LWN.net Weekly Edition for September 18, 2003
Whose Internet is it?
Verisign is, of course, the company that once had a monopoly in the registration of .com and .net domain names. That monopoly has been broken, but Verisign is still the maintainer of the underlying database. This job is a nice cash cow for Verisign; all it needs to do is keep the database running, and it can extract an annual rent from every .com and .net domain out there. Many people would be happy with such a business.Verisign, it would seem, wants more than that. So, at the beginning of this week, the company slipped a little "wild card" entry into the databases for .com and .net. The wild card entry provides an answer for any domain query that does not otherwise appear in the database; it is a default answer which now appears instead of the "no such domain" response that came before.
What does this wild card do? If you look up something that doesn't exist, say "scolinuxlicense.com", you'll get back an IP address (currently 64.94.110.11). If you send mail to that address, you get the world's stupidest SMTP server (if you're bored, try a command like "telnet bogusverisignhost.net smtp" and type five lines of random junk at it). Web queries, however, go to the company's "sitefinder" service. There, the user is confronted with a search engine and paid links aimed to help said user find what they were really after. Note that, according to the terms of use:
In other words, it's really just another low-class domain hijacking scam.
In this case, however, there is more to it. Verisign has, by making this change, fundamentally altered the way the Internet operates. A whole class of diagnostic information - the fact that a given domain lookup has failed - is no longer part of the DNS protocol when .com and .net are involved. This change was not discussed with any of the affected users or other responsible parties, it was simply done. Verisign may have lost its monopoly on front-line domain name registration, but it still seems to think it owns the underlying domains.
The change has had real consequences. For example, spam filtering which relies on domain name existence tests no longer works. Bouncing spam with fake return addresses now has to go through a discussion with Sitefinder's SMTP server. The change is a generally bad idea; to have simply made such a change without so much as a "by your leave" is an act of great arrogance.
The internet, however, is built on free software. There is already a patch available from ISC for BIND 9 which defeats the new wildcard entries. Linux users can find a program on this page which uses netfilter to fix Sitefinder replies; that page also has pointers to patches for a number of DNS servers and mail transfer agents. Verisign may or may not decide to back down on this "service," but, since we own the infrastructure of our net, we can fix the problem regardless - this time, at least. Verisign's next move may not be so easy to counter.
SCO's quarterly filing
SCO's quarterly 10Q filing is now available. These filings can often give some insight into the internals of a company. Since SCO's actions are, currently, somewhat relevant to the Linux community, this filing is worth a look. What follows is our summary of the current quarterly state of SCO.The company claims a profitable quarter, of course. Total revenue is reported at $20 million, of which $11 million came from products, $2 million from services, and $7 million from SCOsource. As a result of this revenue, the company's claimed assets have gone from $21 million at the beginning of the fiscal year (October, 2002) to $26 million now; of that, almost $15 million is cash in the bank. $15 million is also, of course, what the company has received in licensing revenue from Microsoft and Sun this year.
The company has spent almost $4 million ($1.7 million in the quarter) on SCOsource. This figure includes internal SCOsource staff along with external legal fees. Most other expenditures are in decline; the company spent 31% less in research and development than it did last year. SCO laid off 35 employes - about 10% of its staff - over the quarter. It also shut down SCO Group Ltd., a subsidiary in the UK.
Litigation
Not surprisingly, ongoing litigation is an important topic in this filing. It mentions the Red Hat suit, stating:
It is interesting to hear that "no case or controversy exists" with Red Hat. SCO may well be restricting its options with regard to the creation of future cases against Red Hat. The first amendment defense is interesting; the first amendment rights of companies in the U.S. is currently a topic of much debate - and an ongoing Supreme Court case.
Things are happening in other parts of the world:
Several entities in Germany have obtained temporary restraining orders in Germany precluding SCO GmbH, the Company's German subsidiary, in substance, from making statements in Germany that disparage Linux, or entities involved in the Linux business, or implicate Linux as infringing the Company's intellectual property rights. SCO GmbH has received an administrative fine of 10,000 Euro for a technical violation of one of the temporary restraining orders. [...]
Informal letter complaints similar to those raised in Germany have been received from companies in Austria and Poland. [...]
Pursuit and defense of the above-mentioned matters will be costly, and management expects the costs for legal fees and related expenses may be substantial. The ultimate outcome or potential effect of the Company's results of operations or financial position as a result of the above-mentioned matters is not currently known or determinable.
The end result is that the limited countermeasures taken against the company so far are being felt. The "risk factors" section of the filing also has this statement:
In other words, SCO is discovering the costs involved in angering its customers.
Sun and Microsoft
Of course, SCO's customer base is shifting; a large part of its revenue comes from exactly two companies: Sun Microsystems and Microsoft.SCO's previous quarterly filing had noted that the "second SCOsource licensee" (being Sun Microsystems) had received, as part of its deal, a warrant allowing it to buy 210,000 shares of SCO stock at $1.83 each. Subsequently, a second warrant for 12,500 shares has been issued to Sun, at the same $1.83 price. There is still no explanation of why SCO stock is being issued to Sun. Most software licensing agreements do not include this sort of equity component.
Sun, which was responsible for 12% of SCO's revenue over the quarter, still owes $2.5 million on its licensing deal. That money is to be paid by the end of November.
Microsoft contributed 25% of SCO's revenue over the quarter. "On
July 31, 2003, Microsoft exercised an option to acquire expanded licensing
rights. Upon delivery, we expect to recognize additional revenue related
to this option.
" There is no further discussion of what these
"expanded licensing rights" are, or what Microsoft is paying for said
rights. Chances are, however, that this is the "Fortune 500" customer for
SCO's "Linux license" that we heard about in early August.
Vultus and Vista
The quarterly filing gives a few details with regard to SCO's dealings with a couple of other Canopy-funded companies. In June, SCO acquired Vultus, Inc., which is a web services business. The purchase itself required the issuance of 167,590 shares of SCO stock, of which almost 37,000 went to Canopy. But Vultus also owed Canopy a little over $1 million, so another 138,000 shares of stock (worth over $2.5 million now) went in Canopy's direction to take care of that little problem. This deal is a significant transfer of resources from SCO to Canopy; the benefit to SCO remains unclear, however.We've previously looked at SCO's dealings with Vista, which included the acquisition of $1 million in the company's debt for 800,000 shares of company stock, now worth many times that amount. The company has also fed the company $200,000 in other financing. The current state of that debt?
Vista is fortunate to have such an understanding creditor.
Summary
This filing describes a company whose regular product and service offerings continue to decline in market share and revenue. The filing mentions new initiatives ("web services") but lacks specifics and does not go so far as to predict any sort of revenue from those initiatives. SCO's great hope for the future remains SCOsource. In that context, it is interesting to note that the company's "Linux license" is not mentioned in any significant way here. The first public announcement of this license came after the close of the quarter, but it was clearly in the works at that time. If SCO thought it would get any kind of real revenue from this license, it would not have hesitated to say so. Instead, we continue to hear about exactly two companies - Sun and Microsoft - which are keeping SCO on life support and, apparently, intend to continue doing so. Meanwhile, attacks through the courts and the market are making themselves felt; SCO is finding itself fighting an increasingly defensive battle.Anybody who is considering investing in SCO would be well advised to read this filing in its entirety.
OSDL hires analyst Stacey Quandt
[This article was contributed by Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier]
The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) have been on a bit of a high-profile hiring spree this year. First OSDL managed to sign Linus Torvalds to their roster, then followed quickly with kernel maintainer Andrew Morton. Now OSDL is bringing on open source analyst Stacey Quandt as Principal Analyst.
Quandt has worked for Giga Information Group, where she started Giga's
Open Source Research program, and for Forrester after Giga was acquired
by Forrester. As an analyst that specializes in open source, Quandt has
been widely quoted in the tech press and she has been a longtime
proponent of Linux and open source -- even on the desktop, judging by
this quote from a June story on Ximian on Newsfactor:
"The desktop is Microsoft's last stand for near dominance, which will
gradually erode with greater awareness of the maturity of Linux desktop
offerings.
"
Unlike many analysts, Quandt has not been willing to parrot the party line that Microsoft solutions are cheaper. After IDC released a study last year saying that Windows 2000 was more cost-effective, Quandt questioned the numbers cited by IDC according to this article in PC World:
Quandt is also one of the analysts who refused to take SCO's word that Linux contains misappropriated intellectual property at face value. While Laura DiDio of the Yankee Group and several other analysts bought SCO's line, Quandt called for SCO to show its cards, and refused to sign SCO's NDA, calling the offer a publicity stunt.
We wanted to ask Quandt about her new role with OSDL, but she was unavailable to answer questions for this story, as she's on the Linux Lunacy cruise. Nelson Pratt, Director of Marketing, was available. Pratt says that Quandt's job will be working with research firms doing work on Linux:
The release also notes that Quandt will be principal speaker for OSDL at conferences and tradeshows. Pratt declined to comment on any other Linux luminaries that may be joining OSDL in the near future.
Security
Brief items
A bad week
As a quick perusal of this week's "new vulnerabilities" section will confirm, this has not been a good week for the security of Linux systems. New holes have turned up in KDE, MySQL, OpenSSH (twice), pine, sendmail, XFree86, and more. Almost every Linux system out there will be affected by at least one of these problems.The OpenSSH and sendmail vulnerabilities are of particular concern. Almost every system of interest runs OpenSSH, and vast portions of the net still run sendmail. Any vulnerability in those programs automatically opens up large numbers of systems to exploitation. These are the sorts of problems that will, someday, be used for the creation of a virulent worm which attacks Linux systems. If we are lucky, no such event will strike us this time around, but let there be no doubt about it: as long as software which is so widely deployed has remotely exploitable holes, we are vulnerable to that sort of mass attack.
Now that the obligatory scary talk is done, let's take a look at the better news here. It is not clear that the bugs in either OpenSSH or sendmail are exploitable in any large-scale way. Even if they are, once again the problems have been found first by the good guys and fixes have been made quickly available by the Linux distributors. The patches being released are small and relatively non-disruptive; administrators can apply them quickly and with confidence. So most systems will be patched in a relatively short period of time. These vulnerabilities were a scary warning, but it does not appear that there will be any great consequences this time around.
Nonetheless, this episode is a warning. Our security, while arguably better than that of the competition, is nowhere near good enough. We are still encountering bugs in crucial, highly-audited code; one can only imagine what lurks in programs which get less attention. And the network environment we are creating is still too monocultural. The network as a whole will be safer when there are multiple, interoperable programs capable of performing the basic infrastructural tasks.
New vulnerabilities
KDE: Two issues in KDM
| Package(s): | kde, xfree86 | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0690 CAN-2003-0692 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created: | September 16, 2003 | Updated: | December 19, 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: | According to this advisory two issues have
been discovered in KDM:
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| Alerts: |
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mysql: arbitrary code execution
| Package(s): | mysql | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0780 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created: | September 15, 2003 | Updated: | October 9, 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: | Frank Denis reported a vulnerability in MySQL affecting MySQL3 versions 3.0.57 and earlier and MySQL4 versions 4.0.14 and earlier. Passwords of MySQL users are stored in the "Password" field of the "User" table, part of the "mysql" database. The passwords are hashed and stored as a 16 characters long hexadecimal value. Unfortunately, a function involved in password checking misses correct bounds checking. By filling a "Password" field a value wider than 16 characters, a buffer overflow will occur. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project assigned the id CAN-2003-0780 to the problem. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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OpenSSH: buffer management error
| Package(s): | OpenSSH | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0693 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created: | September 16, 2003 | Updated: | October 1, 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: | All versions of OpenSSH's sshd prior to 3.7.1 contain a buffer management error. It is uncertain whether these errors are exploitable. Note that most distributors have issued two updates, since the first fix was found to be incomplete. See the second advisory for details. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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pine: remote exploits
| Package(s): | pine | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0720 CAN-2003-0721 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created: | September 11, 2003 | Updated: | September 17, 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: | Pine, developed at the University of Washington, is a tool for reading,
sending, and managing electronic messages (including mail and news).
A buffer overflow exists in the way unpatched versions of Pine prior to 4.57 handle the 'message/external-body' type. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project has assigned the name CAN-2003-0720 to this issue. An integer overflow exists in the Pine MIME header parsing in versions prior to 4.57. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project has assigned the name CAN-2003-0721 to this issue. Both of these flaws could be exploited by a remote attacker sending a carefully crafted email to the victim that will execute arbitrary code when the email is opened using Pine. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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sane-backends: several vulnerabilities
| Package(s): | sane-backends | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0773 CAN-2003-0774 CAN-2003-0775 CAN-2003-0776 CAN-2003-0777 CAN-2003-0778 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created: | September 11, 2003 | Updated: | February 20, 2004 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: | Alexander Hvostov, Julien Blache and Aurelien Jarno discovered several
security-related problems in the sane-backends package, which contains
an API library for scanners including a scanning daemon (in the
package libsane) that can be remotely exploited. These problems allow
a remote attacker to cause a segfault fault and/or consume arbitrary
amounts of memory. The attack is successful, even if the attacker's
computer isn't listed in saned.conf.
You are only vulnerable if you actually run saned e.g. in xinetd or inetd. If the entries in the configuration file of xinetd or inetd respectively are commented out or do not exist, you are safe. Try "telnet localhost 6566" on the server that may run saned. If you get "connection refused" saned is not running and you are safe. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project identifies the following problems:
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| Alerts: |
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sendmail: remotely exploitable buffer overflow
| Package(s): | sendmail | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0694 CAN-2003-0681 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created: | September 17, 2003 | Updated: | November 18, 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: | Michal Zalewski has reported a buffer overflow in sendmail. This overflow, apparently, may be exploited remotely, but only in certain (non-default) configurations. Sendmail 8.12.10 has the fix. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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XFree86 4.3.0 integer overflows in font libraries
| Package(s): | XFree86 | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0730 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Created: | September 12, 2003 | Updated: | November 25, 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: | Several vulnerabilities were discovered by blexim(at)hush.com in the font libraries of XFree86 version 4.3.0 and earlier. These bugs could potentially lead to execution of arbitrary code or a DoS by a remote user in any way that calls these functions, which are related to the transfer and enumeration of fonts from font servers to clients. See the advisory for additional details. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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Resources
CRYPTO-GRAM newsletter
Bruce Schneier's CRYPTO-GRAM newsletter for September is out. This month's topics include accidents and security incidents (in particular the northeast blackout), reactions to his new book Beyond Fear, licensing computer users, prohibiting hats in banks, California's security breach disclosure law, and benevolent worms. "Experimentation, most of it involuntary, proves that worms are very hard to debug successfully: in other words, once worms starts spreading it's hard to predict exactly what they will do. Some viruses were written to propagate harmlessly, but did damage -- ranging from crashed machines to clogged networks -- because of bugs in their code. Many worms were written to do damage and turned out to be harmless (which is even more revealing)."
Page editor: Jonathan Corbet
Kernel development
Brief items
Kernel release status
The current development kernel is 2.6.0-test5; Linus has released no kernels since September 8. It has been a relatively slow period for kernel development in general.Patches in Linus's BitKeeper repository include a Coda filesystem update, some initramfs tweaks, improvements in random driver locking, the removal of some ext3 debugging hooks, direct I/O support for reiserfs, some CPU frequency work, an Intel SpeedStep-SMI driver, a substantial amount of janitorial work, and various fixes.
The current stable kernel is 2.4.22. Marcelo released 2.4.23-pre4 on September 12; it includes some VM improvements (including the removal of the much-maligned out-of-memory killer), an ia-64 update, some NFS work, a wireless update, and various other fixes.
Kernel development news
Solving out-of-memory situations the Linux way
The out-of-memory (OOM) killer is a longstanding source of controversy in Linux development circles. The killer comes into play if the kernel encounters a memory shortage so severe that the ongoing functioning of the system is endangered. Rather than panic or lock up, the kernel brings in the OOM killer, which goes looking for processes to kill. The killer has a complicated set of heuristics built into it in an attempt to have it target the processes that are least likely to be missed. Anybody who has seen the OOM killer in action, however, knows that it can still make unfortunate choices. Choosing the process which (1) is among the least valuable on the system, and (2) is a significant part of the memory problem is a difficult task.As a result of discomfort with this grim reaper lurking within the kernel, and of recently merged VM improvements, the OOM killer has been removed from the 2.4.23 prepatch series.
For 2.6, Rusty Lynch has just posted a different answer that should, perhaps, have been obvious from the beginning. Rather than trying to come up with a set of OOM killer heuristics that works for everybody, Rusty's patch sets up a notifier-based mechanism that allows for pluggable OOM killer modules. With this patch, anybody who wants to set up a different response to memory shortages need only write a module implementing that technique.
The patch includes the standard OOM killer, along with an example alternative which simply panics the system. But there is already talk of creating OOM killer modules implementing different policies. One, which has been posted already, targets processes if they are seen to be forking children which fall victim to the OOM killer; it works on the assumption that the parent is the real source of the problem. A "blame Mozilla" module has been suggested. And Alan Cox has suggested involving the security module code so that a site's security policies can be part of the OOM reaction process.
It's unclear how far this process will go. But pluggable OOM killers is a clear way of ending the long discussion over what the right policy should be. Linux is, after all, about choice, even when the choices are unpleasant.
OpenBIOS releases a Forth kernel
The OpenBIOS project has announced the release of a Forth kernel, known as "BeginAgain." Most users, who are strangely uninterested in typing Forth code at something close to bare hardware, will probably not rush out to install this release. But it is a step forward for the OpenBIOS project and for everybody wanting to run their systems with free software all the way down to the bare metal. The BeginAgain platform is mostly useful for testing at this point, but when a few more pieces are added (a device interface and the client layer which will allow the system to boot operating systems) OpenBIOS should start to get interesting for a wider group of users.ACPI gets a new maintainer
Andrew Grover has announced that he is no longer the ACPI maintainer; his duties have been passed on to Len Brown. ACPI is still not popular among all developers and users, but the simple fact is that good ACPI support is now required to get many systems to function properly. Andrew and his team have put massive amounts of work into the Linux ACPI implementation over the last few years, with the result that Linux does, indeed, have good ACPI support. Thanks, Andrew; we're looking forward to your next project, whatever it may be.
Driver porting
Driver porting: Char devices and large dev_t
| This article is part of the LWN Porting Drivers to 2.6 series. |
Major and minor numbers
With the expanded dev_t, it is no longer be possible to assume that major and minor numbers fit within eight bits. To the greatest extent possible, the relevant interfaces have been changed in ways that will not break existing drivers. In particular, a driver which uses the longstanding register_chrdev() function to register a char device will never see minor device numbers greater then 255. Attempts to open a device node with a larger minor number will simply fail with a "no such device" error.One change that is visible to all drivers, however, is the elimination of the kdev_t type. Device numbers are now a simple dev_t throughout the kernel. The place where this change is most apparent for most will be the change in the type of the inode i_rdev field. Drivers which need to get major or minor numbers from inodes should use the two new helper functions:
unsigned iminor(struct inode *inode);
unsigned imajor(struct inode *inode);
Use of these functions will help keep a driver working in the future, even if the representation within inodes changes again.
The new way
register_chrdev() continues to work as it always did, and drivers which use that function need not be changed. Unchanged drivers, however, will not be able to use the expanded device number range, or take advantage of the other features provided by the new code. Sooner or later, it is worthwhile to get to know the new interface.The new way to register a char device range is with:
int register_chrdev_region(dev_t from, unsigned count, char *name);
Here, from is the device number of the first device in the range, count is the number of device numbers to register, and name is the base name of the device (it appears in /proc/devices). The return value is zero if all goes well, and a negative error number otherwise.
Note that from is a device number, not a major number. This interface allows the registration of an arbitrary range of device numbers, starting from anywhere. So the from argument specifies both the beginning major and minor number. If the count argument exceeds the number of minor numbers available, the allocation will continue on into the next major number; this is a design feature.
register_chrdev_region() works if you know which major device number you wish to use. If, instead, your driver expects to work with dynamic major number allocation, it should use:
int alloc_chrdev_region(dev_t *dev, unsigned baseminor,
unsigned count, char *name);
In this case, dev is an output-only parameter which will be set to the first device number of the allocated range. The input parameters are baseminor, the first minor number to use (usually zero); count, the number of device numbers to allocate; and name, the base name of the device. Once again, the return value is zero or a negative error code.
Connecting up devices
Some readers may have noticed that the above functions, unlike register_chrdev(), do not have a file_operations argument. Registering a device number range sets those numbers aside for your use, but it does not actually make any device operations available to user space. There is now a separate object (struct cdev) which represents char devices, and which must be set up by your driver to actually make a device available.To work with struct cdev, you code should include <linux/cdev.h>. Then, the usual way of getting one of these structures is with:
struct cdev *cdev_alloc(void);
If all goes well, the return value will be a pointer to a newly allocated, initialized cdev structure. Check that value, though; there is a memory allocation involved, and things can always fail.
It is also possible to declare a static cdev structure, or to embed one within another structure. In this case, you should pass it to:
void cdev_init(struct cdev *cdev, struct file_operations *fops);
before doing anything else with it.
Your driver will need to set a couple of fields in the cdev structure before adding it to the system. The owner field should be set to the owning module, usually THIS_MODULE. The device's file_operations structure should be pointed to by the ops field. And, to get a directory in sysfs, you should also set the name field in the embedded kobject, with something like:
struct cdev *my_cdev = cdev_alloc();
kobject_set_name(&cdev->kobj, "my_cdev%d", devnum);
Note that kobject_set_name() takes a printf()-like format string and associated arguments.
Once you have the structure set up, it's time to add it to the system:
int cdev_add(struct cdev *cdev, dev_t dev, unsigned count);
cdev is, of course, a pointer to the cdev structure; dev is the first device number handled by this structure, and count is the number of devices it implements. This, one cdev structure can stand in for several physical devices, though you will usually not want to do things that way.
There are two important things to bear in mind when calling cdev_add(). The first is that this call can fail. If the return value is nonzero, the device has not been added and is not visible to user space. If, instead, the call succeeds, the device becomes immediately live. You should not call cdev_add() until your driver is completely ready to handle calls to the device's methods.
Adding a device also creates a directory entry under /sys/cdev, using the name stored in the kobj.name field. As of this writing, that directory is empty, but one assumes that all sorts of good things (the associated device numbers, if nothing else) will eventually show up there.
Deleting devices
If you need to get rid of a cdev structure, the usual way of doing things is to call:
void cdev_del(struct cdev *cdev);
This function should only be called, however, on a cdev structure which has been successfully added to the system with cdev_add(). If you need to destroy a structure which has not been added in this way (perhaps cdev_add() failed), you must, instead, manually decrement the reference count in the structure's kobject with a call like:
kobject_put(&cdev->kobj);
Calling cdev_del() on a device which is still active (if, say, a user-space process still has an open file reference to it) will cause the device to become inaccessible, but it will not actually delete the structure at that time. The reference count in the structure will keep it around until all the references have gone away. That means that your driver's methods could be called after you have deleted your cdev object - a possibility you should be aware of.
The reference count of a cdev structure can be manipulated with:
struct kobject *cdev_get(struct cdev *cdev);
void cdev_put(struct cdev *cdev);
Note that these functions change two reference counts: that of the cdev structure, and that of the module which owns it. It will be rare for drivers to call these functions, however.
Finding your device in file operations
Most of the methods provided by the driver in the file_operations structure take a struct inode (or a struct file which can be used to find the associated inode) as an argument. Traditionally, Linux drivers have looked at the device number stored in the inode's i_rdev field to determine which device is being operated upon. That technique still works, but, in many cases, there is a better way. In 2.6, struct inode contains a field called i_cdev, which contains a pointer to the associated cdev structure. If you have embedded one of those structures within your own, device-specific structure, you can use the container_of() macro (described in the kobject article) to obtain a pointer to that structure.
Why things were done this way
The new interface may seem rather more complex to many. Before, a single call to register_chrdev() was all that was necessary; now a driver has to deal with the additional hassle of managing cdev structures. This approach provides a great deal of flexibility, however, in how the device number space can be managed. Each device gets exactly the number range it needs, and its operations will never be invoked for device numbers outside that range. In the past, it has been noted that many drivers had incorrect range checks on minor numbers; with the new scheme, all those range checks can go away altogether.The new method also makes it easy for each device to have its own file_operations structure without the need for big switch statements in the open() method. Separate cdev structures can also have separate entries in /sys/cdev. In general, char devices have become proper objects within the kernel, with all the advantages that come with that status. A little bit of extra object management is a small price to pay.
Patches and updates
Kernel trees
Core kernel code
Development tools
Device drivers
Documentation
Filesystems and block I/O
Memory management
Networking
Security-related
Benchmarks and bugs
Miscellaneous
Page editor: Jonathan Corbet
Distributions
News and Editorials
Revisiting RPM Package Management
[This article was contributed by Ladislav Bodnar]
The anticipated announcement by Red Hat, Inc. about the future direction of the Red Hat Linux Project, originally scheduled for publishing early this week, was rudely postponed by the imminent arrival of hurricane Isabel in North Carolina. But even as preparations for the potential natural disaster took precedence over writing code, Red Hat still found time to update us on the progress. "We are excited to announce that we are working on an alliance with another well-known provider of Red Hat compatible packages", claims the updated Red Hat Linux Project page. It also promises to release a full announcement, and possibly a new Red Hat beta, on Monday, September 22.
One of the more exciting aspects of this change in direction for Red Hat Linux is introduction of an advanced RPM package manager into the distribution. Traditionally, a lack of one, especially a lack of one with the ability to auto-resolve dependencies, has been a sore point with many users of Red Hat, SuSE and most other RPM-based distributions who often found it frustrating to install or upgrade software. In recent years, many settled on using a third-party application, such as apt-get, apt4rpm or yum, but nevertheless, Red Hat and SuSE's reluctance to provide and support any of them was not appreciated. Luckily, the Linux world is changing fast and Red Hat no longer sees the traditional retail boxed sets as a major income provider. This was possibly one of the reasons for introducing "yum" into Red Hat Linux.
Before we get to explore the wonderful world of advanced package managers,
let's take a look at the RPM. Often incorrectly referred to as "Red Hat
Package Manager", the abbreviation actually stands for "RPM Package Manager",
a recursive acronym often found in UNIX and Linux worlds. "The RPM
Package Manager (RPM) is a powerful command line driven package management
system capable of installing, uninstalling, verifying, querying, and updating
computer software packages.
", asserts the rpm.org website. The format was developed by
Red Hat Inc. at some point in mid-nineties, when the Linux distribution
market was utterly dominated by Slackware Linux and its TGZ package
format. TGZ packages were (and still are) nothing more than simple
compressed archives of individual files along with a script that places
them into correct directories during installation. When RPM arrived, it was
seen as a huge improvement over TGZ. It is not unreasonable to conclude
that the RPM package format played a crucial role in the dramatic swing in
Linux market share - away from Slackware and towards Red Hat. In the
following years, the RPM package format was also adopted by SuSE, Mandrake,
Caldera, Turbolinux and many other distributions.
As wonderful as RPM was compared to TGZ, it was the non-commercial Debian project which sprinted ahead in the package management game in March 1999 with the introduction of APT in Debian 2.1. APT is a front-end to Debian's own package management with an ability to resolve software and library dependencies. This proved to be a very successful tool and the RPM package manager was soon to be subjected to crude jokes by Debian users and developers. However, they only lasted till December 2000 when Conectiva Linux ported APT to create apt-rpm and incorporated it into its own distribution. Many other RPM-based distributions followed suit and apt-rpm was soon spotted in projects ranging from Russia's ALT Linux to Japan's Vine Linux. Confidence in RPM was slowly returning into the world of Linux users - except for the users of the Red Hat distribution who will have to wait until late this year before they can enjoy supported advanced package management with dependency resolution.
Those of you who monitor the Red Hat beta mailing list or the Red Hat
development branch called Rawhide, have already noticed the presence of "yum"
among the long list of packages. What is "yum"? "Yellow dog Updater, Modified
is an automatic updater and package installer/remover for RPM systems. It
automatically computes dependencies and figures out what things should
occur to install packages. It makes it easier to maintain groups of
machines without having to manually update each one using rpm.
"
Dependency information is extracted from RPM header files, which list
library and software requirements, as well as conflicts with other
packages. It is simple to use with commands such as 'yum check-update',
'yum update' and 'yum install <packagename>'.
Useful as yum is, many Red Hat veterans have already standardized on apt-get, with its Debian-like commands of 'apt-get update', 'apt-get dist-upgrade' and 'apt-get install <packagename>'. However, apt-get has not been spotted in Rawhide, so those who prefer to use it will have to continue relying on an unofficial version. We have seen very little technical information about Red Hat's reasons for favoring yum over apt-get, but this is something that will no doubt be explained in the coming weeks. Both apt-get an yum are supported by the Fedora Linux community project, which is one of the largest and most popular third-party repositories of Red Hat compatible RPM packages, while the other main repository at Fresh RPMs only provides apt-enabled package sources.
With Mandrake's own 'urpmi' package management and now Red Hat's inclusion of 'yum', SuSE Linux is the only major Linux distribution still stubbornly refusing to provide and support any apt-like, dependency resolving package management tool. How long before it too succumbs to the power of modern software management?
Distribution News
Debian GNU/Linux
The Debian Weekly News for September 16, 2003 is out. This week: audio players revisited, which Tcl, package migration to testing, the second revision of Woody, Dueling Banjos, and much more.Martin Michlmayr talks about the conferences he's been to, a dedicated Opteron machine for Debian, LSB compliance and cooperation with other projects in this edition of Bits from the DPL.
Colin Watson presents Bits from the BTS with an overview of some recent changes to the Bug Tracking System.
Raphael Hertzog presents Bits from the PTS with a look at some new features in the Package Tracking System.
The Debian-Installer team has a new Debian-Installer HOWTO which needs some testing, so check it out.
Gentoo Weekly Newsletter -- Volume 2, Issue 37
The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of September 15, 2003 is out. The top news this week - an official port of Gentoo to IA64 is in the works.Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter
The September 12 issue of the Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter is out, with coverage of Mandrake 9.1 ProSuite, Mandrake's fifth anniversary, and various other topics.Slackware Linux
Slackware has had a very busy week according to the slackware-current changelog, including the addition of slackpkg, a simple apt-get-like tool for keeping a Slackware system up-to-date. Slackware 9.1 beta-1 was released September 12. If you want to grab a copy please consider using a mirror, which can be found at AbnormalPenguin and AlphaGeek.Red Hat Linux
The KDE for RedHat project has released KDE 3.1.3(a) RPMs to the stable repository. Get 'em while they're hot.Red Hat has an updated printer configuration tool which fixes some SMB problems.
Trustix Secure Linux
TSL has bug fixes available for many packages, including bind, cyrus-imapd, cyrus-sasl, grub, hwdata, initscripts, kernel, make, mdadm, ncurses, postfix, ppp, rp-pppoe, samba, setup, and stunnel.Engarde Secure Linux
Engarde fixes a bug introduced in 3.25 version of stunnel, which was released to fix the original SIGCHLD vulnerability, in the new SIGCHLD handling which caused defunct/zombie processes in local mode (-l or -L) on some systems. It also fixes a problem where the accepting socket could hang under certain conditions which is the common method of use on an EnGarde system.
Minor distribution updates
2-Disk Xwindow embedded Linux
2-Disk Xwindow embedded Linux has released v1.2.1 (source code) with minor feature enhancements. "Changes: busybox and uclibc were updated. maplay was added. USB, CDROM, and other boot methods were added. Bugfixes were made in the browser. Email requests are no longer available for this distribution due to the number of bounced returns."
Ark Linux
Ark Linux has released 1.0 alpha9. Click below for the release notes.BG-Rescue Linux
BG-Rescue Linux has released v0.2.1 with minor feature enhancements. "Changes: Support for 3c509/3c529 (MCA)/3c579 "Etherlink III" ethernet cards was added. A Freedos BOOT floppy was added to boot BG-Rescue Linux on systems on which booting with syslinux fails."
ClusterKnoppix
ClusterKnoppix has released 3.2-2003-06-06-EN-cl1. "Changes: Some debug messages were removed, and the 2.4.21-rc7 kernel and openmosix 3 release were included. knx-hdinstall was fixed to work with boot288.img. Some changes were made to the terminal server, and various scientific tools from Quantian were included."
Cool Linux CD
Cool Linux CD has released v2.3. "Changes: This release fixes bug with CD mount, changes the default options for more comfortable use, and updates some software and filesystem programs (ext2, XFS, and ReiserFS)."
Damn Small Linux
Damn Small Linux has released v0.4.7. "Changes: This release adds parted (a partition tool), rdesktop (an RDP client for Windows NT/2000 Terminal Server), and xpacman (a fun and tiny Pacman game). It updates the Firebird script to 0.6.1, updates lilo, and adds an option to set the frequency for the Xvesa server. There has been a lot of bugfixing and cleanups, fixing some post-install bugs with sudo and swap, cleaning the post-install script, and fixing IRC and screensaver bugs."
GENDIST
GENDIST has released v1.6.0 with major feature enhancements. "Changes: Support for media type "Bochs" has been added. This allows you to directly create a bootable Bochs HD image. There is a fix for make 3.80, which breaks GENDIST."
KNOPPIX
KNOPPIX has released v3.2-2003-09-05. "Changes: This is an experimental 3.3 prerelease. Kernel 2.4.22 with xfs and HIGHMEM (4GB) support is included. cloop 1.02 (block layer rewrite). katomic was reinstalled, since it got lost somehow in the past release. New unofficial development boot options were added for testing: toram and tohd=hda1, which copy the CD to RAM or hard disk and runs from there. A "gprs" option was added to pon to provide GPRS Internet access."
Quantian
Quantian has released 0.3.9.1. This is test version of a 0.4 release, planned for the end of September. Click below for the release notes.ROOT Linux
ROOT Linux has released v1.4 beta 1 with major feature enhancements. "Changes: This release features a new, more advanced package system, lots of installation improvements, general polishing of init scripts and packages, and loads of updated packages."
Server optimized Linux
Server optimized Linux has released v17.00 with major feature enhancements. "Changes: This version uses the SoLIv2 installation system, which features software RAID support, a quick-install mode for automatic mass-installations, and a clear step-by-step installation menu. Servers can be installed within 30 minutes. It also included an enhanced XML boot system, SoL-diag 2.0, which facilitates fast and easy diagnosis of computers, and music from three Austrian bands."
Distribution reviews
A Free Desktop for Free People (OfB.biz)
Open for Business reviews Mandrake Linux 9.1. "I have been using Mandrake since the 8.2 version. I was a previous user of Red Hat (up to version 7.2), and Mandrake attracted me because it offered features such as the excellent font installer, the apt-get-like urpmi package manager, i586 optimization, a desktop focus with an excellent breadth and scope of packages, user friendliness without dumbing down the system, easy GUI administration tools but with the command-line in full force and readily available should one prefer it, and many other perceived advantages."
SuSE Linux Professional 8.2 Review (Linux Journal)
The Linux Journal reviews SuSE Linux Professional 8.2. "YaST 2, SuSE's second-generation setup tool, is a total dream. (Keep in mind this is a Debian fan talking here.) The software installer looks very much like the install screen and shows you which CDs you need to use and for how long; I imagine it's much of the same code. The system tool lets you do everything from edit /etc/sysconfig files to back up the system. The firewall tool, under Security, allows for some fairly advanced configuration, including DMZ and IP masquerade, right there under the GUI."
Is the Leader of the Linux Pack Also the Best of Breed? (ServerWatch)
ServerWatch reviews Red Hat Linux 9. "Red Hat's configuration tools are fairly solid for the basics, and turn up, thanks to their Open Source licensing, in several other distributions: Network configuration, hardware management, printer configuration, and activataion/deactivation of running services (such as sendmail or Apache) are available through these simple but usable tools. In all, Red Hat's GUI is polished and usable for any professional system administrator. Red Hat has put a reasonable amount of effort into its own approach to the Linux GUI, which it codenamed "Blue Curve," and for day-to-day management we have no complaints."
A distro revisited - Libranet 2.8.1
MadPenguin looks at Libranet. "Libranet has included everything that is important to a solid desktop distro and left out the extra fluff... all the while keeping a truly 'Linux feel' that some other desktop distros have lost. It's a perfect balance and a difficult one to maintain if you ask me. There is a fine line, or rather a large gap, between a traditional Linux system and a true desktop system."
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol
Development
The Screem HTML/XML Editor
Screem, the Site CReation and Editing EnvironMent, is a web site development environment that provides a combination HTML and XML editor. The project's aim is a bit different from WSYWIG HTML editors.
![[Screem]](https://static.lwn.net/images/ns/screem.jpg)
Screem provides a number of useful features:
- Page Previewing to render the html.
- Support for previewing with an external browser.
- Syntax Highlighting to highlight code keywords.
- DTD/Doctype Parsing for identifying and parsing DTD files.
- Inline Tagging with popup menus for various tags.
- Intelligent Closing (intelliclose) for assisted tag closing.
- Support for Helper Applications for extending Screem's capabilities.
- Document Structure Display for a big-picture view of the document.
- Broken Link Checking for testing link validity.
- Publishing with Sitecopy for keeping track of what files have changed.
- Search and Replace that works on a site-wide scope.
- A Task Management system for making lists of work to do.
- Spell Checking with support for the edited language.
- Link Fixing for assistance with site rearrangement.
- Page Templates for building new pages.
- Select Context for moving sections around the document.
- CTags File Support for linking to multiple files.
Take a look at the Screem Screenshots and Documentation for further information.
Version 0.8.0 of Screem
was announced on GnomeDesktop.org this week, followed shortly
by the bug-fix release,
Screem 0.8.1.
The version 0.8.0 announcement says:
"This release incorporates all the changes made in the development versions
over the past 7 months, and should hopefully fix some of the complaints about 0.6.x.
Screem stands for Site CReation and Editing EnvironMent, and is an HTML/XML
editor incorporating site management features such as templates, automatic
link updating, broken link checking, and uploading changes to remote sites.
"
System Applications
Audio Projects
Planet CCRMA Changes
The latest changes from the Planet CCRMA audio utility packaging project include updates to Muse and Qjackctl.Lemux version 0.1 available
Version 0.1 of Lemux has been released. "Lemux is a collection of (GPL) LADSPA instruments based on devices from the openMSX emulator and other sources (e.g. sidplay2). It is long from finished, but some instruments are already very usable."
Vstserver v0.2.7 released
Version 0.2.7 of Vstserver has been released. "Vstserver is a program that must be running when using programs using vstlib."
Database Software
Firebird 1.5 Release Candidate 6
Version 1.5 Release Candidate 6 of the Firebird database is available. "The development of Firebird 1.5 release is in final development stage ! The Release Candidate means that we're "almost there", and we turned our focus to remaining known issues and rough edges, final testing and bug squashing. We made a lot of progress with it thanks to your feedback. The sixth Release Candidate should become the final release, so we are eager to hear about your experience (good or bad) with it."
MySQL 3.23.58 has been released
Version 3.23.58 of the MySQL database is available. "This is a bugfix release for the recent production version. It includes a fix for a potential local security vulnerability which has already been applied to MySQL 4.0.15 as well."
See the MySQL 4.0.15 release notes for more information on that version.
libgda/libgnomedb 0.99.0 released (GnomeDesktop)
GnomeDesktop.org reports on the release of libgda/libgnomedb 0.99.0. "libgda/libgnomedb are a complete framework for developing database-oriented applications, and actually allow access to PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, Sybase, SQLite, FireBird/Interbase, IBM DB2, mSQL and MS SQL server, as well as MS Access and xBase files and ODBC data sources. This release is RC1 for the final 1.0 release, so it should be almost identical as the final 1.0." A number of bug fixes and updated translations are included.
PostgreSQL Weekly News
The PostgreSQL Weekly News for September 11, 2003 has been published. Take a look to see what's been happening in the PostgreSQL database world.Python Database Objects (PDO)
Python Database Objects (PDO) is now available. "Python Database Objects (PDO) provides an easy to use Object riented API for database developers. PDO utilizes DB-API modules for database access, but allows for a Common Object Oriented API across RDBMS. Thus, PDO can be thought of as a 'wrapper' around the DB-API and database specific modules."
Embedded Systems
BusyBox 1.0.0-pre3 released
Version 1.0.0-pre3 of BusyBox, a compressed collection of command line utilities for embedded systems, is out. "Here goes the third pre-release for the new BusyBox stable series. The last prerelease has held up quite well under testing, but a number of problems have turned up as the number of people using it has increased. Thanks everyone for all the testing, bug reports, and patches!"
Networking Tools
Ethereal 0.9.15 has been released
Version 0.9.15 of Ethereal, a network protocol analyzer, is available. "Many often-requested features have been added with this release. If you're running an older version of Ethereal you may want to have a look. Conversation List (aka "top talker") support has been added to Ethereal and Tethereal. Protocol statistics in general have been updated. Searching capture files has been improved even more -- a new "contains" display filter operator that searches for strings in PDUs has been added. The Find dialog now supports case-insensitive searches, hex data searches, and more." Thanks to Richard Sharpe.
Web Site Development
Gallery v1.4-pl1 released (SourceForge)
Version 1.4-pl1 of Gallery, a web-based photo gallery, is available for download. "Version 1.4 premieres some major new features: Gallery is now internationalized, and can be displayed in more than 20 languages, with more on the way! In addition, we've completely overhauled the documentation and made it more accessible and more informative. Other changes include ownership of individual album items, not just of albums, and a slew of minor improvements and bugfixes."
The Quixote Web Framework
A white paper and several tutorials are avilable on Andrew Kuchling's new site, The Quixote Web Framework, which not surprisingly, documents the Quixote web framework.
Miscellaneous
Twisted networking framework 1.0.7
Version 1.0.7 of the Twisted networking framework is available. This release adds client Jabber support, the twisted.xish XML package, numerous improvements, and bug fixes.
Desktop Applications
Audio Applications
jackEQ dj eq and meter
A new application for the JACK Audio Connection Kit called jackEQ is out. "For those of you who are interested in DJ/CJ tools, tools for live performance, and LADSPA plugin guis, you may be interested in a new app we are creating based on the code from JAMin. It's called jackEQ. The core is a new plugin Steve Harris released recently called DJ EQ which is a three band EQ commonly found on dj mixing consoles."
WaveSurfer Version 1.5.3 released
Version 1.5.3 of WaveSurfer, an audio editing package, is out. The changes include support for Snack 2.2.3, bug fixes, and more.
Desktop Environments
GNOME 2.4.0 Desktop & Developer Platform (GnomeDesktop)
The GNOME project has announced the release of GNOME 2.4.0. "Released on schedule, to the day, it is the culmination of six months effort by GNOME contributors around the world: hackers, documentors, usability and accessibility specialists, translators, maintainers, sysadmins, companies, artists, users and testers. Due to their hard work, we have another great release to be proud of - thanks very much to every GNOME 2.4.0 contributor!"
Boog day 2.4.0 (GnomeDesktop)
Now that there is a new GNOME, it is time for a new GNOME bug day to help squash those brand new bugs as they are found.New GNOME Installation (GnomeDesktop)
A new version of the GNOME Installation Guide has been announced. "The GNOME Installation Guide has recently been updated. It now describes also a source based installation of GNOME 2.4.0."
KDE 3.1.4 Released!
The KDE Project has announced KDE 3.1.4. The release includes many bugfixes and improved translations. KDE 3.1.4 also contains two fixes for security issues in KDM.KDE-CVS-Digest
The September 12, 2003 edition of the KDE-CVS-Digest is available. The summary says: "KJSembed, the KDE javascript implementation now supports event handlers. KDevelop adds support for code completion databases. Kexi now has a PostgreSQL driver. Kopete integrates with Kaddressbook for IM contacts. The KWin rewrite continues, with a window decoration API added. Plus many bugfixes throughout."
KDE 3.2 Alpha 1 Finally on FTP
KDE 3.2 Alpha 1 is available on FTP. "I've finally managed to get the last bits of the KDE 3.2 Alpha 1 (codenamed "Brokenboring") including KDevelop 3.0 Alpha 6 on the ftp server. The mirrors should soon pick it up. There won't be any binary packages for this release because the KDE "Pi" release is coming out soon. Everyone using Brokenboring is asked to compile it with --enable-debug, so that we can get valuable feedback."
XFce 4.0-RC4 released
Version 4.0-RC4 of the XFce light weight desktop environment has been announced. "Xfce 4.0-rc4 is the fourth release candidate for the next generation of the XFce desktop environment. If no show stopper is found in this is release candidate, it is intended to become 4.0." Thanks to Joe Klemmer.
Desktop Publishing
Scribus 1.1.0 released
Version 1.1.0 of Scribus, a Linux Desktop Publishing system, is out with lots of new features.
Educational Software
MimerDesk 2.0 available
Version 2.0 of MimerDesk, a web-based collaborative learning and groupwork environment, is out. "The new stable release of MimerDesk introduces Type sets for the freedom of choice in pedagogical methodologies, a better structured and more intuitive user interface and new tools to further enhance effective collaboration."
Electronics
XCircuit 3.1.23 released
Version 3.1.23 of XCircuit, an electronic schematic drawing application, is available here. Change information is in the source code.
Financial Applications
GnuCash 1.8.6 and 1.8.7 Released (GnomeDesktop)
Version 1.8.6 of GnuCash has been announced. Features include updated translations, bug fixes, and more.In typical fashion, a few new bugs were discovered in 1.8.6, so version 1.8.7 was announced.
Graphics
KDE Conquers the Vectors with KSVG (KDE.News)
KDE.News reports on the addition of KSVG to kdegraphics. "KSVG has recently been moved to the kdegraphics module, meaning that KSVG will now be part of the KDE 3.2 release. KSVG aims to be a full flavored implementation of the W3C SVG standard. Some of you will think of icons when we speak of SVG but SVG is much more: It is a web technology with full ECMAScript/DOM support. With the number of SVG powered sites growing steadily, Konqueror will soon be able to display these sites with a high-quality and open-source viewer."
GUI Packages
FLTK Updates
The latest new software for FLTK, the Fast Light ToolKit, includes flPhoto 1.1 and SPTK 2.0 beta 4.
Interoperability
Samba-3.0.0 RC4 available for download
Version 3.0.0 RC4 of Samba is out. "The Samba Team is proud to announce the availability of the fourth release candidate of the Samba 3.0.0 code base. A release candidate implies that the code is very close to a final release, but remember that this is still a non-production snapshot intended for testing purposes. Use it at your own risk."
Mail Clients
New Mozilla Thunderbird Roadmap Published (MozillaZine)
MozillaZine reports on the release of a new Thunderbird Roadmap. "The document outlines the near-term development plans for the standalone mail and newsgroups application and includes details about the forthcoming 0.3 milestone."
Office Applications
Gnumeric 1.2.0 aka "Emb-Ext" is now available.
Version 1.2.0 of the Gnumeric spreadsheet has been released. "The next generation of Gnumeric is ready for general use. It has taken almost 20 months to make the jump to Gtk+-2.x without feature regressions. We've put the time to good use. This release is faster and lighter than 1.0.x, but boasts an impressive array of new and extended capabilities."
Office Suites
GNOME-Office 1.0 Released (GnomeDesktop)
GNOME-Office 1.0 has been released. "The GNOME-Office team is proud to announce the immediate availability of GNOME-Office 1.0. GNOME-Office is a suite of Free Software productivity applications that seamlessly blend with the GNOME Desktop Environment. GNOME-Office includes the AbiWord-2.0 Word Processor, GNOME-DB-1.0 Database Interface and Gnumeric-1.2.0 Spreadsheet."
Video Applications
Updates to mp4live - testing help wanted (SourceForge)
SourceForge has a report on the development of mp4live. Mp4live is an IETF standards-based system for encoding, streaming, and playing MPEG-4 encoded audio and video. "We're finished with the main updates to mp4live. Our in-house test has been running for 10 days still maintaining audio/video sync. These changes were accomplished by updating to the V4L2 driver, and updating faac."
Web Browsers
Galeon 1.3.8 Released (GnomeDesktop)
Version 1.3.8 of Galeon, a light weight web broswer, has been announced. This release works with Mozilla 1.3.X through 1.5b and includes a numer of new features and bug fixes.Galeon 1.3.9 released
Galeon 1.3.9 has been released on the heels of version 1.3.8. "Ok, we screwed up with the last release and gave you a nasty bug which broke basically all form postings and stylesheets. But don't worry, you can keep the pieces. We'll even offer you this new release, for free! So here goes..."
Mozedit 0.1 Alpha for Mozilla Firebird (MozillaZine)
Version 0.1 Alpha of Mozedit is available for the Firebird browser. "Mark Bokil writes: "I wrote a Notepad-like text editor extension for Firebird. It provides easy editing access to userChrome.css and userContent.css files, buffers similar to Emacs, document history, UI font/color options, and in-line HTML rendering preview, plus access to the JavaScript Console. This is a 0.1 alpha release of Mozedit for Firebird."
Mozilla 1.5 Release Schedule Update (MozillaZine)
The Mozilla 1.5 release schedule has been updated. "Two release candidates are planned, with the final builds set to come out during the week commencing September 29th."
Mozilla.org Staff Meeting minutes available (MozillaZine)
Two sets of Mozilla.org staff note minutes are online, one for September 2, 2003, and another for September 8, 2003.
Miscellaneous
Arabic Wordlist 0.5 Released
Version 0.5 of Arabic Wordlist, an open-source English to Arabic Wordlist is out. "The wordlist is the culminations of many man-months of effort and work. The current release contains in excess of 83,500 words (and growing) and spans a variety of categories (ie. it's general in nature)."
Nautilus 2.6 - We're going all spatial (GnomeDesktop)
GnomeDesktop.org reports on UI design changes for the Nautilus file manager. "For the 2.6 cycle, the nautilus crew is trying out a new UI that should give us the best of both worlds. The idea is present an object oriented UI from the desktop, but to allow users to open navigation windows if they prefer them. This means that opening a folder from the desktop will give you an object window. Opening folders from object windows will give you new object windows."
Languages and Tools
Assembly Language
NASM 0.98.38 is released (SourceForge)
Version 0.98.38 of NASM, the Netwide Assembler for 80x86, has been released. "The most important change to 0.98.38 is that the broken ELF backend in 0.98.37 has (hopefully) been fixed."
Caml
Caml Weekly News
The September 16, 2003 edition of the Caml Weekly News is out with the week's Caml language happenings.
COBOL
Tiny COBOL Compiler release 0.61 (SourceForge)
SourceForge has the announcement for Tiny COBOL 0.61. "This release contains mainly bugs fixes, and some enhancements. It includes updates to the main compiler and run-time. Tiny COBOL is a COBOL compiler being developed on the Linux OS. It generates GNU x86 assembler code."
Java
Class transformation with Javassist (IBM developerWorks)
Dennis M. Sosnoski looks at Javassist on IBM's developerWorks. "In this article, Java consultant Dennis Sosnoski kicks his Java programming dynamics series into high gear with a look at Javassist, the bytecode manipulation library that's the basis for the aspect-oriented programming features being added to the widely used JBoss application server."
Jumping into JOGL (O'Reilly)
Chris Adamson writes about JOGL, a cross-platform Java binding to OpenGL. "Announced in July, the partnership of Sun and SGI to provide Java bindings to OpenGL gave a jolt to the Java community, particularly to desktop, graphics, and game developers. While some were disappointed to see Sun back away from Java3D, others were excited to see the popular and widely understood OpenGL exposed in a more direct fashion to Java developers."
Lisp
Etiquette 0.3 announced
Etiquette version 0.3 is out. "Etiquette is "an interaction protocol construction toolkit. The project goal is to build a framework for rapid design of network communication code." The system is written in Common Lisp."
Perl
This Week on perl5-porters (use Perl)
The September 8-14, 2003 edition of This Week on perl5-porters is available. "Any busy week for the porters, ends with a busy week-end for the summarizer (old saying). Your traditional weekly summary is out, and many subjects of interest are featured inside."
PHP
PHP Weekly Summary for September 15, 2003
The PHP Weekly Summary for September 15, 2003 is out. Topics include: 64 bit, studlyCaps patch, disabling functions per directory, upload meter, PHP audio, Windows manual.
Python
Dr. Dobb's Python-URL!
The September 15, 2003 edition of Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! has been published. Take a look for many Python article links.Python-dev Summary
The Python-dev Summary covering the second half of August is available. It looks at running Python over Parrot, the upcoming 2.3.1 release, and several other topics.The State of the Python-XML Art, 2003 (O'Reilly)
Uche Ogbuji has updated his list of XML tools for Python with The State of the Python-XML Art, 2003. "This month I update the overall Python-XML survey to encompass notable developments over the past year, many of which I've mentioned in passing in prior articles. I hope this article serves as a ready and rapid index to folks who want to process XML using (in my opinion) the best language available for the purpose."
Metaclasses are evil
Hans Nowak explains how Python metaclasses are evil. "My main gripe with metaclasses is that many people have difficulty understanding them, yet everybody and their daughter seems to use them, even for trivial problem that could have been easily solved without metaclasses. Why is that? Is it just for purposes of showing off? Or is it because it's like a shiny new toy and people absolutely want to use it, even if it's not necessary?"
That article is followed by the
Metaclass reprise.
"After my little rant about why metaclasses are evil, here's a legitimate use of them: reloadable classes by Ian Bicking.
"
Tcl/Tk
Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!
The September 11, 2003 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! is out with lots of links to Tcl/Tk articles.Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!
The September 15, 2003 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! is out with even more Tcl/Tk article links.
XML
nxml-mode for Emacs
A new XML editing mode is available for the Emacs editor. "There is a new Emacs mode for editing XML, guided by RELAX NG schemas."
Enhance Ant with XSL transformations (IBM developerWorks)
Jim Creasman explains Ant on IBM's developerWorks. "Ant is a powerful tool for scripting build processes. When combined with XSLT, Ant's power and flexibility increase dramatically. Here, Jim explains and illustrates this concept using real world examples from his previous experience."
Ten Favorite XForms Engines (O'Reilly)
Micah Dubinko reviews ten XForms Engines on O'Reilly. "Although XForms is largely described as an update to the decade old classic HTML forms technology, XForms is also finding a home in many fresh areas where standards are increasingly vital, like content management and workflow systems. As a result, there are a large number of XForms engines currently under development by companies large and small."
An XQuery Update (O'Reilly)
Per Bothner writes about the latest XQuery specifications on O'Reilly. "The XQuery/XSLT working group released another set of Working Drafts on August 22, 2003. This article is my attempt to summarize the significant changes in the new drafts."
Editors
DiaSCE2 v1.4 released (GnomeDesktop)
GnomeDesktop.org has an announcement for DiaSCE 1.4. "After some months of work, the 1.4 version of DiaSCE, the C/C++ Code Editor for Gnome, has been released. DiaSCE is a simple code editor that pretends to be a complement to Glade. This version adds new features like improvements on the management of Makefiles, more search options, some features asked by users and bugfixes."
Profilers
OProfile 0.6.1 has been released
Version 0.6.1 of OProfile, a system-wide profiler for Linux, has been released with a few new features and some bug fixes.
Page editor: Forrest Cook
Linux in the news
Recommended Reading
Is Microsoft Really Less Expensive Than Linux? (CIO)
CIO comments on the Giga Group study claiming that .Net is cheaper than Linux and J2EE for web service applications. "Of course, it's not shocking that a study commissioned by Microsoft should demonstrate the advantages of that company's products over Linux, but the fact that the study was commissioned at all is revealing of the big company's concern. The popularity of Linux - fueled by fear of placing too much control in the hands of a single (notoriously aggressive) vendor and by the widespread conviction that open source software can save you a bucket of money - is rising like the waters of the flood toward the software fortress that Gates built."
Linux, Threatened (rediff.com)
This article at rediff.com takes a look at Linux and current battles. "Microsoft is feeling the heat from Linux, as the free operating system is improving by leaps and bounds. Unix itself, which could, at one time, have stopped the Microsoft juggernaut in its tracks, was doomed by a schism in the ranks, which pitted Sun Microsystems and AT&T against IBM, DEC, HP, etc. I was in the thick of that battle, and I now see we were irresponsible to fight internecine battles, trying to push our own versions of Unix, while Microsoft ran away with the prize: control over the desktop, and the untold billions that comes with it." (Thanks to Anand Rangarajan)
Trade Shows and Conferences
Red Hat, Oracle Strengthen Bond (eWeek)
eWeek goes to OracleWorld to see what Red Hat and Oracle are up to. "Although there is as yet no official agreement between the companies about working together on Enterprise Linux 4, Red Hat officials confirmed that work has already begun on that product, which will be based on the Linux 2.6 kernel..."
The SCO Problem
SCO's McBride on his open letter to the Linux community (ComputerWorld)
ComputerWorld interviews Darl McBride on his open letter. "Yes, it is an olive branch. We want to understand how we can move forward together here. Both sides are entrenched in their positions. This could be a 15-year knockdown, drag-out type of fight. At another level, if there's a way of resolving the differences so we move along peacefully in a shorter term that gets resolved, we're all for that."
Companies
The real future of Linux (ZDNet)
ZDNet looks at Red Hat's strategy. "Many Linux advocates who are appalled by this 'money grab' by Red Hat have been very vocal about their new distaste for Red Hat. Some even go so far as to suggest that Red Hat has outlived its usefulness. But they fail to understand the importance of a healthy company like Red Hat for the entire Linux industry."
Ford move to Linux not true (NewsForge)
This seems to be a week for rumors. Several alert readers have sent in links to articles that say (with a disturbing lack of detail) that Ford Motors is moving to Linux. NewsForge digs deeper. "[Communications Manager, Joan] Witte said "Like any other company, Ford Motor is looking at Linux, primarily in the application space. We presently have an enterprise-wide agreement with Microsoft to handle our collaborative solutions. We aren't contemplating using Linux in this area, and don't contemplate doing that in the foreseeable future.""
Linux Adoption
Governments like open-source software, but Microsoft does not (Economist)
The Economist examines reasons for governments to prefer open source. "If Microsoft is indeed squeezed out of the government sector by open-source software, three groups stand to benefit: large consultancy firms and systems integrators, such as IBM, which will be called in to devise and install alternative products; firms such as Red Hat or SuSE, which sell Linux-based products and services; and numerous small, local technology firms that can tailor open-source products for governmental users." (Thanks to James Heald)
Nine German cities poised to adopt Linux (InfoWorld)
InfoWorld reports that nine (more) German cities (Alzey, Kaiserslautern, Koblenz, Landau, Mainz, Neustadt, Speyer, Trier and Worms, all in Rheinland Pfalz) are looking at switching over to Linux. "The cost of licensing Microsoft products and the lack of support for some of them, such as the NT operating system, which is still used widely in many city administrations, are among the chief reasons for the nine German cities to mull a switch from the U.S. software giant to providers of open-source products..."
Linux wins, but Microsoft rules (CIOL)
CIOL (India) has an article about desktop Linux sales as a cover for use of pirated Microsoft products. "CNS investigation reveals that many a customer, who found the Linux-based machines attractive because of the price factor felt that it was not the same as a Microsoft loaded PC. So they did the next best thing and bought pirated copies of Microsoft software. While none of the vendors were willing to go on record, most of them said that they have long suspected such actions." This is the second article on this theme in a week now; coincidence?
Open source helps education effort in Third World (Mercury News)
Here's a Dan Gillmor column on the use of free software in the developing world. "Around the globe, educators, companies and governments are getting tired of paying the Microsoft tax, which tends to rise inexorably, and sending the money to America. They don't like the upgrade cycle, especially when older computers run Linux just fine. They want to inspire more software innovation at home, and suspect Linux may be the best platform in a world where Microsoft also takes most of the profits in Windows application software."
Open Asia: Open source in Iran and Israel (NewsForge)
NewsForge takes a look at Open source in Iran and Israel. ""It's a red herring. I challenge anyone to tell me how open source will solve any of our major problems," a prominent professor from the US recently posted on the BytesForAll_Readers mailing list. Arash Zeini of Iran had a very clear answer. "In Iran, we live under sanctions from the US. As an Iranian you cannot do any business with an American company. This may be good, it may be bad. But in any case, the only way we can empower ourselves is FLOSS. This approach gives us the necessary freedom. We have access to the best technology and it is Free/Libre/Open and not restrictive. It does not put us in chains, we do not need to wait till US decides about us. If only the Iranian government would see it this way too!""
WorldWatch Week in Review (Linux Journal)
Linux Journal carries the WorldWatch Week in Review, which looks at open source news from around the world. "A lot of interesting things are going on right here in Costa Rica. For one thing, I found out that there is a legislative project for FLOSS use in government that shows a great understanding of the real issues."
Interviews
Oracle's unbreakable Linux guru (NewsForge)
NewsForge interviews Wim Coekaerts, Oracle's Linux guru. "Coekaerts: Right now I'm working with a lot of our `high-rent' customers, doing a lot of troubleshooting, bug fixing, and custom design work. I'm involved with a lot of the certification processes and standards groups, which means I have to travel quite a bit. I also work closely with Linux companies like Red Hat and SuSe on bug-fixing and other issues."
Interview with Havoc Pennington of Red Hat (OSNews)
OSNews interviews Havoc Pennington, the head manager of Red Hat's Desktop department. "In the past (pre-SCO), Red Hat has admitted that was growing wary of patent issues that might arise in the future. Do you believe that desktop open source software written by many different individuals around the globe might be infringing on patents in some cases without the knowledge of these developers? At the end of the day, we have seen some patents that were issued so shortsightedly that many have said that writing software is almost impossible nowadays. What kind of solution for this issue might OSS software developers find, to ensure a future that is not striken by lawsuits left and right?"
Havoc Pennington: As you know we've been more aggressive than other Linux vendors about removing potentially patented software from our distribution, specifically we took a lot of criticism for removing mp3 support.
Interview: Linux usage raises big legal concerns (Gulf News)
Gulf News interviews Mohammed Kateeb, the regional director of Microsoft Middle East. "Linux people don't believe in Intellectual Property Rights. This is the biggest problem in the Linux world. How can one be sure that the code of software that has been contributed by programmers across the world to create this Linux software is unique and is not lifted from somewhere else? This is a big legal concern. That is what the latest SCO-Linux lawsuit is all about."
The Hacker Behind "Hacking the XBox" (O'Reilly)
Howard Wen interviews Bunnie Huang on O'Reilly. "Most authors can blame an editors' questionable taste for rejecting their books, but Andrew Huang has the dreaded DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) to explain why his book got turned down. Hacking the Xbox, as the title of Huang's tome sums up, details how-tos for modifying your Xbox, and provides various insights into the security and other inner-working code of Microsoft's game console."
Building a Better Game (Linux Journal)
Linux Journal interviews some of the people involved with Neverwinter Nights and Shadows of Undrentide. "How many developers worked on the Linux client project?"
Derek French: The Linux client project was organized and managed by BioWare's Live Team. The Live Team operates as a development project and changes size on a regular basis as it takes on new objectives. The core, or permanent, Live Team is a three-member group, but it has grown to as many as 10 people when major projects are underway.
Reviews
Sun's Windows killer unveiled (TheAustralian)
TheAustralian looks at Sun's latest Linux product. "The Sun Java Desktop system, which was previously code-named Mad Hatter, runs on the open-source Linux operating system and includes a variety of programs that replace Microsoft's internet browser, productivity suite, and other parts of the Windows package."
Preview of Rubrica 2 (GnomeDesktop)
GnomeDesktop.org has a review of Rubricka. "Rubrica is an address book for GNOME. While the application has been in existance for quite a while, Rubrica 2 is currently under development. We had a look at this development version and we give you a preview of the promising application."
Miscellaneous
Indian government supports Linux (Economic Times)
India's Economic Times reports on a government sponsored project to localize Linux in 11 different languages. "As part of Project Indix, the government has already released Linux in Hindi. While five more language releases is lined up for Thursday, the technology will be available in six more local languages in three or four months. The five languages lined up now are Sanskrit, Marathi, Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada." (Thanks to Nilesh Trivedi)
Is Linux Annoying? (O'Reilly)
Paul Weinstein is collecting a list of annoying things about Linux, in order to write a book on the topic. Hopefully, the process will help to improve some of the issues that are raised. "Attentive web surfers for all things Linux have probably already noted that O'Reilly is working on a new Linux book, Linux Annoyances. Indeed O'Reilly wants to follow up its success with the Windows Annoyances books by doing one on Linux. This of course brings to mind the question, what is a Linux Annoyance?"
Page editor: Forrest Cook
Announcements
Non-Commercial announcements
LUGOD Installfest, Davis, CA
The Linux User's Group of Davis (LUGOD), will be holding a Linux install-fest on Sunday, September 28 in Davis, CA.OSDL gets its own analyst
Open Source Development Labs has announced that analyst Stacey Quandt will be leaving the Forrester Group and taking a job at the lab. "In this new role, Quandt is responsible for monitoring key market trends important to IT vendors and corporate end users of Linux. She will also be a principal speaker for the Lab at industry conferences and tradeshows and play a leadership role in developing Lab market research, technical publications and industry opinion pieces."
Commercial announcements
Dell recognizes CGG's Linux cluster work
Dell has announced that Compagnie Generale de Geophysique has been awarded the first "Dell Center for Research Excellence Award." The award could just as well have been named the "Doing Something Cool While Buying Large Amounts of Dell Products Award," - especially since CGG has just announced it is spending the better part of $3 million for another 1125 Dell servers - but the application is notable. CGG has built a 3000-node Linux cluster for the analysis of seismic data; the company has some 30 teraflops of computing capacity online now.Advertise with Mandrake Linux 9.2
MandrakeSoft has put up a page describing a new set of advertising options to be made available in the Mandrake Linux 9.2 release. You, too, can see your logo on a Mandrake screen saver, install screen, or default web page. It is an interesting approach, and, if it helps MandrakeSoft gain and keep its financial footing, it could even be a good thing. For additional clarification see this page.
Resources
An introduction to Thunderbird, part 7 (Nidelven IT)
Kay Frode continues the series on the Mozilla Thunderbird email client with part 7, the topic this week is message filters. "Having a big flow of e-mail's dropping in your inbox can be time consuming to read, to deal with this and save yourself some time, and be able to read the right e-mails first, you might want to add a filter so Thunderbird can place the different mails in different folders. In this article I will try to show you how to make such a filter."
GNOME 2.4 Desktop User Guide Released (GnomeDesktop)
The GNOME 2.4 Desktop User Guide has been announced.GNOME 2.4 Desktop System Administration Guide Released (GnomeDesktop)
The GNOME 2.4 Desktop System Administration Guide has been announced on GnomeDesktop.org.New Ximian Desktop ''unstable'' channel (GnomeDesktop)
GnomeDesktop.org reports on a new red carpet channel for the Ximian Desktop. "There is a new, almost painfully unstable, Ximian Desktop in red carpet's 'xd-unstable' channel. Why 'unstable', you ask? When it is based on the uber-wonderful, uber-stable, uber-Khan-like GNOME 2.4?"
Upcoming Events
Registration Opens for ApacheCon 2003
Registration is open for the ApacheCon 2003 conference, to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada from November 16-20, 2003.Open Source in Government Conference, Paris
The Paris EGOVOS 3, Open Source in Government Conference will be held in Paris, France on November 24-26, 2003.Events: September 18 - November 13, 2003
| Date | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| September 18, 2003 October 7 - 8, 2003 | LogOn Web Days | Across Europe |
| September 18, 2003 | Embedded Systems Conference(ESC) | (Hynes Convention Center)Boston, Mass |
| September 26 - 27, 2003 | Third DZUG-Conference | Paderborn, Germany |
| October 12 - 15, 2003 | International Lisp Conference 2003(ILC 2003) | New York, NY |
| October 14 - 16, 2003 | 10th Linux-Kongress | Saarbrücken, Germany |
| October 15 - 17, 2003 | The First Plone Conference | (Tulane University)New Orleans, Louisiana |
| October 26, 2003 October 27 - 31, 2003 | Large Installation Systems Administration Conference(LISA) | (Town & Country Resort Hotel)San Diego, CA |
| November 2 - 3, 2003 | International PHP Conference 2003 | (Astron Hotel Frankfurt-Mörfelden)Frankfurt, Germany |
| November 6 - 7, 2003 | HiverCon 2003 | (Davenport Hotel)Dublin, Ireland |
| November 10, 2003 | Desktop Linux Conference | (Boston University Corporate Education Center)Tyngsboro, Massachusetts |
Software announcements
This week's software announcements
Here are the software announcements, courtesy of Freshmeat.net. They are available in two formats:
- Sorted alphabetically,
- Sorted by license.
Page editor: Forrest Cook
Letters to the editor
Why the focus on obscure and ephemere distributions ?
| From: | Nicolas Mailhot <Nicolas.Mailhot@laposte.net> | |
| To: | letters@lwn.net | |
| Subject: | Why the focus on obscure and ephemere distributions ? | |
| Date: | Thu, 11 Sep 2003 12:50:57 +0200 |
I'm a bit disappointed on LWN's focus on full distributions.
Not that I do not like having a reference on the birth of death of
distributions in the Linux world, but because for most users they are
simply irrelevant. Specialised distribution are just that - specialised.
Their intended audience is necessarily limited. More general efforts
OTOH directly compete with big Linux names and almost always fail after
the initial burst of energy (as this week review rightfully notes).
A smart/informed Linux user will stay clear of the latest experiments in
installer technology/recompilation with more cutting edge gcc flags and
use instead a proven mainstream distribution, focusing on reliable
sources of high-quality third-party addons. This way he will get the
advantages of a well supported, upgradable system core with the ability
to easily install cool new stuff.
RedHat's move out of the retail channel for example shows
all-encompassing distributions packaged in a single box at a single
point in time may soon be a thing of the past, and the future is a disc
seed that is then updated/completed using a network installer.
For most users now the action is not in new distributions that require
you to dump your existing installation to try a few applications you do
not have yet, but in projects like PLF, Fedora, JPackage, Freshrpms,
Dag, Ximian desktop... that enable you to complete your existing setup
with minimal fuss (I'm writing about the rpm world now because that's
what I know best). This is what LWN should be reviewing today.
Connectiva's port of apt to rpm and broadband completely changed the
linux software distribution patterns in the last years. The use of a
common packaging format always enabled contacts between distributions
(see RedHat/Mandrake, rpmfind...). What's new is the large community
projects that now try to complete vendors offerings. It's a shame LWN
still seems to overlook it.
Regards,
--
Nicolas Mailhot
Mohammed Kateeb, you have been telling lies!
| From: | Leon Brooks <leon@cyberknights.com.au> | |
| To: | yousefk@microsoft.com, mohammedk@microsoft.com, editor@gulfnews.com | |
| Subject: | Mohammed Kateeb, you have been telling lies! | |
| Date: | Mon, 15 Sep 2003 10:39:27 +0800 | |
| Cc: | letters@lwn.net |
Here...
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=97436
...you say:
> Linux people don't believe in Intellectual Property Rights.
That's a direct lie, one you need to retract. Linux is licenced under
the GNU GPL, General Public Licence, which _depends_ on copyright law
for its operation. And see below.
> How can one be sure that the code of software that has been
> contributed by programmers across the world to create this
> Linux software is unique and is not lifted from somewhere
> else? This is a big legal concern.
This is chutzpah (no, I'm not Jewish but it's a singularly appropriate
word). Would you care to explain how Microsoft's SQL Server developers
were exposed to suit from TimeLine over improper dealing with imported
IP if Microsoft's own source control is so good?
> That is what the latest SCO-Linux lawsuit is all about. Now
> SCO is suing every single user of Linux because they believe
> parts of their UNIX code is being used in Linux.
No, they don't. This is a stock "pump-and-dump" operation, they say
these things primarily to inflate their stock value - and one of the
companies assisting with the pumping has Melinda Gates (yes, the wife
of William Henry "Trey" Gates III) on its board. Can you explain her
involvement?
*ALL* of the supposed evidence from The SCO Group so far revealed has
been either a false match (the Linux programmers rewrote it from
scratch "clean room" style so the code really is de novo) or a false
ownership claim (the code is BSD licenced or Public Domain and so
legitimately available for relicencing under the GPL).
It seems fairly obvious from what has been revealed that The SCO Group
have been stripping BSD licence headers from code and illegally
incorporating it into their own UnixWare without attribution.
Worse than that, practically all of UnixWare's latest drivers are
version-number and spelling-error compatible with the drivers shipped
in SuSE's Enterprise Linux 8, so it looks very much like The SCO Group
have been stealing Linux code only available through the GPL.
All of this eventually spells jail time for the officers of The SCO
Group, and massive losses for the stock speculators involved.
Finally, you really shouldn't go shooting off your mouth about purported
risks in the GPL when Microsoft themselves sell product under a GPL
licence, notably the majority of your SFU (Services For Unix) package.
On top of all of this, you've told many other half-truths in your
interview, and made much unfair and misleading innuendo. You may regard
this as valid competitive behaviour, but that doesn't stop it from
being false and misleading. If you live in ignorance of the conditions
surrounding your business, then you are delinquent in your obligation
to stay informed. None of this is up to the standards proclaimed by the
Emirates.
I write only for myself when I ask that you publish a retraction, at
least of your most blatantly errant statements. Bear in mind when
formulating an answer that as you gave the interview to be published,
so you are giving your answer to be published.
Cheers; Leon
PS, Note to the Editor, Gulf News: feel free to publish this in your
Letters section. Could you publish an interview with a suitable
candidate from a local Open Source group? Perhaps the organisations at
http://goldensun.com/linux/ or http://geocities.com/dubailug can supply
an interviewee.
--
http://cyberknights.com.au/ Modern tools; traditional dedication
http://plug.linux.org.au/ Committee Member, Perth Linux User Group
http://slpwa.asn.au/ Committee Member, Linux Professionals WA
http://linux.org.au/ Committee Member, Linux Australia
Servers are attacked on a statistical basis, film at eleven?
| From: | Leon Brooks <leon@cyberknights.com.au> | |
| To: | rnaraine@jupitermedia.com | |
| Subject: | Servers are attacked on a statistical basis, film at eleven? | |
| Date: | Mon, 15 Sep 2003 11:37:18 +0800 | |
| Cc: | letters@lwn.net |
Hi Ryan!
From http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3076701 -
> Mi2g, which provides digital risk management research, said 67
> percent of all successful overt digital attacks was done against
> the Linux OS
Linux == 67% of breaches.
> the company found that 12,892 Linux online servers [...] were
> successfully breached. During the same period, 4,626 Windows
> servers were victims
Ergo, Windows == 24% of breaches.
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2003/09/01/september_2003_web_server_survey.html
> Active Sites
> Developer [...] September 2003 Percent Change
> Apache [...] 13371621 67.45 0.17
> Microsoft [...] 4839624 24.23 -0.21
Do you notice any striking similarities here?
Would you care to republish that article, noting that the attacks are on
a statistically one-for-one basis despite the fact that the Linux
servers are a more attractive target, often being loaded gunwhale-down
with useful tools as they are?
Cheers; Leon
--
http://cyberknights.com.au/ Modern tools; traditional dedication
http://plug.linux.org.au/ Committee Member, Perth Linux User Group
http://slpwa.asn.au/ Committee Member, Linux Professionals WA
http://linux.org.au/ Committee Member, Linux Australia
Page editor: Jonathan Corbet