Announcements
Non-Commercial announcements
GIMP needs funding for GIMPCon June 2004
The GIMP developers have requested sponsorship help so that they may attend the GIMPcon portion of the GUADEC conference. "Our goal is to have all the active GIMP and GEGL developers present at GIMPCon 2004 in order to chart a course for the GIMP for the next year and beyond. Having completely revamped its user interface in the most recent release, version 2.0.0, the plan is now to set the GIMP on track for a new rendering engine (GEGL <http://www.gegl.org>) that will allow arbitrary colour depths and spaces."
Bill Weinberg joins OSDL
William Weinberg has joined the Open Source Development Labs as an Open Source Architecture Specialist, a newly-created position. Weinberg will work with Lab members, Linux users, press and analysts as an evangelist for Linux and OSDL programs.
Commercial announcements
Astaro Security Labs earns ICSA Certification
Astaro has announced the ICSA certification of its Astaro Security Linux Version 5 distribution. "Astaro Corp., developers of the most popular Open Source based all-in-one security product, today announced that its flagship network security application, Astaro Security Linux Version 5, has fulfilled the criteria and passed the 4.0 test for ICSA Labs Firewall Product Certification."
Bull to Offer Services on Linux/UNIX-Desktop KDE
Bull Netherlands has announced that it will provide services and solutions around KDE. "As of today companies can have professional support from Bull when migrating to Linux systems with a KDE desktop. With this Bull proves that it can offer a credible alternative to commercial software independently from their software suppliers."
Lindows offers 'Desktop Comparison Kit'
Lindows, Inc. has announced the availability of a "Desktop Linux Comparison Kit," being a single boxed set containing Linspire 4.5, Fedora Core 2, and Mandrakelinux 10.0 Community Edition. "Businesses, educational institutions and computer enthusiasts will find this Kit valuable in determining the best solution for their needs. Besides 4 gigabytes of software, a handy checklist is included to help evaluate the products on ease of installation and use, media playback, plug & play hardware device detection, virus checking and more." Past experience suggests that the checklist may not be the most objective work one could imagine (see also the choices of screenshots on "linuxshootout.com"), but it's hard to argue with a box containing the actual distributions.
O'Reilly to distribute Mandrakelinux
Mandrakesoft has sent out a press release stating that O'Reilly is now reselling Mandrakelinux in the US and Canada. Available products include Mandrakelinux Discovery 10.0 and Powerpack 10.0.
New Books
"An Introduction to GCC" published
A new book, An Introduction to GCC, is now available; it can be purchased from the usual places. The book covers the use of the compiler itself (for C and C++ in particular), rather than the languages. It is available for download under the Free Documentation License, but, if you buy it, the proceeds will go to support (unspecified) free software development and documentation efforts.New Perl and Bioinformatics book (use Perl)
Use Perl mentions a new Perl bioinformatics book. "Paul Barry writes "John Wiley & Sons Ltd. has just published my second book. Co-authored with Dr. Michael Moorhouse, Bioinformatics, Biocomputing and Perl is an introduction to bioinformatics computing skills and practice for the student (and graduate) of Biology programmes. Covers working with Perl, databases, the web and bioinformatics applications.""
"BSD Hacks" Released by O'Reilly
O'Reilly has published the book BSD Hacks by Dru Lavigne."Google: The Missing Manual" Released by O'Reilly
O'Reilly has published the book Google: The Missing Manual by Sarah Milstein and Rael Dornfest.New Book: The Linux TCP/IP Stack
Charles River Media has published the book The Linux TCP/IP Stack: Networking for Embedded Systems, a detailed guide to implementing and using the Linux TCP/IP stack in embedded systems projects by Thomas F. Herbert."Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL, 2nd Ed." Released by O'Reilly
O'Reilly has published the second edition of the book Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL by Hugh E. Williams and David Lane.Syngress Updates "Snort 2.1 Intrusion Detection"
Syngress has published the book Snort 2.1 Intrusion Detection by Brian Caswell and Jay Beale.
Resources
FSF Europe newsletter
The Free Software Foundation Europe has sent out the first issue of its new newsletter. This issue takes brief looks at software patents, AGNULA, an oppressive Italian "anti-piracy" law, and more.Linux Australia Testimony on US Trade Agreement
Rusty Russell has posted his testimony about Linux to the Senate Select Committee on Free Trade. "On Monday the 17th of May, I (Rusty Russell) was invited to appear before the Senate Select Committee on the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the United States, to answer questions on the Linux Australia submission. Based on the Hansard (the official record of what was said), and the figures I presented, we have produced this page which serves as an introduction to the issue."
The LDP Weekly News
The June 2, 2004 edition of the Linux Documentation Project Weekly News is available with all of the latest new documentation.Linux Gazette June 2004
The June issue of Linux Gazette is out. This issue looks at how Linux is Changing the Face of Education in Africa, with a Bare-Bones Guide to Firewalls, and Firewalling with netfilter/iptables, plus more articles and features.
Upcoming Events
Boston/USENIX
Click below to see some of the sessions on this year's Linux/Open Source track at USENIX Annual Technical Conference from June 27 - July 2, 2004.Experts Debate Security Risks of Operating System Monoculture
USENIX 2004 will feature a debate about the security implications of an operating system monoculture, according to this announcement. "The Advanced Computing Systems Association, announced today that Verdasys Chief Scientist Dan Geer, co-author of "CyberInsecurity: The Cost of Monopoly," and Microsoft's Chief Trustworthy Computing Strategist, Scott Charney, will debate the security implications of an operating system monoculture at the USENIX Annual Technical Conference, June 27 - July 2, in Boston."
YAPC::AU (OSDC) Call for Papers out! (use Perl)
A call for papers has been announced for the YAPC::AU Perl conference."The Melbourne Perl Mongers group is holding Australia's first Open Source Developers's Conference (YAPC::AU by another name) during the 1st - 3rd December 2004."
Events: June 10 - August 5, 2004
| Date | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| June 10, 2004 | OMG Information Day | (The New Connaught Rooms)London, England |
| June 10 - 12, 2004 | Wizards of OS 3 | (Berlin Congress Center)Berlin, Germany |
| June 13, 2004 | 1st European Lisp and Scheme Workshop | Oslo, Norway |
| June 14 - 18, 2004 | 18th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming(ECOOP-2004) | (The University of Oslo)Oslo, Norway |
| June 16 - 18, 2004 | Yet Another Perl Conference(YAPC::NA::2004) | (University at Buffalo)Buffalo, NY |
| June 27 - July 2, 2004 | USENIX 2004 | (Boston Marriott Coppley Place)Boston, MA |
| June 28 - 30, 2004 | GNOME User and Developer European Conference(GUADEC) | Kristiansand, Norway |
| June 29 - July 1, 2004 | Perl Workshop 6.0 | (Barbara-Künkelin-Halle)Schorndorf, Germany |
| July 12 - 15, 2004 | Real-time and Embedded Systems Workshop | Washington, DC |
| July 19 - 20, 2004 | Italian Perl Workshop | (Polo Fibonacci)Pisa, Italy |
| July 21 - 24, 2004 | Linux Symposium | Ottawa, Canada |
| July 26 - 30, 2004 | O'Reilly Open Source Software Convention 2004(OSCON) | Portland, OR |
| July 26 - 30, 2004 | IBM pSeries Technical Conference | Cairns, Australia |
| July 31 - August 2, 2004 | Vancouver Python Workshop | Vancouver, Canada |
| August 2 - 5, 2004 | LinuxWorld Conference & Expo | (Moscone Center)San Francisco, California |
Mailing Lists
Perl Quiz-of-the-Week mailing list revived (use Perl)
Use Perl has announced the revival of the Perl Quiz of the Week mailing lists. "New quizzes have already been posted, and more are solicited from people like you."
Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group Launches Mailing List (MozillaZine)
A new Web Hypertext Application mailing list has been announced. "Ian Hickson writes: 'Some of you may be interested to hear that people from Opera and Mozilla have set up an open mailing list for discussing Web Forms 2 and other new specs that have been discussed in various places over the last few months.' The list is the public forum of the newly-formed Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group, an organisation made of contributors from several major Web browser development teams."
Web sites
art.gnome.org makes a comeback (GnomeDesktop)
The art.gnome.org site is back online, according to this announcement. "After being down for a long while after the server intrusion a basic version of the art.gnome.org site is back online. So once again you can get hold of your favourite themes and graphics for the worlds best and most free desktop."
The OSCON 2004 Wiki
The OSCON 2004 Wiki is online. The 2004 O'Reilly Open Source Convention will be held in Portland, Oregon on July 26-30, 2004.
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