Slashdot Mirror

DocSavage was the first to write with the news that The Linux Fund plans to offer a Linux credit card. Interesting-if they can get 100,000 subscribers, then they will have about 2 million dollars to throw at developers and projects.

Lots of readers pointed us to this Microsoft.com page that says MS has stopped trying to make NT run on 64-bit Alphas and isn't even going to release any new 32-bit Alpha products. For more info on the subject, check this Netcape Netcenter article and the Ixnay WinNT on Alphastory we ran last Friday. Meanwhile, according to a short blurb in The Register, Intel has finally prototyped Merced in silicon - and it runs Linux fine but won't run Win64 at all. It looks like Microsoft simply can't deal with 64-bit architecture. Please try not to say "I told you so" too loudly to your MS-boosting coworkers, okay? ;-)

lazlo gave us the heads-up-SCO is going to be offering Linux support now, in an attempt to boost revenue. It's funny how much things can change in only a few months.

Eric Krock writes "The Web Standards Project has launched a petition drive to pressure Microsoft to fully support HTML 4.0, CSS1, DOM1, and XML in IE." Like it or not, IE is currently the most widely-used WWW browser. Since Microsoft is under a lot of pressure to act (or at least pretend to act) nice nowadays, a large number of polite requests to make their browser products fully support current and future W3C standards just might do some good.

Fizgig writes "Is it just me, or do they only call for standards when they're not winning? Microsoft just released their MSN instant messaging client, which could talk with AOL Instant Messenger users. AOL then changed the protocol slightly to break Microsoft's. Now Microsoft is calling for standards. And they somehow managed to mention Linux in a story that really has nothing to do with it. " Update: Around 11:30 p.m. EST, Keefesis noticed that MS had released an updated version of their Messenger client that works with the latest version of the AOL product. This MSN page has details.

Matt Levine writes to us with the news that the Caldera division, Caldera Thin Clients, will rename itself Lineo, and will be focusing on set-top boxes, and cash register systems. The system is beig developed using an Embedix, which is based an OpenLinux.

Wonko42 writes "Netscape is thinking twice about continuing to use Mozilla.org as the main tool to develop Communicator, and well they should. The project has received very little support from the open-source community, and the delays have been astronomical. While Netscape isn't sure that they could undo the open-source status of the browser, they're considering their options carefully. Also, according to the article, Communicator 5.0 is set to ship in December. "

Richard Finney wrote in to send us a a CNet news bit over at Netscape that talks about Linux IPO hub-bub with comments about Caldera, VA, and LinuxCare.

CuriousGeorge113 writes "As a result of Compaq's recent acquisition of Digital Equipment, they plan on closing the Salem, New Hampshire plant which employs 900 people. Most of them will be laid off. The plant currently makes alpha-based server computers. "

Netscape 4.6 has silently appeared on the netscape ftp servers. Looks like a bugfix release. D00D! sent us the release notes.

Netscape 4.6 has silently appeared on the netscape ftp servers. Looks like a bugfix release. D00D! sent us the release notes.

smu writes "Netscape, the contributor of the Instant Messaging API document, has requested that mozilla.org remove the page pending further review by Netscape. "We at mozilla.org regret this inconvenience, but respect the wishes of our contributors. Netscape solicits feedback on this decision". "I don't think I need to make any smartass comment.

thaths writes "Frank Hecker, the person who wrote the paper that led to Netscape's release of the source code, has written a birthday piece on Mozilla , "

preed-man writes "I don't know what's up in Mountain View, but it's not good: AOL has laid off about 430 Netscape employees; in addition to this, a "key Mozilla.org figure" has resigned as well. It's a somber time in Mountain View. " CT : Sorry about the lag in story postings. Reformatted and reinstalled, but I now have a nice shiny new Debian box.

Richard Finney sent us story to Compaq's latest Alpha announcement. They will be rolling out some new Alpha-based models, trying to use the popularity of Linux to boost sales of this chip. Interestingly, Bob Young, of Red Hat is saying that the # of units of the Alpha are too small to make a huge difference.

Oracle will announce today Oracle 8i for Linux. It will be available within 60 days. They are also giving away 20,000 copies of an "early access CD" for the people who will register. RedHat will be showing a new portal this week (it's not available yet) which will include "everything that a Linux user need". Netscape will announce today the delivery of preview releases of Directory and Messanger servers for Linux.

sspitzer wrote in to tell us that my.netscape has added a few cool new portals. If you have a membership to the thing, you can now add Slashdot, FreshMeat or MozillaZine. Spiffy.

sspitzer wrote in to tell us that my.netscape has added a few cool new portals. If you have a membership to the thing, you can now add Slashdot, FreshMeat or MozillaZine. Spiffy.

sspitzer wrote in to tell us that my.netscape has added a few cool new portals. If you have a membership to the thing, you can now add Slashdot, FreshMeat or MozillaZine. Spiffy.

sspitzer wrote in to tell us that my.netscape has added a few cool new portals. If you have a membership to the thing, you can now add Slashdot, FreshMeat or MozillaZine. Spiffy.

sspitzer wrote in to tell us that my.netscape has added a few cool new portals. If you have a membership to the thing, you can now add Slashdot, FreshMeat or MozillaZine. Spiffy.

Robotech_Master writes "A friend of mine, who I trust implicitly, has received a postcard that says "After carefully considering our product line, [CMP Media has] decided Byte will not re-launch as a print publication. [...] CMP will fulfil your remaining subscription to Byte with an equal number of issues of WINDOWS Magazine." Make of that whatever you want to. " Anyone else heard anything about this? update: S: Byte is apparently going to be published by CMP on the web. Thanks to cykix for that.

Once again I have some award things that I feal obligated to mention. If you're not interested, skip down, click the link below to read some mussings on Slashdot CDs and a Slashdot Magazine. I really want feedback on this stuff. The main one is Cool Site of the Year which has a Guitar that I want as First Prize, so go vote. You're allowed to vote every day. Nathan Machula wrote in to tell us that we're once again in ZDNet's Top 100 websites. You'll enjoy the new review of the site. Ngeran wrote in to tell us that Slashdot was on NetCenter's What's New page. We're almost a year and a half old, but they gave us a '9' for content. DPI is doing some award thing for the end of the year. Apparently you can vote for Slashdot, I don't think I win a guitar from this one *grin*. Please click the link below and read the rest of this story. It is quite important to the future of Slashdot sorta stuff Allright, the more important stuff. First off, Slashdot CD-ROMs? I don't really know what good it would be, but people constantly email and suggest it. I figure we could put the html from 1998 on it and sell it really cheap, or we hire someone to write a nice little frontend search engine thingee and sell it for a bit more. Is there demand for this? Would you buy it? What is it worth? I don't think I would want it just because it's all online already- but then again, I already have access to that stuff. The major issue is that the older comments are no longer in a database (they are flushed after 30 days when the page is written out for the last time) but a competant perl hacker could easily strip that data back out. A Slashdot Book? People suggest this all the time too- taking the best stories of 1998 and shoving them in a nice hefty book. With a big collection of the best comments for folks to read. We're probably way to late to actually do this for the year end, althought this strikes me as more interesting than the CD. Is it a good idea? Should we consider it for 1999? Regardless, this isn't as cool as... A Slashdot Magazine? This has been suggested time and time again by folks. Essentially, a monthly publication wich selects a dozen or so of the best stories and prints them each with a few dozen comments. Then a section perhaps a few dozen stories worth reprinting. Perhaps an original article or something each month to make it actually have something that you can't get online. I don't really care, I'd rather keep everything online personally. Frankly I don't really even like paper all that much. But maybe it would just be cool to read in the bathroom, unless you have 10-base-T in your bathroom already (I'm so tempted but I have so far resisted despite the fact that there is a hub 10 ft away). Anyway, is this worth whatever the $20 it is to subscribe to a magazine these days? I'd have to hire folks to put it together and I'd have to find someone who actually knows how to publish something like this. The question is, is there a demand for it? Other Random Things Is it worth a Real Audio feed of Slashdot? I mean, eventually we'll have actual bandwidth around here and the machine won't be lagged. Would it be cool to have an audible Slashdot report for stories each day? We could conceivably do Video- I can sit behind a desk and not wear pants. We've also shot around a Slashdot Radio Show where we get a couple of geeks (maybe me and a few Slashdot authors plus random guests) a few times a week, and talk about a few of the more interesting stories off Slashdot for the day. We could take callers or something, I don't know. It might be fun. Conclusion Anyway, all of this is just random mussings. My first mission is to get Slash 0.3 done, get the server stable, find a few more solid, reliable, trustworthy moderators, and hopefully enjoy the holidays for a bit. But any feedback on this stuff is appreciated. Frankly I don't care if we do any of these things or not, but enough people are suggesting these things that I'm curious if its actually worth doing. If it is, it means I have to decide exactly what I want to do so that I can convince rich investors that this won't be like flushing their money directly down the toilet. Anyway, if you have ideas post them here or email me (note that there is no way I'll be able to respond to everyone, but I'll try)

mwarps writes "It appears our favorite software giant is being sued for stealing someone else's product, again... Check it out here. " The company didn't have MS sign an NDA and claims that our favorite monopoly stole their ideas after a meeting. All I know is a billion dollars for mice? Dang.

Monty Worm wrote in with this article which claims that NGLayout will be released this week by Netscape. MozillaZine has more details, the Netscape Dev site, and a claim that it's basically the standard NGLayout you can download today from Mozilla.

Rob Kaper sent us a link to something you might have missed on Freshmeat. It's a nifty site that is tracking Server uptimes. El wrote in to send us a link to "Penguin Lust" which I found silly enough to post. Josh Baugher sent us a link to the so called Christmas Document that you might find amusing. Quazi sent us a link to a ZDNet IE5 Review that normally wouldn't deserve a glance. But apparently a Slashdot fan was involved. Or just as likely, they wanted some hits and figured that this publicity might send some clicks their way *grin*. iota wrote in to send us a link about Mexico using Linux in schools and saving themselves over a hundred million bucks in the process. Mark Woon sent us a link to a funny BMW ad poking fun of MS. Lastly, worth noting (and based on the submissions box, and my msglog, a lot of you did) Red Hat has updated their website with a cleaner, and frameless design. Joy!

Netscape has acknowledged a bug present in the Unix version of Navigator from version 3.0 to 4.5. News.com has the story. It's a security exploit involving browser plug-ins. Kind of makes me feel safer knowing I don't use plug-ins. A patch is in the works.

Alec Flett writes "The unix bits for Communicator 4.5 just hit the wire. You'll find them on the first 12 ftp sites (ftp2.netscape.com through ftp13.netscape.com) right now, and higher mirrors over the weekend. Many thanks to all the rocksolid people and slashdot readers who have given some fantastic feedback! And what a better way to say thanks than to deliver a new Linux port: SparcLinux! It's untested, but it works! (and yes, other Linux ports are in the works) "

Lisa wrote in to tell us about a report in Wired that Microsoft has been denied the use of tapes of Netscape executives used as book research by two professors. You can also read another report about it at news.com as well.

James Kachel writes "Netscape 4.07 was released. Get it from the usual spots " This one fixes the notorious cache bug. Snag it if you're worried about that sort of thing.

Matt Borowski writes "Netscape 4.5PR2 is out. Get it at the usual places!" The win/mac versions have been out forever. Glad to finally see the Unix version has finally made it online. Now somebody explain to me why I'm still on a 21.6 line shared with 4 other people so I have to wait until midnight to download it?

Jim Rae writes "I currently have a dual/duel bot box running red hat 5.x (hacked to hell and back) and Windows '95. I am using my UPS wisely (an APC 1400) to save my ass in those times when the power goes out. Like now, indeed. The monitoring software blows, unless I've missed somthing. So, Here's is the question: What is the best UPS hardware within the following guidelins: 1) APC with NT connector cable and a modicom of good luck 2) Something else..... What do you use as a UPS, if antything?. "

Lee Cremeans writes "In this article, Bill tells us what he thinks the biggest risks to Microsoft are...interestingly, no mention of Linux anywhere. " Probably what is more along those lines is Steve Ballmer's remarks about Linux and Apache, in particular.

Andrew Wooldridge writes " There is a new site for news about mozilla - looks like it is set up to help increase awareness of stuff happening at mozilla.org "

Joe writes "Apparently, a person by the name of Julie is going to be undergoing a sex change operation, live on the internet (From male to female). She believes it will inform, and perhaps even save lives." I guess the good news is that we're probably fairly near to running out of 'firsts' on the 'net. Wonder how longer before we start watching 'lasts'.

Jauder Ho writes "Get it here" Or, probably because of /.-ing, another FTP server.

The X Windows / UNIX team for Communicator 4.5 wrote in with a request for linux users. They say "We are are the team of programmers who are working on the X Windows / UNIX version of Communicator 4.5 We hate it when Communicator crashes. We're sure you do too. We know linux is rock solid, and our goal is to make the 4.5 that run on Linux that rock solid. We want people who may be thinking about using Linux to think: "And another reason I should try Linux is the Communicator never crashes on Linux. Never." We admit we aren't there yet. But this is our team's top priority. Here is what we need from you: If you found a *reproducable* way to make 4.5 crash, tell us how. We'll fix it. Send mail to rocksolid@netscape.com, and when make the fix, we'll let you know so that you'll know that it won't happen again. If you are using a version of 4.5 that has the Full Circle Talkback feature, please turn it on and let us know what you did to cause the crash. If you don't have 4.5 PR 1, get it here."

The X Windows / UNIX team for Communicator 4.5 wrote in with a request for linux users. They say "We are are the team of programmers who are working on the X Windows / UNIX version of Communicator 4.5 We hate it when Communicator crashes. We're sure you do too. We know linux is rock solid, and our goal is to make the 4.5 that run on Linux that rock solid. We want people who may be thinking about using Linux to think: "And another reason I should try Linux is the Communicator never crashes on Linux. Never." We admit we aren't there yet. But this is our team's top priority. Here is what we need from you: If you found a *reproducable* way to make 4.5 crash, tell us how. We'll fix it. Send mail to rocksolid@netscape.com, and when make the fix, we'll let you know so that you'll know that it won't happen again. If you are using a version of 4.5 that has the Full Circle Talkback feature, please turn it on and let us know what you did to cause the crash. If you don't have 4.5 PR 1, get it here."

Alan Bailward sent us a link to a funny User Friendly. And Joe wrote in to tell us that FoxTrot is doing a series where Jason writes an OS over here. daschel wrote in to send us a link to a site about Bubble Wrap. What a strange world. Angus Davis wrote in to warn us that they've posted lots of interested stuff for mozilla hackers. This includes some docs on the new layout engine and porting instructions. They also need help porting the new engine if anyone is interested. And lastly, just wanted to mention that Everything has swollen to 6600 nodes in around 48 hours. There's some cool stuff in there to read now, and the server is holding up pretty well under somewhat less intensive usage than Wed.

Yesterday evening Netscape Communications published a preview of Communicator 4.5. You can download the browser at the usual FTP-sites. For Linux you will find a linux12, linux20 and a linux20 glibc version. The Messenger client is significantly updated and the browser has quite a lot of extra features that integrate it into Netscape's Netcenter.

Yesterday evening Netscape Communications published a preview of Communicator 4.5. You can download the browser at the usual FTP-sites. For Linux you will find a linux12, linux20 and a linux20 glibc version. The Messenger client is significantly updated and the browser has quite a lot of extra features that integrate it into Netscape's Netcenter.

According to Mike Shaver, "the first wave of mozilla mail and news code has landed on the tree". He says it won't compile, but I don't think that will stop any of us from trying!

One of our loyal readers at Netscape, Alec Flett wrote this, to give us an update on 4.5: "Just to update you on the whole Communicator 4.5 situation: We're going into a short beta cycle Real Soon Now. Of course I'm an engineer so I can't speak with authority about schedules and such. However the key point about this release is that the browser is essentially the same (hence the 4.x version number), it's everything ELSE that's changing (Messenger, Calendar, Address Book, LDAP, etc) This is not the version based on the Mozilla source. ".

Michael Plump writes "Netscape released this press release, probably in response to the rumors going around yesterday. Looks as though 4.5 won't be out for a while yet."

Mike Shaver has informed me "mozilla.org has released the source for bonsai and tinderbox, the tools used to track the mozilla CVS tree. The source is available from the mozilla CVS server, in the mozilla/webtools directory." Good news, if you ask me. I'm sure there are a lot of projects that can benefit from these tools.

According to a C|net article the source code of Messenger, an important component of the Communicator Suite, will be unveiled over the next several weeks. It seems Netscape is currently removing some encryption and third-party code. So far no sign of it on Mozilla.org.

Brian Bernstein writes "Just incase you didn't get enough with FishCam, LitterBox Cam and other assorted items, Netscape's Engineering department has reverse engineered a surplus bus sign and has created a web page for you to enter your own messages to be displayed to the department and the world. Worth a look if you've got a few minutes... " Boy I've seen some crazy things in my day, and this is right up there.

Brian Bernstein writes "Just incase you didn't get enough with FishCam, LitterBox Cam and other assorted items, Netscape's Engineering department has reverse engineered a surplus bus sign and has created a web page for you to enter your own messages to be displayed to the department and the world. Worth a look if you've got a few minutes... " Boy I've seen some crazy things in my day, and this is right up there.

Brian Bernstein writes "Just incase you didn't get enough with FishCam, LitterBox Cam and other assorted items, Netscape's Engineering department has reverse engineered a surplus bus sign and has created a web page for you to enter your own messages to be displayed to the department and the world. Worth a look if you've got a few minutes... " Boy I've seen some crazy things in my day, and this is right up there.

Fedor Kouranov wrote in with this article where Computer Shopper columnist Paul Bonner rips Netscape apart for their source code decision. I don't disagree that IE4 is extendable- all MS projects are great at this, but he blows of Netscape and just accepts that Microsoft owns the industry. Personally I prefer thinking of a future that's open instead of held inside the walls of some mega corporation is a little better than one where Microsoft over powers each new industry as it appears, but hey, I'm an optimist.