abuse (ars technica)

ars technica investigates efforts to combat DMCA abuses. "DMCA takedown notices: sure, they provide an easy way for companies or individuals to get copyrighted information pulled from sites like YouTube, but what happens when the process is abused? The DMCA does require takedown notices to be made under threat of perjury, and damages are possible against those that abuse the takedown process by using it for frivolous or fraudulent purposes. The EFF has recently filed two cases against alleged DMCA abusers, and may be prepping a third against Viacom."

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The Strange History of Linux and Trademarks (Tux Deluxe)

The Tux Deluxe site has a history of trademark-related hassles with an emphasis on the Mobilix case. "Over the years Linux International has spent over $300,000 defending the Linux trademark, $250,000 of which has come from maddog's own pocket. In 2005 maddog founded the Linux Mark Institute, with support from Linus Torvalds, with the objective of protecting the Linux mark for the community and against the prospectors of the future."

Comments (2 posted)

SIL Open Font License revised (Linux.com)

Linux.com covers the latest revision of the SIL Open Font License. "SIL International, a nonprofit organization whose concerns include literacy and the study and preservation of minority languages, has announced the release of version 1.1 of the SIL Open Font License (OFL). The revision, which follows months of discussion and review on several mailing lists, including OFL-Discuss, clarifies the language of the license, especially about embedding fonts and allowing reserved font names."

Comments (12 posted)

PHP Search Engine Showdown (O'ReillyNet)

Here's an O'ReillyNet article about the benefits of adding a search engine to your website. "When you choose to incorporate a local search service, you install the search engine on your server and customize the tool yourself. The advantages of using the local approach are that you can ensure the privacy of your data, you can control the indexing process and search results, and that you have the freedom to implement new features. The disadvantages of installing a local search engine are that indexing and maintenance is your responsibility, and that the index and installation files will use space on your hard drive. You may also incur costs associated with software acquisition--although free, open source software is available."

Comments (4 posted)

Building the XO: The Anatomy of an Activity (Red Hat Mag)

Red Hat Magazine has published a tutorial on the creation of activities for the OLPC XO machine. "Activities should be designed to be shared, and the process for sharing should be trivial. If a child sees a friend playing a neat new game, she should be able to click on that friend in her neighborhood view, receive her game code, and join in the game, immediately."

Comments (none posted)

Chess engines for Linux (Linux.com)

M. Shuaib Khan looks at Linux-compatible chess engines on Linux.com. "Chess engines for Linux are comparable in strength to commercial chess engines available for other platforms. Here's a look at the features of half a dozen of the most well-known chess engines for Linux. A chess engine is the actual program against which you play the game. A chess engine can take a move as an input, and after analysis, generate a move of its own as an output."

Comments (2 posted)

Bake-Off: 4 Linux Desktops Tackle The Enterprise (CRN)

CRN reviews four "enterprise" desktop distributions. "Surface-deep features are not enough anymore, as more companies than ever before are seriously considering migrating to Linux. However, the UI and navigational changes that Linux vendors are making in Linux desktops to improve the user experience are still far behind Windows. Simple routines such as adding a Flash player or Java plug-in on Firefox can be a tedious experience. The Linux File Manager is not as intuitive as Windows Explorer."

Comments (9 posted)

RaveHD uses Linux to help movie studios process raw video (Linux.com)

Linux.com looks at RaveHD. "SpecSoft's Linux-powered RaveHD DDR-VTR system is not a video editing tool for home users or small-time professionals. It's a system that stores, manipulates, and plays back uncompressed video that can be turned into film clear enough to fill a Hollywood movie theater's wide screen. It's what you need when the file size of each frame in your video is measured in gigabytes and your whole project takes up multiple terabytes of storage, and you have not just one or two but 100 or 200 animators and post-production people working for you. At this level of video and film production, says SpecSoft co-founder Ramona Howard, the question isn't why you develop your utility programs in Linux, but why you would even consider using a proprietary operating system."

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Start-up Zimbra takes Web e-mail offline (ZDNet)

ZDNet looks at an alpha version of the Zimbra Desktop. "E-mail software company Zimbra on Sunday released an early version of Zimbra Desktop, Web e-mail software that will run online and offline. The company has built an open-source, Web-based alternative to existing mail servers and clients such as Microsoft Exchange and Outlook. Zimbra uses Ajax, a Web development technique that runs across browsers and operating systems."

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Gentoo attempts to deal with developer conflicts (Linux.com)

Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier looks at the Gentoo Project and its recently adopted Code of Conduct. "If the idea is to stem the tide of "retiring" developers, it's not working yet. After the vote to adopt the CoC on March 15, Gentoo developer Alexandre Buisse turned in his resignation, saying that the adoption of the Code of Conduct by the Gentoo Council was "stupidly fast" and that he's tired of "endless fights" over "who gets a tiny bit more" power over parts of the project."

Comments (7 posted)

Linux Foundation Announces a Diverse Board of Directors

The Linux Foundation has announced its new board of directors, a diverse group that represents the key stakeholders from every corner of the Linux ecosystem: the Linux kernel community, Linux vendors, distributions and users, as well as individual open source leaders.

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LQ Wiki reaches 3,000 articles

LinuxQuestions.org has announced reaching the 3000 article waterline on the LinuxQuestions Wiki site. "The LQ Wiki allows users to collaboratively build a free, complete and up-to-date Linux knowledgebase and aims to become the largest general-knowledge Linux repository on the web. It is free to join or use the LQ Wiki and any user can add or edit content. All content is licensed under either a Creative Commons license or the GFDL, ensuring that it remains freely redistributable."

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ActiveState Perl Dev Kit 7.0 now available

ActiveState has announced the release of Perl Dev Kit (PDK) 7.0, a multi-platform suite of tools for creating and deploying Perl applications. "PDK provides essential tools for building self-contained, easily deployable executables for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, AIX and HP-UX. The comprehensive feature set includes a graphical debugger and code coverage and hotspot analyzer, as well as tools for building sophisticated Perl-based filters and easily converting useful VBScript code to Perl."

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Collax updates its entire product family

Collax has announced updates to each of its server solutions, now Collax Business Server 4.1.0, Collax Security Gateway 4.2.0 and Collax Open-Xchange Server 5.1.0 respectively. "All solutions will run on the 2.6 kernel, guaranteeing stability, security and scalability. In addition, directory-, e-mail-, web-proxy-, file- and FTP-servers have been updated in the new versions. The use of AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) enables Collax to provide improved software ergonomics. Configuration and administration of the solutions, which are being developed specifically for small and medium businesses (SMBs) is thus not only significantly simplified, but also drastically accelerated."

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First Year of Coverity Scan Site Squashes 6,000 Bugs

Coverity, Inc. has issued a press release for the one year anniversary of the scan.coverity.com project that was started under an open source vulnerability research contract with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The contract is shared with Stanford University and Symantec Corporation. Coverity also announced a major expansion of the analysis scope, increasing the number of open source projects involved to 150, up from 50.

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Motorola announces revised guidance and actions to improve profitability

Motorola, Inc. has announced a number of moves aimed at improving its financial position. "Motorola is committed to improving the financial performance of the Mobile Devices business by pursuing market segments and product tiers that demonstrate the best opportunity for high gross margins and meaningful profitability. In this regard, the company is focused on steps to reduce cost and improve consumer experiences, including: -- Deploying open standards Linux/Java(TM) software across mid- and high-tier devices to enhance the experiences available on handsets ..."

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New Xandros Linux Server to bundle Scalix 11 collaboration platform

Xandros and Scalix have announced that the forthcoming Xandros Server 2 will ship with Scalix 11 pre-installed. "The bundled solution brings enterprise-class email and calendaring to the SMB market, providing a broad selection of true enterprise clients such as full feature support of Microsoft Outlook and Evolution, a Web client with desktop functionality, and a Mobile Web Client that allows a broad base of users to stay connected while mobile. A special Xandros plug-in provides full, remote graphical management of Scalix 11. Xandros Server with Scalix 11 provides SMBs with a powerful and easy-to-use alternative to Windows-based messaging systems, and will ship in April 2007."

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Ted Ts'o wins FSF award

The Free Software Foundation has announced that the winner of the 2006 Award for the Advancement of Free Software is Ted Ts'o. "Theodore Ts'o was recognized for his many and varied contributions to free software, including his work on the kernel Linux. His role as project leader in the development of Kerberos---the first single sign-on authentication system---and his work on the Open Network Computing Remote Procedure (ONC RPC) are representative of his important role in Internet security. He was also cited for his work as maintainer and developer of the key utilities under the project "E2fs", which are used to maintain file systems for GNU/Linux. Ts'o has also played an important role in community efforts, organizing the annual summit for kernel developers and publishing educational materials and tutorials."

Comments (4 posted)

O'Reilly Jolts the Industry--Head First Style

O'Reilly has announced the winning of several Jolt awards by two of its book authors. ""Head First Object-Oriented Analysis & Design" by Brett McLaughlin, Gary Pollice, and David West received top honors--the highly coveted Jolt--for best product in the "Technical Books" category at this year's Jolt Awards ceremony. Further honors were bestowed on O'Reilly Media with the presentation of a Productivity Award for "CSS: The Missing Manual" by David Sawyer McFarland in the same category."

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Pure Data Spring School 2007 - GOTO10 at CCA (Glasgow, UK)

The Pure Data Spring School 2007 will take place in Glasgow, Scotland on May 14-25, 2007. "Pure Data is a free and open source real-time graphical programming environment used by artists to create a range of visual arts, theatre, dance, audio, installation, performance and media art works. Pure Data is ideal for those looking to integrate technology into their work for the first time, or advanced media artists looking to explore new tools and new ways to combine them in a unified environment. It is easy to use Pure Data to create interactive environments, link animations and sound, control hardware and electronics, stream audio, generate real time visuals and develop interfaces for other programs. In this intensive two week course, participants will learn Pure Data from scratch and explore in detail some of its most exciting extensions."

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EuroPython 2007: Call for Proposals

A call for proposal has gone out for EuroPython 2007. "Book Monday 9th July to Wednesday 11th July 2007 in your calendar! EuroPython 2007, the European Python and Zope Conference, will be held in Vilnius, Lithuania. Last year's conference was a great success, featuring a variety of tracks, amazing lightning talks and inspiring keynotes. With your participation, we want to make EuroPython 2007, the sixth EuroPython, even more successful than the previous five." The submission deadline is May 18.

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Call for invitations to be the host of GUADEC 2008

A call for proposals for locations for the 2008 Gnome Users and Developers Conference (GUADEC) has been posted. "UADEC, GNOME's major annual developer conference, is going to be in Birmingham in 2007. We're calling for proposals for locations in 2008. The chosen location will be announced at GUADEC."

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OpenOffice.org Annual Conference 2007 - Call for Papers

A call for papers has gone out for the OpenOffice.org Annual Conference 2007. The conference will be held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain on September 19-21, 2007, submissions are due by June 1.

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CFP for RAID 2007

The call for papers for the RAID 2007 conference has been extended until April 8. The event takes place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia on September 5-7, 2007. "This symposium, the 10th in an annual series, brings together leading researchers and practitioners from academia, government, and industry to discuss issues and technologies related to intrusion detection and defense. The Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection (RAID) International Symposium series is intended to further advances in intrusion defense by promoting the exchange of ideas in a broad range of topics."

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Linux Audio Conference 2007 live streams

The 2007 Linux Audio Conference will feature live media streaming. "The Linux Audio Conference takes place this week 22-25 March, 2007. As in past years LAC2007 will be streamed live in ogg vorbis and theora via icecast"

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CMP Technology announces first Sys Admin Technical Conference

CMP Technology has announced the first Sys Admin Technical Conference. "CMP Technology's Sys Admin magazine, the journal for Unix and Linux systems administrators, today announced the first Sys Admin Technical Conference will take place May 7-8 at the Sheraton Inner Harbor in Baltimore. The two-day conference consists of security and scripting tracks and includes courses for beginners and experienced administrators. Conference sessions will be led by industry experts including Hal Pomeranz, Randal Schwartz, AEleen Frisch, Richard Bejtlich, and Tom Limoncelli."

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2007 O'Reilly Where 2.0 Conference adds new speakers and sessions

O'Reilly has sent out a status report for the 2007 Where 2.0 Conference. "Program planning is in the final stages for the 2007 O'Reilly Where 2.0 Conference, happening May 29-30, 2007 at The Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California. Location industry visionaries are scheduled to present their futuristic ideas and groundbreaking projects in two full days of keynotes, lightning talks, panel discussions, and demonstrations. Now in its third year, the Where 2.0 Conference will provide attendees with the opportunity to discover the technologies, trends, and developments making a difference in location-based technology."

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Events: April 5, 2007 to June 4, 2007

The following event listing is taken from the LWN.net Calendar.

Date(s)	Event	Location
April 1 April 5	Embedded Systems Conference	San Jose, CA, USA
April 2 April 6	DJango Bootcamp	Atlanta, Georgia, USA
April 2 April 5	Hack in The Box Security Conference 2007	Dubai, United Arab Emirates
April 3 April 8	Make Art 2007	Poitiers, France
April 12 April 14	International Free Software Forum (Forum Internacional Software Livre)	Porto Alegre, Brazil
April 14 April 15	Ruby and Python Conference 2007	Poznan, Poland
April 15 April 18	Gelato ICE: Itanium® Conference & Expo	San Jose, California, USA
April 17 April 19	Embedded Linux Conference	San Jose, USA
April 18 April 20	CanSecWest Applied Security Conference 2007	Vancouver, Canada
April 19	Linux 2007	Lisbon, Portugal
April 19	Power Architecture Software Summit	Austin, TX, USA
April 20 April 22	International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security	Vienna, Austria
April 20 April 22	Penguicon 5.0 Open Source Software & Science Fiction Convention	Troy, Michigan, USA
April 21	Romanian Open Source Development Meeting	Bucharest, Romania
April 23 April 25	Samba eXPerience 2007	Göttingen, Germany
April 23 April 27	PostgreSQL Bootcamp at the Big Nerd Ranch	Atlanta, USA
April 23 April 26	MySQL Conference and Expo	Santa Clara, CA, USA
April 28 April 29	Linuxfest Northwest	Bellingham, WA, USA
May 3 May 4	Ubuntu Education Summit	Sevilla, Spain
May 3 May 5	SugarCRM Global Developer Conference	San Jose, CA, USA
May 4 May 6	Libre Graphics Meeting 2007	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
May 5 May 6	LayerOne Security Conference	Pasadena, CA, USA
May 5	Ubucon - Sevilla	Sevilla, Spain
May 6 May 11	Ubuntu Developer Summit	Sevilla, Spain
May 7	CommunityOne	San Francisco, CA, USA
May 8 May 9	World Summit on Intrusion Prevention	Baltimore, MD, USA
May 8 May 11	Annual Java Technology Conference	San Francisco, CA, USA
May 8 May 11	OSHCA 2007	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
May 9 May 11	Red Hat Summit	San Diego, CA, USA
May 10 May 11	IEEE International Workshop on Open Source Test Technology Tools	Berkeley, CA, USA
May 10	NLUUG Spring Conference 2007	Ede, The Netherlands
May 11 May 13	Conferenze Italiana sul Software Libero	Cosenza, Italy
May 12 May 13	KOffice ODF Weekend	Berlin, Germany
May 14 May 25	The Pure Data Spring School 2007	Glasgow, Scotland
May 16 May 18	php|tek	Chicago, IL, USA
May 17 May 20	RailsConf 2007	Portland, Oregon
May 18 May 19	eLiberatica Open Source and Free Software Conference	Brasov, Romania
May 18 May 19	FreedomHEC	Los Angeles, CA
May 18 May 19	BSDCan 2007	Ottawa, Canada
May 19 May 20	The 3rd International Workshop on Software Engineering for Secure Systems	Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
May 19 May 20	Rockbox International Developers Conference 2007	Stockholm, Sweden
May 19	Grazer LinuxDays 2007	Graz, Austria
May 19 May 20	Make Magazine Maker Faire 2007	San Mateo, CA, USA
May 19	Linuxwochen Austria - Graz	Graz, Austria
May 21 May 23	International PHP 2007 Conference	Stuttgart, Germany
May 21 May 25	Python Bootcamp with David Beazley	Atlanta, USA
May 22 May 23	Open Source Business Conference	San Francisco, USA
May 22 May 24	Linux Days 2007, Geneva	Geneva, Switzerland
May 23 May 24	PGCon 2007	Ottawa, ON, Canada
May 25	Linuxwochen Austria - Krems	Krems, Austria
May 26	PAKCON III	Karachi, Pakistan
May 29 May 30	Where 2.0 Conference	San Jose, CA, USA
May 29 May 31	European ADempiere Developers Conference	Berlin, Germany
May 29 May 30	I FLOSS CONFERENCE RESISTENCIA	Resistencia, Argentina
May 30 June 2	Linuxtag	Berlin, Germany
May 30 June 1	3rd UNIX Days Conference - Gdansk 2007	Gdansk, Poland
May 30 June 1	Linuxwochen Austria - Wien	Wien, Austria
June 2 June 3	Journées Python Francophones	Paris, France

If your event does not appear here, please tell us about it.