Slashdot Mirror

Lazzaro wrote in with the most exciting thing I've seen all day: A TechWeb article about VA (Research) buying Linux Hardware Solutions and mandrake's company, Enlightened Solutions. It goes on to say VA will regroup into three separate groups: an apparently RHAD-like development division, a web unit for Linux.com, and a systems group.

The one and only Eric S. Raymond has submitted his response to the Mind Craft report that we've talked about a bit here lately. This is a good wrap-up type piece which nicely summarizes the flaws with the testing (which range "yeah maybe" to "you gotta be kidding!"). Anyone who thought the tests had any validity should read this. The followingw as written by Slashdot reader, Jargon File Maintainer, Fetchmail Author, Open Source Evangelist, Eric S. Raymond The Mindcraft fiasco

Microsoft's latest FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) tactic may be backfiring.

A 21 April ITWeb story reported results by a benchmarking shop called Mindcraft that supposedly showed NT to be faster than Linux at SMB and Web service. The story also claimed that technical support for tuning the Linux system had been impossible to find.

Previous independent benchmarks (such as "Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX") have found Linux and other Unixes to be dramatically faster and more efficient than NT, and independent observers (beginning with a celebrated InfoWorld article in 1998) have lauded the Linux community's responsiveness to support problems. Linux fans smelled a rat somewhere (uttering responses typfied by "Mindcraft Reality Check"), and amidst the ensuing storm of protest some interesting facts came to light.

1. The benchmark had been paid for by Microsoft. The Mindcraft press release failed to mention this fact.
2. Mindcraft did in fact get a useful answer to its request for help tuning the Linux system. But they did not answer the request for more information, neither did they follow the tuning suggestions given Also, they forged the reply email address to conceal themselves -- the connection was made after the fact by a Usenetter who noticed that the unusual machine configuration described in the request exactly matched that of the test system in the Mindcraft results.
3. Red Hat, the Linux distributor Mindcraft says it asked for help, reports that it got one phone call from them on the installation-help line, which isn't supposed to answer post-installation questions about things like advanced server tuning. Evidently Mindcraft's efforts to get help tuning the system were feeble -- at best incompetent, at worst cynical gestures.
4. An entertainingly-written article by the head of the development team for Samba (one of the key pieces of Linux software involved in the benchmark) described how Mindcraft could have done a better job of tuning. The article revealed that one of Mindcraft's Samba tweaks had the effect of slowing their Linux down quite drastically.
5. Another Usenet article independently pointed out that Mindcraft had deliberately chosen a logging format that imposed a lot of overhead on Apache (the web sever used for the Linux tests).

So far, so sordid -- a fairly standard tale of Microsoft paying to get exactly the FUD it wants from a nominally independent third party. But the story took a strange turn today (22 Mar) when Microsoft spokesperson Ian Hatton effectively admitted [8] that the test had been rigged! "A very highly-tuned NT server" Mr. Hatton said "was pitted against a very poorly tuned Linux server".

He then attempted to spin the whole episode around by complaining that Microsoft and its PR company had received "malicious and obscene" email from Linux fans and slamming this supposed "unprofessionalism". One wonders if Hatton believes it would be "unprofessional" to address strong language to a burglar caught in the act of nipping the family silver.

In any case, Microsoft's underhanded tactics seem (as with its clumsy "astroturf" campaign against the DOJ lawsuit) likely to come back to haunt it. The trade press had largely greeted the Mindcraft results with yawns and skepticism even before Hatton's admission. And it's hard to see how Microsoft will be able to credibly quote anti-Linux benchmarks in the future after this fiasco.

Kit Cosper, of Linux-HW sent this over:As co-sponsors of the Linux Global Summit at Comdex Spring in Chicago we have 10 complimentary *conference* passes available. We're making these available to the first 10 qualified people that request them. At this point our definition of "qualified" means that you can supply: (Click below for more information) The conference passes are good-but you can still e-mail Kit for exhibit only passes.

• First and Last name
• Job title
• Address
• Phone #
• Fax #
• Email address

That definition is subject to change, depending upon the number of responses. Requests should be sent to me (cosper@linux-hw.com) before noon EDT on Friday, April 9.
Thanks,

--Kit

You've been waiting all week for the most hotly contested Slashdot/LinuxWorld Awards (which we created this morning while nate was in the shower). The nominees were submitted by anyone who happened to pass our booth this morning, and the winners were selected by our impartial (cough) judges. Hit the link to see what you missed at LWCE. Best Towering Rotating Monolithic Corporate Logo Compaq

It looms ominously over the ghetto here at LinuxWorld, obscuring the flourescent lights and casting a gentle breeze on those of us back in the corner on the show.

Best Schwag Sendmail

The little knives that they've been handing out aren't as cool as the Leatherman Wave, but they can be handy when the suits come to try to get you to move to their ISPs.

Best Hive Mentality Fashion Sense IBM

With their fancy little blue shirts and black pants, they perform with synchronicity that would make the borg jealous.

Best Futile Attempt to Capture the Alternative Feel of Linux with Cheesy Logo Extreme Linux

Snowboarding Penguins? Wow.

Open Source Leader with Most Phunk Eric S. Raymond

Believe it or not, he actually has rhythm. And he can play a mean flute.

Foxiest Booth Fluff Slashdot

The black minidress, and Adrienne Lane (hemos' girlfriend, lucky bastard) inside of it sold more t-shirts then the combined personality of Hemos and CmdrTaco.

Highest Density EMF in a Booth Debian

I think they've got 38 computers, an empeg, and more geeks than I thought possible in a 10x10 space. Next show they'll have to build shelves and stack them.

Best use of Vinyl in Apparel Joseph Arruda from VA

How can we say anything more than just wow

Sugar Distribution Award Rick Highness

The webmaster of Greasy Spoon brought us snickers, reeses peanut butter cups, kool-aid, sugar, and basically anything else that could conceivably power us through the crowds.

Most Persistant Marketeers Abisource

That damn ant. Its everywhere. It haunts my dreams. It appeared at parties. It got more action than I did last night.

Most Desirable IDG Employee Kristin "Trixie" DeAngelis

It was a close race between her and Charlie Greco, but she inched ahead when rumors of her tatoos left certain Slashdot Team members with spittle hanging.

Best Multi Bitchin' Recreational Facilities The Free Software Foundation

They got foosball, they got pool, and they got RMS. How can you argue with that? Maybe next year they'll have kiddie swimming pool and swimmies.

Distributed Use of Painful Color Computer Associates

CA has provided the whole floor with schwag bags that were such a blinding shade of yellow that everyone will need to update their optical prescriptions. Ya know how your mom told you not to stare directly at the sun?

Goon Squad Award LWCE Security

The friendly security guards who refused to let me in to get my laptop on tuesday, tried to keep me out because I had a press badge and not an exhibit badge, and even are rumored to have prevented Linus from getting in to the exhibit hall without a badge. They forced Slackware to turn off their lights for using 100 watts of bootlegged juice to run their light bulb. We don't even want to know what they did to that guy who tried to wheel in his own freight without paying $800 to have a professional do it for him. And they even tried to ban IP masqing.

Company that Bribes Slashdot with the Coolest Hardware Undecided

We still don't have a winner in this competitive catagory. So far people have threatened Cobalt Qubes, a Netwinder, Palm V's, Quad Processing Xeon's (yeah right) and at last count, 213 different blue suited representatives from IBM offering Netfinititys- but not a seriously coveted Thinkpad. So far, the winner is the pixar guys who brought me a sweet Prequel t-shirt, and the runner up is Linux Mall who gave us a big stuffed penguin, so there is still time to win this prestigious award!

I just wanna thank all the folks that helped get us down here. The LinuxWorld people got us a booth, and Red Hat hooked us up to bandwidth so we could actually post stories (guess they didn't want their portal to be boring when they announced it) and Linux-HW who hooked us up with airfare and paid our hotel for our stay in the valley.

Several people have written in with assorted notes about LinuxWorld Expo. I've heard rumblings of prizes for the show including a VW Bug from LinuxCare and even a Harley. I've attached a blurb from Robert McMillan about the show. Also, I've written up a bunch of notes about the Slashdot Booth at the show including a wish list: We need a few contacts in San Jose to help us find some stuff for the show. Somebody has to have this stuff just sitting around, so hit the link if you wanna help. Robert McMillan writes "If you're thinking of attending or curious as to what's going on at next week's LinuxWorld expo, you should check out the site we've created, called Tapping the Source -- it tells you where to hook up with free software at the show, and we've got feature stories on WINE, Python, and sendmail, as well as show-related newslinks. Also, if you're a developer and you're going to be at the show we REALLY want to include your software in our supplement."

We're borrowing wireless PCMCIA adapaters for the show. We ordered a Kodak DC210+ digital camera that will hopefully be here in time. CopyLeft has shipped over T-Shirts for us to sell, and Jeff's hottie little girlfriend is gonna be helping sell them. It looks like we're gonna have a great time out there so definitely swing by.

Thanks to the LinuxWorld folk for helping set up up out there, thanks to Linux-HW for the plane tickets and Red Hat for paying for the bandwidth.

As promised, the stuff that we want to borrow for the Slashdot booth:

• Astroturf (10x10 piece. Anyone have a camper?)
• Reclining Lawn Chairs
• A Dart Board
• Pictures to attach to the dart board (Bill? Rob & Hemos in Wired? Sanford Wallace? Katz? whoever :)
• A Pitcher, Sugar & Kool-Aid mix (we'll get thirsty. We really want a blender and vodka and little umbrella's but its enough of a pain just to legally sell T-Shirts, I suspect a liqour license is right out of the question *grin*)
• Large breasted dancers (we're pretty flexible on this one).

Anyway, if you live in San Jose and can help with any of these items let Jeff or I know. Supposedly the mob is going to make things difficult for us out there, but we'll work it out. It's gonna be a nutty show. We're looking forward to hanging out with everyone. I'm looking forward to posting live updates from the show- and this time with pictures & a wireless network adapter. This ought to be great!

Kit Cosper sent some local coverage of the Windows Refund Day over our way-the article also talks about Linux, and its' relation to the Refund Day.

Well, the nice folks over at LWCE have sent us a bunch of free Exhibits-Only badges for LinuxWorldExpo (which Linux-HW has made possible for Rob and I go to)-that's the one in San Jose, March 2-4, for the Expo. Again-note this is only an Exhibits pass-so don't try and claim more then that, or Rob'll show you his chest. Eck. Anyway, I'll ship these out to the first fifty people to send me a stamp and an adhesive label with their name and address on it. Click below to get the address-and we hope to see you there. LWCE Badges
116 E.18th
Holland, MI
49423

Kristin DeAngelis sent me some interesting mail covering some of the hoop-la surronding LinuxWorldExpo. One of the big things to note is that pre-reg time has been extended to Feb. 1-head over to LinuxWorldExpo for more information. And if you're coming head over to booth 1143 to see our smiling mugs, and we'd like to thank Kit Cosper of Linux-HW for sending Rob and I out there-buy stuff and make him happy.

• Due to the overwhelming demand, we have extended the pre-registration date to February 1, 1999! Register for any conference package by February 1 and you will receive the Official LinuxWorld Conference & Expo T-shirt for FREE.
• The August dates are: Conference: August 23 - 26, 1999
  Expo: August 24 - 26, 1999
  San Jose Convention Center
  San Jose, CA
  

• LinuxCare and IDG World Expo are proud to present: The LinuxWorld Conference & Expo Attendee Party!

  The LinuxWorld Conference & Expo Attendee Party will start right after Linus Torvald's Keynote Presentation, on Tuesday, March 2nd, at 7:30PM. No need to drive anywhere- the Party will be held at the San Jose Convention Center. A great opportunity for networking in a fun, relaxed atmosphere!

  The Party is being planned to feature:
  

  • A Mingling Session with Linux Leaders
  • Interactive Gaming
  • "Linux Users Tell All", a short film
  • A "very special guest" from Redmond
  • A hip, happening band
  • Door Prizes, great food, imported beer on tap and more!

  We hope that you can join us at this awesome event. Don't forget your badge as that is your invitation!

• Natalie Vercauteren is working on the call for papers for the August '99 show. She will be ready to accept those shortly. I'll send you more info on this as well.

Steve Blood, the pivotal figure for the bazaar has sent over an update about some pretty major changes to the actual. I've posted that below-but some of the good news is that the pricing will be changing dramatically: 175$ for all conference sessions and tutorials, and 100$ for students. That's good news for everyone's pocket book. The Bazaar is going through a major transition which has been brought on by a number of factors which you can read about (if you have any desire to know more about what we've had to deal with) in a ranty, somewhat bitter, open letter I wrote, but decided not to do anything with.

To summarize what's happening: the Bazaar was conceived as a nonprofit conference and expo for free software that would benefit development groups. As it turned out, the dates which we chose specifically to not conflict with LINC Expo or Linux Expo, ended up being very close to IDG's LinuxWorld Expo -- another new show which wasn't announced until after our show was confirmed. Although this was unfortunate we didn't think it was the end of the world.

From the beginning we took a noncompetitive approach with IDG: the Bazaar was, after all, a different show in a different place. Hackers, developers, speakers and attendees liked that approach and we've had tons of support from all over the world.

However, that same approach got us no where with exhibitors and sponsors, i.e. the companies we need to support us so that we can afford to put this show on. Everyone has shut us down, given us the run-around and altogether sent the Bazaar to the brink of its life, except for a few, very excellent companies who believe in the spirit of our show (VA, Patmos, Linux HW).

Anyway, last week I appealed to a couple of leaders in the Linux business community for some help and they told me that competing with IDG was basically hopeless and wished me luck.

Well, our luck was running out, so I contacted a company that was interested in partnering up with us. It wasn't what I wanted to do with the Bazaar, but this company likes our mission and is willing to keep it as a nonprofit event with developers at the center. And they are a major company with the media and capital resources to make things happen.

So please bear with us as we go through some restructuring. If you have any suggestions -- except about the pricing which will change drastically, probably $175 for all the conference sessions and tutorials, $100 for students -- or questions please contact me or the staff.

-steve blood

E.L. Green has begun work on a paper called FUD 101. It discusses what FUD is and how it is used to protect a monopoly. He still considers it a work in progress, and requests feedback on it from people who care to help make this doc better. Its been significantly rewritten since it was linked from elsewhere.

Nick Moffitt from SuSE has written in with pre-show report from the Linux Pavillion at this the falls Comdex. Things are almost ready to go out there. Hit the link below to read what he has to say. Update: 11/16 07:59 by CT : Kit Cosper of Linux-hw wrote in to send us a link to a page of Pictures from the show. The following was written by Slashdot reader Nick Moffitt

Well, we just got the SuSE booth up and connected to the net, so I felt I'd send in a brief note about how COMDEX is going. First of all, the Linux buzz here is BIG. We're in the Sands convention center, in the "Linux Pavillion". The Sands is basically just a big parking garage with cheap carpet laid down, and we're all dodging little electric scooters and forklifts labeled with teamster insignia.

Things should calm down a bit once the laborers finish hauling all the equipment around, although we all expect a big crowd once the show starts tomorrow. It's quite startling, but Linux is the premiere attraction in the Sands! There are huge signs all over the convention center that say "This way to the LINUX Pavillion: Linux in the limelight!". I'd send an image, but everyone's been too busy with convention setup to go look for a digital camera.

All the big names are here: VA Research, Linux hardware Solutions, Red Hat, Caldera, SSC, Pacific HighTech (makers of TurboLinux), and, of course, SuSE. I stopped by the SSC booth and picked up a tin of those Penguin brand caffeinated peppermints. I've been munching on them for the past ten minutes, and it certainly shows as my typing rate has increased dramatically. These things will soon

At any rate, the Linux Pavillion looks nearly finished, and the booths are all really sharp. I'll be sending more info as the convention progresses. Nick Moffitt
SysAdmin
SuSE, Inc.

Nick Moffitt from SuSE has written in with pre-show report from the Linux Pavillion at this the falls Comdex. Things are almost ready to go out there. Hit the link below to read what he has to say. Update: 11/16 07:59 by CT : Kit Cosper of Linux-hw wrote in to send us a link to a page of Pictures from the show. The following was written by Slashdot reader Nick Moffitt

Well, we just got the SuSE booth up and connected to the net, so I felt I'd send in a brief note about how COMDEX is going. First of all, the Linux buzz here is BIG. We're in the Sands convention center, in the "Linux Pavillion". The Sands is basically just a big parking garage with cheap carpet laid down, and we're all dodging little electric scooters and forklifts labeled with teamster insignia.

Things should calm down a bit once the laborers finish hauling all the equipment around, although we all expect a big crowd once the show starts tomorrow. It's quite startling, but Linux is the premiere attraction in the Sands! There are huge signs all over the convention center that say "This way to the LINUX Pavillion: Linux in the limelight!". I'd send an image, but everyone's been too busy with convention setup to go look for a digital camera.

All the big names are here: VA Research, Linux hardware Solutions, Red Hat, Caldera, SSC, Pacific HighTech (makers of TurboLinux), and, of course, SuSE. I stopped by the SSC booth and picked up a tin of those Penguin brand caffeinated peppermints. I've been munching on them for the past ten minutes, and it certainly shows as my typing rate has increased dramatically. These things will soon

At any rate, the Linux Pavillion looks nearly finished, and the booths are all really sharp. I'll be sending more info as the convention progresses. Nick Moffitt
SysAdmin
SuSE, Inc.

Eric Green writes "Jesse Berst is at it again. He says "Linux will never go mainstream" and that NT will be the standard desktop within a few years." NT will be the standard desktop, but I guess it depends how you define mainstream. I have a hard time thinking linux is really 'alternative' when it has 8 million users, and is growing faster than MacOS.

Its been awhile since I hopped up on the soapbox, but I guess nows the time. First, a status report: We got about a million hits last week. The new server and connection to UPN held up fine. We saturated the T1 a bit, but the T3 will be in soon. The DNS moved on monday and it seems to be cool. I also wanted to plug Linux-HW who sent us the new 9gig hard drive. Muchos thanks. I also added some links in the 'older stuff' box so you can link directly to previous days stories in the normal homepage format. Much more convenient. Click below to read about Slashdot user accounts and other nifty features that will be coming. Ok, first the major news- I'm leaving my job at TIG when the new semester starts up. I decided there was no way that I could devote the time that Slashdot needs, go to school, and still work a job. This hopefully means that I'll have time to add some new desperately needed features. I probably won't be able to afford to remain unemployed for longer than a few months though unless I can find a few decent freelance jobs setting up web sites for people.

The next majorish feature that I plan to add will be user accounts. You'll be able to validate your account to hopefully prevent folks from posting as other people (thanks to the children in the audience who abused the system. You've ruined it for everyone). We'll allow anonymous cowards to hide somehow, but things have gone to far on several occasions to let this go on much longer. I'm all for open discussion, but if you post as someone else, well that just isn't cool.

We'll probably implement this fairly simply- you'll enter you email address into a form, and it will send you a password. From then on if you want to post using your name/email, you'll need to enter the password (we'll probably allow it to be saved in a cookie for those of you who haven't fallen for all the cookie paranoia that goes around).

We could use accounts to track other things too- flat/thread mode for example. Perhaps filter the homepage to only display the topics you like. It's wide open and really limited only to how much I have time to code, and how many clock cycles the server has to spare.

If you have ideas about this stuff, post them here, or you can email me, but I probably won't have time to reply. You can subscribe to slash-devel (send 'subscribe' to slash-devel-request@slashdot.org) if you are interested in helping develop Slash (there are at least a half dozen sites running Slash already, with dozens more under development).

Allright enough typing. Go back to whatever it is that you were doing.