Linux in the news
Recommended Reading
GNOME if you want to (ComputerWorld)
ComputerWorld looks forward to GNOME 2.6. "According to GNOME release team head Jeff Waugh, who gave a presentation at the Linux.conf.au 2004 conference last week, the GNOME project has undergone a major facelift over the past 12 months. This has included switching to a time-based release schedule, starting with its 2.x series, as well as redefining the project's social structure into module maintainers, a release team, and an administrative and advisory foundation board." (Found on Footnotes)
Open-source shifts spell an end for UnitedLinux (ZDNet)
ZDNet notes the end of UnitedLinux. "The shutdown marks the end of an ambitious effort to attract more hardware and software partners, standardize Linux, and boost research and development. Instead, it was OSDL--a more neutral coalition in the Linux industry and the employer of Linux leader Linus Torvalds--that succeeded where UnitedLinux failed."
With Friends Like These, Linux Doesn't Need Enemies (eWeek)
Steven Vaughan-Nichols comments on the MyDoom worm in eWeek. "Companies are going to lose, at a guess, hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity thanks to MyDoom. And, who are they going to blame? Microsoft for producing crappy software?... No, what will happen is that at least some corporate IT decision makers are going to blame Linux because one or two worm writers decided that they had enough of SCO and decided to get back at them, and some others decided to at least jokingly support the worm."
New virus infects PCs, whacks SCO (ZDNet)
ZDNet reports that the current Microsoft worm clogging our mailboxes is actually intended to set up a denial of service attack on SCO. One assumes that, by the February trigger date, it will have been cleaned up reasonably well and SCO will be prepared; meanwhile it feels like a DOS attack on anybody with a mailbox. "Early data indicated an epidemic several times the size of the Sobig.F virus, which caused widespread infections last summer...."
Trade Shows and Conferences
X.org and Xfree86 reform as a single group (NewsForge)
NewsForge reports from a LinuxWorld press conference where it was announced that X.org and XFree86 have merged together under the FreeDesktop.org umbrella. "Members of the newly-reformed X.org are still coming to grips with their new style of development, but most of the 'ex-core' XFree86 people and their cohorts agree that their new, more open style is likely to speed development not just of the visual portion of the X Window System but also of components related to sound, printing, and all the other 'pieces' needed to create and maintain a complete, user-friendly desktop environment for Linux, Unix, and related operating systems."
Update: the rumors appear to be exaggerated; see the XFree86 site for that project's denial of a merger.
Bruce Perens expounds 'Open Source State of the Union' (NewsForge)
NewsForge covers Bruce Perens' Open Source State of the Union speech at LinuxWorld. "Perens feels the biggest challenge to open source going forward is software patents. In the U.S., 50% to 95% of software patents should not be granted, he said, because they are not inventions and are written extremely broadly. He expects that after SCO suit is over, we'll see a number of patent lawsuits brought against Linux."
IBM: 'Who Says Penguins Can't Fly?' (eWeek)
eWeek covers a LinuxWorld keynote by IBM's Ross Mauri. "Now, however, Linux seems to be everywhere, according to the IBMer. "I can't think of a place where Linux hasn't been successful," he evangelized, citing implementations ranging from supercomputers down to embedded systems. Supercomputing applications really started to come to the fore during the second half of 2003, he noted. "Linux clusters are the biggest segment." Mauri delivered quick case studies of organizations using Linux across fields that include communications, health care, pharmaceuticals, education and multimedia entertainment."
More pictures at a Linux exhibition (NewsForge)
Here is a NewsForge LinuxWorld report, with pictures. "Most vendor people I've talked to have declared this a "good show" -- which means they are satisfied with the amount of traffic. LinuxWorlds the past few years have left some vendors unhappy with the number of people who came to their booths. Companies spend frightful sums to exhibit at shows like these, and if they don't get enough leads and eventual sales in return, they don't come back. I think most of this show's vendors are happy and will be be around at future LinuxWorlds."
Postcard from Penguin Land, Part 1 (ZDNet)
ZDNet's David Berlind went to LinuxWorld. "Fresh from acquisitions of Ximian and SuSE, and a day after SCO announces that it's launching a suit, Novell CEO Jack Messman gives an impassioned keynote about how his company has adopted a new religion: open source. He sets the stage for two themes that for me will drive the focus of LinuxWorld: raising the bar on managing everything from Linux desktops to servers to clusters and the SCO indemnification issue. Novell indemnifies. HP indemnifies. Red Hat announced it will replace any code found to be infringing. But what about IBM, Sun, Dell and others?"
Postcard from Penguin Land, Part 2 (ZDNet)
ZDNet continues its LinuxWorld trip report. "...the only question in my mind about MySQL's future is 'who will acquire it?' My top three choices are Novell, BEA, and Sun. Novell in particular has been on the open source acquisition trail. After Ximian and SuSE, MySQL would fit into Novell's portfolio like a glove and, furthermore, would make it the only company to have two of the letters (L and M) in the LAMP stack."
The SCO Problem
Linux Code Red (Salt Lake Weekly)
The Salt Lake Weekly has published a lengthy and relatively high-clue summary of the SCO case. "In other words, regardless of whether other companies indemnify their customers against lawsuits, SCO sees itself as having the upper hand. Can SCO have it both ways?"
Open Source thieves stealing my American code - SCO boss (The Register)
SCO's CEO Darl McBride takes his rampage against Linux into the realm of US Homeland Security. "SCO Group chief executive Darl McBride has attempted to nudge the Homeland Security Advisory alert back up towards Red, by accusing foreign interests of undermining US national security in a draft letter to Congressmen. How are they doing this? "Instead of UNIX from any number of US companies or Windows from Microsoft, governments throughout Europe and Asia are using Linux I find this particularly galling because that Linux software contains thousands of lines of my company's proprietary UNIX code - for which we receive no revenue."" Thanks to Dr. DJ Clark.
Groklaw on SCO's letter to Congress
Groklaw has posted a set of comments on SCO's letter to Congress. The article also includes the article text, for those who don't want to deal with PDF. "The letter is offensive in many ways, and there are several obviously untrue things in it, but the most egregious is the assertion that open source is a security risk. If Linux is a security risk, why is there a National Security Agency version of Linux, Security Enhanced Linux?"
IBM-SCO Group Squabble over Linux System Extends Even to Court Calendar (SL Tribune)
The Salt Lake Tribune reports on the delay of the hearing that will look at whether SCO has answered IBM's questions. "If [Judge] Wells finds sufficient evidence to support SCO's claims, a trial is expected in spring 2005. If she rules for IBM, SCO's lawsuit would be derailed and its recently launched, potentially lucrative global campaign to sell licenses to corporate Linux users also could flop."
The Most Hated Company In Tech (Business Week)
Business Week has a lengthy article on the SCO case. "But who stands to gain the most from an SCO win? Microsoft. Linux is the primary force standing between Microsoft and domination of the computer world. The software giant is happily fanning customers' fears with an anti-Linux campaign while pumping money into SCO." (See also this interview with Linus Torvalds that goes along with the article.)
Companies
Intel mulls Linux Centrino support (News.com)
Intel will support Linux on the Centrino processor, but the company isn't quite ready to release the code. "Intel has in mind a two-phase approach to providing software that Linux needs to take advantage of the processor maker's Centrino chips, an Intel executive said Wednesday. The chipmaker likely will begin by releasing a proprietary software module, called a driver, said Will Swope, general manager of Intel's Software and Solutions Group, speaking in an interview at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo here. He said he hopes the company will later offer an open-source driver, software that the general Linux programming community may scrutinize and reshape if desired."
Also, Intel
will produce a WiFi driver for the Centrino.
"The driver will be released initially under a proprietary licence, but Intel general manager of software and solutions, Will Swope, did suggest that the driver could later move into the open source domain.
"
Microsoft Files for XML Patents (LinuxWorld News Desk)
The LinuxWorld News Desk reports on an interesting patent move by Microsoft. "In what is being interpreted as either a preemptive move against IBM's plan to migrate to Linux on the desktop, a direct challenge to software vendors who want to interoperate with Word through XML, or just a more general confirmation that it is worried about Open Source, Microsoft last week filed - in the European Union and New Zealand though not in the US - for various XML patents."
Linux Adoption
Linux in the Ministry of Finance in Poland (Linuxnews.pl)
Linuxnews.pl covers a large Linux deployment in Poland. "Deliveries of diskless net endings (Linux ones, of course) for the Ministry of Finance have already begun. In total, 12.210 terminals (Linux, Xfree, rdesktop, etc.) will be delivered. ComputerLand, a polish company, takes care of supplying required parts while DTK Kraków makes endings complete. It is the biggest delivery of such devices in Poland and, if we include one-time orders, one of the biggest in the world".
Decatur Jones' Cornett: Desktop Linux Will Affect Microsoft Faster Than Expected. (Groklaw)
Groklaw reprints a report by Decatur Jones analyst Dion Cornett, who was struck by what he saw at LinuxWorld. "More importantly, corporations are looking to switch from Microsoft, not so much to save on licensing fees, but to potentially enhance the security of their IT infrastructures. This weeks MyDoom virus only serves to reinforce such thinking."
Interviews
Q and A: Lindows.com's Kevin Carmony (OSNews)
OSNews interviews Kevin Carmony, president and COO of Lindows.com. "Interestingly, however, was that because we attracted a fair amount of attention in those early days with WINE, it got companies like Codeweavers, SuSE and Xandros excited about Microsoft Windows compatibility. The irony is that while these companies were getting excited and jumping into this, we were changing our direction and moving completely away from Microsoft Windows compatibility. We've never regretted our decision to use and support native Linux software." (Found on KDE.News.)
An interview with Robert Love (Ars Technica)
Ars Technica interviews Robert Love. "Those of you who have tried the new 2.6 Linux kernels will undoubtedly have noticed how much more responsive the system feels under interactive use than earlier kernels. Others who have tried the kernel preemption patches or Con Kolivas' patches for interactive use will appreciate the difference as well. A large part of the credit for this work goes to Robert M. Love."
Brewster Kahle on the Internet Archive and People's Technology (O'Reilly)
Lisa Rein interviews Brewster Kahle on O'Reilly. "Brewster Kahle is the founder and digital librarian for the Internet Archive (IA). He is also on the board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The IA started out as just that -- a non-profit organization dedicated to taking snap shots of the entire Web every six months, in order to create a searchable archive."
Resources
WorldForge Weekly News
The January 23, 2004 WorldForge Weekly News has been published. Take a look to see what's new with the WorldForge game project.
Reviews
A look at KDE 3.2 Beta 2 (NewsForge)
NewsForge takes a look at KDE 3.2 Beta 2. "An unusual splash screen appears after your first KDE 3.2 startup. It seems to be a photo of all the developers from the KDE developers conference in Nove Hrady (near Prague). After this the well-known First Time Assistant leads you through the initial setup. If you follow the suggestions of the wizard you end up with the default look and feel of 3.1x, but with a more modern-looking taskbar and a nicely shortened KMenu."
Savage: The Battle For Newerth (LinuxLookup.com)
LinuxLookup reviews the game Savage: The Battle For Newerth. "As far as I am aware, Savage is the first title to attempt an amalgamation of two popular existing genres - Real Time Strategy & First Person Shooter. The question to pose is this: Savage - success or mess?"
MySQL's MaxDB: A work in progress (NewsForge)
NewsForge takes a look at MaxDB. "The lineage of MaxDB goes back several years, involves a few companies, and uses a few names. It grew out of Adabas, a database that has been around since the 1980s. A version of Adabas was obtained by the German software company SAP AB in the mid-1990's and eventually rebranded as SAP DB. Displaying amazing foresight for the time, SAP AB decided to release the source code of SAP DB under the GNU GPL in the year 2000. Unfortunately, this event was not promoted by SAP AB, so SAP DB languished as perhaps the most significant yet obscure Open Source project in the community."
Wikipedia Shows Power of Cooperation (SiliconValley)
Dan Gillmor looks at Wikipedia for his Mercury News (and beyond) column. "Similarly, a Wiki draws strength from its volunteers who catch and fix every act of online vandalism. When the bad guys learn that someone will repair their damage within minutes, and therefore prevent the damage from being visible to the world, they tend to give up and move along to more vulnerable places."
Miscellaneous
Lessons from the Campaign Pressure Cooker (Linux Journal)
Doc Searls reports from the Dean camp, in this Linux Journal article. "During my time with the Dean team, I heard Cluetrain quoted a number of times. There was my "markets are conversations" line and David Weinberger's "hyperlinks subvert hierarchy." But the one that made the most sense for the campaign itself was Chris Locke's "networked markets get smarter faster than most companies". Exactly that principle, they said, applied in electoral politics today. That's why they were building or applying technologies that embraced their own networked markets."
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