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What is it that we notice? We notice a surge of interest and third party support for both BeOS and Linux. But look at Freebsd news -- it is not news at all but self-generated press releases and vanity stories. Contrast that with ascending systems like Linux. More real independent news appears in one day about Linux than appears in a year about all the BSDs combined. That is indisputable fact.

We should all recognize that Nik Clayton who posted this story is really not an impartial observer. He is not even a journalist. He is a member of the Freebsd organization who essentially only posts Freebsd press releases. But he won't tell you that. He wants you to believe that the press releases are "news". You can write to Nik at his real email address: nik@freebsd.org. He's not fooling anyone.

It's high time that journalistic integrity is restored to Slashdot. The blatant dishonesty and conflict of interest as epitomized by Nik Clayton would not be tolerated in any legitimate media organization. When we read Slashdot, we no longer can assume what we read was selected for its news value, or whether it is a press release charade crafted by those pandering to some fringe element.

Perhaps you missed Eric's article on Linux Today about the DVD CCA's lawsuit. I think Eric covers the situation quite well in that article, and I haven't seen anything that would require an update to that article.

Perhaps you've missed out on Eric's speaking engagements over the last month, but I know that he's been on the road, unpaid, for well over 50% of the time in the last several months, including the Eighth Annual Python Conference last week, and Linux World this coming week. What I want to know is this: where have you been? Where have your letters to the editor been published? Where are your articles on what's wrong posted?

To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, "Ask not what the Linux Community can do for you, ask what you can do for the Linux Community". That means doing more than writing derisive posts on Slashdot that take cheap shots at people you don't like. Or, as in the words of my (and I'm sure everyone else's) mother: "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all".

It really means that we'd be fools to depend on proprietary interests to supply us with access to digital media.

Read Arne Flones' latest article on LinuxToday.

Proprietary protocols, software, and technology are a trap. RealNetworks is not our friend. Open protocols and free software are our only friends.

I read here that IBM is offering Linux kernel developers code from AIX to integrate into Linux.

What does AIX have to offer Linux? Is there anything worth mining? Anything that could help the move towards 2.4?

As previously mentioned, TurboLinux also announced similar partnerships with IBM regarding the Java technology. LinuxToday picked up all the various press releases on the topic.

Our specific information can be found at http://linuxtoday.com/stories/15563.html

On the surface, it appears that the Red Hat claim to being the "first to license" is incorrect. My preferred News Authority (LinuxToday :) actually presented some other similar announcements prior to RH's own press release. Go figure.

The important thing to note about these announcements is that it brings more choice to those of us who program in Java under Linux. I think we're all in agreement that it's not in any of our best interests to have one corporation with exclusive access to such a critical technology, especially considering a demonstrated tendancy towards extreme territorial behavior. This helps level the playing field, and demonstrates IBM's continued support of the Linux platform.

Aaron McKee
Clustering Products Manager
TurboLinux, Inc.

Linus Torvalds, Alan Cox, and Donald Becker come to mind. I would venture a guess that the percentage of graduate degree holders among Linux hackers[1] is more than twice that of the general population. In fact of the Linux users I know close to half are college graduates, about half are in college and around 10 percent or so are under 18.

Acording to a demographic study done by Linux Today magazine, their average reader is a 32 year old employed professional. Acording to Slashdot poll the mode user is in their 20s. I base the rest of my estimates on known developers in the Linux community. Admittedly the accuracy of all of these figures can be questioned as can any statistical data, but you seem to offer no justification what-so-ever for your portrayal of the Linux community.

[1] I'm using this term to refer to anyone who has contributed code to the Linux kernel. As Linux is a kernel and you seemed to be using hacker to indicate a programmer.

Because most of us are boycotting Amazon.
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/13652.html

How to Build Your Own 1U Rack Mount Server and Save a Bundle

CS 440 1U Rack Mount Chasis $268
Intel CA810 Motherboard $119
Intel Celeron 466 MHZ processor $85
Single Port Adapter $20
64 MB DIMM $80
13 MB Hard Drive $125
CD Rom and Floppy add $75 (Optional) -0-
Total $697

It also has links of where to buy all the stuff. Interesting article too.

http://linuxtoday.com/stories/15566.html is a link to press release I talked about.

I know everybody's doing it, but I couldn't resist giving a simple spec.

Take a rather simple, and perhaps underpowered server like this 1U one from a recent linuxtoday column and pile about 32 of them (32*$697=$22,300) into a standard 19 inch rack ($1,500), add 2 16-port Switches (2*$1,600) and you're almost ready.

Add those together your talking $27,000. You could do some upgrades that would jack up the price. Remember, you'd also still have about 6-10U left if you wanted to rack a KVM, Keyboard and Monitor.

If we could cram the ABIT BP6 ATX into a Micro-ATX form-factor, you could double the number of processors for probably $150 more per node.

You gotta admit, this ain't too shabby

Well, maybe your version has better lyrics, but (IMHO) they don't scan quite as my version from a couple of weeks ago.

How many comments have been made, and how many have even asked what Linus's position on this is? Is it possible that SeriousDomains might not be presenting things *exactly* the way they happened? FYI, if you are sure that SeriousDomains.com know exactly what they are talking about, take a look at this LinuxToday story, which has their origional press release mirrored. Note the spellings.

Those Ars technica (Technical Arts, :-)) people must've read the Linux Kernel 3.0 joke post, refering mainly to After-Y2K stuff..

"Also, the 3.0 kernel should be out in the not-too-distant future, and Linux will only get better."

Unless Linus has changed his 2.4 plans, it's still 2.4 .. Maybe 2.5 will morph into 3.0, but first we need 2.4 before 2.5 forks off, and then we need at least 12 months for a "major" version change worth of work. Really. It's a shame that such a good piece of review has such an obvious typo. Then again, they might've been confused by this piece of information, even though it really didn't mention release dates. Oh well, caveat Ars Technica.
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Those Ars technica (Technical Arts, :-)) people must've read the Linux Kernel 3.0 joke post, refering mainly to After-Y2K stuff..

"Also, the 3.0 kernel should be out in the not-too-distant future, and Linux will only get better."

Unless Linus has changed his 2.4 plans, it's still 2.4 .. Maybe 2.5 will morph into 3.0, but first we need 2.4 before 2.5 forks off, and then we need at least 12 months for a "major" version change worth of work. Really. It's a shame that such a good piece of review has such an obvious typo. Then again, they might've been confused by this piece of information, even though it really didn't mention release dates. Oh well, caveat Ars Technica.
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Remember the story about the Linux trademark in Korea? Does anybody have an update on this?

Isn't he the one who says that Linux is a piece of shit? Sounds like a great Slashdot role model to me!

[...time passes...]

Alright, here you go. Read this, which I got from IEEE Computer Magazine:

Computer: In a sense, Linux is following in this tradition. Any thoughts on this phenomenon?

Thompson: I view Linux as something that's not Microsoft-a backlash against Microsoft, no more and no less. I don't think it will be very successful in the long run. I've looked at the source and there are pieces that are good and pieces that are not. A whole bunch of random people have contributed to this source, and the quality varies drastically.

My experience and some of my friends' experience is that Linux is quite unreliable. Microsoft is really unreliable but Linux is worse. In a non-PC environment, it just won't hold up. If you're using it on a single box, that's one thing. But if you want to use Linux in firewalls, gateways, embedded systems, and so on, it has a long way to go.

The best news, I guess, is that Ken says he didn't intend to write off Linux itself as simply an anti-Microsoft backlash; what he was trying to say was that he believes the recent popularity of Linux in the press is an anything-but-Microsoft phenomenon. He adds ``i very much appreciate the chance to look at available code when i am faced with the task of interfacing to some nightmare piece of hardware'' and that ``i think the open software movement (and linux in particular) is laudable.''

Ken further adds ``i dont see eye-to-eye with microsoft's business practices.'' His original language was rather stronger and more entertaining, but he asked me not to quote that in order to avoid giving Lucent's lawyers heart failure.

The bad news is that Ken still thinks Linux is flaky. I offered to have VA Linux Labs ship him a machine so he could see what a properly tuned modern Linux looks like, but he said he couldn't accept. He adds ``i do believe that in a race, it is naive to think linux has a hope of making a dent against microsoft starting from way behind with a fraction of the resources and amateur labor. (i feel the same about unix.)''

I cited all the case studies and trend curves and statistics you'd expect me to. He didn't respond directly to those, but I hope I at least gave him some things to think about.

Ken did finish by saying ``i must say the linux community is a lot nicer than the unix community. a negative comment on unix would warrent death threats. with linux, it is like stirring up a nest of butterflies.'' (Hm. Butterfly T-shirts, anyone?)

FYI - if you want the changelog for 2.2.14, just look at the last 2.2.pre14 kernel changelogs. Linuxtoday has a copy here:

http://linuxtoday.com/story.php3?sn=14481

It is a fairly long list of things. The S/390 port is there. Some nice-sounding bugfixes are there, so I'll probably recompile tonight. Also, supposedly it should now compile fine with gcc 2.95.

Where's the report on this hole which actually affects most of the readers of this site? Are Microsoft bugs more important to Slashdot readers than bugs in Linux?

Yes, for a couple of reasons:

1) Bugs in "Linux" (which this is not; it's a tool distributed with Linux, not the kernel itself) tend to get fixed more rapidly than bugs in Microsoft's products. I would point out that the security advisory in question tells you where to get the patched version of the utility; It takes you this long to find someone at Mircosoft to tell you have to wait a couple of weeks (or download a "service pack" or whatever). The article says that the hole was been known about since September. How long do you think the hole in usermode has been known about?

2) As a site that is more-or-less an open source/Linux advocacy site, I like that stories come along that give people who are trying to justify a jump to Linux (or FreeBSD or whatever) more ammunition. If you're looking for "more even-handed treatment" for Microsoft, you need to find another site. At the same time, I would like to see a "Security" section on Slashdot to collate security notifications and the like; it brings Slashdot more towards a one-stop shopping site... :)

Jay (=

Where's the report on this hole which actually affects most of the readers of this site? Are Microsoft bugs more important to Slashdot readers than bugs in Linux?

Yes, for a couple of reasons:

1) Bugs in "Linux" (which this is not; it's a tool distributed with Linux, not the kernel itself) tend to get fixed more rapidly than bugs in Microsoft's products. I would point out that the security advisory in question tells you where to get the patched version of the utility; It takes you this long to find someone at Mircosoft to tell you have to wait a couple of weeks (or download a "service pack" or whatever). The article says that the hole was been known about since September. How long do you think the hole in usermode has been known about?

2) As a site that is more-or-less an open source/Linux advocacy site, I like that stories come along that give people who are trying to justify a jump to Linux (or FreeBSD or whatever) more ammunition. If you're looking for "more even-handed treatment" for Microsoft, you need to find another site. At the same time, I would like to see a "Security" section on Slashdot to collate security notifications and the like; it brings Slashdot more towards a one-stop shopping site... :)

Jay (=

A Slashdot report on a security hole in WebTV, whose only value is to make Slashdot readers go "gee another microsoft hole".


Where's the report on this hole which actually affects most of the readers of this site? Are Microsoft bugs more important to Slashdot readers than bugs in Linux?

I'd like to nominate the Icecast project. After the huge hype of Shoutcast, which allowed anyone with WinAmp to repeat their MP3 audio to a server (thusly to many listeners), these people sat down and said "We can do better -- and we can do under the GPL." The rest is history.

With the latest stable release being v1.3, they have allowed many to setup their own MP3 streaming music servers. It's very handy for setting up (via a program like Yell or Shout, which send the MP3s to the server without reencoding) a small 486 box in the corner that can be a jukebox for an entire LAN. They have also pioneered some important updates to the defacto Shoutcast standard.

An interview with Jack Moffitt, the team leader, is available from LinuxToday

Note: Their parent sponsor, Greenwitch has been down since the 1st of January, with DNS service non existant. As I write this message, their DNS is still not working. The DNS fixes are propagating, and the Icecast people are available on norton.openprojects.net #icecast.
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I'd like to nominate the Icecast project. After the huge hype of Shoutcast, which allowed anyone with WinAmp to repeat their MP3 audio to a server (thusly to many listeners), these people sat down and said "We can do better -- and we can do under the GPL." The rest is history.

With the latest stable release being v1.3, they have allowed many to setup their own MP3 streaming music servers. It's very handy for setting up (via a program like Yell or Shout, which send the MP3s to the server without reencoding) a small 486 box in the corner that can be a jukebox for an entire LAN. They have also pioneered some important updates to the defacto Shoutcast standard.

An interview with Jack Moffitt, the team leader, is available from LinuxToday

Note: Their parent sponsor, Greenwitch has been down since the 1st of January, with DNS service non existant. As I write this message, their DNS is still not working. The DNS fixes are propagating, and the Icecast people are available on norton.openprojects.net #icecast.
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Note: my DNS is currently down. Use my IP address.

Note: my DNS is currently down. Use my IP address.

One of the comments on the LinuxToday Story mentioned the the Dept of Education's FAFSA site has similar browser issues. For those of you that aren't US college students, FAFSA is the federal student aid form required for almost any kind of financial assistance. I'm home for winter break and don't have access to my linux box right now so could someone verify if this is still the case? If so, this is an infinitly more important cause than Fox's site.

One of the comments on the LinuxToday Story mentioned the the Dept of Education's FAFSA site has similar browser issues. For those of you that aren't US college students, FAFSA is the federal student aid form required for almost any kind of financial assistance. I'm home for winter break and don't have access to my linux box right now so could someone verify if this is still the case? If so, this is an infinitly more important cause than Fox's site.

realtimelinux.org: Realtime Linux Workshop Day 3 Dec 20th, 1999

realtimelinux.org: Realtime Linux Workshop Day 2 Dec 20th, 1999

realtimelinux.org: Real Time Linux Workshop Day 1, Real people, Real place, Real time Dec 18th, 1999

realtimelinux.org: Realtime Linux Workshop Day 3 Dec 20th, 1999

realtimelinux.org: Realtime Linux Workshop Day 2 Dec 20th, 1999

realtimelinux.org: Real Time Linux Workshop Day 1, Real people, Real place, Real time Dec 18th, 1999

realtimelinux.org: Realtime Linux Workshop Day 3 Dec 20th, 1999

realtimelinux.org: Realtime Linux Workshop Day 2 Dec 20th, 1999

realtimelinux.org: Real Time Linux Workshop Day 1, Real people, Real place, Real time Dec 18th, 1999

At least that what the notice quoted at Linux Today says.

--
It's October 6th. Where's W2K? Over the horizon again, eh?

IIRC, nothing has passed yet.
Back at the end of July, RMS wrote up some details about the pending legislation (a good read on the matter).

If I'm wrong, then something on this page at eff.org will probably make it plain.

At the N(BSD BOF)YC (thats BSD birds of a feather at the bazaar in NYC) GNOME was singled out as an example of code that is written with Linux in mind, and not code portability. GNOME is (alledgedly, *I* don't know personally) riddled with Linux-specific assumptions. Even though the code SHOULD be able to work on any X/Unix box, the authors have chosen to make moving the code off of Linux painful.

Add to this, people who push GNU/Linux say LINUX when they should be saying OpenSource or OpenSource OSes only help fuel the belief there is a rift, as opposed to the offending party being just clueless/un-educated. Cluelessness/lack of education is cureable, OS zelotry is not cureable with modern medical technology. This story on Linuxtoday shows a reporter corrected in a case of using the term Linux when the term OpenSource was a better fit.

It boils down to, do you want a rising tide to float ALL boats, or are you only giving a damn about your linux or BSD digny?

Why don't you use your Bully Pulpit to demand congressional hearings on software patents?

This is the only approach that I see having the potential to achieve any meaningful progress toward our ultimate goal.

I would love to see the leaders of the OpenSource movement before Congress making the case for a more rational approach to software patents. I would love to be able to see the different factions within this community present their views on C-SPAN. We don't all agree about the specifics, but we can agree that the patents granted in the past couple of years are the product of a process which does not comprehend the current and future state of the Internet.

I wonder who would sit at the other table and oppose us? And, what would Congress do if they were confronted with thousands of constiuent calls and e-mails demanding a review of the process?
--

Dave Aiello

If I were them, I'd put some serious cash into the following:

1. First and foremost, web browser development. Put some serious capital behind the Mozilla project, to make up for the lack of support from Netscape/AOL. As Dave Whitinger pointed out, losing the Browser battle could lose us the War. Mozilla has the potential to be a much better browser than Internet Explorer, especially once it becomes XML and SGML compliant. If you can build perl and python interpreters into Mozilla, you have an IE slayer.
2. Linux Laptop development. Linux is a pain in the rear when it comes to laptops; if VA could start selling them commercially, they would have a virtual lock on the market.
3. Start putting some major capital into open source office suites like KOffice or GNOME Office. This is much less necessary than (1) or (2) since there already exist excellent office suites for Linux (including StarOffice), but it may still be a very good idea just-in-case Sun decides to pull the plug on Linux support, in favor of (say) Solaris 8 for Intel.

Could this at all be inspered by the osOpinion article One area where Windows is ahead of Linux?

This exact same story was posted by Roblimo last week on Sat Nov 20. In that very discussion, I posted a comment detailing how this was Old News, and that Linux Today ran a related story the month before that!

For those who want all the links in one comment: The Linux Today article referenced an article in the Danish version of ComputerWorld, and the comments on LinuxToday pointed out this project's home page.

I knew something was funny when the story link for this article was black instead of green like it usually is. Can you moderate an article as redundant?

This is Old News, in computer terms.

LinuxToday ran a story on this back in mid-October. In it, they referenced an article in the Danish version of ComputerWorld. The feedback comments to LinuxToday are interesting, and several of them pointed out one project's home page.

This is Old News, in computer terms.

LinuxToday ran a story on this back in mid-October. In it, they referenced an article in the Danish version of ComputerWorld. The feedback comments to LinuxToday are interesting, and several of them pointed out one project's home page.

I thought this comment looked familiar..

http://linuxtoday.com/showtb.pl?tbsn=486 02

That "proves" the CPU is not a 32 bit one... So, maybe the x86 compatibility is just a big plus, maybe the main thing is really different :) But maybe a 64-bit PC compatible processor is big enough (see this.)

That crusoe thing is another easily confirmable, they have three refused trademark applications for the word "Crusoe", (available via search only at the USPTO web site, no constant URL's, search for crusoe, the applications are: 75-708413, 75-706113 and 75-706048).

Just search for transmeta on the uspto.gov web site among the *trademarks*... (BTW: it can be long known from the maniac rumour monger yours truly here in this Linux Today article...)

Just search for transmeta on the uspto.gov web site among the *trademarks*... (BTW: it can be long known from the maniac rumour monger yours truly here in this Linux Today article...)

An interesting note: Eric S. Raymond has posted his thoughts to the Yahoo! UK story on the Linux Today Web site, in which he expresses his thoughts on the possibility of China adopting Linux as their official OS.

He didn't seem too enthusiastic about the possibility of it happening.

Looks like this isn't true afterall. How could a government declare an official OS anyway?

ESR proclaims how glad the Linux community is that China didn't really pick us. Read some of the follow-ups, they range from why an oppressive nation like China is bad for an open source OS to why a greedy corporate driven nation like the US is bad for an OS OS. Personally I think the more people using and contributing to Linux, the better. When you have a great idea, and you have the ability to make it happen, differences pale in comparison to the good you are doing. Developing something like Linux has always transcended geographical, political and monetary differences.

In a LinuxToday, Eric Raymond wrote an article titled Communist China adopts Linux? Not so, apparently....

• The "ever paranoid" Debian folks, who have been rather paranoid about RPM because RHAT wouldn't assure them that it would never be released in proprietary form have commented on Corel's participation, at Strategic Alliance Between Corel, KDE and Debian , with the comment:

  "I am very happy to see Corel taking this step into the Open Source world and cooperating with non-commercial organizations such as Debian and KDE," said Wichert Akkerman, Debian's project leader. "By combining Debian's strengths, which include having a large number of developers, a very open development model and a public bug tracking system, with the experience Corel has with making office and desktop products, I think we will be able to produce an outstanding system with the best of both worlds."

• If you were not previously aware, Corel HAS been involved with development efforts on Linux for quite some time.

  See: Corel's Contributions to the Wine Project

Linux Today has this story - part 2- about Linux and Korea.

Thankyou - that's the most useful Korea link I've ever seen. Following a lead to the korean internet faq I found the following interesting statement:

Microsoft Korea came up with its own Hangul encoding, UHC(Unified Hangul Code: MS Code Page 949, Windows-949) stripping Hangul of its unique merit as 'phonetically-combined-writing' system and treating it just like Chinese letters, use it in Hangul Windows 95 and Windows NT (in case of Korean Windows NT 4.0, all internal processings are done in Unicode, but on the surface, it used UHC) despite repeated advices by Korean government to adopt ISO-10646.

Hmm. Talk about de-comoditizing standards. Well I guess if you can take control of an entire country's language encoding standard you've got a real kick-ass lock-in happening. BTW, thanks to your link I've now got hangul up and running in hanterm and Netscape - maybe that missing hangul howto just just say one thing: "get hanterm".

:-)

Linux Today has this story - part 2- about Linux and Korea.

Try reading the pre series announcements. This is at linuxtoday:

2.2.13pre18 released

Odds are that the official release will be pretty close.

I would just like to point out that I originally saw these two articles linked from LinuxToday. I submitted them to Slashdot because they actually are not really Linux-specific at all, and are of interest to the general geek population. But I wanted to give LT their fair credit for good linkage.