linuxsecurity.com: Keeping Your Private Files Private: An Introduction to GNU Privacy Guard. Posted Tuesday, March 21, 2000 - 10:29 AM CST by Linux-2000 Staff
By Rich Jankowski

This week's article is an introduction to cryptography using GNU Privacy Guard.

Copyright 2000 by Richard C. Jankowski

Copyright license terms available at http://saturnlink.com/articles/articlecopy.html

Originally written for http://www.linuxsecurity.com

Introduction

We live in the digital age. Email correspondence is commonplace, business proposals are stored on computer systems, financial and legal information is sent across networks. Nobody can get this information other than the intended recipient, right?

Don't bet on it.

Just about everything you do while connected to a network can be easily watched. System Administrators can rifle through your email, and disgruntled employees can intercept copies of your financial and legal documents as you transfer them across your LAN. Laptops are often stolen, and the loss is much greater if the system also contains confidential information. Complete story

Techweb: Corel To Ship Office Suite For Linux Posted Monday, March 20, 2000 - 12:45 PM CST by Linux-2000 Staff

Corel said Monday that it will ship WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux on Tuesday, and the product will reach stores in April. Both standard (suggested retail price $109) and deluxe (suggested retail price $159) editions will install on major Linux distributions. Ottawa-based Corel
said the office suite will mark a turning point in making Linux more pervasive on desktops.

LWN.net: Linux-Mandrake: why and how? Posted Sunday, March 19, 2000 - 2:16 PM CST by Linux-2000 Staff
By Gaël Duval - http://www.linux-mandrake.com

As most of you certainly know, the Linux-Mandrake distribution is certainly one of the fastest Linux success-stories. Born from nothing in 1998, MandrakeSoft has become an international company with 70 employees and Linux-Mandrake is in the top 5 major Linux distributions.

In this article, after a brief history reminder, I will explain why in what Linux-Mandrake is innovative and totally stuck to the Free-Software big expansion and why it constitutes a fine choice for all Linux users. Complete story

Caldera Systems Security Advisory: buffer overflow in inews Posted Tuesday, March 14, 2000 - 9:23 PM CST by Linux-2000 Staff

Caldera Systems, Inc. Security Advisory

Subject: buffer overflow in inews
Advisory number: CSSA-2000-005.0
Issue date: 2000 March, 7
Cross reference: CSSA-1999-026.0

1. Problem Description

This advisory is a re-release of CSSA-1999-026.0, additionally covering the OpenLinux eServer platform. Users of
the OpenLinux 2.3 Desktop product do not need to take additional actions if you have already upgraded to the inn
package as update 016.

The 'INN' (InterNetNews) package contains the 'inews' binary, which is used for injecting news articles into the
server. ISC, the maintainers of INN, have release a patch for several buffer overflows in the passwd field handling and
article header parsing routines in inews, which allows any local user to gain group 'news' access.

Since other parts of INN use group writeable files with 'news' permissions and due to inherent complexity of INN a
further chain of exploits could be used to gain 'news' user access and (theoretically) 'root' access.

2. Vulnerable Versions

System Package
-----------------------------------------------------------
OpenLinux Desktop 2.3 All packages previous to
inn-2.2.1-1
(see update 016)

OpenLinux eServer 2.3 All packages previous to
inn-2.2.2-2

3. Solution

Workaround:

chmod 550 /usr/libexec/inn/bin/inews

Since the 'rnews' binary might also be affected, if you do not use UUCP you should do:

chown news /usr/libexec/inn/rnews chgrp news /usr/libexec/inn/rnews chmod 500 /usr/libexec/inn/rnews

The proper solution is to upgrade to the fixed packages

rpm -U inn-2.2.1-1.i386.rpm

4. OpenLinux Desktop 2.3

Fixed packages released with update 016

5. OpenLinux eServer 2.3

5.1 Location of Fixed Packages

The upgrade packages can be found on Caldera's FTP site at:

ftp://ftp.calderasystems.com/pub/eServer/updates/2.3/current/RPMS/

The corresponding source code package can be found at:

ftp://ftp.calderaystems.com/pub/eServer/updates/2.3/current/SRPMS

5.2 Verification

e7cbfb0fbe8e589b78bc75c621a9c2ba RPMS/inn-2.2.2-2.i386.rpm
d6f11e575bf268920d24faba9fdc62fe SRPMS/inn-2.2.2-2.src.rpm

5.3 Installing Fixed Packages

Upgrade the affected packages with the following commands:

rpm -F inn-2.2.2-2.i386.rpm

6. References

This and other Caldera security resources are located at:

http://www.calderasystems.com/support/security/index.html

7. Disclaimer

Caldera Systems, Inc. is not responsible for the misuse of any of the information we provide on this website and/or
through our security advisories. Our advisories are a service to our customers intended to promote secure installation
and use of Caldera OpenLinux.

analysis.com: Has the Embedded Linux Consortium buried CE? Posted Monday, March 13, 2000 - 7:04 AM CST by Linux-2000 Staff

Microsoft's Windows 2000 was struck a hearty blow last week by a new consortium aimed at establishing Linux as the operating system of choice. Red Hat was at the centre of the storm having seemingly amassed the troops for a prolonged assault on the Microsoft empire. This wasn't just the usual, albeit welcome, vendor saying that they were going to support Linux with their applications, this was a real get up and go, no-holds barred, biting and prodding allowed type of assault with an army of big hitters that totaled almost 50.

Headed up by industry upstart Red Hat the company had surrounded itself with a carefully chosen army of associates. Wading in with the big guns was IBM, which is grabbing this opportunity to hammer Microsoft with both hands, covering both flanks and keeping a firm eye on the job at hand. On a more strategic level there was also Intel and Novell playing an important role as rearguard. But in addition to them there was a whole band of other supporters carefully setting their sights on a new era of Linux.

The focus of the noise being made by these industry heavyweights was all concerned with backing Linux's latest strategic weapon – the Embedded Linux Consortium (ELC) - which has kicked off with the not insignificant task of advancing Linux-based solutions in embedded applications. And already it has bagged a cool $100,000 from the companies involved to get it started. Complete story</>

ZDNet: A Year Ago: Microsoft rooting for Linux? Posted Monday, March 13, 2000 - 4:18 AM CST by Linux-2000 Staff
By Jane Wakefield

Originally published Fri, 12 Mar 1999 14:55:11 GMT

Although Microsoft has no alternative but to fight the DoJ antitrust case on its own merits, it will be hoping a new rival will enter the market to water down its alleged monopoly position. That rival could be Linux, says industry analyst Dataquest.

Following a flood of articles that suggest Microsoft is about to cave in against the DoJ in America, Dataquest analyst Paolo Puppoli says the software giant could opt to buy time by going for an appeals strategy.

"A new operating system would work in Microsoft's favour" says Puppoli. "Should Linux become a real competitor to Microsoft then clearly that shows the conditions for a monopoly don't exist."

With the growing popularity of the Linux operating system and the plans to bring it to the desktop, the tiny operating system could work
against the DoJ's case and help save Microsoft.

Deciding whether Microsoft is guilty of monopolising the software market is going to take time, says Puppoli: "If Microsoft appeals, we are looking at three or four years before action is taken." Describing
the move as a damage limitation exercise, Puppoli says Microsoft will be able to "grab additional time", exactly what the DoJ doesn't want. Complete story

latimes.com: Companies Form Group to Promote Linux Posted Saturday, March 11, 2000 - 3:43 PM CST by Linux-2000 Staff
By STANLEY HOLMES, Times Staff Writer

SEATTLE--IBM Corp., Red Hat Inc. and 45 other companies formed a group to promote the Linux operating system in new appliances, wireless phones and other technology devices. It's another sign of the growing demand for Linux, an alternative operating system that may eventually be a strong rival to Microsoft Corp. Although Windows still dominates the desktop computer market, rival operating systems such as Linux, Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Solaris and Novell Corp.'s Netware are becoming more widely used.

Plans of the Linux announcement emerged Thursday during a three-day conference in Palm Desert that ends today. Executives from Novell, Red Hat, Caldera Systems Inc., Intel Corp. and others are discussing how the operating system business has changed dramatically for smaller software firms used to living under Microsoft's shadow. Various companies pledged about $100,000 to start the Embedded Linux Consortium, which seeks to broaden Linux's reach into microchips to be used in everything from microwave ovens and refrigerators to wireless phones and TV set-top boxes. "In the Internet [age], everyone has a chance again," said Ken Anderson, vice president of information services for Novell. "The fact that Red Hat can now challenge Microsoft would have been considered ludicrous three years ago. This is a fundamental shift." Complete story

sun.com: Red Hat Ships Red Hat Linux Enterprise Edition Optimized for Oracle8i Posted Wednesday, March 08, 2000 - 4:51 PM CST by Linux-2000 Staff
By ScreamingMedia, PR NEWSWIRE SAN FRANCISCO

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Mar. 8 /PRNewswire/ --(http://www.oracle.com/tellmemore/?134934) Red Hat®, Inc. (Nasdaq: RHAT), the leading provider of open source solutions, and Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL), the largest provider of software for e-business, today announced the availability of the Red Hat Linux Enterprise Edition product line that has been optimized for Oracle8i to support high-volume e-business and enterprise applications. Red Hat Linux Enterprise Edition for Oracle8i will be available within 30 days through Compaq's and Red Hat's value-added distribution channels, including Keylink/Pioneer and Hallmark/AVNet.

Red Hat Linux Enterprise Edition for Oracle delivers on Red Hat's commitment to provide reliable, scalable and highly available open source solutions in the enterprise environment. Red Hat Linux Enterprise Edition for Oracle offers performance and usability improvements for enterprise-class database operations.

Performance and Usability Enhancements... Complete story

Amcity.com: Linux gains share, but few bucks Posted Monday, March 06, 2000 - 1:54 AM CST by Linux-2000 Staff
By Lee Weisbecker

DURHAM ­ How would you like to have 25 percent of the $5.7 billion computer server market, but less than 1 percent of the revenues?

That, according to a new report, is the spot of Durham-based Red Hat Inc. and the other companies selling Linux, the computer operating system that can be downloaded free from the Internet.

And, apparently, Wall Street investors have started to take notice of the fact, as Linux-based stocks continue their downward plunge.

Red Hat finished trading at $55.75 on March 1, down from its 52-week high of $151.

"Linux hasn't been getting as much of a boost as it once had," says Tomi Kilgore, a stock analyst with CBS MarketWatch in New York. "Much of the hype is over."

The report, by International Data Corp., found that Linux increased its share of the computer server market from 17 percent in 1998 to 25 percent last year.

That left it trailing only the Microsoft Windows NT operating system, which had a 38 percent share. Servers are backshop computers that run computer networks or printers.

The market share number was good news for Linux proponents, who say the recent success of the operating system is beginning to signal a fundamental shift away from the proprietary software offerings coming out of Redmond, Wash., Microsoft's home town.

However, a glance at the revenue side ushers in the storm clouds.

According to the report, revenue generated on the sale of 1.35 million certified copies of Linux in 1999 brought in only $36 million, or about $27 per unit and less than 1 percent of the $5.7 billion market.

Red Hat controls about 60 percent of the domestic Linux market. Complete story

Upside.com: New site on Linux security Posted Saturday, March 04, 2000 - 3:05 PM CST by Linux-2000 Staff
By Sam Williams

They say the three most important variables in the real estate business are location, location and location. Well, in the world of media websites, those variables translate to timing, timing and timing.

Last month's denial of service uproar has intensified attention to Internet security. Coincidentally -- or perhaps not, depending on your viewpoint -- last month also saw the debut of LinuxSecurity.com, a new website completely dedicated to Linux operating system security issues.

"We first conceived the idea last year," says Dave Wreski, president of Guardian Digital, the New Jersey-based company that oversees the LinuxSecurity in addition to providing end-user security tools. "We tried to get it out before the end of the year, but had to wait a little bit longer because of development issues."

Lucky break. As things turned out, LinuxSecurity happened to go live just as Internet miscreants had finished waylaying major brand-label sites such as Yahoo (YHOO), eBay (EBAY), and E-Trade (EGRP). Given the enterprise community's growing interest in both Linux and security-related issues, the LinuxSecurity URL has insured a double-whammy traffic-wise.

"The response has been overwhelming," Wreski says. "We've already served up pages to more than 82 countries. It's better than we could have expected."

Wreski says the idea for the site stemmed from Guardian Digital's work in the security domain. Like many in the online security industry, Wreski says he felt a natural affinity for the Linux operating system both because of its openness and its eminent ability to customize. Complete story

SV.com: Linus the liberator Posted Monday, February 28, 2000 - 9:09 AM CST by Linux-2000 Staff
By David Diamond

LINUS TORVALDS doesn't look much like a superstar--not just now, with wet tan hair matted on his pale face, steamed-up glasses, a steady
flow of sweat dripping down the length of his incipient paunch, and that blissed-out smile. He looks like any other Helsinki native who has found his first bona fide sauna in two years, and is perched merrily on its highest bench.

The half-dozen other men in the Kiva Retreat House sauna in Santa Cruz this Thursday afternoon are tanned and self-obsessed. One scrapes dead cells from his body with a phone card, describing how the practice dates back to the ancient Romans, who used bones. Another talks about apologizing to the redwoods for building a hot tub. None of them is aware that they are sharing 175-degree heat with a celebrity so idolized he is mobbed by crowds whenever he speaks in public, so loved he is presented that most valued of Silicon Valley treasures: free stock in pre-IPO companies.

Like Elvis, like Madonna, like Barney, the world's most respected programmer has ascended to the level of fame where one doesn't need a last name. He's universally known as "Linus.'' But here among the New Agers, he is just another sweaty, naked soul. "About the only place I get recognized,'' he explains without a hint of complaint, "is at Fry's Electronics.''

All that is likely to change if the zigzag path of computing continues on its current course. What has won Linus global acclaim is the powerful Linux operating system, created during six months in 1991 in his mother's Helsinki apartment, when he was 21.

Perhaps even more astounding than his programming accomplishment is what Linus did with it: He gave it away--free. Unfathomable as it seems in this Valley of Greed, Linus made the operating system available over the Internet to anyone who wanted to download it, use it, or offer suggestions for improving it. Instead of money, he simply asked beneficiaries to send him postcards. His mother's apartment became an unlikely center of power for the emerging free software movement--now the open source code movement--a confederacy whose proponents believe software should be freely distributed and open--usable on any computer system. Complete story

Netimpirative: Red Hat throws its hat into the enterprise ring Posted Thursday, February 24, 2000 - 8:14 AM CST by Linux-2000 Staff
by Louise Carroll

Red Hat, the open source software and services provider, announced that it has beefed up its operating system for the enterprise e-business community and will add streaming media functionality to the software package.

According to Red Hat, its Linux Enterprise Edition will provide a platform for running business critical, high-volume enterprise applications, because the operating system has been configured for use with specific IT systems.

When netimperative.com spoke to Colin Tenwick, VP and general manager of Red Hat Europe, he said: “The world’s leading software vendors have now been optimised with Red Hat. We have Oracle, the world’s number one database company, CA (Computer Associates) the world’s number one systems management company and SAP the world’s number one ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) provider.”

The Red Hat Linux Enterprise Edition has been configured for Oracle 8i, CA’s Unicentre and SAP’s R/3. Red Hat will configure its O/S for more than one of these systems if users require this. The versions for each system are slated for release later in the year. Pricing announcements have not yet been released.

Red Hat has also announced a new partnership with the streaming media company RealNetworks. Tenwick said: “We already ship Netscape with every version of Red Hat, and now we are shipping RealNetworks as well.”

As part of the agreement, RealNetworks’ RealServer 7.0 will be bundled with Red Hat’s OS and distributed to hundreds of thousand of Red Hat users worldwide, thereby reaching the business community.

Matthew Szulik, president and CEO of Red Hat said: “This agreement offers broadcasters, hosting providers and corporations the integration and tuning capabilities that simply are not available with closed operating systems.” Red Hat’s commitment to open source means that it freely shares all modifications to the Linux OS with the open source community under public licenses.

RealPlayer 7 for Linux will be available from the RealNetworks website in 30 days.

TheRegister: SuSE deal puts SCO in driving seat Posted Wednesday, February 23, 2000 - 8:58 AM CST by Linux-2000 Staff
By Sean Fleming

SCO is ready to burst out of its chrysalis as a fully formed Linux company, thanks to a deal with SuSE to help with installation projects.

The deal means SCO consultants will now push SuSE Linux services and offer planning advice to corporate users looking at possible Linux roll outs.

There's nothing quite like hoping on a bandwagon to keep your own momentum going, but analysts are praising SCO's volte face, according to a report on CNET's news.com. Where once SCO was Linux-hostile, it now has agreements with three key distributors of the open source OS: Caldera, TurboLinux and now SuSE.

Mind you, as an investor in Caldera and TurboLinux (and also in LinuxMall) SCO can be expected to not just hop on the bandwagon, but to take a turn at the wheel too. ®

ZDNET.com: IT abuzz over Linux-based routers Posted Tuesday, February 22, 2000 - 8:41 AM CST by Linux-2000 Staff
By John Rendleman, PC Week Online

A handful of network engineers are taking advantage of new free software that turns older PCs into Linux-based routers for IP traffic—a concept that could catch on in the enterprise.

The code is being distributed by the Linux Router Project, a loose-knit group of software developers formed several years ago to develop a less expensive alternative to mass-produced routers and firewalls.

The ad hoc project has evolved through the years from its own momentum and through the contributions of a changing cast of participants, according to James Troutman, an occasional contributor to the project and principal at network consulting company Troutman & Associates, in Waterville, Maine.

The Linux Router Project solution is most helpful in installations with very limited budgets but is especially economical when customers need to route one or several 100M-bps Ethernet segments because of the high cost of brand-name 100M-bps Ethernet routers.

"If you can't afford $2,000 for a Cisco [Systems Inc.] router for your office, you can round up an old 486 PC and a few Ethernet cards, and it will work fine as a [Linux router] box," said Bret Berger, an engineer at systems integrator StoneFly Technology, in St. George, Utah. Complete story

theNEWOS.com: Red Hat 6.2 Preview Posted Monday, February 21, 2000 - 2:49 PM CST by Linux-2000 Staff
By Sam Hart 02/21/2000

Since my first experiences with Linux, running Red Hat 4.2 on my home system and using Slackware 3.2 at work and school I have always been completely in awe at the dramatic improvements each new distribution release brings along with it. When I went from Red Hat 5.1 to 6.0, I was amazed at the new options in GUI's I had, as well as the fact that now all my devices were supported. These improvements are always a
testament to the brilliance of those involved in kernel, interface, and various other software developments.

When I heard about the beta release of the Red Hat 6.2, I was dying to try it out. My heavy dependence on stability on my home system, and on the machines I work with at my job, has always prevented me from "living on the edge", so to speak, of Linux development. Distribution betas are the closest I can get to this "edge" (sad as that may sound).

Part of my job is to sometimes test out new systems with various operating systems and components to verify compatibility. Well it just so happened that on the same week as I discovered the 6.2beta, we had a 700 MHz Athlon with Viewsonic VPD150 flatscreen monitor that we wanted to try Linux on. It was not our first Athlon Linux box, but it was our first Linux box with a flatscreen monitor.

It was not going to be a Linux box for long, unfortunately, as the final user of the machine prefers Windows 98, and as such it was also going have the majority of its devices using USB, including a USB network adapter. Well, we thought it would be fun to try out the new 6.2beta on the machine, giving ourselves a preview of the next Red Hat release as well as testing for compatibility with this flatscreen monitor. Complete story

GNet: Red Hat's momentum in Europe shows explosive growth Posted Tuesday, February 08, 2000 - 9:01 AM CST by Linux-2000 Staff

In the first few months after setting up its first European office, Linux vendor Red Hat (http://www.redhat.com) has been able to attract the attention of some of Europe's largest enterprise customers. "In all of my twenty years in the IT industry, I have never seen a response from the enterprise world like we are getting now", says Colin Tenwick, vice president Europe, Middle East and Africa for Red
Hat. And chairman and CEO Bob Young confirms : "It looks like, in a few years time, Europe should represent 50 percent of our activities. This region has a longer tradition with UNIX than any other area in the world, and therefore we expect the growth to be faster here too".

Linux, the free operating system that is taking the computer world by storm, was developed in 1991 by a Finnish university student, Linus Torvalds, who wanted to run the UNIX operating system on his Intel-powered PC, couldn't find a suitable version and therefore started to develop his own. He made his programming efforts available to everyone on the Internet, for free, and very quickly, the operating system was picked up by other programmers on the Web who added new features and kept on improving it all the time. Complete story

CRN.com: Linux: Getting Ready For Prime Time (OS) Posted Sunday, February 06, 2000 - 11:38 AM CST by Linux-2000 Staff
By Edward F. Moltzen Computer Reseller News

Linux is suffering from growing pains.

Key players in the open-source community are grappling with issues ranging from product release slips to standards fights, as Linux moves full-force into the commercial software market.

Linux creator Linus Torvalds told thousands of Linux faithful at the LinuxWorld exposition here that the next release of the operating system has slipped, pushing it back several months. The new version originally was due out by now.

In addition, Torvalds and others spoke out against the DVD industry's decision to legally fight developers seeking to port the digital video technology to Linux.

Two DVD trade groups have pending lawsuits against some Linux developers, whom they say illegally make software available that can copy DVD material.

Linux industry executives decried the legal action.

"This is a case of companies that want to screw their customers over," Torvalds said during his keynote. "What will happen? The DVD consortiums will lose in court, and we'll have DVD on Linux."

Ransom Love, chief executive of vendor Caldera Inc., Orem, Utah, said he believes the issue will ultimately just go away. "Linux solves too many problems. I think it is something that we can get past," said Love.

On the release front, Torvalds said he and other Linux developers continue to perfect the operating system kernel of Linux version 2.4,work he had hoped to have finished by now.

The new kernel will scale to eight processors and provide better support for mobile devices, Torvalds said. "We're hoping to get 2.4 released in a few months. New code will make 2.4 a much better kernel in many ways," he said.

The slip in the aggressive schedule to ship the release is the result of Linux now playing to a larger, mission-critical commercial audience, some observers said.

Love said he is not worried about the postponement of the release, adding issues such as value-added distribution of the operating system are more important. Others see different issues taking hold. Complete story

GNet: Linus(x) inside Posted Saturday, February 05, 2000 - 4:25 PM CST by Linux-2000 Staff

On January 19th, Transmeta launched its new microprocessor family, Crusoe, meant for handhelds and ultra-light notebooks. The latter will run any x86 compatible operating system, but for the handhelds a brand new version of Linux has been developed, Mobile Linux, courtesy of Linus Torvalds, the father of Linux and one of Transmeta's software engineers since mid-1997. Frans Godden, free-lance editor and one of GNet's partners, was at the launch and managed to have an exclusive interview with Linux ...er Linus, that is. Complete story

ZDNet: Caldera-Microsoft: Not over till it's over Posted Saturday, February 05, 2000 - 9:59 AM CST by Linux-2000 Staff
By Mary Jo Foley, Sm@rt Reseller

New documents reveal that a former Microsoft employee admits she destroyed potential evidence.

Caldera and Microsoft may have ended up settling their 4-year-old antitrust suit before it went to trial, but the fireworks aren't over yet.

The latest explosion: Former Microsoft Germany employee Stefanie Reichel admitted in a deposition that she destroyed files and other information that potentially could have been used as evidence against Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) in the Caldera case.

Reichel also admitted in the newly public deposition excerpts that her supervisor discarded hard drives of computers in Microsoft's German office.

Reichel said in her testimony she had destroyed e-mail messages that "could be problematic in an investigation" at the request of Microsoft management. Reichel also said she might have destroyed paper copies of documents. Complete story

smartmoney.com: The Other Side of Linux Posted Thursday, February 03, 2000 - 5:38 PM CST by Linux-2000 Staff
By Ian Mount

IF YOU TAKE American optimism as aphorized by Kevin Costner in "Field of Dreams" ("If you build it they will come") then place it in a particle accelerator and smash it into Newton's first law of physics ("An object at rest tends to stay at rest; an object in motion tends to stay in motion"), the Linux operating system's precarious place in personal computing becomes much easier to understand. Really.

Linux is faster and more reliable, at least according to its adherents, and a whole lot cheaper (a.k.a. "free") than Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows operating system. Heck, corporate computing departments love to run Linux servers. In a survey of 788 corporate computer departments, released in August, market research company IDC reported that 13% of respondents used Linux, a huge jump from the "statistically small percentage" that said they did in 1997.

So if you offer it to the masses, they will come too — right? Well, according to market researcher IDC, only about 4% of the desktop operating systems shipped worldwide in 1999 were Linux. That's up from 2.1% at the end of 1998 but a far cry from the 85% share held by Microsoft's Windows products. And even though these numbers measure only paid copies of Linux — plenty more are downloaded free — many industry observers think Microsoft's 85% number will tend to stay at rest.

The biggest reason is that the computer cognoscenti are the ones who like and understand Linux — and increasingly, most PC users aren't geeks. "Until the most popular applications, or ones that look exactly like them, are available [on Linux], consumers won't consider it," says IDC Linux analyst Dan Kusnetzky. "Until that hurdle is overcome, it makes Linux of only marginal interest." That's a sentiment echoed by Peter Hortensius, director of technology development in the personal systems group at International Business Machines (IBM). "It's the applications, stupid," he says. "Hitting Joe Mainstream is going to require real work." Complete story

Ecrix Corporation and Linux Fund launch OpenTape.org Posted Tuesday, February 01, 2000 - 6:19 PM CST by Linux-2000 Staff
By: Xenia Moore

Boulder, CO - February 1, 2000 - Ecrix Corporation and the Linux Fund today announced OpenTape.org (www.opentape.org), a new nonprofit web site supporting the open source software movement. OpenTape.org offers users access to technical information about data backup hardware and software for the Linux operating system. All advertising and vendor participation revenues generated by the site go to the Linux Fund, a non-profit organization that supports Linux programmers with development grants and university scholarships.

"Ecrix is actively supporting the future of the open source software movement with direct investments in the Linux community," said Kelly Beavers, president of Ecrix. "OpenTape.org is one of many ways we are involved in educating open source users about data storage hardware and software. OpenTape.org will serve as a clearing house of storage information among other end users, independent developers, and a wide range of vendors."

"We are impressed with Ecrix's commitment to the open source software community," said Benjamin Cox, founder and president of the Linux Fund. "Ecrix really stands out from the crowd of data-storage vendors entering the Linux market. By sponsoring this vendor-neutral site, Ecrix demonstrates true confidence in their VXA-1 tape drive.

Staffers at the Linux Fund designed and implemented the OpenTape.org web site, which features a wide array of information resources. These resources include end-user product reviews, discussion boards, and links to sites hosting current open-source development projects.

The site will also mirror technical documentation from a variety of web sites, including the entire Linux Documentation Project (LDP). The LDP contains numerous HOWTOs and FAQs relating to Linux data backup hardware and software operations. For a limited time, OpenTape.org will hold daily tee-shirt giveaways for users who register on the web site.

About the Linux Fund

The Linux Fund grants scholarships to university students who show promise as open source software developers. The fund also issues development grants for projects that may not be suitable for commercial or volunteer efforts, but which will enhance the long-term vitality of the Linux OS. All funded projects become open source. The Linux Fund can be reached at www.linuxfund.org.

About Ecrix

Ecrix Corporation is an innovator in tape storage and developer of VXA, an award-winning tape technology that features advanced backup and restore capabilities in products that deliver market leading value and reliability. Ecrix is privately held and is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. For more information about Ecrix, please visit the company's web site at www.ecrix.com or telephone 303.402.9262. More detailed information about VXA technology is available at www.vxatape.com.

techweb.com: Red Hat, TurboLinux, SCO Unveil Linux Wares Posted Monday, January 31, 2000 - 6:52 PM CST by Linux-2000 Staff
By Paula Rooney

As LinuxWorld Expo opens in New York this week, advocates will try to demonstrate Linux has grown up for prime-time corporate use.

Addressing the Achilles heels of the alternate operating system, such as lack of developer tools, high-end enterprise features, and mainstream applications, leading vendors plan to unveil much-needed products in those categories.

The show got off to a good start late last week when Ottawa-based Corel revealed the first beta release of WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux, the first full mainstream Office suite for the Linux platform. The company said it plans to ship the final product in the second quarter.

Another application being introduced at the show is Elmsford, N.Y.-based InfoValue Computing's suite of QuickVideo software for Linux, which will provide video on demand, multicasting, video archiving, and Internet/intraweb management capabilities for corporate
sites. Complete story

Linuxjournal.com: KDE--The Next Generation Posted Saturday, January 29, 2000 - 7:19 PM CST by linux-2000 staff
By Kalle Dalheimer

Get ready to jazz up your desktop--get KDE 2.0.

The KDE team is working full steam on the next release of the K Desktop Environment which is planned for spring 2000, so it is time to look at what the new version will have in store.

When you first install one of the beta releases and use a plain old setting, you will probably not notice much difference between KDE 1.1 and KDE 2.0. However, the more you explore, the more you will find things that have changed. Also, many changes have been made under the hood.

Java Support

Let's start with some of the core components. As a programmer, you might be interested to hear that the library interface has been cleaned up. As a user, this probably won't interest you half as much as the fact that the web browser now supports JavaScript and Java. The Java support is not bound to any particular implementation of the JVM; you can use any fully compliant implementation. We do our testing with the blackdown port of the Sun JDK, but barring some bugs, you should also be able to use kaffe, for example. Also notable is that not just the HTML widget and applications can use Java--any KDE application can now embed a Java applet in its windows. JavaScript support was partly available in KDE 1.1 already, but it was so rudimentary no one really used it. KDE 2.0 features an all-new implementation that is much more complete; it enables you to view 90% of all web pages using JavaScript. Complete story

techweb.com: Corel Office For Linux Hits Beta Milestone Posted Friday, January 28, 2000 - 12:53 PM CST by linux-2000 staff

Corel has released the first beta version of WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux to testing sites. The release is an upgrade to WordPerfect 8, a widely used Linux application. WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux includes a full office suite that can be installed on the major Linux distributions.

news.cnet.com: Corel hurries to fix Linux security hole Posted Friday, January 28, 2000 - 12:30 PM CST by linux-2000 staff
By Stephen Shankland

Corel is working to patch a bug with its version of Linux that could let unauthorized users gain access to machines running Corel Linux.

A program called Corel Update has a problem that lets ordinary users take actions ordinarily only reserved for system administrators.

Fixing the vulnerability is a "top priority for Corel," the company said, and a fix will be posted on the company's Web site. The problem was identified by Cesar Tascon Alvarez.

Corel is trying to take on Microsoft with its version of Linux, aiming for ordinary desktop users. Corel hopes those users will also will be interested in purchasing WordPerfect and the rest of Corel's office software suite. The company has a healthy start on the market, earning $3.2 million in sales in 1999, according to International Data Corp..

Corel Linux began shipping in November.

Beta testing of Corel's WordPerfect Office suite is expected to start "very soon," a spokeswoman said, with the final version due in the second quarter.

Corel plans to begin beta testing its Photo-Paint image editing software in late spring or early summer and beta testing of its CorelDraw graphics software after that. Final versions should be available in the fall of 2000. Complete story

Silicon.com: Sun spurned as Red Hat teams up with IBM Posted Tuesday, January 25, 2000 - 9:42 PM CST by linux-2000 staff
By Suzanna Kerridge

Linux developer Red Hat has partnered with IBM to develop Java-based software components rather than team up with Sun Microsystems - the founder of the Java platform.

The company will license and distribute IBM's Java Runtime engine, Java Virtual Machine, as well as the Developer Kit for Linux - Java Technology Edition.

Colin Tenwick, general manager of European Operations at Red Hat, said: "We certainly see a number of developers requiring this technology as they start to deploy into the enterprise. We can meet that demand better in a full open source environment."

He added that the company chose to partner with IBM because its licensing structure is closer to the open source ethic. "The Sun licensing model is only one stage short of a proprietary model," he said.

Christine Acton, leading analyst for Web development tools at Ovum, said: "I understand why Red Hat would choose IBM. Sun is going through a period of change and it has got a way to go before it has a clear story and strategy. One of Sun's strongest lines is its Java story so it is hanging onto that and steering away from partnerships. In this state, IBM would be easier to work with," said Acton. Complete story

linux.com: The Renaissance of Open Source Posted Saturday, January 22, 2000 - 3:18 PM CST by linux-2000 staff
By Jessica Sheffield

Power. Money. Intrigue. Art. Violence. Innovation. Philosophy. Emulation. Influence. Change. Sound interesting? Read on.

It may surprise you to learn that I apply these words to the past year's events in the open source world, and I anticipate even more events in the year to come. I could easily have chosen other words that might be more descriptive from a strictly technological point of view. But I chose these words because of their significance to another time in history (specifically Western history), when for the first time humanity broke out of the "old" ways of thinking in favor of a new, more simplistic approach: examine the world in which you live, and do what works.

It's no accident that history classes are divided into pre- and post-Renaissance. Likewise, computer geeks of the future will look on these years as the time when everything changed for the industry. We looked at the system and disliked it, so we changed it. UNIX too behemoth-like for your tastes? Create your own operating system. Don't like the way a particular program behaves? Rewrite it, or write your own. The attitude of our community is, "If it's broken, fix it... and then make the fix available, so everyone doesn't have to do the same thing." In many ways, this credo is a new way of thinking in a world where art has gone the way of corporatism and no one just does anything for fun anymore. Complete story

zdnet: IT Week: Linux pushed to enterprise Posted Friday, January 21, 2000 - 7:30 AM CST by linux-2000 staff
By Martin Veitch

The available infrastructure to make Linux an enterprise server option advanced further last week when storage software giant Veritas said it would add more support for the open-source operating system

"So far, Linux has only been visible in the workgroup and departmental space," said Chris Boorman, European marketing director for Veritas. "People are looking to move it up into the enterprise and one of the things it needs is a strong management platform focused on availability, a journaling file system, disk management, and backup and recovery."

Specifically, Veritas plans to port its Volume Manager, File System, Cluster Server and NetBackup server products to Linux during this year. The Red Hat Linux distribution will be an initial focus, with other versions to follow. The new products will supplement the backup products that Veritas already offers on Linux. Complete story

zdnet: Red Hat discusses deal to supply Linux to UK schools Posted Wednesday, January 19, 2000 - 6:12 AM CST by linux-2000 staff
By: Will Knight

Free distribution software deal for schools on the cards

Red Hat is currently discussing the details of a deal supply Linux to British schools that according to some reports may involve free distribution software as well as technical support services at a significantly reduced price.

This follows a sponsorship deal between Red Hat and Parrs Wood high school in Manchester, which recently unveiled an extensive computer network largely based on Red Hat Linux.

Director of with Red Hat UK, Andy Dickens outlines the hopes that his companies hopes for the forthcoming deal. "What we're doing at the moment is discussing the details of the project. The whole education market is very important to Red Hat. We want people going through the educational system with a very good experience of Red Hat."

Martin Green IT manager at Parrs Wood, believes that wider implimentation is good news. He says, "From an IT perspective, Linux is coming in at a low cost. We have a network going live now that will have 300-400 machines running a number of systems." Complete story

WideOpen: Transmeta to Bare All Posted Sunday, January 16, 2000 - 12:15 AM CST by linux-2000 staff

Crusoe gets discovered

After four years of secrecy, Transmeta will officially unveil its energy-saving microprocessor, called Crusoe, Jan. 19. The Santa Clara, Calif. company declined to discuss details Friday, but PC Week said the low-power processor will use a patented variation of RISC, or reduced instruction set computer. Linux creator Linus Torvalds, a Transmeta developer, likely played a role in making Crusoe adaptable to multiple operating systems -- including, of course, Linux. This newslink provided by http://www.wideopen.com

redherring.com: Is Corel building a Linux house of cards? Posted Saturday, January 15, 2000 - 8:57 AM CST by linux-2000 staff
By Phil Harvey Redherring.com

Investors are impressed with Corel's (Nasdaq: CORL) continued push into the Linux market through startup investments. A cursory glance gives some the feeling that Corel is building a strong Linux business.

But the truth is that the four Linux companies Corel has invested in are long shots. Taken together, the investments offer little hope of nudging Corel toward profitability.

Corel has been hurting financially for some time. It lost money in all but three of its last ten quarters. Its fortunes appeared to be turning when it posted profits in its past two quarters, but it preannounced that it will lose about $9 million, or 14 cents per share, on sales of $61 million in its fourth quarter ended November 30. Complete story

internetnews: Linux Domains Up for Auction Posted Friday, January 14, 2000 - 12:34 PM CST by linux-2000 staff
By Elizabeth Clampet
InternetNews.com Assistant Editor

Hoping to take advantage of the red hot Linux market, domain broker SeriousDomains.com Friday put more than 150 Linux domain names up for auction.

All domain names have the word "Linux" in the title, the company said. During the first auction, which runs until mid-Monday, speculators can bid on single domain names from the 150-name portfolio, and after those are complete, the remaining domain names will be auctioned as a single block.

The company boasts it has names that can be used by both individuals and corporations. Domains such as LinuxLeaders.com, LinuxFacilitators.com, LinuxCallCenters.com, LinuxRollouts.com, LinuxInfrastructures.com, QualityLinux.com, ScreaminLinux.com and TurnkeyLinux.com will all be on the block. Some domains have been grouped into categories for cluster bids, the company added.

"Most of the names in the portfolio are hand-selected around generic names or phrases that have built-in mindshare to likely customers of Linux providers," said Tasha L. Kidd of SeriousDomains.com.

"Web consumers are turning more and more to entering keywords in their browsers, instead of going the extra step through search engines. These keywords and phrases become virtual doorways to websites that want to dominate."

Linux, an open-source operating system, has been growing in popularity since it was first released in the early 1990s. Recently, Linux-based companies like Red Hat Inc. (RHAT) and VA Linux (LNUX) have been able to cash in on the free platform by each debuting on the stock market with record first-day growth. Complete story

The Register: IBM rolls out unified Linux strategy Posted Wednesday, January 12, 2000 - 5:57 AM CST by linux-2000 staff
By: Graham Lea

IBM is increasing its bet on Linux by adopting software's counter-culture as a primary operating system for the Internet. This turns a series of initiatives within IBM into a strategic, company-wide embrace.

The reason appears to be to make IBM big iron more attractive for running networks, and to provide some tougher competition for Sun. IBM has Linux for the RS/6000 and S/390, as well as Netfinity, and is evaluating whether its NUMA-Q servers will run Linux. Despite IBM's avowed seriousness about supporting NT, few thought that this was more than a commercial decision to give customers what they wanted, rather
than an expression of IBM's whole-hearted admiration for Windows.

In making the announcement, Sam Palmisano, senior VP of IBM's enterprise group, made it clear that IBM intends to work closely with the Linux community as well as to make its own technology available to the Linux and open software communities, stressing it is not confining its efforts to Linux, but to open source software generally. The collaborations with Caldera, Red Hat, SuSE and TurboLinux will continue. To this end, Irving Wladawsky-Berger is heading a new IBM unit within the enterprise group. IBM says it is not abandoning its AIX efforts or Project Monterey, but believes that the markets are different. IBM hastens to point out that although Linux is open and free, "open source does not mean free. IBM will continue to deliver its value-added middleware as priced packages." ®

Source Forge: Repository for Open Source Projects Posted Tuesday, January 11, 2000 - 8:12 PM CST by linux-2000 staff

VA Linux, fresh from a record-setting IPO, has officially launched its Source Forge Web site. They've built an infrastructure where software authors can cache their source code, run discussions, track bugs, and collaborate on projects. It's all free, supported by ads, and at last count hosts over 900 projects and 4800 members. Some of the more popular projects hosted here include Licq, an ICQ clone written fully in C++, the Unreal Tournament open-source project to port the game to Linux, and RipperX, a program to rip CD audio and encode MP3s. While many of the projects here are Linux specific, the site is not restricted to Linux code and serves as a good resource for anybody who needs a collaborative home for their pet programming project. http://sourceforge.com/

silicon.com: IBM reveals large-scale Linux push Posted Monday, January 10, 2000 - 7:04 PM CST by linux-2000 staff

IBM has announced its intention to integrate all of its hardware products with the Linux open source software platform.

Linux will become the common operating system on the S/390, AS/400, RS/6000 and Netfinity servers.

According to Tony Occleshaw, a manager within IBM's European software business, the company is looking to open platforms to tap a wider development community. "Not many people develop for OS/390," he commented.

The move makes IBM one of the first companies to make this scale of commitment to Linux. And it's a commitment beyond the actual capabilities of Linux, according to Kirsten Ludvigsen, EC director at IDC.

"It gives Linux access to more computing power than it has access to at present," she said, adding that it will be another one and a half years until Linux is truly useful at the mainframe level. At the moment, the OS is in use mainly on PCs.

"Linux does extremely well in Web servicing, and print and mail servers," Ludvigsen commented, but said Linux currently does not pose a direct threat to IBM's own brand of Unix, AIX. Complete story

currents.net: Free Linux E-Commerce Pkg Posted Monday, January 10, 2000 - 5:55 AM CST by linux-2000 staff
By Edmond Chow, ITdaily

Hong Kong Linux applications developer Web Force Unlimited http://www.webforce.com.hk announced the rollout of its free Linux-based e-commerce system for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Partnering with local e-commerce developer TradeCity.com http://www.tradecity.com and Hewlett Packard Hong Kong http://www.hp.com.hk , Web Force aims to provide SMEs with free packages to help them develop and launch their own Web stores by themselves.

This DIY software integrates Web Force's iTLink Internet communication server as the Linux operating platform and distribution channel, HP's LPr high-density powerhouse server and TradeCity.com's e-commerce software suite, StoreMaker.

Web Force also offers a free Web hosting service, iTHome.

Charles Choy, the marketing manager for Web Force Unlimited said the investment on the purchase of servers amounted to US$1 million. The firm has set itself a target of 100,000 SMEs registered for the service.

Web Force Unlimited is a member of the Business Incubation Program at the Hong Kong Industrial Technology Centre (Tech Centre) http://www.techcentre.org .

theregister: Intel-AMD speed war megahurts too much Posted Sunday, January 09, 2000 - 1:58 AM CST by linux-2000 staff
By: Mike Magee

x.86 companies AMD and Intel will play hop,skip and jump for the whole of this year, with the object of desire apparently to have the highest clock speed emblazoned on their, and their customers' products.

But there is a danger that if you don't work for Intel and AMD, you're likely to be deluded not only by the "my chip is faster than yours" claims, column inches in the press, and the patriotic fervour of some folk who seem to think microprocessor companies are soccer teams.

Most of the obfuscation has actually been caused by the microprocessor companies themselves, keen to persuade consumers that 800MHz is intrinsically a "better thing" than 750MHz.

Some people docare...witness the plethora of overclocking sites on the WWW, and the lengths people will go to get that extra bit of speed out of their machines. The "gaming nutters" as one distributor who will remain unnamed in this piece, dubs them, will always go for the 800MHz and the 900MHz and the 1GHz chip when it arrives, as well as overclocking the hell out of them.

But when Intel introduced its infamous Inside campaign back in 1991, many in the industry -- not least firms like Compaq -- felt that persuading the world they had to have a Chipzilla processor inside the box was, shall we say, somewhat unnecessary. Intel's very cunning plan, which is still running, was to help persuade to not only use its
microprocessors, but in return give them a bit of marketing dosh for displaying the Chipzilla logo on the adverts and on the outside of the machines. Some, perhaps with justice, felt this was a little bit like a hidden Intel tax... Complete story

WideOpen.com: TurboLinux Outsells Windows in China Posted Sunday, January 09, 2000 - 12:43 AM CST by linux-2000 staff
By: John Lettice

As Microsoft sniffily denies suggestions that the Chinese government is poised to ban Windows 2000, TurboLinux has opportunistically leapt into the fray by claiming it's been outselling Windows in China for the past four months.

The good news: TurboLinux is basing its claims on what seems to be a pretty substantial data set. The bad news: as piracy in China is estimated as being up around the 90 per cent level, what you sell there doesn't necessarily make a dent on the actual installed base.

TurboLinux's numbers come from what it claims to be the largest retail software chain in China, 256 outlet Federal Software Store. TurboLinux 4.0 at around $49 has been shifting more copies than the upgrade version of Windows 98 ($245 in China) and according to the company, the Win2k upgrade. Given that Win2k can't be available there yet, we're a little puzzled by this. But on reflection, it's got to be true - TurboLinux is obviously outshipping Millennium and Neptune as well.

Although the piracy situation does make Chinese sales figures somewhat artificial, retail success will certainly be helpful to TurboLinux in the long run, as China cleans up its act on intellectual property. The company also claims to have been making strides in bundling, recently clinching three deals with Chinese hardware vendors, has been donating copies of Linux to schools, and is funding the GNU/Linux Research Center at Tsinghua University.

mpog.com: Red Hat and iEN to Launch Co-Branded Gaming Site Posted Saturday, January 08, 2000 - 12:47 PM CST by linux-2000 staff
by John F. Graham

(Research Triangle Park, NC - January 7, 2000) - iEntertainment Network (Nasdaq: IENT) http://www.iencentral.com, a leading provider and operator of worldwide Internet entertainment communities, announced today it will launch a co-branded gaming site with Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT) http://www.redhat.com is a leader in open-source operating system software, services and information and distributes the popular Red Hat Linux OS.

"This groundbreaking agreement provides iEntertainment Network with the opportunity to access the Red Hat Linux revolution and to provide our award-winning content to the open-source community," said Dave Murray, iEN's V.P. of Marketing. "Red Hat is the clear leader in the open-source movement and we are eager to enter this phenomenal market."

Under the agreement, the Red Hat Homepage will feature the "Geek Games" http://www.gamesforgeeks.com site which contains a wide variety of computer games as well as Linux gaming news updates. iEntertainment Network will also begin developing games using Red Hat Linux.

In recent months, iEntertainment Network has signed contracts to provide entertainment content for Time Warner Entertainment's ENTERTAINDOMâ http://www.entertaindom.com site and EarthLink's Games Arena http://www.thegamesarena.com. In addition, iEntertainment Network has increased their Internet customer base by releasing new versions of their award-winning WarBirds and Dawn of Aces Internet flight simulation games, launching Hearts, Spades, Pinochle, Bridge, Rummy, Bingo eXtreme, completing their acquisition of the TheGamers.Net entertainment service, and establishing independent Bingo servers in both Germany and the UK.

Linux-Mandrake Gold Pack 2000 available Posted Friday, January 07, 2000 - 11:20 AM CST by linux-2000 staff
Submitted by: Alix Guillard of http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/

Linux-Mandrake Gold Pack 2000 offers new users an easy and convenient way to enter the Linux world

The latest MandrakeSoft package, Gold Pack 2000, is now available at local resellers throughout the USA and UK. The Linux-Mandrake Gold Pack 2000 is a complete solution to newcomers to the Linux world. It is packed with the latest enhancements to to out current distribution (Linux-Mandrake 6.1) and provides 60 days free phone support, an easy hard disk partitioning with System Commander, our new Graphical installer, DrakX and a free update to the next release of Linux-Mandrake.

currents.net: SuSE Linux On PowerPC Posted Friday, January 07, 2000 - 11:04 AM CST by linux-2000 staff
By Staff, ITdaily

Linux specialist SuSE ( http://www.suse.com ) has released the beta version of SuSE Linux 6.3 for the Macintosh PowerPC.

The sales release of SuSE Linux for Power PC is planned for this spring. A free test CD with the Linux operating system and a selection of free application programs can be obtained by contacting SuSE. A version will also be available on SuSE's ftp server (ftp.suse.com).

Like the currently available SuSE Linux 6.3 for Intel-compatible and Compaq Alpha platforms, the version for Power PC also works with the SuSE-specific administration tool YaST (Yet another Setup Tool) and SaX (SuSE advanced X Configuration). YaST provides integrated user and group administration and simplifies system administration. SaX sets up the graphical interface. The package, including the handbook and 60-day installation support, has an anticipated suggested retail price of US$49.95.

Source : ITDAILY.COM

CNET.com: LinuxToday cofounder launches new site Posted Thursday, January 06, 2000 - 10:18 PM CST by linux-2000 staff
By Stephen Shankland

Dave Whitinger helped start Linux Today in 1998, and Internet.com bought the publication in October 1999, one of a series of acquisitions. Now Whitinger has launched Linsight, which currently features a searchable schedule of Linux-related events and a summary of what Linux training and certification programs are available.

"I really wanted to fill out the other things that I know the community needs," a plan he had since well before Linux Today was acquired, Whitinger said in an email interview. "I wanted to create a complete Linux information resource that covered all aspects of Linux."

The creation of a Linux jobs site at Linux Today was intended to be "the beginning of our spreading outside of the realm of just reporting the news," but he and cofounder Dwight Johnson agreed such an expansion would spread the resources of the publication too thin.

Linux Web sites are all the rage as companies try to attract as much attention as possible for the newly popular, open-source operating system. Some companies, such as Andover.Net, hope to generate advertising revenue from the sites. VA Linux Systems, a Linux computer seller, hopes its sites will increase goodwill among Linux customers and make Linux a better product overall.

For its part, Red Hat hopes its site will drive sales of its Linux software and, to win more advertising revenue as well, has set up its own news site, WideOpen. Complete story

betanews: Corel’s Linux to Access and Run Windows Apps Posted Thursday, January 06, 2000 - 10:08 PM CST by linux-2000 staff
By Justin Jenkins, eFront

Corel Corp. announced today that it will be the first Linux distribution to offer "seamless connectivity" between the Linux operating system and applications designed for Microsoft's Windows.

Using technology similar to Citrix’s client, which enables Windows applications to be accessed over a network, Corel will use GraphOn software to give Linux the ability to use Windows applications via a network.

By using a centralized Windows-based server, Linux clients could run a number of Windows-based applications such as Microsoft Office or graphic programs like Adobe Photoshop.

A version of Corel’s Linux OS containing licenses for both Windows NT server, and Linux client versions of "GraphOn Bridges" software is set for mid-2000 shipment.

Michael Cowpland, president and chief executive officer of Corel Corporation said in a press release, "With the integration of GraphOn Bridges into the Corel LINUX OS it will be easy to enjoy the benefits and high reliability of Linux while having access to the most widely used Windows applications, this will enable organizations to mix Linux and Windows desktops seamlessly which is a prime goal of Corel in our Linux development."

Corel Corp.’s stock led the Toronto Stock Exchange in gains today on the announcement; the Ottawa-based Corel saw 32.5 percent gains, while being the third most active stock on the Nasdaq.

Wideopen: SuSE releases Linux for the Mac Posted Wednesday, January 05, 2000 - 1:22 PM CST by linux-2000 staff

If Apple has been slow in its uptake of Linux, the OS's distributors are picking up the slack. At MacWorld this week, SuSE is announcing the availability of Linux 6.3 in beta for the Macintosh PowerPC. Up until now, the only flavors available for the PowerPC have been LinuxPPC and Yellow Dog, though Mac users are anticipating upcoming releases from Debian and TurboLinux soon. Like it or not, it appears that open sourcers are turning the tables for Mac in 2000.

cnnfn.com: Red Hat buys software firm Posted Wednesday, January 05, 2000 - 1:02 PM CST by perl

Linux distributor to buy e-commerce software company for $90M in stock

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. (Reuters) - Red Hat Inc., the distributor of the Linux computer operating system, said on Wednesday it plans to
buy Hell's Kitchen Systems, which makes software for electronic commerce payment processing, for about $90 million in stock.
Red Hat (RHAT) plans to issue 398,335 shares to acquire the outstanding shares of privately held Hell's Kitchen. Red Hat shares rose 12 to 227 in Wednesday trading on Nasdaq. Linux is an alternative operating system to the Microsoft Corp (MSFT) Windows software that is
often used to run Web sites. Red Hat is in the process of expanding the software products it offers to organizations that are looking to move their business onto the Web. In November, the company bought Cygnus Solutions, a privately held supplier of Linux programming tools, for what was then about $674 million in stock. The transaction will be accounted for as a purchase transaction and is subject to approval by Hell's Kitchen shareholders.

msnbc.com: Linux retains the limelight Posted Tuesday, January 04, 2000 - 11:04 PM CST by perl

On Dec. 9, VA Linux Systems (LNUX) set the all-time first-day IPO record. Shares of the company, which provides large-scale computer servers and workstations specially designed for the Linux operating system, soared 698 percent. In his first interview since VA Linux’s quiet period ended, CEO Larry Augustin told CNBC Tuesday that the company’s prospects in the workstation market look bright.

ZDNet: VA Linux opens up SourceForge Posted Tuesday, January 04, 2000 - 10:58 PM CST by perl
By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, Sm@rt Reseller

Flush with IPO cash, stock market darling VA Linux stays true to its open-source roots.

VA Linux, the Linux hardware vendor and high-tech stock darling, is staying true to its open-source roots by opening SourceForge, a free online program repository and portal for open-source developers.

SourceForge, still emerging from a seven-week beta period, offers open-source developers more than just a data repository for the "official" version of their code and online forums. Services like these have long been available via ftp sites and Usenet newsgroups. Indeed, it was from just such universally available Net resources
that Linux itself sprang.

ZDNet: The Linux monkey on Microsoft's back Posted Sunday, January 02, 2000 - 11:19 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Mary Jo Foley

It's not simply Linux's notoriety that makes it a continued sore spot for Microsoft.

Microsoft continues to find itself caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the-little-operating-system-that-could.

While Microsoft execs seem to have been hoping that if they ignored Linux it would just go away, that's not going to happen. Not when Microsoft's other/better half, Intel, continues to throw investment money at just about every Linux distribution company. Nor when any white-box vendor that attaches its star to Linux sees its valuation rise nearly 800 percent on its IPO day.

But it's not simply Linux's notoriety that makes it a continued sore spot for Microsoft. Microsoft can't free itself from Linux's clutches because it continues to issue confused messages regarding Linux.

The company still is vacillating between two opposite poles. One, that Linux is not a real competitor- as Microsoft claims on its Linux myths Web page; and two, that Linux is poised to do real damage to Microsoft-as its Department of Justice defenders claim every chance they get. Add to this the fact that folks like Steven Sinofsky, VP of Office, admit to running Linux on desktops and give wishy-washy answers when asked whether Microsoft will ever port its desktop suite to Linux, and you've got true confusion. Complete story

osOpinion: Why Linux won't go away... Posted Sunday, January 02, 2000 - 9:08 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Authored by: Esko Woudenberg

Imagine an organization with hundreds (or thousands) of developers working for it. All the developers pick their own working hours. This organization has no personnel department, no accounting department, no marketing department (manages more than a 200% annual growth rate mainly through "word of mouth" advertising), no legal department, does not have to pay rent, gas, electric, or water bills... Has no "managerial types" - each and every developer manages their own workload... There are no receptionists, no janitors, and no formal public relations department. All software products and documentation are released electronically leaving virtually no distribution costs.

Instead of each developer being assigned to a task based on estimated needs and project/product plans each developer selects their own projects based on their own skills and abilities. A developer can spend dozens of hours improving the performance of a particular routine by only 2% if they feel like it and they don't have to justify the effort they put in to anyone. (Anyone who has spent any time around developers knows they are MOST productive when they are working on something they enjoy.) There are no deadlines. No pressure to release a given product by a particular date. Any developer who feels a product is not ready to ship can delay it until it is ready. Bug reports are submitted directly to the developers without a technical support department distorting the communication along the way. Anyone wanting to check on the status of a particular project could just grab the source code and compile it instead of playing 20 questions with the developers. Complete story

Linux-2000.org: Happy New Year! Posted Saturday, January 01, 2000 - 12:23 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By: Darrell Shifflett - Senior Systems Adm/Owner

Our first newsitem for 2000!

Happy New Year from the crew of Team Linux 2000. It's finally here :)

Y2K Bug Strikes Down Linux Today Posted Friday, December 31, 1999 - 10:40 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff

Posted by: LinuxToday

The Linux Today servers failed for five minutes precisely at 00:00 UTC on the new year, depriving Linux news readers worldwide of their accustomed headlines.

Investigation of the problem revealed a dirty little secret: dependence upon Microsoft non-Y2K-compliant software.

Budget Constraints and Lack of Y2K Preparation

We caught up with Dwight Johnson, co-founder of Linux Today, at his Sequim, Washington home. He agreed to speak to us even though he was in the midst of a New Year's Eve party. Johnson confessed, "Early on, we needed a way to report the banner statistics and put them into an Excel spreadsheet. I had this old 386 lying around that I was using to play solitaire, and I said 'Heck, this will do.' We were under some extreme budget constraints at the beginning and I figured that no one would ever find out. After all, it was set to automatically reboot when it crashed under the control of one of our Linux boxes. But this time it was Y2K -- it was down for the count."

When Johnson, who was at home posting stories at the time, realized that the site was down, he immediately phoned Paul Ferris, the Linux Today site administrator, in Louisville, Ohio.

Johnson further explained. "When Paul answered the phone, his speech was thick and slurred and he mumbled something about Budweiser as he logged into our servers in Dallas to correct the problem. Unfortunately, in his condition it took him all of five minutes to execute the simple cron script edit that was needed to correct the problem." Complete story

ZDNet: Feedback Center Posted Friday, December 31, 1999 - 10:06 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff

How does 500$ sound to you for entering in a survey?

(ZDNet)
"Thank you for agreeing to participate in the ZDNet Linux Web site survey."

ZDNet values its users' feedback and opinions, and regularly conducts surveys of our audience in a continued effort to provide the best possible user experience on ZDNet.

As a thank you for completing this survey, we will be awarding one lucky participant a $500 cash prize. We will also be giving away 60 ZDNet/PCWeek T-shirts as second place prizes, and 120 ZDNet/PCWeek compasses as third place prizes. Any duplicate contest entries will be removed, and winners will be notified after January 14, 1999. Check it out here!

CNet.com: Linux explodes onto the scene Posted Friday, December 31, 1999 - 9:47 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Stephen Shankland

Year in review In the 12 months of 1999, Linux rose from obscurity to overexposure.

The year began with a bang for the upstart operating system. In January, IBM, Compaq Computer, Dell Computer and Hewlett-Packard started selling systems designed for use with Linux. And the pace didn't let up. By the end of the year, four successful Linux-related initial public offerings raised hundreds of millions of dollars, at least three executives became paper billionaires and the operating system had grown from a counterculture hobby into a corporate mainstay.

Linux is a modern-day clone of the Unix operating system born decades ago. It began as a project on Linus Torvalds' computer in 1991 and since then has grown to the point where the biggest computing companies typically either include it in their own product lines or take it seriously as a competitor.

Red Hat, the seller of Linux instrumental in fueling this growth, embodies the history of Linux in 1999. Red Hat set the stage in 1998, securing investments from Intel and Netscape. Red Hat then led the first wave of Linux adoption, providing the technical support and a stable point of contact the computing heavyweights needed.

In the spring, Red Hat then cemented the legitimacy of Linux by soliciting investments from IBM, Novell, Oracle, Compaq, SAP and Dell. For Matthew Szulik, who took over as Red Hat CEO in November, this was the single biggest event in 1999--bigger even than Red Hat's IPO in August.

When the year began, Red Hat had 40 employees. Now, with the acquisition of Cygnus Solutions, Red Hat has grown tenfold to about 410, Szulik said.

And some of those employees are crucial. Red Hat snapped up Alan Cox, Stephen Tweedie, David Miller and other programmers at the heart of Linux development. "We were fortunate to have folks like Alan and Stephen choosing to join us way back before it became fashionable, before there was a true value established for the Red Hat stock," Szulik said.

Red Hat's IPO raised $84 million, providing serious capital for expansion and further development of Linux. It was followed by Cobalt Networks, Andover.Net and the biggest of them all, VA Linux Systems, which set a record when its stock closed at 698 percent above the IPO price in the first day of trading. Complete story

techweb.com: Light To Shine On Linux Shaman's New Gig Posted Wednesday, December 29, 1999 - 6:56 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff

Santa Clara-based Transmeta said Wednesday that it will launch its Crusoe Processors, "the world's first family of software-based smart microprocessors," on Jan. 19. Transmeta, which has been developing a "smart CPU," is a quiet Silicon Valley start-up that employs Linus Torvalds, the young Finnish programmer who created the Linux kernel.

osOpinion: Linux Sucks, NT Rocks / Use Linux, NT Sucks Rocks Posted Wednesday, December 29, 1999 - 6:48 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Authored by: Dean Pannell

"Linux Sucks, NT Rocks," the headline blared.

"No, no, no, no, no!", the old white-bearded fellow shouted at the new kid. "That's supposed to be 'Use Linux, NT Sucks Rocks'."

The diaper-clad cherub chomped down on his cigar. "Look Pops, you gotta get with the times. Your year in the sun is just about over. Linux is old news, yesterday's buzz. Don't you get it, man? 2000 is the year of 2000, Windows 2000, that is."

Showing unbelievable agility, the old man leaps forward and skillfully slices the cigar in two with his scythe. Startled, 2000 jumps back.

"Hey, look here, '99. You had a great year with Linux. That silly Finlander's face was everywhere. But you are nearly over. It's my turn now and I'm bringing lots of cool stuff to the table."

"Like Client Access Licenses?", the old year smirked.

"Hey look, you can't serve your customer's needs without a revenue stream. Besides, I was talking about things like Active Directory and improved performance. We're going to knock you and your stodgy old Unix mentality back to the penguins."

"Oh yeah, Active Directory," the old year mused, " that will be a problem."

"You bet your sweet patootie, it will," the little cherub chuckled." Complete story

BetaNews: Debian 2.2 Release Schedule Announced Posted Wednesday, December 29, 1999 - 6:36 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Justin Jenkins, eFront

Developers of the Debian distribution of the Linux operating system have announced the release schedule for the latest version of Debian, dubbed "Potato." As of January 2nd, no new packages will be accepted for inclusion into the Potato release. This will result in a "freeze" of development January 16th, and allow for extensive testing beginning around the 22nd of January.

The first "Test Cycle" will start with a preparation phase lasting about 2-3 days in which the base disks and CD images are prepared. Next, the team will begin testing on the code, slated to last about 10-14 days, wherein bugs are noted and fixes are prepared, but no actual changes are made. Finally, an evaluation phase will last 2-3 days and a decision will be made as to whether or not the distribution is acceptable for release. If the distribution is deemed fit for release, it will be distributed as is. If not, the Test Cycle will begin anew.

"I hope that two Test Cycles will be enough; that will put the release near the end of February." Richard Braakman, originator of the release schedule, anticipates.

All packages submitted after the January 2nd deadline will be included into the next release, code named "Woody" as keeping with the Toy Story theme.

Also recently released, Debian 2.1r4 features security and Y2k updates. Information on updated packages can be viewed here.

Debian has also set up a Y2k Web site, showing the compliance of Debian packages, available at http://www.debian.org/y2k

Linux-Mandrake Demo & Tutorial Posted Tuesday, December 28, 1999 - 9:28 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff

A new section has opened on Mandrake's website to demonstrate what you'll see when you install Linux-Mandrake on your PC. This week, take a lesson on the KDE Desktop and discover the Mandrake Update utility.

The Demo and Tutorial Center is available on http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/demos/

Internetnews.com: Access Unveils Linux Device Browser Demo Posted Tuesday, December 28, 1999 - 8:50 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By David Haskin Editor, allNetDevices

[Darien, CT] Access Co. Ltd. has made a free demonstration version of its NetFront browser for Linux-based embedded applications available to developers.

Access, a Japanese company, claims that NetFront owns 80 percent of the embedded browser market in that country. The browser is used in devices such as handhelds, smart phones and video game consoles in Japan.

The company says it is making the free demo available in an effort to expand its presence into Europe and the U.S.

The demo version of NetFront supports HTML 3.2, frames, cookies, Javascript, bookmarks, screen resizing, SSL 2.0/3.0, and PNG graphics. It operates under Linux 2.0.23 or later. It also runs on various RTOS including ITRON, OS-9, pSOSystem and VxWorks.

The demo is downloadable from the company's Web site. The company says that, depending on feedback, it will release a full version in the second half of 2000.

from internet.com's allNetDevices.

techweb: Progress Ships Linux Versions Of Software Posted Tuesday, December 28, 1999 - 7:02 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Rick Whiting, InformationWeek

Progress Software began shipping Linux versions of its database and application server products Tuesday.

Because Progress' software is the foundation for some 5,000 commercial applications from independent software vendors, Linux versions of Progress' products are expected to fuel Linux's already rapid growth.

Progress is shipping a Linux version of its Progress 8.3 suite, which includes the Progress AppServer application server and the Progress Enterprise RDBMS database.

The software is certified for Red Hat 6.0 Linux, according to the company, with certification for other flavors of Linux likely in 2000. Progress AppServer is priced starting at $3,900 for a five-user license, while the Progress Enterprise RDBMS starts at $725 for a five-user license.

Although Progress began selling version 9 of its product suite earlier this year, more copies of the earlier 8.3 release are currently in use among independent software vendors and their customers, so a Linux version of that release was developed first, the company said.

A Linux version of Progress 9 is expected in the first half of 2000, as is a Linux version of Progress' WebSpeed Internet development environment. Linux versions of Progress' Java-based Apptivity application server and SonicMQ Java messaging software are expected in the second half of 2000.

wideopen.com: Gnome and KDE: One GUI Too many? Posted Monday, December 27, 1999 - 7:53 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Paul Boutin

Linux is taking over server rooms at a dizzying rate, but its progress across consumer desktops is crawling at slug speed by comparison. Linux pegged only two percent of the $89 million desktop computer market in 1998, according to market research firm IDC. Sure, IDC's statistics only count "revenue shipments," where someone actually purchased a Linux license instead of installing a free or duplicate copy. But one in fifty sales is hardly world domination by any count.

What's keeping Linux locked up in the server room? Besides lacking a set of productivity applications as extensive (and ubiquitously deployed) as Microsoft Office, Linux also requires a consistent, user-friendly desktop environment, one that nontechnical users can grasp and developers can count on. In that respect, Linux runs on not one, but two desktop environments, the German-born K Desktop Environment, or KDE, and the GNU Project's GNU Network Object Model Environment, or Gnome. Both are making rapid progress, but both have a way to go to meet ease-of-use demands.

LinuxJournal: Linux: A Year in Review Posted Sunday, December 26, 1999 - 4:00 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
by Phil Hughes

A preview and summary of the December 28th episode of Phil Hughes' weekly radio show featured on Biz Soup.

For the past ten months, I have been doing my weekly spot on the radio. In this last edition of the year, I will review the topics I have covered during the year and project (that means make some guesses) as to what in coming in 2000.

The non-surprising thing happening is that the Linux market continues to grow. It is nice to see a good product with little marketing doing well against the huge marketing efforts of Microsoft. Linux has been the fastest-growing server operating system in 1999 (Solaris being number two).

The other major growth area is, of course, the desktop. Products such as Applixware, StarOffice and WordPerfect have made it possible for Linux to become a productive desktop environment that interoperates with other platforms. Sun's purchase of StarDivision and their decision to make StarOffice available for free to everyone certainly gave Linux a boost in this area.

We need to thank two entities that are not part of the Linux community for helping this year, as well.

CNN.com: Open source software gets a safety net Posted Sunday, December 26, 1999 - 2:46 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By: April Jacobs

(IDG) -- Open source software has taken up residence on enterprise networks despite initial concerns that its unconventional version control and support structure would make it a risky bet for corporate IS.

One big reason that companies have moved from playing around with open source programs, such as Linux, to using them in production networks is that a greatly improved service and support network has emerged.

Whereas at first companies relied solely on an informal network of online developers to get answers to their open source questions, service and support is now available from many sources. These include commercial Linux vendors such as Red Hat Software and Caldera Systems, as well as hardware companies such as Dell and IBM that install Linux on their computers. Also gaining attention are companies, such as Linuxcare and Mission Critical Linux that specialize in supporting open source software, as well as smaller consultancies.

"Certification, support and training opportunities are just exploding out there, and that is definitely contributing to some of the success open source is having," says Michael Prince, chief information officer at Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse in Burlington, N.J., which is installing Linux desktops at all 280 of its stores. Companies offering Linux service and support are pitching everything from technical support and training to hardware and software integration. Complete story

Fastcompany.com: Are You Ready for Linux? Posted Saturday, December 25, 1999 - 2:46 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
by John R. Quain

It's tough. It's fast. It's free. It's Linux -- the most hyped operating system since OS/2. Tech heads love it, but does Linux really mean business? There's only one person who can answer that question: you.

I've heard it all before: Unix will control the world's desktop computers! No, NextStep will rule! Wait a minute, make that OS/2 -- OS/2 will bury Microsoft Windows!

Not one of these predictions has come to pass. Instead, it's the McDonald's of software, Microsoft Windows, that's become the de facto standard for business computing. But now there are echoes of a new mantra in the land of computers: Linux, Linux, Linux.

Linux is yet another operating system, and tech heads are predicting that it will one day take over the computing world. They might be right. This time, the upstart is supported by thousands of volunteer programmers, hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital, and stratospheric stock valuations.

And there's more. Unlike past contenders for the title of heavyweight operating system, Linux is free. Anyone can download Linux from the Internet, and it works on just about every type of computer. Moreover, Linux is stronger, tougher, faster, and more secure than Windows -- at least, that's what Linux evangelists claim.

Linux's rise has been truly remarkable. But even until recently, Linux was mostly confined to back-office computers. Now, however, several hardware and software companies are trying to convince the rest of us that we should use Linux too.

Can we depend on a free operating system to run all of our business applications? To find out, I spent a few weeks installing Linux on different systems and sampling Linux-based software packages. After much poking and prodding, I'm primed to take on 10 of the most frequently asked questions about Linux. Here, then, are the FAQs. Complete story

ZDNet: Linux becomes people's choice in China Posted Saturday, December 25, 1999 - 2:06 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Will Knight

There is a strong identification between communist China and the open-source free OS

The Chinese government has displayed its enthusiasm for the community ethos behind the open source movement by moving towards Linux, thanks to a deal struck with server side computing firm GraphOn.

The deal will allow a variety of server side applications to be run on cost efficient Linux boxes in Chinese universities, military installations and eventually even within the government.

According to GraphOn there is a strong identification between communist China and the open-source free operating system that is taking the western world by storm. "Enthusiasm for Linux is coming from the very highest level of the Government in China," says Robin Ford executive vice president of GraphOn. "There are cultural reasons why they are so interested in Linux in China, because it is open source."

GraphOn concedes however that the Chinese government is probably enthused by its server technology because it provides a simple way of keeping an eye on users' computer activity. "It is all about control but it's not an ugly or a bad control, it's not a big brother sort of thing," says Ford. "It's about cost control and they've looked at the problems that other markets have had with desktop based application and want to avoid them."

TuxFiles.com: What is Linux Missing? Posted Friday, December 24, 1999 - 2:49 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By: three55ml (Andy, [email protected])


With all of the hype in the media about Linux, you would think that by now it would be on every computer in the world. However, we all know, it's not. While the Linux community is growing rapidly, there are still a number of drawbacks that Windows (and other OS) users experience in the transition process.

One drawback of Linux is the availability of software. While the avid Linux user has the knowledge to go out on the Internet to search for whatever type of software they desire, the average end-user does not. They expect to be able to go to the local computer store and find Linux programs on the shelves, just like any other OS such as Windows or Mac OS. While the number is Linux programs on the shelves is very slowly growing, it is not anywhere near the magnitude of Windows programs available. This creates the image that such programs are not available, despite the fact that such programs like StarOffice, AbiWord, and Applixware do exist. If Open Source applications such as AbiWord were packaged and sold on the shelves at cost of distribution, people would realize that software for Linux is available and of high-quality.

Even though there are numerous applications for Linux available, there really aren't that many of comparable quality and usability to their Windows counterparts in areas which the average user needs. For example, there is nothing for Linux that is comparable to something like Quicken for Windows, a popular financial application. While there are small applications being developed, there aren't any commercial applications developed that serve that purpose. Some Linux users seem to fear the commercialization of software, but in a sense, it is required for the further advancement and acceptance of Linux.

Another item which haunts many is the tweaking sometimes required to get a Linux system fully running. Setting up X can sometimes be a week-long process for newbies, giving them headaches about setting up monitor refresh rates and video card settings. The average user doesn't even know what chip-set their video card has, let alone the refresh rates of their monitor. While the level of setup required to get Linux fully running is decreasing with the latest releases from
companies like Corel and RedHat, some level of maintenance still remains to fully maintain a Linux system. Complete story

ZDNet: The Linux Monkey On Microsoft's back Posted Thursday, December 23, 1999 - 12:47 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Mary Jo Foley, Sm@rt Reseller

Microsoft continues to find itself caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to "the little operating system that could". While Microsoft execs seem to have been hoping that if they ignored Linux it would just go away, that's not going to happen. Not when Microsoft's other/better half, Intel, continues to throw investment money at just about every Linux distribution company. Nor when any white-box vendor that attaches its star to Linux sees its valuation rise nearly 800 percent on its IPO day.

But it's not simply Linux's notoriety that makes it a continued sore spot for Microsoft. Microsoft can't free itself from Linux's clutches because it continues to issue confused messages regarding Linux.

The company still is vacillating between two opposite poles. One, that Linux is not a real competitor— as Microsoft claims on its Linux myths Web page; and two, that Linux is poised to do real damage to Microsoft—as its Department of Justice defenders claim every chance they get. Add to this the fact that folks like Steven Sinofsky, VP of Office, admit to running Linux on desktops and give wishy-washy answers when asked whether Microsoft will ever port its desktop suite to Linux, and you've got true confusion. Complete story

ZDNet: Linux pioneer calls for Amazon boycot Posted Thursday, December 23, 1999 - 10:28 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Sharon Cleary, WSJ Interactive Edition

Richard Stallman is passing the word around the Net -- says Amazon's 1-click feature directly affects the 'freedom of e-commerce.'

An early developer of the Linux operating system has called for a boycott of Amazon.com Inc., claiming that the online retailer's effort to enforce its 1-Click patent "is an attack against the World Wide Web and against E-commerce in general."

The boycott was launched last week by Richard Stallman, who announced it in an article titled "Boycott Amazon" posted on the Linux Today Web site. News of the boycott has been widely distributed to Internet discussion groups and on Linux-related Web sites, such as slashdot.org.

Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) spokesman Bill Curry said the company is aware of the boycott, but declined to comment on whether the boycott has affected sales. He also declined to disclose how many complaints the company has received. Complete story

ZDNet: Red Hat's Young Chastises Sun Posted Thursday, December 23, 1999 - 12:18 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Charles Babcock, Inter@ctive Week

Robert Young, chairman of Red Hat, said Sun Microsystems has failed to learn from the open source model of software if it has turned away from establishing an international standard for Java.

"We're disappointed in that [the withdrawal from the ECMA standard-setting process] because Java had a chance of becoming an open, international standard," Young said in a recent interview. "Sun's withdrawal will give more momentum back to C and C++, and they had been losing out to Java. Sun will not be as successful with its new strategy in the future as it's been to date."

If Java becomes "just Sun's product," additional parties in the marketplace who might have adopted it will grow reluctant to base product lines on it, Young said.

Red Hat currently offers Red Hat 6.1, its own distribution of the Linux open source code operating system. Sun announced at its recent Java Business Conference in New York that a port of Java to Linux has been completed.

Young said the open source model of software development, where many volunteer contributors build complex software products, will prevail over older methods. Complete story

WideOpen: Microsoft's Advice for Linux Users Posted Thursday, December 23, 1999 - 12:01 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Russ Mitchell

Bill's team says: Wipe out Linux!

The PR battle is just getting started!

A resolution of the big antitrust trial is drawing near. Meantime, Microsoft is stepping up its campaign -- some say 'attacks' -- against Linux. The company recently posted a how-to guide titled "How to Remove Linux and Install Windows 2000 or Windows NT on Your Computer." In response, LinuxToday posted a tit-for-tat: "How to Remove Windows 2000 or Windows NT and Install Linux on Your Computer," which parodies the Microsoft page while providing step-by-step instructions.

These kinds of issues will look trivial if an antitrust settlement is reached. Once the trial's over, expect a major league FUDfest. Complete story

IDG.net: A dose of open source realism Posted Wednesday, December 22, 1999 - 5:15 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By PHIL HOCHMUTH, Network World

NEW YORK - It's easy to get overzealous about the potential of open source software these days, but even some of the technology's biggest proponents last week said they expect the software to make steady rather than sweeping gains in enterprise networks.

The Bazaar conference attracted a host of the industry's biggest names, including Red Hat CEO Bob Young, Corel CEO Michael Cowpland and open source advocates Richard Stallman and Eric Raymond. The conference attracted hoards of pony-tailed, T-shirt-wearing developers and engineers, as well as bearded elder statesmen of the open source community who stood in stark contrast to the nattily attired executives attending a snazzier e-commerce conference in another part of the Jacob Javits Center.

During his keynote presentation, Young noted that Linux, Apache and other open source software products have quietly made their way into corporate networks in recent years thanks to the many types of developers and engineers attending the conference. However, he said that open source software is still awaiting the approval of high-level IT executives. Complete story

MandrakeSoft: Linux-Mandrake 7.0beta available for download Posted Wednesday, December 22, 1999 - 3:32 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff

Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 18:14:31 +0100
From: Alix GUILLARD
To: [email protected]
Subject: Linux-Mandrake news

December 22, 1999 - MandrakeSoft is very pleased to announce that its new Linux distribution is available, only for geeks and testers who can't wait to discover all the new killer features that have been introduced. This beta version (NOT FOR PRODUCTION USE) includes:

- New perl/gtk based graphical installer Drakx, including support for many languages and the DiskDrake partitioner (lets one change the size of Ext2, FAT... disk partitions).

- Use of supermount (integrated in kernel 2.2.14) in order to suppress the need to mount and unmount for most removable medias (cdrom, floppy, zip): Mandrake easier to use than ever!

- Several security levels are available. They let you use your Linux box like a jail (extremely high security, restricted use), or like certain very common proprietary OSes (very poor security, no constraint in use). The default security level, medium, is the security level found in most standard Linux distributions.

- Improved desktop integration with new tools like DrakConf and rpmdrake that let the user manage its Linux-Mandrake box like a charm.

- New hardware configuration tools like lothar and XFdrake

The new distribution has to be tested by many people to detect any problem that would not have been found internally.

Hackers, Geeks, Nerds or simply curious users, just download Mandrake 7.0beta, have fun with it and report all the bugs! For this, just see http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/oxygenbeta.php3 and read the instructions!

WideOpen: The Real Y2K Crash Posted Wednesday, December 22, 1999 - 11:03 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Mark Gimein

On Dec. 10, a Fremont, Calif., software company called Zitel put out a press release announcing one of its software tools in a version compatible with the Linux operating system. The press release stretched through several pages of technical lingo, but as far as investors -- or stock market speculators -- were concerned, there was only one word in it that really mattered. The magic word, of course, was "Linux." The press release came on the heels of a series of blockbuster stock offerings from companies that sell Linux-related software, hardware and services. Thanks to one press release, Zitel was suddenly a "Linux company" and its stock price immediately jumped sixfold, from just over a piddling $1 a share to a respectable $6.

The really striking thing, however, for those who have been following the gyrations of the tech stock market over the last few years, is how familiar this scenario was. Because, in fact, this was the second time in recent memory that Zitel had shot up in the midst of a speculative mania.

In 1995, consultants had begun talking about the Year 2000 problem as the pressing issue in the information technology business. Fixing date problems in old computer programs, the consultants said, would cost U.S. companies hundreds of billions of dollars. Who would that money go to? Naturally, to computer services companies specializing in Year 2000 solutions like, you guessed it, Zitel. Complete story

ZDNet: Government expert backs open source Posted Wednesday, December 22, 1999 - 10:40 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Will Knight

A British security agent's endorsement of Linux and the open-source model highlights Windows concerns

An expert at the British government's computer security headquarters, CESG (Communications-Electronics Security Group) has endorsed Linux along with the open source model for software development as the most secure computer architecture available. CESG is the sister organisation of the notoriously secretive GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters).

Stuart Troughton, a consultant and civil servant at CESG offers expert advice to government agencies and departments on computer security and says that he believes in Linux 100 percent. "Linux is as secure as you can make a computer," he says. "First of all, Unix [on which Linux is based] is the paradigm that the computer is the network, so Linux is secure from the ground up. Secondly, it is open so if I'm not happy with something I can check it myself or hire someone to check it. This is very, very important considering that data is the most valuable thing on the planet, bar none."

Troughton also explains why he would never recommend a competing commercial product with hidden source code. He says, "Windows was built for a single computer and then the network was added on as an afterthought. Also it's closed source, and I would never ever trust someone else completely with security." Complete story

eFront: Network Solutions/CNET To Cross-Promote Posted Tuesday, December 21, 1999 - 6:43 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Newsbytes , eFront

Internet address registrar Network Solutions Inc. [NASDAQ: NSOL] and computer news and shopping Website CNET Inc. [NASDAQ: CNET], announced today an agreement to cross promote each other's online services to consumers.

Under the terms of the agreement, Network Solutions will promote CNET's services on its "dot com registry" of Internet domain names, while CNET will serve as another "portal" through which customers can register domain names with Network Solutions.

Through its News.com and its other editorial properties, CNET has regularly reported on the legal and business ramifications of Network Solutions' negotiations with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a not-for-profit organization charged by the Commerce Department with introducing competition into the domain name registration arena. But a NSI spokesperson says the deal is not a potential conflict of interest on CNET's editorial coverage of NSI.

"This is strictly an advertising deal and an exchange of services," said Christina Zulandy, an NSI spokesperson. " They don't run their articles by us before they print them," Zulandy said, of CNET editors.

Zulandy dismissed the notion the company's origins in and relationship with the Commerce Department could be perceived as a quasi- government agency endorsing a private product.

"While we may have gotten our contract through the federal government to develop domain name registrations, we're not owned by the government in any way," Zulandy said.

Tina Derjana, a spokesperson in the company's public relations office, claimed there was nothing amiss in the arrangement.

"There's a strong line between advertising and editorial," Derjana said. "Just because a company like Toshiba is advertising its products on our site doesn't mean we won't then run a review that's critical of a particular product of theirs." Complete story

WideOpen: Sun, Sendmail, Alpha, and Be Posted Tuesday, December 21, 1999 - 9:55 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By: Russ Mitchell


Linux chips Compaq is teaming up with Samsung in a $500 million investment deal to boost its marginalized Alpha chip. Computerworld talked to analysts who are dour on the speedy 64-bit microprocessor's future and wonder what's up with Samsung. Earlier in the year, Compaq tied Alpha's future more tightly with Linux, which is expected to give Alpha a boost -- just how big (or how little) nobody knows.

Linux certainly gets a boost by being on Alpha though -- as well as other 64-bit processors such as Sun's UltraSPARC and Intel's upcoming 64-bit chip. News.com reports that Hewlett-Packard is serious about smoothly integrating Linux with its 64-bit PA-RISC chip. Linux started out as an Intel-based PC version of Unix, but now that it's moving onto high-end chips, it's likely to grab more share away from Unix
itself.

Office vs. office

An analysis of Sun's StarOffice as a real competitor to Microsoft Office appears on Windows NT Magazine Online. Sun is taking the open source route with StarOffice and will make its wordprocessing, spreadsheet, email, and other components available over the Internet. The article discusses the delivery model for StarOffice but stops short of assessing the product's quality.

To be, or not

Recent rumors had Red Hat interested in buying Be, the company that makes the Be operating system. Like NeXT, Be has strong roots in Apple; and like NeXT, the BeOS is an operating system that everyone seems to love, but few are willing to buy. Whether the Red Hat rumors are true, or even whether that kind of deal makes sense, it's not bizarre to imagine Be thriving in a Linux world. Phil Hughes explains
on Linux Journal. Complete story

Silicon.com: Red Hat Q3 profits rise Posted Tuesday, December 21, 1999 - 8:31 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Suzanna Kerridge

Linux company, Red Hat, has posted mixed third quarter results as profits rose but share prices fell.

Revenues rose by 24 per cent from $4.4m to $5.4m for the period ending 30 November.

Mathew Szulik, president and CEO of Red Hat, said the increase was due to the success of Linux amongst the corporate community.

However, the company reported a net loss of $3.6m, or five cents a share, compared to net income of $100,000 for the same period last year. Wall Street had predicted a 4 cent share drop.

Following the news, the board of directors approved a two-for-one stock split giving every share holder additional shares to match currently held common stock.

osOpinion: Why Linux won't fall down Posted Tuesday, December 21, 1999 - 8:04 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Authored by Dave Lane Courtesy of Egressive.com

In recent months, as Linux has suddenly appeared in the commercial computing world's rear-view mirror (warning: Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear), many journalists have been forwarding the idea that Linux will inevitably fragment as Unix in general has done in years past, to the detriment of anyone foolish to leave the Microsoft fold and adopt it. This position demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of Linux as a system and of the open software "movement" as a force in technological development. The critical point that these dooms-sayers need to recognise is this: it's free. Not only in terms of dollars and cents, but much more importantly in terms of ownership.

The flaw in the logic of people who are spinning this gloomy fragmentation scenario can be explained by comparing the historical situation of proprietary Unices of the past with Linux today. Years ago, companies like Sun (SunOS and Solaris - see disclaimer below regarding trademarks and registered trade names), Santa Cruz Operations (SCO Unix), SGI (Irix), Digital (ULTRIX), Hewlet Packard (HP-UX), Microsoft (Xenix), and many many others, licensed from AT&T the right to develop their own proprietary versions of UNIX. Each was a totally closed system, and each vendor sought to create its own niche market by concentrating on a particular system speciality. Some added support for many processors, some forged ahead onto new, faster architectures like RISC, some added massive graphics support, some focused on networking reliability and security. In each case, the Unix vendor was trying to protect its own patch and the legal system encouraged them to do so with patents and other legal barriers to competition. Any means they could find to differentiate their product from others was a potential reason for customers to shift to them. The world's legal systems offered nearly complete protection to their operating system innovations, so there was good reason to invest money in them. The problem was this: what system was a client to choose? And if they made a choice, investing heavily in one solution, what happened if their vendor went bust (as many did) or if some other vendor emerged who offered a better solution? Consumers were railroaded into vendor dependency. They had no recourse - it was very much a case of buyer beware! Complete story

Computerworld: VA Linux IPO Leads to Craze Posted Monday, December 20, 1999 - 4:20 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By: Kathleen Ohlson

VA Linux Systems Inc.'s stock debut followed the spiky pattern of other Linux offerings, though even the downward spikes indicate that there's considerable investor interest in Linux.

The company's stock gained 700% in its first day of trading. But its ride - like other Linux initial public offerings (IPO) - came back to reality days later.

The wild run was partly due to the hype surrounding Linux and the relatively small number of shares available to trade, according to Irv DeGraw, senior research director at WorldFinanceNet.com in Sarasota, Fla. Initially 4.5 million shares were available for trading, but the majority of them fell into so-called safe hands - traders who bought VA Linux stock and kept it, DeGraw says. "Only a narrow amount was available to float around, and the bogeymen pushed and pulled it," he says.

VA Linux [Nasdaq:LNUX] in Sunnyvale, Calif., manufactures machines based on processors from Intel Corp. [Nasdaq:INTC] that run the Linux operating system - an alternative to Microsoft's Windows NT. The company's stock opened its first day of trading Dec. 9 at $30 and closed at $320. The price subsequently stabilized at around $180 last week. Complete story

Ecommerce times: Network Associates Security-Enables Linux Developers Posted Monday, December 20, 1999 - 12:27 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By: Matthew W. Beale

Utility software provider Network Associates (Nasdaq: NETA) today announced that a version of its antivirus software development toolkit is now available to developers using the Linux operating system.

McAfee's Virus Interface for Protective Early Response (VIPER) for Linux enables third party developers and service providers to embed the company's antivirus engine into Linux-based e-business applications, Internet appliances and managed service offerings.

The VIPER for Linux toolkit features includes support for HTTP, FTP and SMTP protocol scanning, on-the-fly file decompression, macro virus support and heuristic analysis, automatic updates and support from McAfee's Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team (AVERT).

Network Associates made its first moves into the market for Linux-based solutions in 1996 with the release of WebShield for Linux. The company's McAfee VirusScan products today support numerous operating system platforms, including Linux, Windows 3.x, Windows 9x, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Novell Netware, Sun Solaris, HP-UX, IBM AIX, SCO OpenServer and the Mac OS.

Linux Security Grows

The company points to a study by research firm Computer Economics indicating that in the first half of 1999, virus outbreaks caused e-businesses and end-users more than $7.6 billion in damage, as incentive for e-commerce operations to take security threats seriously. Complete story

ZDNet: Linuxcare? Next Big Linux IPO? Posted Monday, December 20, 1999 - 11:57 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By: Charles Babcock, Inter@ctive Week

Linuxcare receives £20m in second-round financing and heads for an IPO

Linuxcare, the San Francisco-based technical support organisation for Linux, announced last week that it had received £20m in second-round financing and acquired The Puffin Group, noted for its expertise in moving Linux to Hewlett-Packard servers.

The two moves did little to dampen expectations that Linuxcare is moving toward an initial public offering. After hugely successful IPOs by Linux distributor Red Hat and Linux server makers Cobalt Networks and VA Linux Systems earlier this year, speculation has begun to focus on Linuxcare - a virtual unknown a year ago - as the next Linux company that will run up massive market capitalisation.

At last week's announcement, Linuxcare officials showed they were capable of coping with the spotlight. President and Chief Executive Fernand Sarrat, a 23-year IBM veteran, refused to join in IPO speculation, instead focusing attention on his company's initiatives.

Linuxcare is establishing a network of 50 Linux support personnel around the world to provide around-the-clock Linux support. Its technical support staff will deal with problems with Red Hat, SuSE, TurboLinux or any other distribution of the open source operating system. And it is busy building four data centres to provide the computing power needed to offer that support, said Pat Lambs, vice president of service solutions at Linuxcare. Complete story

ZDNet: Intel regains speed lead with 800MHz Pentium III Posted Monday, December 20, 1999 - 10:59 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By John G. Spooner, ZDNet News

Intel Corp. is stepping up its attack on Advanced Micro Devices Inc. in a battle that should ultimately benefit the consumer.

The Santa Clara, Calif., chip maker on Monday rang the bell in its latest round with AMD, announcing it is now shipping 750MHz and 800MHz Pentium III chips.

The 750MHz Pentium III was expected in January. The 800MHz Pentium III, however, comes a full two months before it was originally expected.

This, analysts say, is in response to mounting pressure from AMD (NYSE: AMD). The move is the latest in a series of jabs between Intel and AMD, which began when AMD announced its Athlon processor at speeds of up to 650MHz in August.

The boxing match will only benefit consumers, analyst say.

And the winner will be ...

"Pick your sides and cheer," said Mike Feibus, principal at market research firm Mercury Resources Inc. "The thing that no buyer wants to see here is a knockout punch. Instead, what they want to see is a long knockdown, drag-out match."

That's because as Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) and AMD battle it out, each company will push hard to be first with the fastest chip. The result will be that PC buyers get more power more quickly and, at the same time, prices on existing processors drop faster.

Since August, AMD and Intel have battled back and forth with faster chips. AMD beat Intel to 700MHz in October and 750MHz in November. But Intel made it first to 733MHz and now 800MHz. Complete story

ZDNet: Red Hat misses estimates, splits stock Posted Monday, December 20, 1999 - 10:17 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Larry Dignan, ZDII

Red Hat Inc. missed estimates by a penny Monday in its third quarter, but said it would issue a 2-for-1 stock split.

The Durham, N.C., company reported a loss of $3.6 million, or a nickel a share, on sales of $5.4 million. The results were a penny below First Call consensus. Third-quarter sales were up 24 percent compared to $4.4 million in the second quarter.

In the third quarter a year ago, Red Hat broke even on sales of $3.3 million.

In a statement, Matthew Szulik, Red Hat's CEO, said the revenue growth was attributed to demand for Red Hat Linux and services, expansion from Red Hat's global offices and traction for redhat.com.

Red Hat declared a 2-for-1 stock split for shareholders of record as of Dec. 27. After the split, Red Hat will have 137.6 million shares outstanding. The split will occur on or about Jan. 7.

Red Hat added that it was planning a secondary offering of more shares. The company said it would register the offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission soon. No further details were available. Complete story

WideOpen.com: Web Crawlers Posted Saturday, December 18, 1999 - 12:45 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Writer: Patricia Krueger & Anne Speedie

February 1995. The Web was just beginning to gain mainstream attention, and most Web servers ran the public domain HTTP daemon developed by Rob McCool at the University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Problem was, McCool had left NCSA in '94 and development of the server software had halted. So a group of eight webmasters banded together to share extensions and bug fixes and coordinate patches. (Apache owes its name to "a patch.") These eight core contributors, Randy Terbush, Brian Behlendorf, Roy Fielding, Rob Hartill, David Robinson, Cliff Skolnick, Robert Thau, and Andrew Wilson, founded the Apache Group. Under the Apache license, they enlisted the help of hackers worldwide. (The Apache license allows developers to modify code and sell the new program without having to distribute modifications in the source code.) Now, according to a Netcraft survey, Apache holds 55 percent of the Web server market, more than all the other competing servers combined. Here are the original developers' stories: Complete story

Wideopen.com: Banking on Apache Posted Saturday, December 18, 1999 - 11:50 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Writer: Patricia Krueger

If the recent bevy of Linux-related IPOs have proven anything, it's that open source is not averse to cash flow. But while the Street is just waking up to the fact that Linux has the potential to revolutionize computing, another far-reaching open source project, Apache, isn't registering on the market's barometer. Several companies have launched successful business models off the Apache code, some long before most investors even heard the words open source. One company in particular is in a position to take the lead in the Apache arena: Covalent Technologies.

Covalent today announced the influx of $5 million in its first round of funding, led by H&Q Venture Associates. Not an extraordinary sum by Silicon Valley standards, but enough for the Apache community to take note.

Covalent's bread and butter has been its Raven SSL module, an Apache appliance that provides encryption needed to securely transfer data, such as credit card info. But the company's funding marks what CEO Randy Terbush calls not a shift but an expansion of its business model -- either way, it's one that aims to make Covalent the premiere Apache support and services provider.

In October, Covalent launched its tech support service for Apache -- server software that sends up requested HTML pages or files to a browser -- and with the added cash, the company plans to ramp up commercial offerings for the server, as well as training and certification programs. Like VA Linux Systems and Red Hat in the Linux arena, the company appears to be trying to make itself a commercial gateway to all things Apache. Complete story

Redherring.com: Corel CEO shills for stock by loving Linux Posted Saturday, December 18, 1999 - 2:30 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By R. Scott Raynovich

NEW YORK -- There's a common joke circulating around technology investment circles these days that suggests that companies with lagging stock prices should slap "Linux" on their company names.

That's exactly what Michael Cowpland, founder and CEO of Corel (Nasdaq: CORL), has done. And any investor who has one eye on the wallet should be very suspicious of a CEO who follows a strategy that's the butt of water-cooler jokes.

As the high-technology equivalent of a ch-ch-changin' David Bowie, Mr. Cowpland's latest rock-and-roll alter ego is a Linux revolutionary reinventing his second-tier Canadian manufacturer of desktop applications as a Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) slayer.

Speaking on Thursday at Bazaar, a conference focusing on Linux development and technology held as part of the eBusiness expo in New York City, Mr. Cowpland described Corel's new push into the Linux arena. Complete story

currents.net: Linux Desktop Apps Get Boost Posted Friday, December 17, 1999 - 7:15 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Martin Stone, Newsbytes.

Sound Blaster Live and Personal Digital Entertainment products will be available to desktop users of the Linux operating system (OS), according to announcements today from Corel Corp. [NASDAQ:CORL] and Creative Technology Ltd. [NASDAQ:CREAF].

The companies said they have formed a partnership to develop Linux applications for high-quality online audio and video. They will work together to generate support for Sound Blaster Live digital audio solutions and Personal Digital Entertainment (PDE) Internet products, including Internet devices, applications and services.

Part of the collaborative effort will see Corel distribute its upcoming Linux-based suite of applications with support for Creative's industry-standard audio solutions and PDE devices bundled in, the firms said. Creative and Corel will team to develop Linux drivers for Creative's branded products.

Creative's PDE line includes NOMAD portable audio devices and the WebCam Go line of portable PC cameras. Sound Blaster Live drivers for Linux are already available and will, under the new agreement, be customized for Corel's distribution, the partners reported.

Reported by Newsbytes.com

The Register: Red Hat to buy Be? Posted Friday, December 17, 1999 - 6:36 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
by Tony Smith

Even as rumours that Red Hat is about to buy Corel are moving back onto the Linux watcher's radar screen, so has a further item of tittle-tattle that the best-known open source operation is about to
buy alternative OS vendor Be.

Indeed, Be's shares rose 49 per cent yesterday, to $37.56, apparently on the back of the rumour. Neither company has yet commented on the claim.

One analyst, Charles Payne of Wall Street Strategies, cited by Bloomberg, said Be's software would add applications that Red Hat's software doesn't offer -- neglecting to realise that the two operating systems, while structurally similar (kernel, shell, graphical UI) aren't compatible, and BeOS is no less proprietary than Windows 2000.

That said, those very structural similarities would make BeOS a candidate for a move into the open source world. Strip out the existing (and handily Unix-like) kernel and slide in a modified version of the Linux kernel with BeOS' rather fine journaling file system tacked-on, and you've got a version of Linux with an series of media-oriented API and a top-notch GUI light years ahead of KDE and Gnome.

Sounds an interesting plan, but the Linuxisation of BeOS would be tantamount to an admission of failure on Be's part, a confession that it can't after all compete with the open source OS. Be itself is doing reasonably well an OS vendor, with a small but solid band of supporters, and is pushing hard to make it big in the information appliance market. Complete story

silicon.com: Sun to offer Red Hat Linux Posted Thursday, December 16, 1999 - 7:46 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By: Lisa Burroughes

Sun Microsystems is to offer Red Hat's Linux 6.1 through its online store for use on Sun UltraSPARC workstations and Sun Enterprise servers.

The company will also provide full support for any customers opting to run Linux instead of its own Solaris operating system, in what it claims is a response to customer demand.

Sun is following other industry heavyweights such as Dell and IBM in reacting to the popularity of Linux.

Rob Hailstone, research director at Bloor, said: "Sun has to do this because Linux has reached a point where if it doesn't, it will start to lose customers and rule itself out of the marketplace. There are a growing number of people who would look at Linux first and then look at the platform."

He went on to say that Sun is likely to position the offering for entry-level customers, and migrate them to Solaris as their demands increase or if they become dissatisfied with Linux. "Purely in terms of hardware sales, Sun will benefit because it knows that already there are a lot of people buying non-Sun hardware so they can run Linux on it. This way it can also position Solaris as the proven fall-back if Linux fails," Hailstone added.

A spokeswoman for Red Hat said: "We are particularly pleased that this decision is being led by customer demand and we are consequently working with Sun and other vendors towards making Linux available on as wide a range of platforms as possible, in as many countries as possible," she said.

Red Hat's Linux 6.1 will initially only be available to US customers through SunStore ( http://www.sun.com/store ). However, a worldwide agreement will follow soon.

osOpinion: HYPING LINUX Posted Wednesday, December 15, 1999 - 9:44 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Authored by: Dale Franks

It seems like everyone in the computer industry is championing Linux to sound the death knell to the Microsoft Windows monopoly. Yet, despite the hype, a large percentage of the user community doesn't even know what Linux is. Ask ten average computer users about Linux, and eight of them will tell you that it is a character in "Peanuts."

It doesn't really matter whether Linux is a good Operating System. This is about user acceptance, not quality. If quality were the standard, we'd be corresponding on G4 PowerMacs using Quickmail. But we aren't, because the marketplace often puts a premium on things other than quality.

The average user doesn't care about SQL Server, Oracle or DB2. The average user wants to install Tomb Raider III quickly, and get right to the serious business of ogling Lara Croft's breasts. The average user wants all of his plug and play devices to work automatically. He wants to do his little Excel spreadsheets, and his little Word documents. The average user doesn't want to get past the point of frustration with Linux, and won't use anything that forces him to. The average user doesn't care that configuration files are in /etc, because the average users a) don't know what configuration files are, and b) don't care to know how to find "/etc". Not only that, they don't care to learn about it, any more than they care to learn what "cd", "pwd", mkdir", "touch" or "ls -l" means. Complete story

CRN.com: Red Hat Picks Up Another Distributor Posted Tuesday, December 14, 1999 - 8:23 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Jennifer Hagendorf, Computer Reseller News

KeyLink Systems said Monday it signed an agreement to distribute Red Hat Inc.'s Linux operating system.

By adding KeyLink Systems, a Pioneer-Standard Electronics Inc. company, to its distribution ranks, Red Hat, Durham, N.C., will gain access to KeyLink's 4,500 reseller partners.

"We're investing in our relationship with Red Hat by bolstering our technical support staff, integration capabilities and sales focus to accommodate the anticipated demand," said Bob Bailey, senior vice president of Pioneer's Computer Systems Division, Cleveland, in a statement.

Other Red Hat distributors include Ingram Micro Inc., Tech Data Corp., Frank Kasper & Associates Inc., Navarre Corp. and JBSI.com, the systems integration and distribution arm of Jones Business Systems.

techweb.com: Corel Claims Linux Driver' Seat Posted Monday, December 13, 1999 - 7:28 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By: Reuters

OTTAWA - Canadian software developer Corel Monday said it's in the driver's seat in the red-hot Linux technology race, and that it is planning to stay there.

Linux is a computer operating system considered a possible challenger to Microsoft's Windows NT. The massive stock market gains made by Linux-linked companies recently, and the growing number of firms that want to pursue Linux development work with Corel, prove the company's early Linux efforts are paying off, Chief Executive Michael Cowpland told Reuters.

"Virtually every company is underway with Linux development, with the exception of one," he said, referring to rival Microsoft . "That's the benefit of being the early mover...We don't have to call people. They call us."

Companies are discussing joint development work ranging from localized versions of Linux tools to technology such as drivers, Cowpland said.

Corel launched a version of the Linux operating system for desktop computers November 15, and plans to launch Linux versions of its flagship software in 2000. Complete story

boston.com: For programmers, it's principle vs. Linux riches Posted Monday, December 13, 1999 - 5:44 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff

As one forgos wealth, another pockets a cool $36m on paper.

A couple of years ago, software engineer Eric Raymond was a lonely voice crying in the wilderness. Last week, the Malvern, Pa., resident became rich enough to buy his own forest.

Richard Stallman, the renowned Cambridge software designer, also could have cashed in, but he turned down the chance as a matter of principle.

Raymond and Stallman are friends, rivals, and leaders of the most powerful movement in the computer business this year, one that poses a serious threat to the power of software titan Microsoft Corp.

It's called ''open source'' or ''free software,'' depending on whether you ask Raymond or Stallman. And the differences in those two terms helps explain why Raymond is a millionaire and Stallman isn't.

Stallman, the intellectual godfather of the movement, helped to create the world's best-known open source product, the GNU/Linux operating system.

Stallman believes that all software should be ''free.'' That doesn't mean he objects to selling software. Stallman means that once someone buys a program, he should be able to make as many copies as he likes and give them away without fear of being charged with software piracy.

Just as important, Stallman says that all software should include the ''source code'' - the actual instructions as written by the programmers. Complete story

Wideopen.com: Who's Hip to Linux? Posted Sunday, December 12, 1999 - 1:19 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Writer: Patricia Krueger & Anne Speedie

PC vendors who have stepped up efforts to embrace Linux -- and those who have not.

Compaq
A long-standing Linux supporter, Compaq has loaded Linux in its servers and workstations since the first quarter of this year, offering the OS on distributions of the ProLiant, Prosignia, and AlphaServer series, among others. In the latter half of '99, Compaq's Linux options grew to include its Deskpro EN and EP series, systems that customers can have bundled with Red Hat 6.0 upon request. So far, the manufacturer is only providing in-house tech support for the Red Hat distribution, but Compaq is currently testing its machines' compatibility with Caldera, TurboLinux, and SuSE, as well.

Dell
Dell's move to install Linux across its entire line of PowerEdge servers is a testament to the consumer interest in the free OS: The company says its Linux shipments have more than doubled in just the past quarter. While PowerEdge represents the most comprehensive Linux offerings to date for Dell, it's not the company's first. In April of this year, Dell began installing Red Hat 6.0 on selected configurations of the Precision workstations, and the OptiPlex and Dimension desktop systems. Equally important to its Linux offerings is its commitment to tech support. All of the above systems are included with 90 days free support from Red Hat or Linuxcare, depending on the machine. Consumers can look forward to Linux availability on the Inspiron computers, which are currently being tested for compatibility.

Gateway
Gateway announced yesterday the addition of the Micro Server 100 and 200 machines, low maintenance, low-cost servers that run on Linux 2.0. Just this past September, the manufacturer announced the option to install Gateway ALR servers (ALR 7000, 8000, or 9000) with Red Hat's 6.0 version of Linux. The company can even dually load one of these machines with Linux and Windows systems, though they admit the demand has yet to arise. Complete story

USATODAY: How Linux came to be Posted Sunday, December 12, 1999 - 10:30 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By: Will Rodger, USATODAY.com

The question was as disarming as it was sincere.

A long-time source, computer programmer and friend was on the phone, chatting, as usual, about politics and his industry. Then arose the white-hot topic of the day: the phenomenal performance of Red Hat Inc. The company today is worth more than 20 times the price at which it opened Aug. 11.

"Now," he said. "These guys give their software away. How exactly do they make money?"

I gave him a brief summary: Red Hat charges for support companies need to make the programs work with their complex systems. All that was true, but it wasn’t half the story. The fact is, more than a few investors are convinced Linux and other 'open source' (more or less free) software programs will reshape the entire software industry.

I should have given him my copy of The Cathedral and the Bazaar, a collection of essays by open source anthropologist, philosopher and sometime huckster Eric S. Raymond.

As expected, the dust jacket is littered with quotes from many 'important people' about how it is a "landmark" book about software’s "declaration of independence" from huge software developers.

It’s easy enough to dismiss all that as hype. But in this case, they may well be right. So right that, in the wake of the breathtaking debut of VA Linux Systems Inc. Thursday, board member Raymond as of this writing owns nearly $38 million in company stock. He will also have the right to buy 150,000 more shares -- worth a staggering $34 million -- for a bit more than $6,000. Complete story

Red Hat, Inc. Errata Advisory: October GNOME packages available Posted Saturday, December 11, 1999 - 11:40 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Red Hat, Inc. Errata Advisory

Synopsis: October GNOME packages available
Advisory ID: RHEA-1999:059-01
Issue date: 1999-12-03
Keywords: October GNOME
---------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Topic:

October GNOME update packages

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Linux 6.1

3. Problem description:

Many bugs in the GNOME desktop/development environment included in Red Hat
Linux 6.1 were fixed prior to the October GNOME release (1.0.53).

This set of packages contains the full October GNOME release with all
updates. If you are experiencing a bug in a component of the GNOME
desktop, it is likely that installing the corresponding package(s) will
fix it. Please also note that the RHSA-1999:058 has GNOME-related packages
with fixes other than the security fixes featured, so your problems may be
solved by merely installing those packages.

Off the top of my head, notable fixes (between these packages, and the
gnome-core one in the security advisory) are:
. Pixmap theme crashes (gtk-engines)
. URL clicking in gnome-terminal (gnome-libs)
. gnome-terminal focus (gnome-core)
. gtcd crashes (gnome-media)

If you are not experiencing any problems at all with GNOME, you can feel
completely free of obligation to install these packages. :)

4. Solution:

For each RPM for your particular architecture, run:
rpm -Uvh
where filename is the name of the RPM.

5. RPMs required:

Intel:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/audiofile-0.1.9-2.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/audiofile-devel-0.1.9-2.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/control-center-1.0.51-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/control-center-devel-1.0.51-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/ee-0.3.11-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/glib-1.2.6-2.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/glib-devel-1.2.6-2.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/gnome-games-1.0.51-3.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/gnome-games-devel-1.0.51-3.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/gnome-libs-1.0.54-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/gnome-libs-devel-1.0.54-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/gnome-media-1.0.51-2.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/gnome-pim-1.0.55-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/gnome-pim-devel-1.0.55-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/pygnome-1.0.50-2.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/pygtk-0.6.3-2.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/pygtk-libglade-0.6.3-2.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/gnome-utils-1.0.50-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/gnumeric-0.38-8.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/gtk+-1.2.6-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/gtk+-devel-1.2.6-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/gtk-engines-0.9-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/gtop-1.0.5-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/libglade-0.7-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/libglade-devel-0.7-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/libgtop-1.0.5-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/libgtop-devel-1.0.5-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/libgtop-examples-1.0.5-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/libxml-1.7.3-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/libxml-devel-1.7.3-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/magicdev-0.2.6-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/mc-4.5.40-2.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/mcserv-4.5.40-2.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/gmc-4.5.40-2.i386.rpm

Sparc:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/audiofile-0.1.9-2.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/audiofile-devel-0.1.9-2.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/control-center-1.0.51-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/control-center-devel-1.0.51-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/ee-0.3.11-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/glib-1.2.6-2.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/glib-devel-1.2.6-2.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/gnome-games-1.0.51-3.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/gnome-games-devel-1.0.51-3.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/gnome-libs-1.0.54-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/gnome-libs-devel-1.0.54-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/gnome-media-1.0.51-2.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/gnome-pim-1.0.55-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/gnome-pim-devel-1.0.55-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/pygnome-1.0.50-2.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/pygtk-0.6.3-2.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/pygtk-libglade-0.6.3-2.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/gnome-utils-1.0.50-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/gnumeric-0.38-8.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/gtk+-1.2.6-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/gtk+-devel-1.2.6-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/gtk-engines-0.9-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/gtop-1.0.5-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/libglade-0.7-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/libglade-devel-0.7-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/libgtop-1.0.5-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/libgtop-devel-1.0.5-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/libgtop-examples-1.0.5-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/libxml-1.7.3-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/libxml-devel-1.7.3-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/magicdev-0.2.6-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/mc-4.5.40-2.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/mcserv-4.5.40-2.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/gmc-4.5.40-2.sparc.rpm

Source packages:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/audiofile-0.1.9-2.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/control-center-1.0.51-1.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/ee-0.3.11-1.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/glib-1.2.6-2.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/gnome-games-1.0.51-3.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/gnome-libs-1.0.54-1.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/gnome-media-1.0.51-2.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/gnome-pim-1.0.55-1.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/gnome-python-1.0.50-2.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/gnome-utils-1.0.50-1.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/gnumeric-0.38-8.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/gtk+-1.2.6-1.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/gtk-engines-0.9-1.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/gtop-1.0.5-1.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/libglade-0.7-1.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/libgtop-1.0.5-1.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/libxml-1.7.3-1.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/magicdev-0.2.6-1.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/mc-4.5.40-2.src.rpm


6. Verification:

MD5 sum Package Name
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
705ea4686b3d973cf964fe18d651f833 i386/audiofile-0.1.9-2.i386.rpm
f39325a209b108f95507788dfd53ca87 i386/audiofile-devel-0.1.9-2.i386.rpm
cd6c0466fb7c96854bec83c48a355709 i386/control-center-1.0.51-1.i386.rpm
83186b2e33e2bcfea7aa7c22e9b91901 i386/control-center-devel-1.0.51-1.i386.rpm
1af64dca779f049e0b92d0f45da0d4c5 i386/ee-0.3.11-1.i386.rpm
84d9c6b097e50d2875851cc166902117 i386/glib-1.2.6-2.i386.rpm
8ef8a3b1c768033ca3fba998ef7803a4 i386/glib-devel-1.2.6-2.i386.rpm
404e2a7ef819932e6f16838b64c4bc91 i386/gnome-games-1.0.51-3.i386.rpm
c92833840cde0d2c6217ebecbc5938c9 i386/gnome-games-devel-1.0.51-3.i386.rpm
28e89432475284d0f8abb8b594b4c5cf i386/gnome-libs-1.0.54-1.i386.rpm
fcbef5a6eb84e59ff3097db4fdfccc2e i386/gnome-libs-devel-1.0.54-1.i386.rpm
129064a878efbb7973b72ed755d72af6 i386/gnome-media-1.0.51-2.i386.rpm
e266338ec4cae917726999013c2b5713 i386/gnome-pim-1.0.55-1.i386.rpm
4a9c13c143c6c0a1a1d6dded6180cf87 i386/gnome-pim-devel-1.0.55-1.i386.rpm
9aa1728b6271b04f1928fd5f42b3a7be i386/pygnome-1.0.50-2.i386.rpm
a220e378915de1385fc761c675cb8153 i386/pygtk-0.6.3-2.i386.rpm
0d751f6440804f953498b63f99ee824e i386/pygtk-libglade-0.6.3-2.i386.rpm
a04e8300275383e5a28baf6c8de559ca i386/gnome-utils-1.0.50-1.i386.rpm
e66ab2e4380d118e67c1636a7f83f6cb i386/gnumeric-0.38-8.i386.rpm
e229b3af953a3267e21ae8b59c2a0954 i386/gtk+-1.2.6-1.i386.rpm
385f6f150e37a23e29be358403f0dbc0 i386/gtk+-devel-1.2.6-1.i386.rpm
b6592746faab1ab34d3a2e8fe3d9e2cd i386/gtk-engines-0.9-1.i386.rpm
4e42c89da8e204f7d0f72c73d107c042 i386/gtop-1.0.5-1.i386.rpm
0d3a5e25da276c57e20eb3252082c0a5 i386/libglade-0.7-1.i386.rpm
ed670bd40a3dd55801c5ada2db86aa95 i386/libglade-devel-0.7-1.i386.rpm
923821d947c267899ed0437e32854fbe i386/libgtop-1.0.5-1.i386.rpm
b6ef1085ebdb0d250b5efad1fa594bce i386/libgtop-devel-1.0.5-1.i386.rpm
1f7a682d3488fba9a3cbef62dd44e36d i386/libgtop-examples-1.0.5-1.i386.rpm
6336c4cdb14ceecf316eff56d51016a6 i386/libxml-1.7.3-1.i386.rpm
17516114b1f3d87e343ffeefae640522 i386/libxml-devel-1.7.3-1.i386.rpm
4a2b0efec3686f91a3220aed5426fbca i386/magicdev-0.2.6-1.i386.rpm
92fe06f25a999b17735e25485420fa9b i386/mc-4.5.40-2.i386.rpm
84c208ca62d6ba3767400f1298924a88 i386/mcserv-4.5.40-2.i386.rpm
e9de89e70f15533f2432ce6fcfcd059b i386/gmc-4.5.40-2.i386.rpm
27bba32e8dfba10e588cdc6c00e63162 sparc/audiofile-0.1.9-2.sparc.rpm
be234ab8966b4d664103fcb75238e593 sparc/audiofile-devel-0.1.9-2.sparc.rpm
c0686548e13cd6187d9148d20c64ed6c sparc/control-center-1.0.51-1.sparc.rpm
98e3948fd1f081499202b27aec7ff834 sparc/control-center-devel-1.0.51-1.sparc.rpm
8cdacdbaa7e55106eb02a5feab56cc42 sparc/ee-0.3.11-1.sparc.rpm
1e14c743b0e8ac046c655385de36a217 sparc/glib-1.2.6-2.sparc.rpm
1d0ed8bc6802a72e65412134d5453683 sparc/glib-devel-1.2.6-2.sparc.rpm
60147e170deb43e88381f96f06da1f79 sparc/gnome-games-1.0.51-3.sparc.rpm
b347d5476a39a07bac9afe59a21d475c sparc/gnome-games-devel-1.0.51-3.sparc.rpm
b054402249fc7c9753f6e3ca7db10bae sparc/gnome-libs-1.0.54-1.sparc.rpm
06f4a938f3087d865b2250dc2b379a48 sparc/gnome-libs-devel-1.0.54-1.sparc.rpm
64b67ee2ffa7f0118d5056b94886b370 sparc/gnome-media-1.0.51-2.sparc.rpm
46433f25d0a2f7e3b0ef7accdb270d27 sparc/gnome-pim-1.0.55-1.sparc.rpm
8705dcc1f0c62f4f7e3f52da0403378d sparc/gnome-pim-devel-1.0.55-1.sparc.rpm
cc48ed0ed6964132ec7f9e053e4d7817 sparc/pygnome-1.0.50-2.sparc.rpm
b3a191d830e463a328dce3b32eeed9fa sparc/pygtk-0.6.3-2.sparc.rpm
24ae41dfe4104f42dba0798ac4f0f1a4 sparc/pygtk-libglade-0.6.3-2.sparc.rpm
d0435a84f545a8f902c051e12279c80c sparc/gnome-utils-1.0.50-1.sparc.rpm
82cc421306d166bcb13c90d6e9f6d2c4 sparc/gnumeric-0.38-8.sparc.rpm
f69622fbf7b656c5d6ade8f11606f3ad sparc/gtk+-1.2.6-1.sparc.rpm
7e4ecd1269d0cc4c80939e559d07bab3 sparc/gtk+-devel-1.2.6-1.sparc.rpm
b649d7ca3a8ccca88648d9f93bd4fa50 sparc/gtk-engines-0.9-1.sparc.rpm
a347faf95033e4db2529c3fce8dac5b5 sparc/gtop-1.0.5-1.sparc.rpm
9da4a263bb8dbba5778e27678a5a6c2b sparc/libglade-0.7-1.sparc.rpm
b3e12e20a95ca460d2105beb1f2ff747 sparc/libglade-devel-0.7-1.sparc.rpm
2e1a0b78701d4c3a5afc842acebd6ea8 sparc/libgtop-1.0.5-1.sparc.rpm
cba954614289c709224ddab896135ffe sparc/libgtop-devel-1.0.5-1.sparc.rpm
719bc6336622f174ea128ae0d9dc3815 sparc/libgtop-examples-1.0.5-1.sparc.rpm
43b8a60c63520370c3b10c8cf3139380 sparc/libxml-1.7.3-1.sparc.rpm
97c1cf22ce8ada6498ff1ca054767bed sparc/libxml-devel-1.7.3-1.sparc.rpm
893b39f7194061c3b715de306514d7d3 sparc/magicdev-0.2.6-1.sparc.rpm
fd83007e039ca04e6f916b4820c71f99 sparc/mc-4.5.40-2.sparc.rpm
8922e8c63a28d6388f50519e4f1202b9 sparc/mcserv-4.5.40-2.sparc.rpm
d585cb68ae19e51abcd13a82d011cf3a sparc/gmc-4.5.40-2.sparc.rpm
a16a73b220925c0c9dfd1f5ee0d50f07 SRPMS/audiofile-0.1.9-2.src.rpm
4619daafe6f0316c8a76f6e7631bdac8 SRPMS/control-center-1.0.51-1.src.rpm
5b2cea0dc9d4af05bf5a8e6176d687c2 SRPMS/ee-0.3.11-1.src.rpm
297ec8367eb1d497ac1afa9b53e3fed4 SRPMS/glib-1.2.6-2.src.rpm
2f52bece8acef9b16a81d7d6bdd20da3 SRPMS/gnome-games-1.0.51-3.src.rpm
b61a4e75f87702ae3db0decaec4fac39 SRPMS/gnome-libs-1.0.54-1.src.rpm
82f50cff42b88286af530a89c693029f SRPMS/gnome-media-1.0.51-2.src.rpm
5b96f78a2a3d48a0bef333a7ab32886e SRPMS/gnome-pim-1.0.55-1.src.rpm
3e6cb33173ef9c8c4c1fedd9ba249f49 SRPMS/gnome-python-1.0.50-2.src.rpm
b51ea5d986d4e91d392859729537a848 SRPMS/gnome-utils-1.0.50-1.src.rpm
200619ab3201526cba5df430690db14d SRPMS/gnumeric-0.38-8.src.rpm
8a9a60ebdd7887b1031f8ed9cb6b16a2 SRPMS/gtk+-1.2.6-1.src.rpm
7645bd97edf270b747aaf74263c9dd25 SRPMS/gtk-engines-0.9-1.src.rpm
5b6bfef23962d0a7c66a98466613a8c3 SRPMS/gtop-1.0.5-1.src.rpm
0f32564698ee9966bb4c767948a0e39b SRPMS/libglade-0.7-1.src.rpm
e8b7f42c7e9ae15dfbd359239529b16a SRPMS/libgtop-1.0.5-1.src.rpm
a09f828c535840924611c7e6adc0a37f SRPMS/libxml-1.7.3-1.src.rpm
2fcd7fa8cca7a01109cde3859c475749 SRPMS/magicdev-0.2.6-1.src.rpm
04905ced03413ca742cf63d20eceaa57 SRPMS/mc-4.5.40-2.src.rpm

These packages are GPG signed by Red Hat, Inc. for security. Our key
is available at:
http://www.redhat.com/corp/contact.html

You can verify each package with the following command:
rpm --checksig

If you only wish to verify that each package has not been corrupted or
tampered with, examine only the md5sum with the following command:
rpm --checksig --nogpg

IPO.com: Wall Street Explosion: VA Linux and FreeMarkets Lead Train Posted Saturday, December 11, 1999 - 2:23 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By: Jeffrey R. Hirschkorn

What more can be said than that last week’s IPO market was like the fourth of July: explosive. Moreover, the new issue market, typically slow at this time of the year has continued its record setting ways considering the Nasdaq Composite has propelled to new peaks almost daily. Remember investment bankers utilize the Composite as a benchmark for IPOs, since 75% of new issues trade on the Nasdaq.

The week was huge on many accounts, witnessing 21 firm’s debut totaling $2.14 billion and posting an astronomical gain of 185.3% over offering. As chronicled in many features, the second most important return is the percentage change over opening. At Friday’s close of business, the average deal lost over 3% from offering, that is clearly evident by the opening pops from the major part of last week’s new entrants.

All in all, four of the weeks new entrants managed to enter the IPO.com Top 30 Hall of Fame, with VA Linux, the fourth Linux firm to enter the marketplace this year ousting theglobe.com as the new undisputed champion of first day market performance. With an eye popping return of 733%, VA Linux just edged out theglobe.com which yielding a stellar first day gain of 606%.

You may ask what attracted all of the fan fare for VA Linux. It’s simple: Increase the deal twice and you are all but certain to become famous on the Street when your deal debuts. In the case of VA Linux, it initially estimated pricing at $11-$13 and hiked the range twice to a final target of $28-$30, before pricing 4.4 million shares at $30 through lead manager Credit Suisse First Boston. Complete story

msnbc.com: Analysts wonder if Linux can justify all the buzz Posted Saturday, December 11, 1999 - 1:27 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Cate T. Corcoran THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 10 — So what’s with Wall Street’s love affair with Linux companies? It’s all about “mindshare” and buzz, say analysts — not realistic projections of revenue and profits.

“IN PEOPLE’S MINDS, they’re not buying Red Hat, they’re buying Linux,” says Dan Kusnetzky, an analyst with market-research firm International Data Corp. of Framingham, Mass. Red Hat was just one of the Linux-related stocks that skyrocketed during the week. An initial public offering from Andover.Net surged 252% in its debut session, and the offering from VA Linux Systems closed its first day of trading at $239.25 a share, giving the company a staggering market cap of $9.5 billion and setting a new record for both a first-day gain and a first-day price. “Everyone wants to turn the clock back to the ’80s when Microsoft went public — if you had bought the stock then, think what it would be worth today,” says Maureen O’Gara, editor of the newsletter ClieNT Server News in Seacliff, N.Y. Analysts agree that Linux has enormous potential — but not necessarily as an operating system for personal computers, which is where Microsoft shines. Instead, Linux will make inroads in specialized servers and non-PC devices, says Mr. Kusnetzky: “It’s going to become one of the mainstream options. Does that mean it will kick Microsoft out of the picture? The answer is no.” Ms. O’Gara believes Linux could pose a threat to Microsoft, but like Mr. Kusnetzky she thinks the open-source operating system will have its best shot in a new emerging category of non-PC devices, such as handheld Web browsers. “I’ve been following Unix since the beginning and I find it incredible that Linux could be a consumer play — but yes, it is possible,” she says, adding that “the desktop is changing and we don’t know where it’s going.”
Complete story

IDG.net: Red Hat CEO talks about VA Linux Systems' IPO success Posted Friday, December 10, 1999 - 6:32 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By April Jacobs - Network World

The highly successful initial public offering of VA Linux Systems, Inc. caused a buzz across the industry this week. The company's focus on turnkey Linux-based systems may help increase confidence in open source in the corporate market. Network World spoke with Red Hat President and CEO Matthew Szulik to get his perspective on the VA Linux IPO - and what's ahead for Linux.

What does the VA Linux IPO mean for Red Hat's future in the market?

This is further good news for the open source and Linux marketplace at large. It has created an opportunity for customers looking to buy turnkey Linux hardware and software as an alternative to Unix.

How does it specifically fit into the Red Hat scheme?

With VA Linux shipping systems with Red Hat Linux, it has expanded our channels of distribution and provides an avenue to turnkey solutions for customers.

Do you think Linux can sustain the momentum it has right now?

Of course there is the momentum on behalf of the technical buyer, and with that, we are at the beginning stages. I can't speculate on what's happening on Wall Street, but it's wonderful for people to have choice - purchasing more cost-effective solutions where historically they have been dependent on a singular source of support for technology and services. Complete story

ZDNET: Will big money change Linux's backers? Posted Friday, December 10, 1999 - 3:14 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, Sm@rt Reseller

"What would you do if you had a million dollars?"

On Friday, Eric Raymond, open-source advocate, member of the VA Linux board and newly minted millionaire answered that question.

Most technology millionaires are as closed-mouthed about their wealth as Microsoft Corp. CEO Bill Gates' accountants are about his 1040. Not Raymond. Having lived his technology life in public, Raymond isn't going to let a sudden jump in his net worth -- due to $36 million worth of VA Linux in his stock portfolio, a result of the Linux hardware vendor's IPO on Thursday -- change his ways.

"It wouldn't be fair to dissemble," said Raymond in a note mailed out to reporters who have followed his open-source efforts. "I serve a community. I'm wealthy today because my efforts to spread the idea of open source on behalf of that community helped galvanize the business world, and earned the respect and the trust of a lot of hackers. Fairness to the hackers who made me bankable demands that I publicly acknowledge this result -- and publicly face the question of how it's going to affect my life and what I'll do with the money." Complete story

bloomberg.com: Corel Shares Falls Amid Concern About Decision to Link Future With Linux Posted Friday, December 10, 1999 - 2:45 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By: Pav Jordan

Corel Falls on Concern Recent Run-up Isn't Justified (Update1)

Ottawa, Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Corel Corp. shares fell as much as 30 percent, the first decline in four days, on concern the company's decision to link its future to the Linux computer operating system doesn't justify the outlook for profits.

Shares of Corel fell 8 7/16 to 30 13/16. Earlier the stock touched 27 1/2. Even with today's decline, they've almost doubled from last week, driven by optimism the Canadian software maker will benefit from the growing popularity of Linux.

Corel was the second most-active stock in the U.S., where 41.3 million shares traded hands. It was the fourth most-active traded stock in Canada, where it dropped C$12.15 to C$45.80. ``People have been bitten by Corel stock in the past,'' said Kevin Restivo, a software analyst with International Data Corp. in Toronto. ``I don't think they want be bitten again.''

Corel has tried to challenge Microsoft Corp., the largest software maker, in recent years. That includes a failed effort to make Corel's word-processing software, WordPerfect, a rival for Microsoft's Word.

Some investors now think Linux, developed in 1991 by Finnish university student Linus Torvalds, could challenge Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system.

Ottawa-based Corel this year adapted its graphics and WordPerfect to run on Linux. It's banking on users switching to Linux from Microsoft's Windows, which would create demand for Corel's Linux applications.

CRN: Market Rises, Linux Issue Soars Posted Thursday, December 09, 1999 - 9:35 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Sandy Portnoy, Computer Reseller News

Thursday was another successful IPO day on Wall Street as VA Linux went public and soared more than 733 percent from an initial price of $30 a share.

In early afternoon trading, the stock rose $244 to $274, an increase of more than 800 percent, before closing at $250.

Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq were up for the day. The Dow added 67 points to close at 11,135 and the Nasdaq added 8 points to close at 3,594.

VA Linux, Sunnydale, Calif., originally set its initial offering price at $11 to $13, but revised it twice before going public.

VA Linux has been profitable since its inception in 1993 and has focused entirely on Linux-based systems and servers. In the past year, VA Linux has grown from 15 employees to more than 100.

Wednesday's new kids on the block,Agency.com Ltd., Andover.net Inc. and Preview Systems Inc.,had mixed results. Andover was the only one of Wednesday's new issues to post gains. Andover.net was up $14.13 to $77.50, an increase of 22 percent, Agency.com declined $10.56 to $65.44, a decrease of 14 percent, and Preview Systems declined $8.25, or 10 percent, to $75.50. Complete story

computerworld.com: Gateway unveils Linux-based server Posted Tuesday, December 07, 1999 - 10:35 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By: Craig Stedman

San Diego-based Gateway Inc. jumped into the PC server appliance market today, announcing a pair of Linux-based devices that can handle Internet access, e-mail and file sharing for small businesses and franchises or branch offices of larger companies.

The new Gateway Micro Server models run off of an embedded 64-bit RISC processor made by MIPS Computer Systems Inc. and can be installed in as little as 30 minutes, Gateway said. The Linux operating system is hidden from end users, who only see the built-in Internet and e-mail applications. The devices start at $1,299 and are intended to support up to 100 users, although Gateway said more could be handled for simple e-mail uses.

Al Gillen, an analyst at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass., said Gateway appears to be one of the first vendors to come out with server appliances built around Linux. But one of the most popular uses of Linux with companies that are adopting the Windows alternative is in single-function applications similar to the appliance concept, he said. Complete story

The Register: Could Linux IPOs be a better bet than Web ones? Posted Tuesday, December 07, 1999 - 6:50 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
by Graham Lea

With the coming to the market of a number of Linux companies - VA Linux Systems debuts this week - day traders are beginning to realise that Linux IPOs may turn out to be hotter and possibly more reliable than Internet ones. This is good in that venture capitalists and investment bankers could do more for Linux development than all the enthusiasts so far. Even hearts and mind campaigns can gain from the financial suits bringing some recognition to Linux and encouraging the stuffier enterprises to consider adopting Linux. Of course the potential changes in the development model may not necessarily be welcome to the community.

A distinction needs to be drawn between distribution developers and Linux hardware vendors, so it is Caldera and SuSE in particular whose possible IPOs will be awaited with interest by the community. A first concern of many is likely to be a dislike of profit being made from the sweated labour of those who have contributed at a real cost to themselves. The counterbalancing benefit of development funding is likely to go to a partially overlapping set of developers, but at the same time the availability of some serious funding could change the ethos of the movement in unwelcome ways. How it will all work has yet to be determined, but it is not a wholly bad situation. It seems quite likely that the odd Linux support and service provider may be next to try an IPO, especially with the likes of SuSE pioneering by making a strong effort to provide enterprise-level support. Complete story

msnbc.com: Markets fall in love with Linux Posted Monday, December 06, 1999 - 9:31 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By: Emory Thomas Jr. MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR

Dec. 6 — There’s nothing like a 1,500-percent-plus stock-value jump to catch the attention of investors. Ever since Red Hat, a seller of Linux software, went public and rocketed skyward, investors have eagerly anticipated the growth of a hot new IPO sector. Two more Linux-oriented firms will go public this week — VA Linux and Andover.net — and plenty more are on the horizon. But what’s the best way to play the rapidly evolving Linux market?

IT’S A FOREGONE CONCLUSION of most analysts and investors that both VA Linux and Andover.net will soar in the public markets.

“It appears the IPO players will have a huge windfall,” says David Menlow, president of data firm IPO Financial Network in New Jersey. “It’s only a question of how high these open ... As for VA Linux, this one is probably the best stock for the rest of the year.”

Echoes IPO analyst Tom Taulli, “This is definitely a big Linux week.” Why the effusiveness? Red Hat’s stock performance proved there is a huge appetite for shares related to Linux, the “open-source” operating system that was developed by a loosely organized network of programmers worldwide. That appetite only increased this fall when a
federal judge ruled Microsoft, maker of the dominant operating system Windows, a monopoly and thus possibly subject to a wide range of new restrictions. Complete story

Informationweek.com: Dell Expands Red Hat Relationship Posted Monday, December 06, 1999 - 7:39 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Aaron Ricadela

Dell Computer said today it will pre-load Red Hat Inc.'s Linux on all its PowerEdge servers, extending its existing alliance with the open-source operating-system vendor. Dell says it will refer customer support calls to Red Hat.

Dell says it's seeing increased demand for factory-installed Linux servers from Internet service providers, government and academic customers, and business users. In April, Dell began installing Red Hat Inc.'s version of the Linux operating system on its PowerEdge 1300 and 2300 servers for workgroups, as well as on selected workstations. The new contract calls for Dell to install Red Hat Linux on larger PowerEdge servers as well.

In addition, Red Hat will field level 2 and level 3 Linux telephone support calls on behalf of Dell customers. Dell and Red Hat will include a standard package of 90 days of Web and phone support, discounted professional services from Red Hat, and 180 days of access to online software updates and patches.

CNET News.com: VA Linux shares a piece of the IPO action Posted Sunday, December 05, 1999 - 7:28 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Stephen Shankland Staff Writer, CNET News.com

update For a Linux company about to go public, the open-source programming community is a double-edged sword.

The hordes of programmers not only collectively created the Linux system, they also provide an effective channel to spread the all-important buzz about an upcoming initial public offering. But at the same time, a Linux company must worry about giving those same developers a piece of the IPO action.

VA Linux Systems, expected to go public next Friday, is an example. The firm sent a letter to about 3,000 Linux developers inviting them to participate in the company's imminent IPO, a source familiar with the plan said.

The method was pioneered by Red Hat, the first Linux company to go public, but it was tainted by the fact that some developers were unable to participate. VA Linux, while trying to avoid some of these problems, is running into others of its own.

The VA Linux IPO is the latest in a series of appearances the Unix-like operating system has made on Wall Street. Red Hat's August IPO, has spurred a phenomenon mirroring the heady days of Internet stocks, with Red Hat's stock leaping from its IPO price of 14 to its current value of 214.94.

That quick increase in value means people who are able to buy the stock at the IPO price can see major gains. Red Hat's founder Marc Ewing and its chairman Bob Young each have had their shares in Red Hat stock top $2 billion when Red Hat's stock reached 254 on Monday.

News of the VA Linux letter emerged last week at the online discussion site Slashdot. Slashdot itself is a part of the planned IPO of its parent company, Andover.Net, which also plans to go public next week.

One Slashdot writer said the offer let a person buy 100 shares of VA Linux stock at the IPO price--currently estimated to be between $11 and $13 per share.

The letter was sent to open-source developers--those who have contributed to the collective programming effort that has resulted in the Linux operating system, the Apache Web server and several other projects. Complete story

IPO.com: Linux Mania Sweeps IPO Arena for Third Time Posted Saturday, December 04, 1999 - 10:08 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By: Jeffrey R. Hirschkorn

What a perfect time to launch a bevy of initial public offerings? Last week, the Nasdaq Composite continued to post astronomical returns, finishing the week up 61% year-to-date, the largest return in the Composite’s history. Proving that investment bankers utilize the Composite as a guide to proceeding with IPOs, this week promises to carry a lot of potential considering the majority of deals are operating in hot Internet and technology sectors.

On the docket, are two firms operating in the rapidly developing Linux Operating System industry that are seeking to emulate the blockbuster debuts of Red Hat and Cobalt Networks, two Goldman, Sachs-led offerings that lit the fire under the evolving market. By the way, the aforementioned duo became instant occupants in IPO.com’s Top 30 Hall of Fame.

For those who aren’t familiar with Linux, it is the standard-bearer for the appliance movement. A free O/S that has captured 15% of the server market, Linux has been the cheapest and fastest way to market for appliance manufacturers that includes Red Hat and Cobalt Networks. Similar to UNIX and the famous Windows operating system developed by Microsoft, Linux manages computers’ lower-tier functions that includes word processing or database management, clearly a fit for Microsoft’s Word and Excel software.

Linuxnewbie.org: Installation Tale of a Debian Newbie Posted Saturday, December 04, 1999 - 6:31 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By: Ray Woodcock

This is a note from a newbie, written from the perspective of someone who's actually struggling with a Debian installation, and LinuxNewbie.org can post it for as long as they deem appropriate.

I started with a kernel of Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 -- a *stable* one, of course. After all these years of losing countless hours of work from various crashes in Windows, I wanted something I could trust. So I chose "slink" -- named, I'm told, after one of the characters in "Toy Story," like other versions of Debian.

Downloading 300 MB of programs was not an option. So I broke down and spent eight bucks, including shipping, for the two-disk Debian set from LinuxMall.com. (You only actually use one CD or the other, as far as I can tell: one is for laptops and one for desktops.)

I started with a few advantages that not everyone may enjoy. I'll describe those advantages briefly, for the benefit of others who may have similar advantages or who might be interested in trying my approach.

Eight months earlier, I had decided to spiff up my computer, in hopes that this would reduce the number of crashes I was getting in Windows 95. So I had installed Windows 98 (which definitely helped, but still wasn't great), a new motherboard, more memory, and a faster processor. Then I decided to get a larger hard disk. To copy the old drive C over to the new one, I bought PowerQuest's Partition Magic 4.0 -- or, more precisely, I used the DriveImage program that came with Partition Magic.

Eventually, I decided to build myself a second computer. I mostly used the parts from the old machine, with a couple of minor additions. If I were doing it again now, I see that I could probably buy a whole machine for not very much money.

So far, this may seem like an expensive way to change operating systems, unless you happened to be upgrading as I was. I was glad to have the second machine, though, because I had decided to undertake some projects that would keep one computer very busy for some months to come. For instance, I wanted to record a boxful of audio cassettes to digital format, convert them to MP3, and then burn them to CD-ROM. These processes tend to stutter and die if you try to do them while undertaking any other heavy work on the computer. Also, and on an entirely different note, having a second computer appealed to me because I liked the idea that I would no longer need to snort in disgust when a tech support person advised me to go online and check their Website for further information on why my modem wasn't working. Complete story

StockHouse.ca: Corel CEO Shrugs Off Red Hat Rumors Posted Saturday, December 04, 1999 - 1:21 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Brian D. Robinson of stockhouse.com

In a week that has seen Corel [T.COR] President & CEO Michael Cowpland appear on both CNBC and ROBTv answering questions about a possible takeover by Linux giant Red Hat [RHAT], StockHouse has been granted an in-depth interview with the man behind the software company. The Linux "juggernaut" Cowpland refers to has no doubt rescued Corel's fortunes. However, with an increase of $600-odd million in market capitalization, thanks largely to speculation of Red Hat scooping up the profitable Corel, the company now stands on the acquisition path and doesn't have time to look back. Setting his sights on picking up utilities and perhaps further content to round out the Corel platform, Cowpland clearly is on the offensive.

Corel shares, which have traded as low as $1.65 back in September of last year, peaked as high as $40.95 on intra-day trading on November 29, nearly a 50% increase over the previous trading day. The shares have since settled down and closed Thursday at $25.25, up 8% on moderate volume of 1.8 million shares.

In the wide-ranging interview, Cowpland talks about the rumors of a Red Hat acquisition and remains coy, referring more to his company as bridging the gap between the Linux and Windows forces and profiting from both camps. While he does project that Corel will be gaining market share on Windows, this is a man exhibiting tremendous confidence as his suite of products, namely Corel's Linux OS, outsells the Red Hat product 10:1. With Red Hat considered a key ally rather than a menacing suitor, Cowpland sees Corel playing to both markets as the Ottawa software company is clearly comfortable playing both sides of the line. Complete story

CNET News.com: IPO investors get a shot at two Linux plays Posted Saturday, December 04, 1999 - 9:29 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Dawn Kawamoto - CNET News.com

Looking to ride the Linux wave sweeping through Silicon Valley onto Wall Street, VA Linux Systems and Andover.net are expected to begin public trading next week.

Being affiliated with the popular open-source operating system should help VA Linux and Andover rise above the crowded field, which has more than 20 IPOs scheduled to launch.

The lineup includes a heavy dose of Net companies, such as business-to-business e-commerce company FreeMarkets and services company Agency.com. Although both are expected grab their share of the spotlight, the Linux theme is expected to stay at center stage.

Linux allows programmers to share code because of its "open source" technology model, which has bred loyalty among software developers and is an alternative to Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system. Because of its potential and growing popularity, investors have embraced Linux-related companies.

VA Linux, which markets servers, and Andover, an operator of Web sites, are Linux-related offerings, but investors will likely treat them differently, according to IPO analysts. Andover.net may face mixed reviews because of the unconventional approach it took with its offering.

Andover plans to use an OpenIPO process managed by its lead underwriter, W.R. Hambrecht. Under an OpenIPO, individual investors can acquire shares in an auction method, giving them the same opportunity as institutional investors who get IPOs at the offering price. Complete story

ComputerWorld: Sun, Inprise plan to port Java 2 to Linux Posted Friday, December 03, 1999 - 5:47 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By David Orenstein and Carol Sliwa

Java creator Sun Microsystems Inc. and application development tool vendor Inprise Corp. will announce next week that they're porting the Java 2 development kit to the Linux operating system, a source close to Inprise said.

Support for Java 2 on Linux broadens Java's cross-platform appeal and Linux's appeal as a Java platform, observers said. The announcement also signals that Sun, which is regarded as ambivalent and even hostile toward Linux, has begun to shift its support of the Unix variant.

Other vendors have ported earlier versions of Java to Linux, but Sun and Inprise hope to be the first to enable a Linux version of Java 2, which has the most potent capabilities for enterprise and e-commerce use. Inprise's Java development tool, JBuilder 3, requires Java 2 to run, and its application server requires a Java 2 development kit to be used.

"It makes sense for Sun," said analyst George Weiss at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Group Inc. Sun can promote Linux as an alternative to Windows NT on cheap Intel-based workstations, he said, and score public relations points with the open-source community, which has been cool to the vendor.

"Sun has somewhat of a critical reception in the open-source community because of its community source license and its ambivalent position with regard to Linux," Weiss said.

Whether Sun and Inprise can win over users is an open question. The Home Depot Inc. in Atlanta is testing Java on Linux as the potential infrastructure for its in-store applications, said application development manager Kathy Tadlock. The company became interested in the idea after IBM released a beta version of a Java virtual machine for Linux in June.

Tadlock said Sun and Inprise's move will allow them to compete for Home Depot's business, but she added that it isn't crucial for Home Depot to execute its plans.

32bitsonline: A pre-loaded Linux box from QLITech Posted Friday, December 03, 1999 - 5:13 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Mark Bashaw - News source from 32bitsonline.com


In these days of massive direct-channel PC vendors, with their one-size-fits-all mentality and resistance to change, it's refreshing to see some vendors bucking the M$ trend and offering people what they clamor for most: choice.

There are several big-name Linux PC vendors in the market today, and with recent moves by the big three of PCs, Dell, Gateway, and Compaq, to include pre-loaded Linux on the desktop, consumer choice will be at an all-time high.

One such direct marketer that offers Linux on the desktop is QLITech. They offer, via their website, pre-loaded Linux machines for the home, office, or server room. Since Linux has already proven itself in the server room, we decided to give one of QLITech's Linux Multimedia workstations a thorough going-over.

The specs on the machine, while not bleeding-edge, are impressive enough. Our test unit, a QLI400MMa-ADV (Advanced Multimedia Linux System), came with the following configuration:

ATX Form Factor Mid Tower Case with four 5.25" bays and three 3.5" bays (two externally accessible)
250 Watt Power Supply
AMD K6-II 400Mhz Processor
Asus AGP/PCI ATX Motherboard
128MB RAM
Diamond Viper 770 AGP graphics card with 32MB onboard RAM
48x CD-ROM
Creative Labs Ensoniq AudioPCI sound card
8.4 GB IDE hard drive
1.44Mb floppy drive
56kbps Modem
3Com Fast EtherLink XL 10/100 network card
desktop speakers
keyboard
three-button PS/2 Mouse
Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 (Full Retail, pre-loaded)

Ray Sanders, president of QLITech, informed me that QLITech typically sets the machines to run out of the box, with virtually no effort necessary on the user's part. In order to facilitate this, they asked for network and monitor specifications to allow a quick and painless installation on my corporate network. After supplying them with a desired IP address, default gateway, DNS addresses, desired machine and domain names, we were set to go. Complete story

TechWeb: Sun Postpones Java 2 For Linux Posted Friday, December 03, 1999 - 7:55 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Amber Howle of Computer Reseller News

Sun Microsystems postponed a planned announcemt Thursday of a Linux version of the Java 2 platform. Development-tool vendor Inprise was also to participate in the announcement.

A rescheduled date for the announcement was not available at press time.

Earlier this year Sun, based here, licensed several of its Java Media technologies to an informal group of developers known as the Blackdown Java-Linux Porting Team.

This week the team posted a second release candidate of its Linux Java 2 port but said the final version will be released after some more compatibility tests. In the meantime, a Java 2 Software Development Kit (SDK) documentation bundle will be available on Sun's Java Web site, according to Blackdown.

Inprise also has been working to support Java on Linux.

In September, the Scotts Valley, Calif.-based company promised to develop commercial rapid application development (RAD) tools for the Linux platform, including a port of its JBuilder tool for Java development.

At that time, the company released a downloadable preview of JBuilder's Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler for the Linux operating system, which can increase performance of Java 2 applications on Linux.

Inprise began working on the project, code-named Kylix, in the spring and said much of the design was influenced by results from its Linux Developer Survey of over 24,000 developers in July.

PC Week: Intel, AMD heat up race to 1GHz Posted Friday, December 03, 1999 - 12:12 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By John Spooner of ZDNet News

Just as the space race of the 1960s paid unexpected dividends in the form of new household conveniences, experts say the spillover from the competition to debut a 1 gigahertz chip is going to drive down computing costs in the new year and beyond.

Both Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) and Intel Corp. (INTC) have already gone on record saying they expect to reach the gigahertz mark by the end of next year, a claim observers of the chip scene fully expect will be realized.

"Over the last two years, consumers looking for value-oriented systems saw performance skyrocket and prices plummet, in part due to the battle between the K6-2 and Celeron," said Mike Feibus, a principal at Mercury Research Inc. "Now we've got a dogfight at the high end, which means buyers of premium PCs are in for a similar boon in 2000."

The two chipmakers are within hailing distance of the magic mark although the crown for the winner of the speed competition is up for grabs.

On Monday, AMD leapfrogged Intel's 733MHz Pentium III chip with its new 750MHz Athlon PC processor. It marked the first time AMD produced a chip built on its 0.18-micron manufacturing process. The process, which is similar to a 0.18-micron process used by Intel, will allow the company to boost Athlon to 1,000MHz. Complete story

IT-Director: When ASP meets Open Source Posted Thursday, December 02, 1999 - 5:51 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff

While Linux, Apache and Perl are now widely accepted as viable
technology for enterprise systems, the Open Source movement has, in the main, been restricted to infrastructure technology. The reason for this is straightforward - there is much more commonality of functional requirement at the infrastructure level than there is at the application level. With the exception of certain standalone freeware it is simply not possible to bring together a critical mass of developers to jointly produce business application components. Until now.

There are a number of building blocks that need to be in place in order to make open source development of application components viable. Some, such as version control, change management, source repositories and build/test facilities have been available for some time. Others, such as the ASP infrastructure with Web access, have only recently matured. Now OpenAvenue has brought all the pieces together to provide a hosting environment for collaborative
development of open source application components.

OpenAvenue is an ASP. It provides Web access to a hosted environment consisting of an infrastructure and management framework plus hosted content from private individuals and corporate entities. The content is licensed under open source, community or private license arrangement to its members. The ASP infrastructure is provided by LinuxBox, which was acquired by OpenAvenue in September 1999. OpenAvenue's business model includes encouraging commercial organizations to sponsor development of specific functionality, with some part of that revenue going to the programmers. Contributors will be able to open up portions of their code while keeping other parts proprietary. Organizations will also be able to commission bespoke application development through the world wide developer base. Complete story

ZDNet: Will the Linux love affair last? Posted Wednesday, December 01, 1999 - 8:49 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Larry Barrett of ZDII

Investors went bonkers Tuesday as V-One Corp. (Nasdaq: VONE) jumped 279 percent after it started shipping a product that supports the much-hyped Linux operating system. V-One's ascent illustrates how desperately investors want to be part of a "buzz" on Wall Street regardless of the peril.

The formula for Wall Street success in recent weeks is simple: Latch on to Linux or Red Hat Inc. (Nasdaq: RHAT), issue a press release and watch your stock soar. But analysts said the Linux euphoria has all the makings of a bubble that's bound to burst.

V-One is just the latest beneficiary the Linux craze. It and Red Hat Inc. (Nasdaq: RHAT) have both seen a dramatic jump in their stock prices of late even though analysts following these companies readily admit their valuations are farcical. While consumers and corporations clearly want an alternative to Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq: MSFT) ubiquitous Windows platform, the incredible surge in Red Hat shares since its August initial public offering has analysts scratching their heads. Complete story

CRN: Sun To Unveil Java 2 For Linux Posted Wednesday, December 01, 1999 - 6:43 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Amber Howle Computer Reseller News

Platform-neutral Java and open-source Linux are coming together.

Sun Microsystems Inc. is expected to unveil on Thursday a Linux version of the Java 2 platform with help from development-tool vendor Inprise Corp. Earlier this year Sun, Palo Alto, licensed several of its Java Media technologies to an informal group of developers known as the Blackdown Java-Linux Porting Team.

Today the team posted a second release candidate of its Linux Java 2 port but said the final version will be released after some more compatibility tests. In the meantime, a Java 2 Software Development Kit (SDK) documentation bundle will be available on Sun's Java Web site, according to Blackdown.

Inprise also has been working to support Java on Linux.

In September, the Scotts Valley, Calif.-based company promised to develop commercial rapid application development (RAD) tools for the Linux platform, including a port of its JBuilder tool for Java development. Complete story

Red Hat, Inc. Security Advisory: New initscripts packages Posted Tuesday, November 30, 1999 - 9:42 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Red Hat, Inc. Security Advisory

Synopsis: new initscripts packages available (/tmp race)
Advisory ID: RHSA-1999:052-04
Issue date: 1999-11-08
Updated on: 1999-11-30
Keywords: lang.csh resolv.conf CHAP ppp-watch default route
Cross references:
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Revision History:
1999-11-30: Update to fix a networking bug introduced in 4.67-1.
1999-11-23: Update to fix a typo in the system font setting in
rc.sysinit introduced in 4.67-1.
1999-11-22: Update to fix several functionality bugs. No new
security bugs were found. (initscripts-4.67)
Note: only the new bugs apply to the Sparc release,
so this is a security update for the Intel platform
only.

1. Topic:

One security bug and several functionality bugs have been fixed in a
new release of initscripts.

2. Problem description:

A /tmp race existed in /etc/profile.d/lang.csh. Users who had
csh/tcsh as their login shell could be vulnerable to having
arbitrary shell code run by their shell on login.

On PPP connections, CHAP authentication did not always work. New DNS
entries were not always correctly added to the /etc/resolv.conf file.
Also, there was a theoretical chance that random processes could be
sent signals by ppp-watch, though no outside process could affect
which processes would be signaled, and in every known case the signals
are sent to impossible process ids and therefore have no effect.

Other various bugs present in the initscripts that shipped with
Red Hat Linux 6.1 are fixed, including:

- linuxconf-created IP aliases did not work
- linuxconf-created static routes may not work
- path to ipx_interface was incorrect
- /sbin/service did not work
- incompatibility with devfs
- inability to shut down cleanly with quotas
- any user could force 'interactive' startup on next reboot

1999-11-22: More bugs fixed, including
- pppd default route problem
- more possible CHAP authentication bugs (with older PPP configurations)
- netcfg and linuxconf could fail to bring up PPP connections
- in failure cases, pppd error messages could fill logs
- some device alias configurations were not properly initialized

1999-11-23: One bug fix.
- We apologize for the typo in rc.sysinit. Those responsible have
been sacked.

1999-11-30: More bugs fixed, including
- We apologize again for the duplicate default routes. Those responsible
for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.
- fixed loading of sound mixer settings
- fixed boot-time logging

3. Bug IDs fixed (http://developer.redhat.com/bugzilla for more info):

Security problem in lang.csh: 6645
Missing DNS entries: 6664, 6649
CHAP: 6664, 6646, 6506, 6586, 6324
Linuxconf issues: 5784, 5976, 6039, 6069, 6162, 6777,
PPP default route: 7142, 7000
PPP log filling: 7046, 7000
Device aliases: 6863, 6777, 6162, 6069
Typo in rc.sysinit: 7270
Sound mixer settings: 7159, 7366, 7418, 7420
Erroneous settings of default routes: 7319, 7320, 7333, 7345, 7350, 7355,
7365, 7386, 7392, 7411, 7440
Others: 5646, 5959, 6252, 6286, 6300, 6301, 6527, 7159, 7158, 7156, 7018,
6949, 6857, 6828, 6588, 6527

4. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Linux 6.1, Intel
Red Hat Linux 6.1, Sparc

5. Obsoleted by:

6. Conflicts with:

7. RPMs required:

Intel:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/initscripts-4.70-1.i386.rpm

Sparc:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/initscripts-4.70-1.sparc.rpm

Source packages:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/initscripts-4.70-1.src.rpm

8. Solution:

For each RPM for your particular architecture, run:
rpm -Uvh
where filename is the name of the RPM.

9. Verification:

MD5 sum Package Name
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
44190a9a34298d590529b0385111d3d6 i386/initscripts-4.70-1.i386.rpm
257fa5ae56d10113a83520045f6cbd47 sparc/initscripts-4.70-1.sparc.rpm
589280ce8452996c5338c155c1828872 SRPMS/initscripts-4.70-1.src.rpm

These packages are GPG signed by Red Hat, Inc. for security. Our key
is available at:
http://www.redhat.com/corp/contact.html

You can verify each package with the following command:
rpm --checksig

If you only wish to verify that each package has not been corrupted or
tampered with, examine only the md5sum with the following command:
rpm --checksig --nogpg

10. References:

PCWorld: De-Geeking Linux Posted Tuesday, November 30, 1999 - 9:13 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Alexandra Krasne of PC World

Operating a for-profit business in an open-source community is a challenge at best. The trick is finding a way to make that profit. Linux One's solution: selling a hard drive preloaded with a distribution of Linux. The company released its Ready Drive on Tuesday.

LinuxOne's preloaded drive comes in two sizes: a 13.5GB IBM Ultra-DMA66 7200-rpm drive with a 2MB buffer, priced at $169.95, or a 17.3GB Fujitsu Ultra-DMA66 5400-rpm drive priced at $199.95. LinuxOne charges shipping and handling for each. At the end of the year, the drive prices will increase. Both drives also include a three-year factory warranty and the LinuxOne operating system CD-ROM disc.

"The problem with Linux is how to make money with it," says Bill Claybrook, research director for Linux and Unix at Aberdeen. "[Open source] is restrictive, but this may be a new model." Instead of having customers download the LinuxOne OS off the company's site or buy a CD, LinuxOne adds $20 to the price of the hard drive and makes a profit. The company is aiming primarily at first-time Linux users, says Stan Kawczynski, chief financial officer at LinuxOne. Once you've attached the hard drive to your PC, you can add Windows. Complete story

TechWeb: E-commerce Tools Go Open Source Posted Tuesday, November 30, 1999 - 7:34 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Richard Karpinski , InternetWeek

With open source software booming, it was only a matter of time before developers and vendors turned their attention to the equally red-hot e-commerce market.

Start-up OpenSales recently released the source code for what it says is the first open source, Linux-based e-commerce platform, dubbed "OpenMerchant." The no-cost software is available for download from the company's website.

While it is debatable whether OpenMerchant is the first open source e-commerce server on the market -- both Red Hat and Caldera ship CDs with some e-commerce tools -- OpenSales may be one of the first projects specifically for creating a more ambitious, enterprise-scale retailing and merchandising environment.

“There doesn't seem to be an end-to-end online retailing solution that's open-sourced,” said a company spokesman. In addition, OpenMerchant runs not only on Linux, but also on Solaris and Windows NT. The software is free, but the company said it is planning to sell service and support packages for companies that like the flexibility of open source but want ongoing vendor support, as well, the spokesman said. Complete story

TheRegister: Red Hat aiming to buy Corel Linux rival? Posted Tuesday, November 30, 1999 - 5:15 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Graham Lea

Corel shares soared yesterday on speculation that Red Hat was planning a bid for the rival Linux distributor. The market clearly views the possibility as a marriage made in heaven, because Red Hat stock promptly hared after it.

Corel stock closed at $20 7/8 (up 48 per cent) and Red Hat at $236.625 (up 11 per cent). In the last week, Red Hat's share price has increased 95 per cent, giving it market capitalisation of more than $15 billion. Those not in on the ground floor in August when Red Hat was initially priced at $14 will be eyeing the present $236.625 with some disappointment.

As yet, there's been a no-comment-on-speculation from Red Hat, and "we haven't been approached by Red Hat" from Corel. So far, the trading pattern in the shares suggests that it is day traders who are jumping in on the high level of activity, rather than action by insiders. The rumour resulted from financial analyst speculation that because Red Hat had acquired the privately-held tools maker Cygnus in mid-November for $674 million, other acquisitions were likely.

Other possible objects of Red Hat's affection, and significant financial leverage, include Sendmail, and perhaps Mozilla. Red Hat announced yesterday that it had concluded a deal to provide consultancy and support to AutoZone, an auto parts retailer that plans to install Linux terminals in its 2,800 stores. In September, the Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse installed Linux in its 260 stores. Complete story

osOpinion: A layman's view of The Linux Operating System Posted Tuesday, November 30, 1999 - 4:58 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Authored by: Anthony

I have been a computer enthusiast for many years, walked through the days of Windows3.1 up to Windows98, NT4 (with its 5 service packs) and Windows2000beta. I was very eager to try the new operating system that is touted as being much more stable and reliable than other Operating Systems. Now in my humble opinion, there are many stronger platforms out there than our beloved Microsoft, but the companies behind them have all made the same mistake. They have all wanted a large return of revenue from their product. Have you ever wondered why you could download Internet Explorer 5 for free? It is and was to capture consumer market share, it is a cost that Microsoft allows to gain a customer base. Why was Linux so successful initially? The reason was simply because it is free (and open). The general computer user is always looking for a bargain and something new that can make his or her PC bigger and better. The other tool Linux has to its advantage is the Internet, consider the development of Linux and it's distribution. The Internet is a means that allows consumer input as well as accessibility. If you consider how many people use the internet and of that the percentage that are within the information technology field, you first have an interest of new product and with its open source the chance to develop that product. Complete story

ZDNET: Red Hat guns for Microsoft Posted Monday, November 29, 1999 - 9:16 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Scott Berinato, PC Week Online

As part of an aggressive strategy to lock horns with Microsoft Corp., Red Hat Inc. is about to ramp up its campaign of acquisitions, partnerships and open-source community activism.

Two early targets: the Mozilla browser project and Sendmail Inc.

The Linux provider plans a major investment in Mozilla—which was created and funded by Netscape Communications Corp.—possibly as early as next month to accelerate future browser development, said sources close to Red Hat. Since America Online Inc.'s acquisition last year of Netscape, a major upgrade to the browser has been fraught with delays, and now it lags behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Red Hat is also in close negotiations with messaging platform vendor Sendmail to significantly extend the pair's relationship through shared support services and even cross-engineering efforts, Sendmail officials said.

Further, Red Hat will consider development partnerships with any and all open-source projects, avowed Chairman Bob Young, who has said, only half-jokingly, that his company is bent on achieving "world domination, and fast." Complete story

ZDNET: Corel rockets on red-hot Linux sector Posted Monday, November 29, 1999 - 7:33 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Reuters

Corel surged 41 percent early today on Linux buzz

Canadian software developer Corel surged in early trade on Monday, racking up a gain of nearly 41 percent, as Internet message boards buzzed with talk about the promise of Linux technology Corel shares tore to a 52-week peak of C$29.20 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, a gain of C$8.45 or nearly 41 percent, before pulling back to trade up C$5.35 at C$26.10. On Nasdaq, the issue added 3-15/16 to 18-1/16/.

Ottawa-based Corel, which launched a desktop version of the Linux operating system at the massive Comdex computer show in Las Vegas November 15, appears to be riding the coat-tails of red-hot Linux firm Red Hat of Durham, North Carolina. Red Hat was up 24-3/4 at 238-1/4 on Nasdaq on Monday after hitting at a 52-week high of 249 earlier.

Linux is an open-source operating system, used by 10 to 12 million people, which is seen as a rival to market dominator Microsoft's Windows NT. "Red Hat's up a ton today," said Duncan Stewart, fund manager at Tera Capital in Toronto.

Red Hat shares surged after the company announced it had agreed to provide on-site consulting and technical services to AutoZone as part of the auto parts retailer's plan to install a Linux terminal system in its 2,800 stores. Complete story

DominoPower: Sharing Linux drives with Samba Posted Monday, November 29, 1999 - 7:04 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Mark Lawson

If you want to be able to see your Linux directories on your PC, then Samba is for you. If you're a Windows person, you can make life easier if you can use Samba to access the disks on the Linux box as if they were on an NT server. Originally developed by Andrew Tridgell at the Australian National University, Samba implements the SMB (Server Message Block) protocol, allowing files and printers on Linux to be shared with clients such as Windows for Workgroups, DOS, OS/2, Windows NT and others.

Simply put, Samba makes a Linux system behave as if it were a Windows NT box. This is very useful if you want to copy IDs or log files on and off your Linux box. It's also useful if you want to configure files using the familiar Notepad from the comfort of your PC or just look around. Here is the five-minute guide to Samba:

Make sure you have TCP/IP and Client for Microsoft Networks configured on your PC. Make a note of your WorkGroup setting on the Identification tab (in the Windows Network Control Panel). Ours is ELECMEMO.

On your Linux box, login as "root". If you have Domino running don't worry, just press Alt-F2 to get a new terminal (wonderful isn't it? Alt-F1 to Alt-F6 function normally). Now type "pico /etc/smb.conf" to edit the configuration file. It's quite long and a bit daunting but you only have to change a couple of things.

First, near the top, change the work group setting to match your Windows workgroup (remember, mine was ELECMEMO). Further down, uncomment the two "encrypt password" and "passwd file" lines. Towards the bottom modify and uncomment the "fred's private directory example" as shown below. This also shows the other modifications with the rest of the file removed for clarity.

[global]
# workgroup = NT-Domain-Name or Workgroup-Name
workgroup = ELECMEMO
encrypt passwords = yes
smb passwd file = /etc/smbpasswd
# A private directory, usable only by fred. Note that fred requires write
# access to the directory.
[notesdata]
comment = Domino Data
path = /home/notesdata
valid users = notes
public = no
writable = yes
printable = no

Save the file with Ctrl-O and exit with Ctrl-X. Complete story

SysAdmin: Linux and the Y2K Bug Posted Monday, November 29, 1999 - 5:31 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Author: Robert Kiesling

Linux, like other POSIX-compliant operating systems, provides facilities for coping with the Y2K bug, and software written properly for Linux should be able to cope with the end of the millennium. As a systems administrator, however, you may want to test both your Linux systems and any applications running on them for date compliance.

This article describes the time keeping functions that are available in the Linux C libraries, Version 5. The GNU glib2 libraries, which are still in the early stages of development, will provide similar functionality and compliance with time keeping standards. I also explore how you might go about testing Linux-based applications for date compliance.

Linux Time

Linux keeps track of the time using the 32-bit time_t type that maintains the count of UTC calendar time, which is the number of seconds since January 1, 1970. It is declared in time.h as the following:

typedef long time_t;

The standard UNIX utilities (or the free software versions distributed by the GNU project) that have been ported to Linux, support this data type. Assuming that the hardware clock handles the dates in the next century correctly, time keeping should be correct until the year 2038, when the 32-bit time_t counter will overflow. Solving what may become known as the Y2038K bug is beyond the scope of this article, however. Complete story

osOpinion: RedHat: the man in the funny colored hat goes on a shopping spree Posted Sunday, November 28, 1999 - 7:21 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Authored by: Xavier Basora

Over the weekend ZDNet reported that Red hat was on a shopping spree. After having purchased Cygnus Solution- a company that creates software to develop other programs- Red hat was looking for new acquisitions.

One of the rumored companies was Corel. I myself dismissed it because it didn't make any sense. After all, Corel came out with its own LINUX distribution based on Debian. However, reliable source informed me that Red hat did indeed approach Corel but that the latter turned the former down. My own speculation is that Applixware is the real company. Why? Well, businesses still write documents, create presentations and crunch numbers; a browser can't do that. Furthermore, the most effective way to introduce LINUX in business is to offer a suite that's pretty much compatible with MS Office file formats and isn't a traumatic change for the employees. Applix Office is a good suite and it's cross platform. Most people are familiar with the LINUX version but it's also available for Win 32.

So having a Windows and LINUX version in a dual boot configuration or having Applix Office in a mixed Windows/LINUX is an excellent way to reduce drastically the learning curve and document sharing headaches. Star Office and WP have the same practice.

I do admit that I'm bemused at how the stock market affects a company. Here's an enterprise that hasn't yet made a profit yet it's capitalization is worth billions. Enough money to buy one company and seriously acquire others if agreements are reached. I have nothing against Red hat, in fact my LINUX distribution is Mandrake which is based on Red hat; however, I'm concerned that the stock market craze for LINUX companies could provoke unintended consequences of encouraging them to go on a spending spree rather than spending the money in R&D or beefing up their technical staff. You know the boring, but fundamental, activities that make a company function.

Linux Answers: REVIEW: Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 Posted Sunday, November 28, 1999 - 2:11 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Rob Fenwick of Linux Answers

There are a number of different theories amongst the larger Linux distributors regarding the number of CDs that their distribution should contain. Caldera have obviously had a recent change of mind in this area - OpenLinux, which previously shipped with 2 CDs, has acquired a third friend - a new 'Windows Tools & Commercial Packages' CD-ROM has joined the fold.

Caldera's previously unique LIZARD graphical installation utility has been upgraded in OpenLinux 2.3. It still incorporates the best mouse detection routine currently in operation, and it's the only one we've come across that can automatically detect that our serial mouse is connected to the /dev/ttyS1, and not S0, or as installers more commonly believe, our redundant PS/2 port.

LIZARD lists more monitors in its setup routine than any other installer, and correctly set up our ASTVision 4L. Automagic sound card detection is new to Lizard, and that also had no problems with our ESS sound card. OpenLinux is marketed as 'Linux for business', and so received criticism in the past for being bundled with a boot manager that could not dual boot with Windows NT. Powerquest's boot magic is still bundled with OpenLinux, but LILO support has been integrated into the LIZARD installation routine to get round the 'no go NT' problem.

Once the system has been installed, in true Linux style, no reboot is required to boot the OS. OpenLinux 2.3 is based around the 2.2.10 kernel, and the glibc 2.1.1 libraries. Two window managers are installed - KDE 1.1.1, and TWM. The KDE setup is professionally laid out, with logical K menu groups, and first-run customization is achieved with Kandalf, a rather humorous name for a KDE setup wizard that works well, and has you up and running in minutes. Complete story

CNET News: Microsoft antitrust mediation to open Tuesday in Chicago Posted Sunday, November 28, 1999 - 5:15 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Reuters
An appeals court judge appointed as a mediator in the Microsoft antitrust case will meet with the parties in Chicago on Tuesday, a person familiar with the case said today.

The meeting is expected to last less than a day, the person said, without giving any further details.

Richard Posner, who heads the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, was appointed last week by U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson in an effort to explore the chances of a settlement.

Jackson largely sided with the Justice Department and 19 states earlier this month when his findings of fact from the trial found Microsoft used its monopoly in personal computer operating systems to harm consumers and competitors. Over the coming months, Jackson will consider whether the acts described at trial violated U.S. antitrust law.

"I think this is probably as propitious a time for any possible negotiated outcome as you could have," Jackson told company and government lawyers at a meeting in his chambers Nov. 18.

Posner, a widely respected judge who has written several books on economics and antitrust theory, is expected to quickly gauge whether there is a basis for settlement.

"I don't think that he is going to be prepared to waste a whole lot of time if it looks from the outset that it's not promising," Jackson told the parties last week.

Linux Answers: REVIEW: Phat Linux 3.2 Posted Saturday, November 27, 1999 - 4:16 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Author: Mike Saunders at linuxanswers.co.uk

One of the major hurdles for any newcomers attempting to install Linux is the partitioning process. With a whole hard disk devoted to Windows, making space for Linux is often a complex and intimidating task. Many distributors have made efforts to simplify this operation - usually in the form of graphical re-partitioning software. Phat Linux, a single-CD distribution available at www.phatlinux.com, offers an alternative approach by installing itself into a Windows directory. No
partitioning is required - the distribution lives in a folder on a Windows drive. This method hasn't been popular among all distributors, though, as using a Windows partition is considerably slower than Linux's standard ext2 format.

Phat Linux 3.2 is supplied as a Zip archive, ready to be extracted using WinZip or a similar tool. The archive contains a few system files, a huge image file of the working Linux system itself, and a small amount of documentation. This gives a brief overview of the setup process.

Installing:

Actually, there isn't an installation process as such for Phat Linux, unlike the setup programs used in Red Hat, SuSE and others. Once the files have been copied into the Windows directory, a fully-working distribution is in place. Of course, this can initially cause problems as there is no opportunity to configure video, sound and a mouse before first use, but the Phat engineers have got round this quite well. Complete story

WideOpen: The Wide World of Open Source Posted Saturday, November 27, 1999 - 3:58 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Writer: Russ Mitchell of wideopen.com

Open source an idea, a philosophy, an ethic, crucial to cooperative creativity.

Open source isn't only about software. It's also a philosophy whose growing influence on business, government, law, economics, science, even culture is finally being noticed. Science, in fact, has been an open source project since its very beginning. Science advanced largely because scientists were willing to share results with their fellows. The Internet was born because of this open source desire to collaborate -- the original TCP/IP networks were built to allow researchers to share data and ideas.

New Scientist, in our opinion the world's best general interest science magazine, recently carried two editorials that indicate the broader kinds of issues that open source is beginning to influence. (Click on our Deeper links for complete articles.)

The primary focus of Wide Open News, it should be made clear, is open source software. But we won't stop there. We'll also be carrying plenty of stories, analyses, and opinion pieces like the editorials from New Scientist -- articles that recognize the wide territory open source is just beginning to roam.

ZDNet: Red Hat ready to cash in on Linux Posted Friday, November 26, 1999 - 3:04 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Charles Babcock, Inter@ctive Week

Red Hat is rich in stock value, and indications are that the company wants to move beyond shipping low-cost, shrink-wrapped copies of the Linux operating system into products and services supporting Linux.

Fresh off its $674 million acquisition of Cygnus Solutions, an open source code compiler and toolmaker, Red Hat (Nasdaq:RHAT) is believed to be on the prowl for companies that would add service, support and applications to its product offerings.

A volatile choice?
With a market capitalization of $9.6 billion, Red Hat is worth more than Novell, but its main business to date is in offering a readily available operating system for free download. The company would not comment on its strategy at press time. However, unless it shows that it knows how to market revenue-generating products and services, "Red Hat stock may prove volatile," one Linux industry observer said, meaning it could go down as fast as it has gone up. Complete story

Linux.com: Running Linux on your laptop Posted Friday, November 26, 1999 - 2:01 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Written by David Kuntz - [email protected]

The answer is "very cool," especially if you like to advocate. Nothing like a demonstration to convince the masses.

"Isn't that a command line OS, like DOS?" And then you show them Window Maker.

You can't advocate if you don't have a working system, though. On a laptop, that's often easier said than done. X can be troublesome, then once you get X working, you have to deal with sound. Yes, sound isn't a necessity, like X, (and X isn't really either, but it helps. I'm typing this in WordPerfect, and I could just as easily use vi or joe from a console) but it's nice to have. I use Xfce as my GUI on my laptop, and it has a cool set of sounds by default. The person next to me on the train in the morning isn't necessarily happy with the sound scheme, but that's not my problem.

What to do if you find yourself error 111 every time you select a video mode? First and foremost check your documentation. You can find out what type of video card is onboard you PC (laptop or desktop) by checking the manual. Don't forget to check the specs for the monitor while you're at it. If you don't have the manual and you're dual-booting with Windows, you can check two spots: Windows control panel to find out what resolutions/color depths work, and in the device manager (control panel | System) to see what video adaptor is listed.

Hint: while you're there look at the sound settings, and note what type of sound card's listed.

Once you've determined which card is onboard, you can surf on over to the Linux for Laptops home page, at http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/. Complete story

Ext2: Installing Slackware 7.0 (Without cdrom or standard floppy) Posted Friday, November 26, 1999 - 1:39 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
by Tim Krell ([email protected])

Disclaimer: The following article details the process I used to install Slackware 7.0 onto my laptop. Information contained within this article is accurate to the best of my knowledge. I take no responsibility for damage caused to your system by the use of this material. Your Mileage May Vary.

One of the seemingly up and coming topics in the Linux world at this time is the use of Linux on a platform other than the conventional desktop. Laptops, PDA's, and other portable devices are all coming into the scope of things at a quick rate. One of the problems with laptops is that they tend to use more "bleeding edge" technologies, as opposed to the more widely supported desktop platform. One such example of this rift between the laptop and desktop platforms is the video card issue. Laptops are using chipsets such as the NeoMagic, which was not supported in XFree until recently. This all brings me to the entire crux of this article. Many laptop manufacturers these days seem to be including a plethora of ports on their machines, most of which are well-supported (Or so M$ would have you believe) in Windows9x/NT/2k. For example, the laptop I recently purchased, a Sony VAIO PCG-Z505RX has three USB ports, and two FireWire ports.

The Z505RX is a pretty decent system, and I'm quite happy with it, now that I've got Linux working on it and all. It's powered by an Intel Mobile Pentium II running at 400 MHz, 128MB RAM, 8.1GB Hard Drive, 2.5MB NeoMagic video chipset, 12.1" LCD, and some other assorted goodies. There are, however, two major pitfalls that I had to overcome to install Linux on this machine. First of all, Sony charges around $300(US) for the PCMCIA-controlled CDROM drive. Secondly, the 505RX ships with an USB floppy drive, which is not supported by the current production Linux Kernel, but is currently under heavy development by Alan Cox and co. in the 2.3.x series. Complete story

theRegister: FIC to bundle OpenLinux 2.3 with PCs Posted Thursday, November 25, 1999 - 11:16 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Mike Magee of theregister.co.uk

Taiwanese firm First International Computer (FIC), said today it has signed a deal with Caldera to bundle OpenLinux 2.3 with PC systems it supplies.

At the same time, FIC, which is currently in litigation with chip giant Intel, said it would intro the KA11 and KA31 motherboards, supporting the 133MHz frontside bus and using the VIA Apollo Pro 694X and 596B chipsets.

Its third announcement was of the KC19+, a Slot 1 board which supports the Intel i820 chipset and includes two RIMMs for Rambus memory.

FIC said that it would be introducing thin client and server business desktops which will come with OpenLinux 2.3.

The first systems to appear with the OS will be its Sahara 1000 Slim Line PC and the Equinox 1530 Thin Client.

The latter has networking capabilities onboard and supports a 40MB DOC SO-DIMM hard drive. ®

The Register: Intel pumps $12m into Euro Linux distie Posted Thursday, November 25, 1999 - 10:56 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
theRegister: SuSE, the German Linux distributor and less-cool European equivalent of Red Hat, is receiving Euro 12 million ($12.8 million) from Intel and Apax Partners for marketing and the establishment of sales and support offices worldwide. SuSE also wants to establish a network of business partners.

It seems most unlikely that Intel's European investment is any kind of sop against the EU dislike of Pentium III serial numbers, because of data security issues associated with e-commerce transactions that is being investigated by the European Parliament's STOA (Scientific and Technological Options Assessment) Panel. Earlier this year, STOA reported on the "development of surveillance technology and risk of abuse of economic information", while Franck Leprevost's study, Encryption and Cryptosystems in Electronics Surveillance has just been presented to STOA.

Tim Keating, Intel's content group director for EMEA, said that "Intel is investing in SuSE because we want to encourage the diffusion of Linux on Intel-based computers in Europe" -- primarily the Xeon until the Itanic... sorry, Itanium is released. Complete story

it-director: Can Linux workstations change SGI's fortunes? Posted Thursday, November 25, 1999 - 3:58 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
News source from it-director.com
Desktop Linux may not be a reality just yet, but as far as Silicon Graphics is concerned, it is going to have to be as the company is staking its future on it. SGI recently admitted that it had failed to find a buyer for its Intel-based workstation business. Fresh on the heels of its announcement of an attempted sell-off of its Cray supercomputer product line, the company could really have done without more bad news like this.

Silicon Graphics lost the plot a long time ago, admit sources from inside the company. Faced with the ever-decreasing sales of its proprietary, Unix-based workstations and servers, the company launched itself into high-end NT-based workstations based around a customized hardware architecture. In doing so it fundamentally misjudged the workings of the PC market, by giving itself insufficient differentiation from other vendors to justify the price premium. It also continued to focus on its traditional markets where it should have been aiming squarely at the corporate mass market.

The newest desktop strategy from SGI is to concentrate on the provision of Linux-based PCs. The company recognises that application support is still weak, but are prepared to take the short term risk. Also SGI intends to open up parts of its OpenGL graphics code to the Linux community. Complete story

osOpinion: Red Hat Linux 6.1 versus Windows 98 Posted Thursday, November 25, 1999 - 12:33 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Authored by: Chris Stockdill of osOpinion

Techweb: IBM To Test Linux Apps On Netfinity Posted Wednesday, November 24, 1999 - 3:12 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Barbara Darrow, Computer Reseller News

IBM continues to throw its weight behind Linux.

The Armonk, N.Y., company now plans to expand its SolutionPartnership Centers to test third-party Linux applications on Netfinity servers, said Tom Figgatt, global segment executive.

The centers, of which there are 14 worldwide, already test Windows NT, SCO UnixWare, NetWare, and, still, OS/2. There are more than 100 software applications now in the pipeline with about 28 already validated for use on Netfinity servers running Linux, Figgatt said.

"The level of interest [in Linux] is growing. It's a great OS for the Internet, file, and print, but the question is, where are the applications? This addresses exactly that issue," Figgatt said. "The vast bulk of the interest is on servers. However, that said, we're seeing pockets of interest elsewhere and are working on them. For example, there is real interest from the developer community. They like ThinkPads and often want a dual-boot with Windows." Complete story

Red Hat, Inc. Security Advisory: New initscripts packages available Posted Wednesday, November 24, 1999 - 1:51 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Red Hat, Inc. Security Advisory

Synopsis: new initscripts packages available (/tmp race)
Advisory ID: RHSA-1999:052-03
Issue date: 1999-11-08
Updated on: 1999-11-23
Keywords: lang.csh resolv.conf CHAP ppp-watch
Cross references:
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Revision History:
1999-11-23: Update to fix a typo in the system font setting in
rc.sysinit introduced in 4.67-1.
1999-11-22: Update to fix several functionality bugs. No new
security bugs were found. (initscripts-4.67)
Note: only the new bugs apply to the Sparc release,
so this is a security update for the Intel platform
only.

1. Topic:

One security bug and several functionality bugs have been fixed in a
new release of initscripts.

2. Problem description:

A /tmp race existed in /etc/profile.d/lang.csh. Users who had
csh/tcsh as their login shell could be vulnerable to having
arbitrary shell code run by their shell on login.

On PPP connections, CHAP authentication did not always work. New DNS
entries were not always correctly added to the /etc/resolv.conf file.
Also, there was a theoretical chance that random processes could be
sent signals by ppp-watch, though no outside process could affect
which processes would be signaled, and in every known case the signals
are sent to impossible process ids and therefore have no effect.

Other various bugs present in the initscripts that shipped with
Red Hat Linux 6.1 are fixed, including:

- linuxconf-created IP aliases did not work
- linuxconf-created static routes may not work
- path to ipx_interface was incorrect
- /sbin/service did not work
- incompatibility with devfs
- inability to shut down cleanly with quotas
- any user could force 'interactive' startup on next reboot

1999-11-22: More bugs fixed, including
- pppd default route problem
- more possible CHAP authentication bugs (with older PPP configurations)
- netcfg and linuxconf could fail to bring up PPP connections
- in failure cases, pppd error messages could fill logs
- some device alias configurations were not properly initialized

1999-11-23: One bug fix.
- We apologize for the typo in rc.sysinit. Those responsible have
been sacked.

3. Bug IDs fixed (http://developer.redhat.com/bugzilla for more info):

Security problem in lang.csh: 6645
Missing DNS entries: 6664, 6649
CHAP: 6664, 6646, 6506, 6586, 6324
Linuxconf issues: 5784, 5976, 6039, 6069, 6162, 6777,
PPP default route: 7142, 7000
PPP log filling: 7046, 7000
Device aliases: 6863, 6777, 6162, 6069
Typo in rc.sysinit: 7270
Others: 5646, 5959, 6252, 6286, 6300, 6301, 6527, 7159, 7158, 7156, 7018,
6949, 6857, 6828, 6588, 6527


4. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Linux 6.1, Intel
Red Hat Linux 6.1, Sparc

5. Obsoleted by:

6. Conflicts with:

7. RPMs required:

Intel:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/initscripts-4.68-1.i386.rpm

Sparc:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/initscripts-4.68-1.sparc.rpm

Source packages:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/initscripts-4.68-1.src.rpm

8. Solution:

For each RPM for your particular architecture, run:
rpm -Uvh
where filename is the name of the RPM.

9. Verification:

MD5 sum Package Name
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ea3e6ec816c700e5c5d7aa2f447891ae i386/initscripts-4.68-1.i386.rpm
7930ea6a68a343403a0eb994355a5ce1 sparc/initscripts-4.68-1.sparc.rpm
cb7913f7c002c7d2a23c2c9daf52f378 SRPMS/initscripts-4.68-1.src.rpm

These packages are GPG signed by Red Hat, Inc. for security. Our key
is available at:
http://www.redhat.com/corp/contact.html

You can verify each package with the following command:
rpm --checksig

If you only wish to verify that each package has not been corrupted or
tampered with, examine only the md5sum with the following command:
rpm --checksig --nogpg

10. References:

Red Hat, Inc. Errata Advisory: New timetool package available Posted Wednesday, November 24, 1999 - 1:37 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Red Hat, Inc. Errata Advisory

Synopsis: new timetool package available
Advisory ID: RHEA-1999:056-01
Issue date: 1999-11-23
Updated on:
Keywords: timetool
Cross references:
---------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Topic:

A new timetool package is available to fix two problems in the
package that shipped with Red Hat Linux 6.1 for Intel.

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Linux 6.1, Intel

Red Hat Linux 6.1 for Sparc is not affected.

3. Problem description:

Some erroneous linebreaks are in the timetool script. leading to
errors when attempting to set the clock to certain dates. Also,
timetool did not read /etc/sysconfig/clock correctly.

It is recommended that users upgrade to the latest timetool packages.

4. Solution:

For each RPM for your particular architecture, run:
rpm -Uvh
where filename is the name of the RPM.

5. Bug IDs fixed (http://developer.redhat.com/bugzilla for more info):

6. Obsoleted by:

7. Conflicts with:

8. RPMs required:

Non-architecture specific:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/noarch/timetool-2.7.1-1.noarch.rpm

Source packages:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/timetool-2.7.1-1.src.rpm

9. Verification:

MD5 sum Package Name
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
3ed7de5ce045e4de338dbc5b0716ec90 noarch/timetool-2.7.1-1.noarch.rpm
3815ba684676aebc8ce071771ae8eb2b SRPMS/timetool-2.7.1-1.src.rpm

These packages are GPG signed by Red Hat, Inc. for security. Our key
is available at:
http://www.redhat.com/corp/contact.html

You can verify each package with the following command:
rpm --checksig

If you only wish to verify that each package has not been corrupted or
tampered with, examine only the md5sum with the following command:
rpm --checksig --nogpg

10. References:

Asiabiztech: Oracle Corp. Japan to Push Linux Business, Target NT Users Posted Wednesday, November 24, 1999 - 1:10 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
(TOKYO) -- Oracle Corp. Japan announced that it will further develop its Linux operating-system business.

As a first step, the leading software developer will encourage existing Windows NT users to migrate their environments to the Linux operating system from the Microsoft NT environment.

To achieve that goal, Oracle will increase the number of its partner companies, which will provide services to help users adopt the Linux environment, to 10 to 20 by May 2000. This will be done under a plan to establish a support system to cover all of Japan.

Many NT users have trouble with NT operations, according to an Oracle spokesperson. Some users complain about NT's poor performance in data analysis and some say they need to reboot the operating system regularly.

If Linux is adopted by 50 sites of one partner company per month, Oracle can expect annual combined sales of hardware and software services totaling 1 billion yen, the spokesperson said. He added that the firm hopes to propose Linux business models to such users.

Oracle Japan will encourage its customers to migrate to the Linux environment for running its Oracle8 and Oracle8i relational database products, as well as relational database products for SQL Server, Access and Web application servers of Microsoft Corp. Complete story

Linuxworld: Corel Linux 1.0 test-drive Posted Tuesday, November 23, 1999 - 9:04 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Nicholas Petreley of Linuxworld

Last week during Comdex, Corel launched its very own distribution of Linux. I managed to download a copy of the CD-ROM image, burn my own CD using that file, and in no time at all had Corel Linux 1.0 installed and running.

We will revisit Corel Linux in more detail when Corel sends us a full copy of the product for review. In the meantime, the freely available version made quite an impression on me. Corel addressed all of the complaints I had about the early beta. This alone is cause for praise, because it demonstrates at least one of two encouraging facts: either Corel reads publications like LinuxWorld and cares about what we have to say, or Corel had the right idea all along. Hopefully, there is some truth to both.

But Corel also did what I feared most: it released Corel Linux a bit too soon. While I'm actually quite amazed at how far the product has come since the beta, I have a long list of minor gripes to air, and I'll do so at length in a moment.

Overall, however, I don't want to leave you with a negative impression of Corel Linux. This is an extremely encouraging distribution, especially because it is the first commercial distribution of its caliber based on Debian GNU/Linux. Debian is a distribution by and for geeks, and it isn't easy bridging the gap between the Debian user and the average computer-illiterate Windows user -- the antigeek, if you will. Yet this was one of the goals for Corel Linux, and Corel comes very close to achieving it with great panache in this version.

The good news Initial installation is a breeze. All you really have to do is specify a user name, choose an installation type, and then tell it where to install Corel Linux. You don't even get the opportunity to set up a network card until you've installed the operating system and logged in. It was a simple matter to get networking up and running. Complete story

Red Hat, Inc. Security Advisory: new initscripts packages Posted Tuesday, November 23, 1999 - 6:13 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Red Hat, Inc. Security Advisory

Synopsis: new initscripts packages available (/tmp race)
Advisory ID: RHSA-1999:052-02
Issue date: 1999-11-08
Updated on: 1999-11-23
Keywords: lang.csh resolv.conf CHAP ppp-watch
Cross references:
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Revision History:
1999-11-22: Update to fix several functionality bugs. No new
security bugs were found. (initscripts-4.67)
Note: only the new bugs apply to the Sparc release,
so this is a security update for the Intel platform
only.

1. Topic:

One security bug and several functionality bugs have been fixed in a
new release of initscripts.

2. Problem description:

A /tmp race existed in /etc/profile.d/lang.csh. Users who had
csh/tcsh as their login shell could be vulnerable to having
arbitrary shell code run by their shell on login.

On PPP connections, CHAP authentication did not always work. New DNS
entries were not always correctly added to the /etc/resolv.conf file.
Also, there was a theoretical chance that random processes could be
sent signals by ppp-watch, though no outside process could affect
which processes would be signaled, and in every known case the signals
are sent to impossible process ids and therefore have no effect.

Other various bugs present in the initscripts that shipped with
Red Hat Linux 6.1 are fixed, including:

- linuxconf-created IP aliases did not work
- linuxconf-created static routes may not work
- path to ipx_interface was incorrect
- /sbin/service did not work
- incompatibility with devfs
- inability to shut down cleanly with quotas
- any user could force 'interactive' startup on next reboot

1999-11-22: More bugs fixed, including
- pppd default route problem
- more possible CHAP authentication bugs (with older PPP configurations)
- netcfg and linuxconf could fail to bring up PPP connections
- in failure cases, pppd error messages could fill logs
- some device alias configurations were not properly initialized

3. Bug IDs fixed (http://developer.redhat.com/bugzilla for more info):

Security problem in lang.csh: 6645
Missing DNS entries: 6664, 6649
CHAP: 6664, 6646, 6506, 6586, 6324
Linuxconf issues: 5784, 5976, 6039, 6069, 6162, 6777,
PPP default route: 7142, 7000
PPP log filling: 7046, 7000
Device aliases: 6863, 6777, 6162, 6069
Others: 5646, 5959, 6252, 6286, 6300, 6301, 6527, 7159, 7158, 7156, 7018,
6949, 6857, 6828, 6588, 6527


4. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Linux 6.1, Intel
Red Hat Linux 6.1, Sparc

5. Obsoleted by:

6. Conflicts with:

7. RPMs required:

Intel:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/initscripts-4.67-1.i386.rpm

Sparc:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/sparc/initscripts-4.67-1.sparc.rpm

Source packages:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/initscripts-4.67-1.src.rpm


8. Solution:

For each RPM for your particular architecture, run:
rpm -Uvh
where filename is the name of the RPM.

9. Verification:

MD5 sum Package Name
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
af8eaa0cc62b3cc49ab07bc8e4f2a1a2 SRPMS/initscripts-4.67-1.src.rpm
48a2bb74fdad6736c20067f6203cf47c i386/initscripts-4.67-1.i386.rpm
a6f33b7db43ef9e431a2ab3ae0771cea sparc/initscripts-4.67-1.sparc.rpm

These packages are GPG signed by Red Hat, Inc. for security. Our key
is available at:
http://www.redhat.com/corp/contact.html

You can verify each package with the following command:
rpm --checksig

If you only wish to verify that each package has not been corrupted or
tampered with, examine only the md5sum with the following command:
rpm --checksig --nogpg

10. References:

osOpinion: Redhat vs Microsoft: Community Relations Posted Tuesday, November 23, 1999 - 12:33 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Authored by: David J. Goehrig of osOpinion

In the last few weeks, many people in the media have expounded upon the end of the Microsoft era. It is now clear that, Penfield's recent appointment of Posner as mediator largely assures that Microsoft shall not meet the same fate as Ma Bell. As Bill Gates has also made it clear that Microsoft will not settle for any sort of government regulation, the mediation process will probably have very little real effect.

On the other side of the coin, in an antipodal galaxy, Redhat revealed that it was consuming Cygnus, the driving force behind gcc development. Many of the same forces in the media that have been trumping the end of the Microsoft era, promptly suggested that Redhat might be guilty of emulating Microsoft. Redhat's uncharacteristically pathetic release of 6.1, and recent IPO has flamed the fears that Redhat has gone over to the Dark Side of the Force. Unfortunately for Redhat, even if they were to strike a deal with the devil, they couldn't win.

Both Microsoft and Redhat have found their Achilles' heel, the community in which they live. Microsoft has spent vast amounts of wealth and plenty of muscle to bully every other kid on the block that it didn't already own or could buy. In then end, Microsoft ticked-off far too many wealthy and influential people, and the biggest fish in the pond, the US Government began to throw its weight around, at least be seen "protecting" the interests of the community at large. Complete story

Linux set to take on Microsoft in India Posted Monday, November 22, 1999 - 3:51 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Indian Express News.

MUMBAI, NOV 22: Microsoft in India is set to face a tougher job retaining market share with leading Linux distributor Red Hat announcing plans to step up investments in the country. Linux already has as loyal following in India through Red Hat (or any other Linux distributor) had virtually no presence here so far.

"We have historically been led to believe software is expensive," Red Hat vice-president (Europe) Colin Tenwick said. Tenwick is here to appoint premium partners who can provide support and training on Red Hat Linux.

Linux is open source software which means that it is not only free but that its source code is also not secret. Red Hat earns its revenue by charging a nominal amount for the software and services. Free downloads are available at its site but customers prefer to save internet time and buy the software which comes with manuals and other support data.

International Data Corp statistics show the Linux market grew at a stunning 212.5 per cent in 1997-98. The software has a 17 per cent share in the operating systems market. Its stronghold is the web server market where it has upstaged Windows NT with a 28.8 per cent market share. "According to Computer World most ISPs in India also have a Linux server," Tenwick said. Linux provided a reliable and scaleable platform and reduced the total cost of ownership significantly. Quoting examples, he said a large retail bank with 1300 branches and 2000 servers had installed Linux on systems at one-fifth the cost of NT, while another large petroleum company had saved $ 10 million by opting for Linux. "The whole of the United Kingdom government has switched from Solaris (platform) to Red Hat," he added. Complete story

Linux Parachutes Down On Microsoft's Parade Posted Monday, November 22, 1999 - 1:39 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Microsoft Corp.'s competitors were falling out of the sky last week, literally, and landing right smack on the software developer's old stomping ground.

Leading the assault at Comdex/Fall, which originally was to be the venue for the official Windows 2000 launch, was Linux. The little-operating-system-that-could is making a strong play to become a leading OS in the next major computing battlegrounds: Internet appliances and large-scale systems.


Last week, heavyweights ranging from Linux developer Linus Torvalds to Corel Corp., Novell Inc. and Intel Corp. detailed plans and products designed to extend Linux from its Web serving origins to a major new operating system for the millennium. Torvalds, the keeper of the Linux kernel, unveiled plans to evolve the kernel to support wireless, mobile, specialized Internet appliances. He also tipped his hat to plans by his super-secretive company, Transmeta Corp., to ship a "smart" chip called the Crusoe Processor with built-in software to support mobile applications. Complete story

Linus speaks about the future of his invention. Posted Monday, November 22, 1999 - 1:11 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
- LINUS TORVALDS, creator of the Linux operating system, spoke with Mitchell Martin of the International Herald Tribune at Comdex about the future of his invention.

Q. What kind of college student writes an operating system?

A. A computer-science student. I used to be this math nerd, sort of way back when. I was the nerd of the class, in a positive way. That is how I got in touch with Unix in the first place. Face it, if you did not learn it in computer science, you would never have seen Unix five years ago well, 10 years ago. How time flies.

Q. What would make a consumer want Linux?

A. Very few people are going to change their operating systems. I have used the term ''it's like doing brain surgery on yourself.'' What is the point of having Linux in the first place? The point of having Linux in the first place even in that kind of market is because you want to avoid the kind of excesses that Microsoft has gone to. If the technology is solid, the user is going to be enjoying the experience a
lot more.

Q. But it is a chicken-and-egg question. Consumers will not use it if they cannot get programs, and programmers will not write for it if consumers do not use it.

A. Oh, yes, I agree. Regardless of all these new Internet appliances, in the near future Microsoft does have a monopoly on the desktop. Do I let that discourage me? No, I don't care. It is easier not to care when you are doing it for the technology and not for the market space.

Q. In your speech, you said Linux was popular with France and China. Do you talk to governments?

A. No, I read it in the news. Seriously, that is how I get a lot of the Linux stories. But also what happens is I talk to Linux companies. There are a lot of Linux companies interested in China because China is a huge market but also because the Chinese government apparently has tried officially to make it harder to install Windows NT on their servers. So they are encouraging companies not to do that because they hate looking bad from a copyright standpoint. Microsoft is actively trying to drive copyright protection in a very high-profile way, going after government agencies in China. Another issue is security. You have people being worried about back doors: When you are tracking software use for a copyright reasons, you could track it for some other reason. There is also just the economic point, which is do you want forever as a country to be dependent on another country for all your high technology? If I was a country, I would say, ''Hell, no,'' and that is basically what France and China to some degree are saying: ''We want to foster our own technology.''

Caldera’s Antitrust Lawsuit Against Microsoft Goes to Trial Posted Monday, November 22, 1999 - 11:32 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
In a legal entanglement that's completely aside from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) investigations, US District Judge Dee Benson has issued several rulings that will let Caldera’s antitrust suit against Microsoft go to trial on January 17, 2000. Caldera is suing Microsoft for using its monopoly in excess and sinking Caldera's DR-DOS product. According to Caldera, this action happened in the early days of the 1990s, and the company filed suit in 1996.

Microsoft has issued nine motions for partial summary judgment. Judge Benson has already ruled against eight of Microsoft’s motions for partial summary judgment, leaving only one motion to go. If the judge allowed summary judgment of parts of the case (i.e., threw out parts of the case), Caldera would have to present its case in bits and pieces.

In issuing his rulings, Judge Benson is not ruling that Microsoft used a monopoly to push DR-DOS out of existence. Rather, he's saying that sufficient evidence exists to support Caldera’s claims that its case can move into court instead of being thrown out summarily without trial.

In effect, Judge Benson’s most recent ruling states that sufficient evidence exists to allow the following Caldera claims to proceed to trial:

• Microsoft intentionally created incompatibilities between its products and DR-DOS to weaken DR-DOS’ salability.

• Microsoft generated fake error messages while DR-DOS was running to make DR-DOS look worse than it actually was.

• Microsoft merged MS-DOS and Windows illegally to destroy DR-DOS’ competitive capability.

• Microsoft singled out DR-DOS developers and didn't let them access the Windows 3.1 beta.


Simple awards are typically limited to triple the amount of the damages. In this case, Microsoft might have to pay up to $1.6 billion. However, Caldera is bringing this case to trial in Utah, where if the court allows punitive damages, awards are unlimited. For this reason, Microsoft has been trying to move the venue.

If Judge Benson allows punitive damages in the final ruling, Microsoft might be in for a beating. The final and ninth ruling on a Microsoft motion, the last ruling remaining, concerns whether the court will allow these punitive damages.

In its final days, Novell acquired DR-DOS and then it was acquired by Caldera. Novell’s former CEO and current Chairman of the Canopy Group Investment Company, Ray Noorda, acquired DR-DOS from Novell mainly as a vehicle for pursuing this lawsuit against Microsoft. Unfortunately, this case, which comes on the heels of the Microsoft and DOJ trial, is exactly the kind of publicity that Microsoft doesn’t need.

Linux makes itself known at Comdex Posted Monday, November 22, 1999 - 1:08 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Erik Espe: Business Journal Staff Writer

"We don't want to compete with Microsoft," said Henry Chen, assistant CEO of the 2-week-old San Jose-based firm XLinux Inc. from a small booth in the Las Vegas Hilton, a short walk from the main Comdex show in the Las Vegas Convention Center.

This year, Comdex was held in conjunction with the Linux Business Expo, an event bringing together software companies that use Linux, a free operating system created by Linus Torvalds in 1991.

The open-source OS began to catch on in 1993, and now boasts millions of users. Linux's stamp was all over Comdex this year, with Mr. Torvalds serving as a keynote speaker on Monday. The Linux Business Expo attracted mobs of people interested in a Microsoft alternative.

"In Linux we don't have enemies or competitors," said Mr.Chen, whose company builds products that enable users to configure programs for different languages. "We have partners. Do you want to choose Microsoft or Linux? Closed source or open source?"

For its adherents, Linux is as much a cause as a product. On the floor with the hundreds of companies that base their business model on Linux as a viable alternative to Microsoft Windows, were about a half dozen nonprofit agencies that exist solely to promote open-source software. Complete story

The Fate of Linux Posted Sunday, November 21, 1999 - 10:42 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
UNIX was originally conceived from a now forgotten operating system known as Multics in 1969. The major features which set UNIX apart from Multics and other operating systems of the time was that it was based on a platform of stability and networking. Perhaps UNIX's greatest benefit was that it was distributed freely to colleges across the US in the C programming language. UNIX soon became the dominant OS and had a wide range of support and interest. However, the innovation and spirit that popularized UNIX also brought it to its knees. Both copyright restrictions and "code-forking" made various UNIX applications and utilities incompatible with each other. By 1984, there were over a dozen separate proprietary UNIX variants each with it's own standards and applications. Developers became frustrated by these variants and abandoned UNIX. By 1996 Microsoft, Novel, and others had replaced nearly all of the market once owned by UNIX.

In 1991, Linux grew out of the brainchild of a Finnish college student fed up with the either high-cost or low-quality UNIX clones currently available. He decided to create and entirely new UNIX clone that had both a low, sometimes non-existent, cost and was stable, fast, and customizable. Linux soon grew from a single mans hobby to a phenomenon the world over. Creativity sparked around the globe and soon Linux composed of several distributions, and thousands of applications. Linux is a renaissance of UNIX on the PC, but without control, it may very well suffer the same fate of its ancestor. To this end, it is
necessary to create standards of development for programmers; without these standards, code-forking and incompatibility are inevitable. To insure Linux remain a free and open OS, not controlled by any single source, but one that does not repeat the past mistakes of other UNIX variants, I propose a non-profit vendor independent organization be established to direct the standards on which developers and corporations may base their Linux programs. Some have suggested that such an organization is not necessary due to the restrictions of the GPL to keep open software open, and thus fork-proof. However,
this is not the case as several Linux distributors are including more and more non-GNU applications in their products. Despite the fact that the Linux kernel will forever remain GPLed, as more non-GPLed applications enter the market, more users will prefer those applications, and only use a distribution that includes it. Complete story

The Database that is Everywhere is Here Posted Sunday, November 21, 1999 - 9:48 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Berkeley DB is the database in your Netscape. It is also the database used by Sendmail, Amazon.com, Yahoo and a host of other major ISPs and portal sites. As an embedded database, Berkeley does its work transparently--you may find yourself calling upon its services all day long and not even know it is there.

And with the release of version 3.0, Berkeley DB just got a great deal better.

"We're very excited about Release 3", said Margo Seltzer, Chief Technology Officer for Sleepycat Software, makers of the Berkeley DB. "We see enormous growth in the market for embedded database systems over the next few years. The market is converging around small mobile computers on one end, and large centralized servers on the other. Berkeley DB was designed to work well in both those environments."

A longtime choice of engineers looking to build applications requiring fast, powerful data management, the Berkeley DB is nothing if not scalable--working well with everything from palmtops to terabyte-sized systems. The new release of the Berkeley DB supports large in-memory databases and caches, petabyte-sized databases, and fast-locking primitives for multi-threaded or multi-process access. Berkeley 3.0 also provides new support for nesting transactions and a new queueing
access method, in addition to the B-tree, hash, and simple record support of earlier versions.

Said Eric Allman, Chief Technology Officer at Sendmail, another Berkeley DB user: "We rely on Berkeley DB in our core mail server. That product has to be rock-solid; it carries three-quarters of the e-mail traffic on the Internet."

The fact that the Berkeley DB is open source is also a major plus for the database system. (The source code is available for download here.)

"We're an open source vendor ourselves", Allman added. "We can't afford to rely on proprietary code for such a critical piece of our infrastructure. We've had the 3.0 code in-house for a while now and we're very pleased with the quality and features in the new release."

The Berkeley DB version 3.0 runs on all common versions of UNIX, as well as on Windows 95, Windows 98, and NT. For more background on the Berkeley DB, check out Peter Salus' System Administration article that appeared here in August.

Microsoft: Why the Market Loves Judge Jackson Posted Saturday, November 20, 1999 - 4:58 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
By Bill Barker (TMF Max)

I was at a friend's house two weeks ago on the Friday night that Judge Jackson's Findings of Fact in United States v. Microsoft were handed down. My friend asked if I agreed with the pundits out there who thought that the Judge's Findings could cause an end to the bull market, and that on the following Monday the market could head seriously south.

I hate to disappoint people when they ask me to predict the market's direction, but I always do. I really don't see any point in those guessing games, especially in relation to something I hadn't even read at the time. (Obviously, I'm not exactly in the majority on that.) Although I didn't personally hear any commentary predicting that there would be some huge market hissy-fit over the Microsoft ruling, I don't doubt that it was available in abundance for anybody who subjected him or herself to that weekend's media coverage.

As far as I can make it out, the doom and gloomers' argument was that the stock market so hates any interference in the free market economy by the government that it would read the Microsoft decision as some precursor of massive government regulation into the beloved technology sector. Since, as the argument goes, everybody involved in our Federal Government is too old, stupid, poor and/or power-crazy to understand technology (or the free market), this could only mean disaster. Complete story

Supercomputers Going Open Source? Posted Saturday, November 20, 1999 - 4:23 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
The federal government and top researchers are investigating whether supercomputer software development should go open source. The announcement was made Monday evening at the industry's annual confab, Supercomputing '99, held this year in Portland, Oregon.

A team led by Larry Smarr, head of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, will study the issue and deliver a report by next June to the President's Information Technology Advisory Council, otherwise known as PITAC.

"The high performance computing community is at a critical juncture in its history," Smarr said. "The community with either continue down its familiar path of company proprietary software and RISC processor building blocks or begin to move toward a new model of high-performance computing based on commodity high-volume parts and common software building blocks."

With the end of the Cold War, supercomputing projects have been squeezed by budget pressures. The government and the supercomputing community will take a deep look at open source as a way to keep world class research going without great new gobs of federal funding.

Linux.com: Good Things on the Horizon Posted Saturday, November 20, 1999 - 2:30 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
There seems to be a lot going on in the Linux world right now. The upcoming release of the 2.4 kernel, major headway in the area of DVD support, expanded support for hardware in general, especially my favorite sound card the Sound Blaster Live, and much more. This is very exciting for the Linux community. The new features in the 2.4 kernel along with the ever-expanding hardware support will continue to make Linux a more attractive platform for both home and business.

The biggest news in the world of Linux at the moment is the upcoming release of the 2.4 kernel series. This is the next "stable" series of the Linux kernel, and while not as big a jump as the 2.0 to 2.2 change, this new kernel series has some very exciting and promising changes in store for all of us. This kernel version will present a large number of driver updates, and new drivers all together. This hardware support includes new and updated IDE chipset support, more support for USB devices, more frame buffer support, some new sound chipsets, and more. Another very exciting new hardware development in the kernel is the integration of PCMCIA support directly into the kernel. What does this mean for all of you laptop users? That you will no longer have to obtain, compile, etc., a separate software package to get your PCMCIA cards working.

The 2.4 Linux kernel will also have some wonderful new software-level changes which many will find useful, and some absolutely essential. This new kernel series will support some new filesystems, such as the IRIX filesystem EFS, the IRIX disklabel, read/write support for OS/2 filesystems, and improvements to the UFS driver. Additionally, the kernel will now be able to detect SMB problems and apply the necessary fixes automatically. Support for more than 1024 processes will be included in the 2.4 kernel which will help Linux further penetrate the enterprise class environments. A new "wake one" feature of the network code will help to improve performance of some network applications by "waking up" only the process for which the incoming data is for rather than every process using that socket. These hardware (driver) and software improvements to the Linux kernel are going to further improve the performance and flexibility of Linux which we have all come to rely on. Complete story

Red Hat Security Advisory: Denial of service attack in syslogd Posted Saturday, November 20, 1999 - 1:42 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 00:08:34 -0500
From: Bill Nottingham
To: [email protected]



Red Hat, Inc. Security Advisory

Synopsis: Denial of service attack in syslogd
Advisory ID: RHSA-1999:055-01
Issue date: 1999-11-19
Updated on: 1999-11-19
Keywords: syslogd sysklogd stream socket
Cross references: bugtraq id #809



1. Topic:

A denial of service attack exists in the system log daemon, syslogd.

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Linux 4.x, all architectures
Red Hat Linux 5.x, all architectures
Red Hat Linux 6.0, all architectures

Red Hat Linux 6.1 is not vulnerable to this security issue. However, users of Red Hat Linux 6.1/Intel
may wish to upgrade to the latest package to fix a problem in the syslog daemon where log connections
would be reset after the syslog daemon is restarted.

3. Problem description:

The syslog daemon by default used unix domain stream sockets for receiving local log connections. By
opening a large number of connections to the log daemon, the user could make the system
unresponsive.

Thanks go to Olaf Kirch ([email protected]) for noting the vulnerability and providing patches.

4. Solution:

For each RPM for your particular architecture, run:
rpm -Uvh
where filename is the name of the RPM.

libc updates are needed for Red Hat Linux 4.2 for the Intel and Sparc architectures so that logging will
work correctly with the upgraded sysklogd packages.

Note: Upgrading to these sysklogd packages may impair the logging abilities of some software that
does not use the standard C library syslog(3) interface to the system logs. Such software may have to
be changed to use datagram connections instead of stream connections to the log socket.

5. Bug IDs fixed (http://developer.redhat.com/bugzilla for more info):

6. Obsoleted by:

7. Conflicts with:

8. RPMs required:

Red Hat Linux 4.x:

Intel:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/4.2/i386/sysklogd-1.3.31-0.5.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/4.2/i386/libc-5.3.12-18.5.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/4.2/i386/libc-debug-5.3.12-18.5.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/4.2/i386/libc-devel-5.3.12-18.5.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/4.2/i386/libc-profile-5.3.12-18.5.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/4.2/i386/libc-static-5.3.12-18.5.i386.rpm

Alpha:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/4.2/alpha/sysklogd-1.3.31-0.5.alpha.rpm

Sparc:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/4.2/sparc/sysklogd-1.3.31-0.5.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/4.2/sparc/libc-5.3.12-18.5.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/4.2/sparc/libc-debug-5.3.12-18.5.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/4.2/sparc/libc-devel-5.3.12-18.5.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/4.2/sparc/libc-profile-5.3.12-18.5.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/4.2/sparc/libc-static-5.3.12-18.5.sparc.rpm

Source packages:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/4.2/SRPMS/sysklogd-1.3.31-0.5.src.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/4.2/SRPMS/libc-5.3.12-18.5.src.rpm

Red Hat Linux 5.x:

Intel:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.2/i386/sysklogd-1.3.31-1.5.i386.rpm

Alpha:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.2/alpha/sysklogd-1.3.31-1.5.alpha.rpm

Sparc:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.2/sparc/sysklogd-1.3.31-1.5.sparc.rpm

Source packages:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.2/SRPMS/sysklogd-1.3.31-1.5.src.rpm

Red Hat Linux 6.0:

Intel:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.0/i386/sysklogd-1.3.31-14.i386.rpm

Alpha:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.0/alpha/sysklogd-1.3.31-14.alpha.rpm

Sparc:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.0/sparc/sysklogd-1.3.31-14.sparc.rpm

Source packages:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.0/SRPMS/sysklogd-1.3.31-14.src.rpm

Red Hat Linux 6.1:

Intel:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/i386/sysklogd-1.3.31-14.i386.rpm

Source packages:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.1/SRPMS/sysklogd-1.3.31-14.src.rpm

9. Verification:

MD5 sum Package Name

378d0be4ef864e9106fe46349cb366b9 i386/sysklogd-1.3.31-0.5.i386.rpm
801c745d3e920d29fdea2f5be07d25b3 i386/libc-5.3.12-18.5.i386.rpm
1d5ba779311e222a824895e0a6b34516 i386/libc-debug-5.3.12-18.5.i386.rpm
bacf136ee00f323fcf0a8db95b5ab231 i386/libc-devel-5.3.12-18.5.i386.rpm
a25eb15726a1c216b3bdf9ab1b2d670c i386/libc-profile-5.3.12-18.5.i386.rpm
62bc3f2df09cdc0abd4138b51894b6a7 i386/libc-static-5.3.12-18.5.i386.rpm
bafdc46464b2ae72739630c14e2eeb5a alpha/sysklogd-1.3.31-0.5.alpha.rpm
f34994e1cd262f01dc5c11681a31855e sparc/sysklogd-1.3.31-0.5.sparc.rpm
7130a7c76581cde28790638e6696d522 sparc/libc-5.3.12-18.5.sparc.rpm
f81bae231d268bd1a1a703f13fb4c140 sparc/libc-debug-5.3.12-18.5.sparc.rpm
0938e6fb074dd0769542037194ccb031 sparc/libc-devel-5.3.12-18.5.sparc.rpm
bceef7f99adc7b198f743eacd770db5b sparc/libc-profile-5.3.12-18.5.sparc.rpm
ef2d6ecb52d6ef30fac839e3a0c4e7d0 sparc/libc-static-5.3.12-18.5.sparc.rpm
d371c2f33b29034be986b95f3acf457f SRPMS/sysklogd-1.3.31-0.5.src.rpm
1c210bd05b6de76ee8ac8d6c40c3d1d9 SRPMS/libc-5.3.12-18.5.src.rpm

1cd398b77471d5a90c2ce64487c32be4 i386/sysklogd-1.3.31-1.5.i386.rpm
2564ea2b333d6c26024f8edefb49f295 alpha/sysklogd-1.3.31-1.5.alpha.rpm
5561ccefc3e499dba6b5eae181dde217 sparc/sysklogd-1.3.31-1.5.sparc.rpm
508762e8fd7e97c5c50372eb27eaa19c SRPMS/sysklogd-1.3.31-1.5.src.rpm

8e59b61b8b1a9356ea675d7234b801d8 i386/sysklogd-1.3.31-14.i386.rpm
d906f40e4084ac82afe9b5a2686a167d alpha/sysklogd-1.3.31-14.alpha.rpm
5ec7b94032e4c3a911099d7547e0742d sparc/sysklogd-1.3.31-14.sparc.rpm
55cc22adb6b3272ef23763e89309af24 SRPMS/sysklogd-1.3.31-14.src.rpm

8e59b61b8b1a9356ea675d7234b801d8 i386/sysklogd-1.3.31-14.i386.rpm
55cc22adb6b3272ef23763e89309af24 SRPMS/sysklogd-1.3.31-14.src.rpm

These packages are GPG signed by Red Hat, Inc. for security. Our key is available at:
http://www.redhat.com/corp/contact.html

You can verify each package with the following command:
rpm --checksig

If you only wish to verify that each package has not been corrupted or tampered with, examine only the
md5sum with the following command:
rpm --checksig --nogpg

10. References:

Java Standards Glitch May Open Door for Microsoft Posted Saturday, November 20, 1999 - 9:15 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Sun Microsystems Inc. has until December 1 to inform ECMA whether it wants to continue working with ECMA to standardize Java. ECMA is an international industry association based in Europe and is Sun's current route for making Java an international standard.

However, Sun is withholding its 8400-page Java specification from ECMA because ECMA will not allow Sun to maintain its copyright through the standards process. Sun has accused Microsoft, an ECMA member, of violating Sun's copyright in U.S. District Court, and is hoping for reinstatement of a preliminary injunction against Microsoft based on that accusation. Sun General Counsel Mike Morris said he expects U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte to rule on the injunction, which would require Microsoft products to comply with Sun's Java, by the end of the month.

After a tough fight against Microsoft, Intel and several other U.S. companies, Sun in 1997 became the first commercial company to be named as a Publicly Approved Submitter of an international standard, allowing Java to be submitted on a fast track. However, Sun abruptly set aside its PAS plans last spring after discovering that its PAS status would expire this month. Shortly after, ECMA agreed to take up Sun's Java standards work and submit Java to ISO on a fast track for Sun. Complete story

Lynx: Making A Meal Of Linux Market Posted Friday, November 19, 1999 - 8:24 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
SAN JOSE, Calif. - While some other suppliers of embedded real-time operating systems continue to nibble around the edges of the Linux market, Lynx Real Time Systems, which sells a POSIX-compliant RTOS, has jumped into this emerging market with a vengeance.

Building on its experience with the POSIX operating system, Lynx has developed BlueCat Linux, a version of Linux that's been optimized for embedded applications. In an announcement, company executives said Lynx will begin shipping BlueCat as an open source product by June of next year.

At the time of the BlueCat release, Lynx will also release version 4.0 of its LynxOS, which will have full binary compatibility with Linux due to its POSIX-based design. Near term, Lynx has released a version of its open development environment, originally available only on Windows, for usewith Red Hat Linux, and is investing in new technical support, consulting and training services for Linux developers working in embedded applications.

Bill Hogan, president and chief executive officer of Lynx, said the move to support Linux is "perfectly logical" for his company, given its 12-year history of support for industry standards such as POSIX. But rather than develop a totally new version of Linux, BlueCat will be based on Red Hat Version 6.1, containing the Linux 2.2.5-15 kernel. The difference will be in Lynx's open development environment, which developers will be able to use to create variations of the embedded Linux operating system according their particular requirements. Complete story

Kenwood Likes The Sound Of Linux Posted Friday, November 19, 1999 - 5:22 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
"Kenwood makes state of the art home and car audio systems, but its
back-office computing system was as obsolete as eight-track tapes."

Until recently, Kenwood Americas, the U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Kenwood, used an ancient McDonnell Douglas mini-computer running the Pick operating system for its order-entry, inventory and control, and general ledger systems. When the dust began getting too thick on that system, the company turned for an alternative to Linux running on a Dell PowerEdge server -- the first of a two-stage migration that will eventually find the company running on a modern ERP system.

"We're not on Linux because we're gung ho for it or because we're revolutionaries," said Gary Calvin, systems integration specialist at Kenwood. "We chose it because it suits our business."

The application, running on Kenwood's Red Hat Linux implementation, is jBASE from jBASE Software, a version of the Pick operating system that runs on top of Unix and Windows NT, designed to help users migrate from Pick. Complete story

More on Torvalds' Transmeta mystery? Posted Friday, November 19, 1999 - 4:45 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
"The father of Linux drops a few more tantalizing clues about where his super-secretive startup is heading."

During comments he made to ZD Radio, The founder of Linux hinted that a forthcoming chip being developed by his Transmeta Corp. will be aimed at mobile devices, such as intelligent cellular phones.

"We aren't really ready to announce what we're doing in any big way," Torvalds said. "We believe very strongly in mobility. Mobile phones are changing how people thing about how technology should be."

Cellular phones, Torvalds said, "are showing people how convenient technology can make life."

Transmeta will "come clean on January 19," Torvalds said, reiterating the message posted on the company site. "We're doing a microprocessor. I really can't say anything else."

Analysts believe that Transmeta, with the help of Torvalds, is building operating system software -- most likely Linux code -- into the processor, which will then be utilized in devices. This could help reduce cost, among other things. Complete story

How To Get Started With Linux Posted Friday, November 19, 1999 - 1:50 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff

Linux goes mainstream! Posted Friday, November 19, 1999 - 10:58 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Unlike taxi cabs during Comdex, irony was in abundance this week in Las Vegas. I'm talking about the Linux fans in attendance, those fierce believers in the freedom to develop software without interference from the likes of Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT).

Linux followers sought a kind of deliverance and mainstream acceptance at the world's biggest computer trade show. Various new companies touted the formerly obscure operating system, pitching business plans propped up on what's meant to be free technology.

At the center stood Linus Torvalds. In a keynote speech, Mr. Torvalds thanked thousands of Linux developers, companies, and investors who dragged the operating system kicking and screaming into public consciousness -- a welcome change considering most keynote speeches are just hour-long commercials for big companies. Complete story

Microsoft Touts Quality, Linux Draws Crowds Posted Thursday, November 18, 1999 - 11:17 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Bill's getting a taste of what it feels like to be The Establishment with an upstart nipping at his heels.

LAS VEGAS--Want high-tech paradigm shifts spelled out for you? Come to Comdex/Fall '99 in Las Vegas. Nowhere is the changing of the guard more obvious.

Case in point: Windows and Linux. Wasn't too long ago that Microsoft's Bill Gates had the same drawing power as a rock star and kids would line up around the block just to get a glimpse of the nerd who made good. But Monday night, it was Linus Torvalds, developer of Linux, who held court over semi-hysterical young groupies, while Gates trotted out the establishment party line.

My, how times do change.

Not that Gates didn't grab a big crowd with his keynote. He did. And what's more, he did it on a Sunday night. But now he does it while impudent whippersnappers like the Linux aficionados tweak his nose, the way he used to tweak IBM's.

To be fair, Microsoft's doing a lot of forward thinking, moving new products that will quite frankly be better than the fair-to-middlin' stuff they've pushed for the past five years. Looking at the vast range of Windows-less products at Comdex, though, I've got to wonder if they left the quality part of the equation until too late. Will anyone believe it if Windows 2000 DataCenter finally gets the reliability thing right? Complete story

GNOME brings a friendly face to Linux world Posted Thursday, November 18, 1999 - 3:14 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Once the realm of hardcore programmers and code enthusiasts, the Linux OS is being pushed into the mainstream with the development of user-friendly desktop GUIs. The newest offering in this area, GNOME (GNU Network Object Model Environment), premiered last winter and is gaining acceptance as a possible solution to Linux’s somewhat limited commercial viability.

The GNOME interface can be configured to mimic the look and feel of popular GUIs such as Windows or Mac while also offering the flexibility that Linux users have grown to love. A Virtual Desktop function allows users to access numerous desktop environments and the open-source code backbone will enable users to create customized applications.

A big boost to GNOME’s commercial potential could result from its inclusion in commercial Linux OS packages. While still available for free in the open-source tradition, the availability of GNOME in a commercial OS package will benefit the average user who does not possess the know-how or patience to install the GUI manually.

The open-source nature of GNOME allows discussions to take place on public mailing lists, with developers free to send their code directly to an anonymous CVS server. The ability to expand the functionality of the desktop and search for bug fixes from a number of sources makes GNOME an exciting development in the Linux world. With more and more software vendors porting their applications to Linux, the time has arrived to have an accessible, intuitive desktop that appeals to all
user levels. Complete story

SuSE Security Advisory: syslogd (a1) Posted Thursday, November 18, 1999 - 10:02 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
SuSE Security Announcement - syslogd (a1)

Package: syslogd-1.3.33 (a1)
Date: Thu Nov 18 14:00:29 CET 1999

Affected SuSE versions: 6.2 and 6.3
Vulnerability Type: local denial-of-service attack
SuSE default package: yes
Other affected systems: all Linux systems using the syslog daemon


A security hole was discovered in the package mentioned above. Please update as soon as possible or disable the service if you are using this software on your SuSE Linux installation(s).

Other Linux distributions or operating systems might be affected as well, please contact your vendor for information about this issue.

Please note, that that we provide this information on an "as-is" basis only. There is no warranty whatsoever and no liability for any direct, indirect or incidental damage arising from this information or the installation of the update package.


1. Problem Description

The syslogd server uses a Unix Domain stream socket (/dev/log) for receiving local log messages via syslog(3). Unix Domain stream sockets are non connection-less, that means, that one process is needed to serve one client.

2. Impact

By opening alot of local syslog connections a user could stop the system from responding.

3. Solution

Updated the package from our FTP server.


Please verify these md5 checksums of the updates before installing:

c9a9e0f8fc4e29daf30f8a735ae333ab syslogd-1.3.33-9.alpha.rpm (AXP, 6.1)
3104e26a8b474e215ed703b7c4d48888 syslogd-1.3.33-9.i386.rpm (x86, 5.3)
a13be12a75232f2f62f51fb1cae26fc0 syslogd-1.3.33-9.i386.rpm (x86, 6.1)
fc29df9455288f40eb1e8dbd0f47d5b3 syslogd-1.3.33-9.i386.rpm (x86, 6.2)
869b7fedd5b52807f12b7f66e282002c syslogd-1.3.33-9.i386.rpm (x86, 6.3)



You can find updates on our ftp-Server:
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/axp/update/6.1/a1/syslogd-1.3.33-9.alpha.rpm
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/5.3/a1/syslogd-1.3.33-9.i386.rpm
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/6.1/a1/syslogd-1.3.33-9.i386.rpm
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/6.2/a1/syslogd-1.3.33-9.i386.rpm
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/6.3/a1/syslogd-1.3.33-9.i386.rpm

or try the following web pages for a list of mirrors:
http://www.suse.de/de/support/download/ftp/inland.html
http://www.suse.de/de/support/download/ftp/ausland.html

Our webpage for patches:
http://www.suse.de/de/support/download/updates/index.html

Our webpage for security announcements:
http://www.suse.de/de/support/security/index.html

If you want to report vulnerabilities, please contact [email protected]

Linux goes to university Posted Thursday, November 18, 1999 - 7:57 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
"Open source operating system is behind one of the UK's largest online learning projects"

Manchester Metropolitan University has turned to Linux for the backbone of one the largest online learning projects in the UK.

The University revealed Tuesday that it is using servers running SuSE Linux and IBM DB2 databases to allow students to access its learning facilities over the Internet.

A spokesman from the University said the thinking behind this decision was based on the multitudinous assets of the open source operating system. He said, "The University found that a combination of Linux and IBM DB2 was the only robust enough to provide the absolute reliability, security and speed needed by students learning via the Internet."

This spokesman also said a number of other databases, including Sybase and Oracle, were considered for the job but that IBM DB2 was felt to most the most effective available.

Torvalds: More clues to secret chip Posted Thursday, November 18, 1999 - 6:39 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Linus Torvalds didn't completely blow open one of Silicon Valley's best kept secrets - Transmeta and its 'smart' chip

Transmeta one of Silicon Valley's most secretive startup companies, is working on what it says is a "smart" microprocessor, and more details will be coming January 19, its most famous employee told the giant Comdex computer show here.

Linus Torvalds, the creator of the increasingly popular Linux operating system who also works at Transmeta, disclosed a few details at the tail end of his keynote address at the Comdex show on Monday night with one paragraph in his slides to describe what Transmeta does. Torvalds said he could not provide any further details. Following the keynote address, Transmeta's Web site was updated to say that it will be releasing a processor called the "Crusoe."
"We rethought the processor to create a whole new world of mobility," the company says on its Web site.

Up until Monday night, the company's Website has said, "This Web page is not here yet! ... but it is Y2K compliant." Complete story

What's it All About, Linus? Posted Thursday, November 18, 1999 - 6:29 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Over the years, the super-secret, celebrity-studded chip company Transmeta has proven to be a repository of a lot of hopes, dreams, and fanciful thinking.

Exactly what was the company -- whose top brass includes Linux creator Linus Torvalds and other prominent names in the business -- working on?

In a strategy at odds with the rest of Silicon Valley, Transmeta has kept its lip buttoned since its inception in 1995, uttering not a peep about products or plans.

In the absence of any information, the geek community projected a lot of fantasies onto the hush-hush Silicon Valley startup.

But after four years of wild speculation, rumor, and out-and-out nonsense, the tight-lipped company is about to pull back the curtain. Complete story

Feds build monster Linux computer Posted Thursday, November 18, 1999 - 6:16 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
The Department of Energy's Argonne National Lab has built its largest supercomputer system ever -- a 256-node cluster that is to be based on Intel hardware and the Linux operating system.

Dubbed Chiba City for the futuristic city described in William Gibson's novel Neuromancer, the cluster will be open for use by researchers at other national labs, universities and even US industry. Each node in the cluster is to be a dual processor server from VA Linux Systems, giving the cluster a total of 512 central processing units. IBM Netfinity servers will provide cluster management, file storage and data visualisation capabilities.

Consultants from both IBM and VA Linux Systems' new consulting unit helped the lab in constructing the supercomputer, spokesmen for the two companies said.

Remy Evard, advanced computing manager at Argonne's computer science unit, said the two-day cooperative "barn raising" event used to build the supercomputer involved 50 Argonne scientists. The availability of tools for working with Linux and other examples of open source code makes it possible for many different participants to contribute to such a large scale project, Evard added. Complete story

The Worst Bug in GNU/Linux Installs Posted Friday, September 17, 1999 - 8:44 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
The worst install bug I've encountered with GNU/Linux is a problem that comes up in the "monitor" selection. Now, I must admit that I have only installed Red Hat, Caldera and Mandrake. It doesn't matter which version of these, the problem is always there -- at least for me.

The problem occurs just after you've decided on your monitor. There may be a warning that your monitor may go blinky for a few seconds (seems like hours) and not to worry. You might even get so far as to get a notice that the system is now "going to probe." There's usually a warning here too, that it might not work. How correct.

The problem really begins when you choose wrong. I won't go into the reasons one might choose wrong. There are many. If you do choose wrong, your screen goes black. Sometimes it just crashes. Going black seems to be the major problem I encounter, and you can guess what a problem that is. Essentially, your install is complete -- all you're doing now is doing the final X configuration. But, if your screen goes black -- what can you do? Complete story

Comdex '99: Linux battle cry - 'Unite or Die!' Posted Friday, September 17, 1999 - 5:57 AM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
Ransom Love evokes revolutionaries such as George Washington and Sir Isaac Newton in calling on Linux developers to rally around standards George Washington, Isaac Newton, Abraham Lincoln, King George III. Ah, must be a Linux keynote.

Caldera Systems CEO Ransom Love invoked all four men in his keynote address here, which at times sounded more like a call to arms for the Linux community to unite behind common standards and certification.

The goal is to make Linux a major force in the era of network-connected appliances. "We're in the midst of another shift," Love said. "The LAN is turning into the Internet and the PC is turning into many specialised appliances and devices. They are lower cost [than the PC] and they are breaking down political and economic barriers."

But Love said it's not all good. He mentioned Newton's third law of motion, saying the more devices, the more management that's required. He said "in the sea of Internet inter-connected devices, how do you manage and maintain your business?" Complete story

Debian Security Advisory: New version of bind released Posted Thursday, September 16, 1999 - 7:47 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 00:29:17 +0100
From: Wichert Akkerman
To: [email protected]
Reply to: [email protected]

Debian Security Advisory [email protected]
http://www.debian.org/security/ Wichert Akkerman
November 17, 1999


The version bind that was distributed in Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 has a vulnerability in the processing of NXT records that can be used by an attacked in a Debian of Service attack or theoretically be exploited to gain access to the server.

This has been fixed in version 8.2.5p5-0slink1, and we recommend that you upgrade your bind package immediately.

This version of Debian was released only for Intel, the Motorola 680x0, the alpha and the Sun
sparc architecture.

Source archives:
http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/source/bind_8.2.2p5-0slink1.diff.gz
MD5 checksum: 7e869545b7fab796e264f2ac3b726030
http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/source/bind_8.2.2p5-0slink1.dsc
MD5 checksum: 8dd6f2726596d6d37088309e7a42fa7c
http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/source/bind_8.2.2p5.orig.tar.gz
MD5 checksum: e910c207e3a419b1fdba646c28ee3102

Alpha architecture:
http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/binary-alpha/bind_8.2.2p5-0slink1_alpha.deb
MD5 checksum: e7eb3c2b03963338bafc3c13bdec776f
http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/binary-alpha/dnsutils_8.2.2p5-0slink1_alpha.deb
MD5 checksum: e559e74e9b2ba8565974d5c21611a474

Intel ia32 architecture:
http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/binary-i386/bind_8.2.2p5-0slink1_i386.deb
MD5 checksum: f25811f6d69034ea64c65382e6c9717d
http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/binary-i386/dnsutils_8.2.2p5-0slink1_i386.deb
MD5 checksum: ce8a20f23ec3246cab484776652a18a4

Motorola 680x0 architecture:
http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/binary-m68k/bind_8.2.2p5-0slink1_m68k.deb
MD5 checksum: f7e4c91d75bbd03325cfa666a3da35d7
http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/binary-m68k/dnsutils_8.2.2p5-0slink1_m68k.deb
MD5 checksum: 388f6dbae6ce8e897dfd636e4b3f15c6

Sun Sparc architecture:
http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/binary-sparc/bind_8.2.2p5-0slink1_sparc.deb
MD5 checksum: adf299fcdc50c8db77b5b3f462633b0f
http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/binary-sparc/dnsutils_8.2.2p5-0slink1_sparc.deb
MD5 checksum: 89d1729caf15d6b51e2e5f8b6fccf5c4

These files will be moved into
ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/*/binary-$arch/ soon.

For not yet released architectures please refer to the appropriate directory
ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/sid/binary-$arch/ .

Mystery Torvalds chip venture ready to spill the beans Posted Thursday, September 16, 1999 - 7:30 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
Lifting the lid on Silicon Valley's best kept secret, the Transmeta Corporation will finally tell the world about its revolutionary software based microprocessor next January.

Linus Torvalds, founder of the Linux operating system, told Comdex attendees that his employer, Transmeta, would give full details of its software chip on 19 January 2000, almost five years after the mysterious company's creation.

Torvalds gave few details other than that it would be a "smart CPU, the first microprocessor built with software." He teasingly referred attendees to Transmeta's website for further details. However, visitors to www.transmeta.com were given little more than confirmation of the launch date and the chip's name: "The Crusoe Processor".

Santa Clara, California based Transmeta has done a good job of keeping its chip plans under wraps, although some unconfirmed details have leaked out. Complete story

Red Hat acquires Cygnus Posted Wednesday, September 15, 1999 - 7:59 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
LWN talked briefly today with Red Hat's Donnie Barnes (see picture) about the announced acquisition of Cygnus Solutions. Now that the deal has actually been signed, they are able to talk about it...

Red Hat sees Cygnus as being an outstanding match. Cygnus has a great deal of expertise in areas that Red Hat does not - things like compilers, embedded systems, and so on. By bringing in Cygnus, Red Hat is able to fill out its own expertise quickly. And yes, Red Hat is planning to enlarge its presence in the embedded arena; Cygnus will give them a huge start in that direction.

While there may be minor changes in Cygnus as the two companies come together, they do not envision large changes. The fate of the Cygnus name has not been decided. Michael Tiemann is expected to remain with the company and have a big role.

Should people be worried about Red Hat acquiring so much of the compiler and libc teams? In the end, according to Donnie, it remains open source software. Red Hat remains committed to open source, and, in the end, there is only so much that they can do to it. Nobody need worry about the compiler. Complete story

SuSE Comes Up Sevens With New OS Version Posted Wednesday, September 15, 1999 - 7:52 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
SuSE is making its roll for riches at COMDEX with the announcement of a new release of their flagship Linux distribution: SuSE Linux 6.3.

This latest take on Linux features improvements both for your end users and your corporate customers. For end users, SuSE boasts of a new graphical set up program. This builds on the company's very successful YaST installation routine. YaST 2, besides being prettier, also gets in line with other reseller Linux installation routines by delivering on automatic hardware detection of PCI-based equipment.

Your customers who want everything and the kitchen sink in open-source software also will be pleased with the remarkable fullness of this package's included software. How much is there? Suffice it to say that this SuSE Linux edition comes on one DVD or six CD-ROMs. If it's open source and runs on Linux, it's in there. Complete story

Announcing The Linux Resource Directory Posted Tuesday, September 14, 1999 - 8:33 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
The popular Linuxfool.com portal unveiled its new Linux Resource Directory, which gives access to users to Linux sites of all sorts. Over the past months, the portal has become somewhat of a support gateway for many Linux users. In the first few weeks of its existence, the site's own administrators as well as visitors have helped answer at least three hundred questions, with over 1000 total posts. Ironically the site has been featured in a Microsoft Windows-related e-zine, Lockergnome, and is catching a lot of attention from Windows users who are switching to Linux.

The directory is expected to grow significantly, and ultimately the site will provide a single point of communication for all Linux users.

The site also provides significant resources for Linux Webmasters, such as a web ring and banner exchange. In only a mere few days, the banner exchange has shown over 20,000 banners, and has clickthrough ratios as high as 6-7% for some of its members.

Overall, Vladislav Davidzon, LinuxFool.com webmaster, hopes that this site will attract Linux enthusiasts, irrespective of proficiency level, experience or expertise. As this goal is accomplished, registered and new users will come to rely upon each other as "experts," seeking technical support and assistance from each other, in an unmoderated setting. With the web site currently exceeding projected volume expectations, LinuxFool.com averages between three and four hundred thousand hits each month. The site can be reached at http://www.linuxfool.com

Teaching web site construction with Linux Posted Tuesday, September 14, 1999 - 8:08 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
The main questions nowadays when teaching web construction are:
(1) which environment do I use?
(2) which HTML editors are best?

As for the environment, I mean on which server (as for software) shall our site be placed? The main choice is between a Microsoft server running under Windows NT (professional) or Windows 9X (local intranet), or on the other hand a Unix server. In this latter case, Apache seems to hold a large part of the market, though it is by no means a monopoly :-).

This is an important question as each server has its own capabilities and quirks. The HTML editor question depends to a certain extent on our response to the first question. If we are developing for a Microsoft server, it makes sense to write our pages with MS Frontpage (complete or Express). The same goes for a Netscape server and Netscape Communicator. With a Unix/Linux, the debate can be more extensive.

You will notice that I have no particular tendency towards or away from Microsoft products. I am sure that Internet is large enough to find people working on any combination of hardware and software -- just as well! I personally develop with a Linux+Apache server and a Windows+iExplorer+Netscape+HotJava client.

Naturally, our answers to these questions depend both on personal choice and on the end result we want to produce. To analyse these, several factors can be taken into account, that I will formulate as questions. Complete story

Vixie Wraps BIND Posted Friday, November 12, 1999 - 11:13 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
On the verge of releasing a complete rewrite of the DNS software BIND, and on the heels of MS Hotmail's about-face subscription to his spam-busting MAPS Realtime Blackhole List, Paul Vixie made it known at LISA '99 on Wednesday that he'll be stepping down from his pivotal role as BIND's head architect and principal maintainer.

Often mistakenly identified as BIND's original author, Vixie is in fact the person who took it to the next level, laying the
foundation for a new economy along the way. "The reason I got started working on BIND is that it didn't work," he said Wednesday. "So I started hacking the code, people found out I was hacking the code and asked for copies, and the rest is history."

It was in the course of describing how the completely rewritten BIND 9 came about that Vixie mentioned his plan to pass on the mantle. "I'm coming up on ten years working with BIND, and now that the fresh, clean, from-scratch implementation has none of my code in it, I'm pretty much planning to retire from BIND. Ten years is a long time." Complete story

Linux Lite For Newbies? Posted Friday, November 12, 1999 - 12:58 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Targeting new users wanting to venture into the Linux market, software maker LinuxOne has released LinuxOne Lite, a slimmed-down distribution of the operating system.

To install LinuxOne Lite, a user copies a single folder from the CD-ROM to their computer's hard drive under Windows. The company claims that a full install takes just under three minutes on most computer systems.

There is no need to set up a special Linux disk partition as the operating system installs in the same partition in which Windows resides.

To launch the system, the user simply clicks on the LinuxOne executable file inside its folder. The program will then restart the system in Linux. To return to Windows, the user can simply type "reboot" at the console command prompt and LinuxOne Lite will reboot and return to Windows. LinuxOne is on the Web at http://www.linuxone.net/

Linux Data Recovery Posted Friday, November 12, 1999 - 12:47 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Ontrack Data Recovery [NASDAQ:ONDI], the remote data recovery specialist, claims it is the first company to offer remote recovery of data for the Linux operating system.

Sally O'Neill, a spokesperson for the firm, told Newsbytes that remote recovery can now be carried out on Linux systems using a standard phone/modem connection. The expansion to Linux, she said, is part of Ontrack's strategy to offer data recovery facilities to the whole spectrum of computer users.

Mike Rogers, Ontrack's chief executive officer (CEO), meanwhile, said that the company plans to offer a full set of data recovery options for PC users, ranging from simple do-it-yourself data recoveries to complex operations in the enterprise environment.

"Many users turn to backup tapes to retrieve lost data files," he said, adding that, unfortunately, the ability to restore lost data is directly related to the last time the system was backed up and the quality of that process. Complete story

Dialtone Internet Gives Away Free Linux Servers Posted Thursday, November 11, 1999 - 11:28 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Al Albarracin, head of Dialtone Internet, announced today that it will give away up to 2,000 brand new, sub-$2000 Linux-based, internet servers to new customers who sign-up for a minimum 3 year collocation agreement. These internet servers are suited for web-hosting and feature AMD K6-2 400 Mhz processors, 128 MB of memory, and 4.3 GIG Hard Drives. In addition, servers come loaded with Dialtone Internet's proprietary Linux "Server Interface Kx" software for DNS/Web/Mail administration.

Register on the Free-Linux website at http://free-linux.com.

These servers will be hosted at the Dialtone Internet facilities and will be backed by a technical and service warranty. There are no vouchers to redeem or rebates to cash in. "We've built our company on the premise that dedicated servers should be accessible to everyone," says Dialtone Internet founder and CEO, Al Albarracin. "In just four days of testing our program, we gave away over 32 new servers. You can't make it any easier than giving away a free Linux server."

While demand for dedicated servers and Internet data center services continues to build across a wide demographic spectrum, Dialtone Internet is raising the bar to a new level. Based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Dialtone Internet is a direct provider of data center services. It currently serves and supports dedicated servers, including mission critical web systems, for clients worldwide and a network of over 274 dedicated server resellers from over 41 countries.

About Dialtone Internet ( http://www.dialtoneinternet.net ) Complete story

Finding the Facts About Linux Posted Tuesday, November 09, 1999 - 7:56 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Is Linux really a "fringe operating system" that can't compete effectively unless the government steps in and protects it from big,
bad Microsoft?

You'd think Linux advocates would have welcomed Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's Findings of Fact in the Microsoft trial, namely that the software giant indeed possesses a monopoly in the PC operating system market--and what's more, that the company's actions inflict harm on consumers. Not surprisingly, most Linux advocates greeted the decision with glee. One could almost hear the strains of "Ding, Dong, The Witch is Dead".

Yet the Linux community's reaction reveals a degree of ambivalence that struck some outsiders as quite puzzling; after all, this
community is notorious for Microsoft-bashing. For example, a Slashdot article portrayed Microsoft executives as "tragic figures",
expressing something akin to sympathy, while others took Judge Jackson to task for underestimating the threat that Linux poses to Microsoft--and in so doing, seemed to join forces with Microsoft's defense attorneys, who have been making precisely the same point.

Why the ambivalence about Jackson's decision? Partly, it's just wounded pride. Jackson depicts Linux as a "fringe operating system" that poses no credible threat to Windows. In the Linux world, you make enemies very quickly if you suggest that Linux is headed for anything other than a very rapid world takeover. But there's more than hype at work here in the many rosy predictions people are making about Linux. It really is making inroads into Microsoft's markets, and perhaps faster than Judge Jackson recognizes. If Microsoft's empire is indeed beginning to crumble, is antitrust action really needed? Complete story

Linux firms gain from Microsoft's loss Posted Monday, November 08, 1999 - 10:09 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Shares of Red Hat, a seller of the Linux operating system, surged more than 20 percent to close at 104 in the wake of U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's finding Friday that Microsoft is a monopoly. And this happened despite Jackson's description of Linux as a "fringe operating system."

Red Hat was one of many companies around the periphery of the Microsoft empire to benefit from investors' enthusiasm. Generally, the closer the company is to the margins of the computing world, the better it fared as a result of the ruling.

Where Linux companies, Apple, and Be Incorporated surged, more diversified Microsoft competitors such as Santa Cruz Operation, Novell, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems saw more modest gains. Microsoft, for its part, closed the day down about 1.71 percent.

Red Hat chief executive Bob Young declined to comment on whether the surge in his company's stock was warranted.

"Our goal is to create value for our customers and our shareholders over a multiyear period," he said in an interview today. "I do not attempt to explain the short-term gyrations of the stock market."

But there's no denying that Jackson's findings "opens the door pretty wide" for Microsoft competitors, Young said. "It creates an opportunity for us in the marketplace," though it's still up to Red Hat to provide a compelling product, he said. Complete story

Ellison Plugs Linux into Oracle's Network Dreams Posted Saturday, November 06, 1999 - 12:10 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
New company, old name will combine Linux and Intel to produce network computers "shortly."

Remember that great Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck hunting cartoon? Bugs, as usual, has had the best of both Daffy and erstwhile hunter, Elmer Fudd. Finally, Bugs and Daffy come to a standoff. "Duck Season!" Bugs shouts. "No! It's Rabbit Season!" Daffy retorts. "Duck Season!" Bugs yells back. "Rabbit Season!" an outraged Daffy responds. And so they go, "Duck Season!" "Rabbit Season!" "Duck Season!" "Rabbit Season!" ... back and forth until Daffy gets confused and starts screaming "Duck Season! Duck Season! Shoot! Shoot!" The ever-befuddled Mr. Fudd shoots, and Daffy winds up with a duckbill full of buckshot.

The moral of the story? Say something over and over long enough, and no one will remember what the point of the argument was in the first place.

This may be a good cartoon for Oracle CEO Larry Ellison to recall as he announces his corporation's intent to launch a new company dedicated to producing the $199 network computers he and Oracle have been swearing by for years.

Ellison is typically tight-lipped about the specifics of both the new company and the new network computers. So far, all that is known for sure is that the computers will feature Intel processors and the Linux operating system. And Netscape Navigator. When asked just when the network computers will ship, Ellison responded, "shortly". Complete story

Compiling a New Kernel Posted Saturday, November 06, 1999 - 12:00 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
The kernel is a file that is the most important part of any operating system. The kernel sets up a basic interface between the hardware and software. It's also what distinguishes Linux from other Unix operating systems. Most of what people think is Linux is actually from the Free Software Foundation and other GNU authors. In addition to hardware, the Linux kernel is responsible for supporting protocols like TCP, IP, PPP, and all the filesystems out there.

Compiling the kernel should be one of the easiest things to do, but as with most things dealing with Linux, there are problems people encounter along the way. Let's just save that thought for later. Complete story

Red Hat To Expand Service Offerings Posted Wednesday, November 03, 1999 - 6:54 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Red Hat on Wednesday unveiled plans to expand its service
organization to support third-party open source products, including the popular Apache Web Server.

The Linux operating system distributor, which recently shipped its latest Red Hat Linux 6.1 release, is building a consulting and support business to gain more traction with enterprise customers. The stability, low price or free availability, and mutability of Linux and open source applications are making this software more popular among business users, especially for duties such as serving up Web pages and running file and print servers. But much of this technology has crept into organizations from the bottom up, rendering management difficult. Red Hat and other Linux vendors are making support a larger piece of their business in an attempt to shield IT managers from dealing with the fragmented open source community. Complete story

SuSE Linux Now on DVD Posted Tuesday, November 02, 1999 - 6:46 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
"SuSE is offering its Linux distribution on DVD, the first manufacturer to do so. With the release of its next version, SuSE Linux 6.3, expected in late November, users will have the choice between CD-ROM and DVD."

"DVD is the storage medium for the next generation. We are proud to be able to offer the rapidly growing number of DVD users the alternative of a Linux system on DVD as well," says Roland Dyroff, executive director of SuSE AG. "This underlines not only the technical competence of our developer team, but also makes clear above all the customer orientation of our company."

"The number, variety and size of application programs for Linux is continually increasing. Through the introduction of DVD, SuSE is ensuring that this convenient and user-friendly technology is also available for Linux. Together with its commitment to free sound and graphics support, SuSE is setting the course for its widespread migration to the multimedia desktop." Complete story

Compuware looking at viability of Linux Posted Monday, November 01, 1999 - 12:45 PM CST by Linux-2000 staff
Software house Compuware has revealed that it is considering porting its Uniface development toolset to Linux next year. Compuware claims to be the fifth largest independent software vendor in the world. Roy Franzen, general manager Uniface, said: "We are thinking about bringing the whole product suite on Linux in the May June timeframe next year if customers demand it, but we will not be providing the software free." Franzen said he believed many of his customers are interested in Linux generally and particularly running the Web server and connecting to back office systems on other platforms. However, Franzen believes enthusiasm could melt away: "When they are confronted with the fact that they have to pay for a solution Linux may be less popular." He justifies charging on the basis that "we deliver value to customers," but said Compuware has not figured out how much to charge and whether costs will be less than for other operating systems. Complete story

Elementary Linux: Penguins in the School Posted Monday, November 01, 1999 - 7:18 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
What do you think is the best plan/strategy to introduce Linux into an elementary school (Ontario) setting?

Well, like most tech questions, the correct answer is "It depends..." In the absence of any other details on what is needed ;) let me ramble on about two possible scenarios: Linux as the school or school-board server, and Linux on the student/teacher desktop.

The first variable to consider is whether you can sell them on applications or if your first inroad will be strictly infrastructure. Linux for educational applications is being done, but this is still relatively rare in North America; the use of Linux as a network infrastructure is being done all over the place. Complete story

Linux announcement from Finland Posted Monday, November 01, 1999 - 5:58 AM CST by Linux-2000 staff
"SOT, publisher of the #1 Linux in Finland - the home country of Linux and Linus - today announced their beta programme for bringing their Best Linux operating system to English-speaking users around the globe."
"In Best Linux we have achieved a combination of maintaining stability and providing all the latest, untested software. By having only well- tested final releases and different beta programmes we have kept developer components and end-user releases separate. This has proven to be the right path in Finland. We are making the most end-user friendly Linux distribution, one that even inexperienced end-users can easily adopt." said Santeri Kannisto, CEO, SOT. Complete story

Verity Throws Support To Red Hat Posted Saturday, October 30, 1999 - 9:00 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
Knowledge retrieval solutions provider Verity, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRTY) has entered into a strategic support-related alliance with Linux vendor Red Hat, Inc. (Nasdaq: RHAT) to boost Linux-based open-source software resources available to developers. Under the terms of the agreement, Verity will support the Red Hat Linux operating system (OS) distribution for customers of its K2Toolkit v2.1.1 and HTML Export v2.5.2 e-commerce enabling products. Verity's online business-related product offerings will now be available for users looking for highly customizable software, adding Linux to a list of supported platforms that includes Digital UNIX, HP-UX, IBM AIX and Microsoft Windows NT. Complete story

Linux Use Will Climb Posted Saturday, October 30, 1999 - 10:50 AM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
The Linux operating system will be increasingly adopted by companies, thanks to its low cost and open source code benefits, according to a study by RHI Consulting. Fifty-seven percent of chief information officers (CIOs) participating in the study said that the use of Linux will increase in businesses. Just three percent of those polled predicted a drop in Linux use. CIOs surveyed cited these Linux benefits: low cost, open source code, reliability, adaptability (platform acceptance), scalability, and security.

"The Linux operating system is quickly being adopted across a broad range of industries and organizations of all sizes. Its open source code makes it adaptable enough to suit many companies, including those with thin clients and enterprise server environments," says Greg Scileppi, executive director of RHI Consulting. "Low cost and scalability are also making Linux a viable alternative to other popular operating systems currently available."

RHI Consulting (http://www.rhic.com/) polled 1,400 CIOs randomly from U.S. companies with more than 100 employees. Complete story

KryoTech Cool Athlon 900MHz Posted Friday, October 29, 1999 - 7:03 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
Geeknews.org: The crew over at SharkyExtreme have thrown up a review that looks at the KryoTech Cool Athlon 900 MHz. What is this you ask? It is a development by thermal acceleration specialists at KyroTech Inc. It can take a Althon 700 MHz to 900 MHz while still keeping a system cool, and rock solid. There are extensive benchmarks available in the article gauging the KyroTech Athlon 900 against other processors in various uses. Complete story

Intel to market Red Hat Linux for web servers Posted Tuesday, October 26, 1999 - 9:44 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
Software maker Red Hat Inc (Nasdaq:RHAT - news). said Tuesday that computer chip maker Intel Corp (Nasdaq:INTC - news). plans to make Red Hat Linux software available on powerful server computers designed to run Internet Web sites. Investors hailed the announcement, pushing shares of Red Hat up 12 percent, or 9-3/16, to 86-11/16 in midday trading on the Nasdaq stock market, reports Reuters. Red Hat said Intel plans to bundle the Red Hat Linux operating system on servers Intel is supplying to Internet service providers, companies that provide Internet access to office and residential customers. Intel has launched a new program aimed at boosting its share of the server market, which has been dominated by Sun Microsystems Inc (Nasdaq:SUNW - news)., whose computers use Sun's own chips instead of Intel's. Linux, developed by a loose network of programmers and distributed for free or at low cost to computer users, is an alternative operating system to Microsoft Corp (Nasdaq:MSFT - news).'s Windows software. Complete story

Storm Linux Beta Released Posted Monday, October 25, 1999 - 8:32 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
The beta release follows a successful alpha release in August.

Vancouver, Canada - October 25, 1999 - Stormix Technologies announces the official beta version of Storm Linux. The final release is scheduled for November 1999. The beta release follows a successful alpha release in August.
"Over 3500 copies of the alpha version were distributed by Stormix alone," Kevin Lindsay, Programming Manager for Stormix Technologies, notes. He adds with a grin, "Sometimes, it seems that we heard from all of them. At least one user even used the alpha for game development."
"What we learned from the alpha," says Bruce Byfield, Product Manager for Stormix Technologies, "is that users want a Linux install that's easy but not dumbed down. "For example, in the alpha, users were forced to install the Linux Loader and could only do so on the master boot record. However, alpha testers told us very clearly that they
wanted more flexibility. Complete story

Intel Advances Linux Support Posted Monday, October 25, 1999 - 7:54 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) has increased its investment in the Linux environment by enabling online professional users to bring Gigabit Ethernet performance to their Linux-based Internet operations and working with the open-source community to foster Internet-enabling product development. The chip titan will add the Linux Gigabit driver and related support for the Intel PRO/1000 Gigabit Server Adapter to its industry offerings portfolio to boost Linux-based Web servers, e-mail servers and databases. According to Intel, this addition is the first time such an offering has been made available to companies who use Linux as their primary operating system (OS). Complete story

Intel Revs Up Pentium III at 700 Mhz Posted Sunday, October 24, 1999 - 1:52 AM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
Intel plans to unveil its fastest-ever Pentium III chips on Monday, but analysts said the launch -- a key one for the chip giant -- may be overshadowed by the lack of a much-anticipated chipset, which will delay products from some PC makers. The Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker said it will unveil 15 processors for desktop computers, workstations, servers, and notebook computers, including the much-anticipated chip family, codenamed Coppermine, with speeds above 700 MHz. An Intel spokesman said he could not provide any further details about the new products. Complete story

Corel to demo its version of Linux at Comdex Posted Saturday, October 23, 1999 - 1:50 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
Corel Corp. will demonstrate its new desktop Linux operating system next month at Comdex in Las Vegas. Corel first showed Corel Linux at the LinuxWorld Expo in August. It is based on the Debian/GNU Linux distribution and contains the K Desktop Environment, a Windows-like user interface. Company officials said they are targeting technology enthusiasts and small businesses that are looking for power, performance, stability and cost-effectiveness in an operating system. Although it is generally accepted that Linux is difficult for non-technical users to install and operate, Corel has enhanced the GUI and created a new installation program that is simple and fast, officials said. Complete story

MacMillan USA Moves To Secure Linux Posted Saturday, October 23, 1999 - 1:29 AM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
The new product, Maximum Security Linux, will be jointly-released to provide administrators who run Linux with security-related capabilities such as intrusion detection, system auditing and monitoring along with virus protection. The package suite will bundle a wide range of security software made available through the GNU General Public License (GPL), and will provide access to "best practices" FAQs, policy guides and various security tips.

"MacMillan's retail distribution and SecurityPortal's security knowledge makes for a great partnership," commented Steve Schafer, Sr., title manager for Macmillan's Linux software. "Getting this knowledge and these tools into the hands of the Linux user is essential to help ensure the security of the many personal and corporate Linux systems being installed every day." Complete story

Novell inches toward open source Posted Friday, October 22, 1999 - 7:50 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
"Novell Inc. plans to publish by year's end its own open-source license, along with the initial applications that will fall under that license..."

"Getting things fixed and developed on NDS now is difficult, so if open source made that faster, that's great," said Ron Palmeri, vice president of strategic relations at Oblix Inc., a Novell partner in Mountain View, Calif. "But take Netscape's LDAP [Lightweight Directory Access Protocol] development kit. [Because of licensing restrictions] since it went open source, it has been difficult to get fixes and development..."

"Novell's first applications to fall under the license will be the digitalme online identity management technology, the client piece of NDS for Linux and the management interface to the company's Internet Caching System, sources said." Complete story

Jesux: Sanctified Linux? Posted Wednesday, October 20, 1999 - 8:17 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
Received the following from a reader:

I'm curious about the contents of a page that was recently publicised in MacUser, the main UK rag of the Mac community, promoting "Jesux" -- a Christian Linux distribution. As a man with fundamentally Christ-oriented beliefs who finds it hard to be a "Christian" in the socially accepted (and Scripturally accepted) sense, I thought I'd be so rude as to ask you, as someone who for me treads a very well-considered path through the quicksand of religious internet (or net-based religion) practice, what you thought. If, indeed, it is not a meticulous hoax, is it not a rather dangerous thing? If there's one thing I'm not, it's well versed on Unix or Linux. I know enough about computers and operating systems to understand the inherent stability and the power available, especially for servers. Shoot, Apple's next OS will have the same kind of kernel as Unix, Linux, and BSD, so it's got to be a good thing. In both realms, there's a real mix of sincere believers and nut cases. And then there are the hoaxmeisters, the parody makers for whom April 1st is the best day of the year. And I don't have a clue where the Jesux crew fits in all this. Let's look for hints. Complete story

Red Hat gets ahead Posted Tuesday, October 19, 1999 - 7:57 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
Things are hotting up in the Linux skills certification world. Red Hat says that it is to offer certification for its own distribution version of the operating system and courses start next month. Caldera started the ball rolling earlier this year with the first stage in a training programme leading to a Certified Linux Engineer (CLE) qualification. Red Hat has followed suit with the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) initiative. In addition, the Linux Professional Institute (LPI) is among several organisations working to produce a vendor-independent certification and testing program. The need for vendor-neutral certification programs is not in dispute. But it is a measure of the immaturity of the Linux training and certification market that there are both vendor-specific and vendor-neutral initiatives under way. Complete story

Linux to get Windows NT apps Posted Tuesday, October 19, 1999 - 5:56 AM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
The dearth of business applications for Linux could become a problem of the past, if MainSoft has its way. MainSoft is a somewhat unlikely white knight, however, as the company is a close Microsoft partner and
Windows source code licensee.

Nonethless, MainSoft announced Monday that it is working on a Linux version of its MainWin product that should be available by the end of the first quarter of 2000. The company says it will make a demonstration version of the product available for download from its Web site within a few weeks.

MainSoft's current product, which makes Microsoft's Win32 application programming interfaces available on Unix, allows NT applications to run on various Unix variants. "This ensures that applications developed with C or C++ for Windows will run on Unix as they do on Windows NT," said company officials in a prepared statement. Windows applications which have been rehosted on Unix via MainWin include Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Outlook and Computer Associates' Unicenter. Complete story

MS-Gartner in tangle over Linux-knocking reports Posted Monday, October 18, 1999 - 1:04 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
"From the look of events over the weekend Microsoft would appear to have appointed Stan Laurel as VP i/c propaganda. What else can you say when Microsoft's famous Linux Myths Web page references a stack of "Gartner" reports questioning Linux's viability, and then the reports turn out to have been written by er, Microsoft?"

"Actually they're only maybe written by Microsoft, because although Gartner claims they are, Gartner also, er, claims they're not. Well, not exactly anyway. But we'll get back to that - the easiest way into this ludicrous morass is to start at Linux Myths and work backwards."

"At time of writing Linux Myths included a short section headed "Gartner Group Reports." Three were listed: Will Linux be viable competition for Windows desktops/; 1999 OS Forecast: the Linux
Face-off; and Red Hat's Future: Boxed in. Complete story

Sunday Times (UK): Amused with Linux Posted Monday, October 18, 1999 - 12:57 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
The Queen has just become the latest and most prominent supporter of Linux, the "free" Open Source version of the Unix computer operating system. The Open Source software movement in general, and Linux in particular, has many famous supporters, but now even the richest woman in the world is using the "free" Unix-type software to run her website. The Queen's website ran on the rather expensive Solaris operating system on computers from Sun Microsystems for several years, in common with all websites run by the UK government. But when the time came earlier this year to replace these ageing machines, The Government Information Service systems manager Mick Morgan, says Linux was a "no brainer" choice. Complete story

Red Hat 6.1 Review - Page 1 Posted Sunday, October 17, 1999 - 10:08 AM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
Geeknews.org an affiliate of Linux 2000 Online puts the test to Red Hat 6.1

Mike Denton of geeknews says:
"I was looking forward to trying out a new install motif for Red Hat since I figured they could do nothing but improve on their already user-friendly install wizard. I would say that overall I was not disappointed, and they do improve things, but I think it's mainly a matter of taste."

This is a very good look at the install proceedure for users new to Red Hat Linux. Personally we have installed Red Hat 6.1 and give Red Hat a thumbs-up on this newly released version. Here is the complete story

Biometric player seeks Linux support Posted Saturday, October 16, 1999 - 8:29 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
BionNetrix is beefing up its fingerprint ID security system and plans to add Linux and Solaris support next year. BionNetrix is beefing up its fingerprint ID security system and plans to add Linux support next year. Complete story

Linux 2000 Online officially launched Posted Saturday, October 16, 1999 - 3:49 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
Linux 2000 Online officially announces.... https://linux-2000.org is here to stay and ready for public usage in Full Swing....

Darrell Shifflett announced today that Linux 2000 Online was actually in 'beta' mode for the last 4 months, due to getting everything working properly. We can say we are at 99% in full swing. Linux 2000 Online (L2K Online) is a large resource site for the new Linux user to the experienced. The site covers basically overall Linux help, from forums, man page database using a MySQL backend, links to portal sites, hardware and software vendors, newsgroups world round, and so on. Over 20 thousands lines of HTML all done in the 'vi' editor *scrug*. We would like to thank all of our supporters on the web, you know who you are.

SCO Invests in LinuxMall.com Posted Thursday, October 14, 1999 - 7:04 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
"SCO... today announced it has made a significant investment and formed a strategic partnership with... LinuxMall.com, the leading Linux e-commerce site and vendor-neutral Linux portal. As part of its ongoing strategy to support the Linux and Open Source movements, SCO along with Hambrecht & Quist have committed to a substantial investment program, aimed at allowing LinuxMall.com to dramatically increase their growth. As a result of this investment, SCO becomes the largest external investor and will hold a seat on the board of WGS, Inc., the parent company to LinuxMall.com." Complete story

GNU/Linux Goes Retail Posted Wednesday, October 13, 1999 - 7:33 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
You want to check out the Linux operating system, but you don't want to spend hours downloading hundreds of megabytes of Linux files? Your options so far have been the Caldera and Red Hat Linux distributions, which are readily available in retail stores and via mail order. But a group of three companies announced this week that they've come together to make the Debian Project's GNU/Linux, a popular noncommercial distribution, available at retail. With the help of VA Linux Systems (a provider of PCs with preinstalled Linux), O'Reilly Associates (a publisher of computer books), and SGI (a maker of high-performance graphics-oriented PCs), the Debian GNU/Linux package will be available at a suggested introductory price of $19.95 at retail and online stores, as well as direct from VA Linux Systems. Along with the current distribution of GNU/Linux, the package's CD-ROM includes 1440 open source software utilities and applications. Also included is Bill McCarty's Learning Debian GNU/Linux, published by O'Reilly. The publisher will also make the book available for free online. The package also includes a demo CD with Loki Software's Myth II: Soulblighter game software. Complete story

VA Linux makes noise with Debian deal Posted Tuesday, October 12, 1999 - 6:48 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
Just three days after VA Linux Inc. entered its government-mandated quiet period prior to an initial public offering, it announced a deal to resell the Debian Linux distribution. The Mountain View, Calif., company announced last week it will partner with O'Reilly and Associates Inc. and SGI Inc. to offer the Debian distribution of GNU/Linux at major retail outlets, officials said. It's something of a departure for VA Linux, whose core business is selling servers and PCs preloaded with Linux and offering services around that hardware. The company also has said it wants to stay distribution-independent. In other words, it will preload on its hardware whatever type of Linux users want. The new package will include the Debian software, 1,440 approved software packages for the Linux OS (including the popular game "Myth II:Soulblighter") and Bill McCarty's book "Learning Debian GNU/Linux," published by O'Reilly. A matter of support One corporate Linux user said the move is great and will give enterprise users another highly visible option when considering Linux, but he has some reservations. Complete story

Open Source Installer for Linux Posted Monday, October 11, 1999 - 11:06 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
Loki Entertainment today released its fourth open source project, the Loki Game Installer [Setup 1.0]. Developers can use this graphic installer utility to create a simple, easy-to-use standardized install routine. Setup 1.0 uses an XML description file to describe a package, and provides both a console and a GTk front-end to install it. The install process also creates an uninstall script in the install directory. Loki has included x86, PPC, Alpha, and Sparc binaries for this version of the installer. Loki's open source projects are freely available for download from www.lokigames.com and are offered under the GNU Library Public License (LGPL). Complete story

TurboLinux: More distribution for Linux Posted Monday, October 11, 1999 - 7:25 PM CDT by Linux-2000 staff
TurboLinux, a distributor of the alternative Linux operating system, said that it has received an investment from Intel Corp.(Nasdaq:INTC), Broadview Associates and venture capital firm August Capital. The amount of the investment, which was TurboLinux's first round of financing, was not disclosed. Intel is also an investor in Red Hat Inc. (Nasdaq:RHAT), the largest distributor of Linux that went public in August on the NASDAQ. Both Red Hat and TurboLinux, as well as other Linux distributors, plan on offering additional services and support, to Linux users. Complete story