Linux in the news

Study: Linux nears Windows XP usability (ComputerWorld)

ComputerWorld reports on a German study which concludes that Linux is almost as easy to use as Windows XP. "Linux users, for example, needed 44.5 minutes to perform a set of tasks, compared with 41.2 minutes required by the XP users. Furthermore, 80% of the Linux users believed that they needed only one week to become as competent with the new system as with their existing one, compared with 85% of the XP users." (Thanks to Karl Vogel).

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Microsoft Takes Linux For A Test Drive (TechWeb)

TechWeb covers a Microsoft lab that tests Linux. "At its Enterprise Engineering Center in Redmond, Wash., Microsoft has installed the Linux operating system, Apache Web server, MySQL database, and Open LDAP directory-access software on Intel-based computers, according to Martin Taylor, the executive who recently assumed responsibility for Microsoft's strategy for competing against Linux."

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SCO ready to clean out Linux users for $1399 per CPU (Register)

The Register covers today's horrifying SCO teleconference. "But SCO claims that IBM and Red Hat are the ones that forced it to put the blame on Linux users. Since IBM and Red Hat won't rush to the Linux community's rescue and hand over millions for unproven claims, SCO must attack the little guys."

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Sun pragmatic about open-source software (News.com)

News.com reports from Sun VP Jonathan Schwartz's LinuxWorld keynote. "'When we out-ship Windows in desktop volume, we will look very seriously at open-sourcing Java on the desktop,' he said."

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Linux spat clouds annual conference (Mercury News)

The (San Jose) Mercury News has an article about LinuxWorld, but really about SCO. "'The SCO case is one of the best things that could have happened for Linux right now,' said Don Marti, editor in chief of Linux Journal. He added: 'Having a common enemy always brings a community together.'

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LinuxWorld Opens Hunting Season (Wired)

Wired News looks forward to LinuxWorld. "Robots will be hunting penguins at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo this week. The robots aren't part of some nefarious plot to replace Linux's cuddly mascot, Tux, with a fiercer emblem. The bots will be conducting demonstration search-and-rescue missions. 'No penguins will be hurt during the demos,' program head Regis Vincent promised."

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Novell may nix NetWare development (News.com)

News.com reports that Novell is looking to drop NetWare in favor of Linux. "Although company representatives haven't said that Novell will stop all development on the NetWare platform, they did say the company is looking to Linux as the future. The revenues from NetWare have declined 9 percent to 14 percent a quarter, said one representative, making the switch a no-brainer."

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SCO and Linux, This One Will Run And Run (IT-Director)

Here's another Robin Bloor column on IT-Director.com on SCO. "A number of people are questioning why SCO simply doesn't declare what the violated code/IP in question is. My guess is that it actually exists (it's hard but not impossible to believe that SCO would do this if it had nothing to complain about) and that it came from someone in IBM. However as soon as SCO declares what it is, the Open Source movement will rewrite the offending code, leaving SCO with zero traction."

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SuSE Linux gets security credentials (ZDNet)

Linux systems from SuSE and IBM have been certified with the international Common Criteria standard, according to an article on ZDNet. ""It certainly raises the viability and increases the trust level of Linux in government contracts," IDC analyst Chris Christiansen said. Though commercial buyers don't usually give Common Criteria certification much more than passing notice, "the government market is very large," he said."

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The state of Linux at the retail store (NewsForge)

NewsForge examines the difficulties in selling Linux systems in computer stores. "We are used to paying for almost every single service and product we use, and our bills are steadily increasing every year. To expect someone to suddenly accept the idea that they can have a reliable and powerful tool to control their expensive, high-tech hardware for no cost at all is quite an assumption. 'Free software' flies in the face of everything the customer would expect. It simply doesn't make sense to them."

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Commentary: Dances with penguins (News.com)

News.com is running a Forrester Research pronouncement on the use of Linux in financial institutions. "Wallflower firms should screw up their courage, get on the dance floor--and enjoy the benefits of Unix reliability at Intel prices."

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Advocates form open-source trade group (News.com)

Here's a News.com article on the newly-formed Open Source and Industry Alliance, which appears to be a sort of free software lobbying group. "[The] OSAIA also will take a broad approach to open source, tracking intellectual property laws and international treaties, fighting those that would weigh on the software. And it plans to examine the procurement codes of different organizations and governments, making sure their buying plans don't discriminate against open-source software."

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Lindows CEO: Taking a bite from Microsoft (ZDNet)

ZDNet talks with Lindows CEO Michael Robertson. "[Our contract with SCO] doesn't indemnify us, but we had a working relationship with SCO back when it was called Caldera. We paid them money to do some Linux work for us. And because of that, I think we're in great shape when it comes to dealing with the licensing type of issues involved here."

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Galeon, A History

A document called Galeon, a history has been published. Take a look to see how the Galeon project was started, where it is headed, and how the Epiphany browser project came to be. "Once upon a time, Marco Pesenti Gritti decided to make a web browser. He liked the Mozilla project, but wanted something that integrated well with his system and that was fast enough to be usable. Marco wanted a good, solid, simple browser for The Average User, in the Gnome environment, and so around June of 2000, Galeon 0.6 was released."

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Don't be afraid: Linux is good for you (Globe and Mail)

Tired of FUD? Here's a feel-good article in the Globe and Mail. "Linux is free, therefore hard to compete with. But it's not that it's just like free beer. It's also free like the English language, in that anyone can see how it works and add new parts that make it better. And it's free in that it runs on computers from many manufacturers, meaning more competition. Linux is also better. It's reliable. It doesn't crash much. It resists hacker attacks."

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Host-based intrusion detection with samhain (NewsForge)

NewsForge reviews the Samhain intrusion detection system. "Probably the neatest characteristic of samhain, which separates it from other host-based IDSes, is the stealth features. The designers have put a tremendous amount of paranoid code into this project, and a well-configured samhain installation can resist almost any subversion."

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Linux on Itanium passes milestone (News.com)

News.com reports on the support for the Itanium processor in the 2.5 Linux Kernel. "The Itanium version of Linux crossed an important threshold Monday, developers said: It now can be built from the standard software maintained by Linux leader Linus Torvalds rather than requiring special patches."

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