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Anonymous American (Sherman Boyd) writes: "I was looking for a flexible, powerful distribution that makes it easy to build a 'custom' Linux box that meets my exacting specifications. I think I found it. Gentoo Linux has just released version 1.0 of their innovative meta-distribution and to celebrate I decided to throw it on my laptop and write this article based on my experiences." And good news for anyone interested in trying Gentoo: yesterday, Daniel Robbins announced the release of version 1.1a. Read on for AA's detailed look at putting Gentoo on his machine -- Gentoo has a different style than today's typical distributions, and it bears some explanation.

Gentoo solved many problems for me. Some distros install everything, whether you really need it or not. Not Gentoo; other than the base packages required for Linux to run, the only software installed on the system is the software you put there. Gentoo resolves dependencies automatically, eliminating RPM prerequisite hell. As an added bonus I got something I wasn't even expecting. Speed. Blinding, blazing, incredible speed.

The main advantage to the Gentoo distribution is Portage, a python-based ports system similar to BSD ports. For those of you unfamiliar with BSD ports, Portage is a package management tool that downloads and installs source instead of precompiled packages. When I need a program I download, install and compile it with one command:

emerge nmap

The above will download the nmap source code, compile and install it. Of course this method is slow, but it has its rewards. You can also opt to use prebuilt binaries if you are not extremely patient. It took me five hours to get the base Gentoo installed on my PIII with 128 megs of ram. It wasn't a big deal as I had other things to do, but I would like to see the installation process optimized so that it doesn't require any babysitting.

Gentoo is running two of my mission-critical servers right now, I consider it to be stable and mature. A warning, though: this is not a distribution for dummies. This is bare metal Linux, powerful and dangerous. If you do something without thinking you may fall into a bucket of pain.

Let's begin my story.

I download the iso from http://www.ibiblio.org/gentoo/releases/build /. There is a choice of install images here. My favorite way of installing Gentoo is to compile everything, a time consuming process. This method requires a slim 16-meg iso. You may want to grab an iso with pre-built binaries to speed things up, however. This fat iso weighs in at 103 meg. I download the big one with the prebuilt binaries even though I won't use them -- just in case.

I boot my laptop with my shiny new Gentoo CD. The Gentoo install uses isolinux by Peter Anvin. I like the fact that they don't obscure it, giving credit where it is due. It boots quickly and there is a PCI autodetection process, it shouldn't find much on my laptop. Interesting, it loads a SCSI module. Perhaps it has detected my IDE CD burner. Usually this will detect any PCI NIC cards that are installed, but it does not detect my PCMCIA device (of course). After the PCI detection I get a command prompt. I use nano (a small text editor) to open up install.txt, the excellent install doc. Usually these docs are sufficient but the latest ones can be found here:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/build.html

Keeping the install doc open in this virtual terminal, I hit alt-f2 to open a new one. I begin by loading the pcmcia drivers and installing networking. This is all done at the command line ( insmod, ifconfig, route, dhcpcd, etc.). I use nano to add my DNS servers to /etc/resolv.conf. A word of caution; get in the habit of always using the -w switch with nano. If you do not use the -w switch nano's word wrap feature will jack up your config files. I ping a reliable site, networking is up!

Next I partition my system using fdisk. I choose a simple layout with a swap partition, a root partition and a small boot partition. The boot partition remains unmounted during use, a nice precaution. For filesystems you have a choice of ext2, ext3, ReiserFS and XFS. In my personal experience I've noticed that Reiser performance really rocks when combined with SCSI drives, but as this is an IDE system I think I'll go with XFS. Besides, the XFS tools seem to be a lot more mature than the offerings from Reiser. I format and mount the partitions from the command line creating a /mnt/gentoo directory. I then untar the root filesystem; here I have the choice of the small tarball that requires you to compile everything or a larger tarball that contains pre-built binaries. If you untar the big guy you are almost finished with your install at this point. Using chroot and some scripts you chroot the /mnt/gentoo directory. From this point on you are operating under your new gentoo system.

The first thing I do under my chrooted system is issue this command:

emerge rsync

This downloads the latest version of the portage tree. The portage tree is found under /usr/portage and contains the ebuild scripts used to compile/install programs. Currently there are over 1000 up to date emerge sripts. Next I edit /etc/make.conf, here I can choose compiler settings. I optimize everything for i686. Now it's time to build the GNU compiler and libraries. I run the bootstrap script and leave for lunch. On my PIII 500 the boostrap process takes 2 hours and 2 minutes.

The second emerge command I issue is:

emerge system

Now emerge downloads, compiles and installs my base system packages. I sit back, relax and take the time to fax my legislators a rant about the DMCA. One hour and 30 minutes later it is finished.

Now it is time to download and install the kernel. First I make a link updating my timezone, and then I issue another emerge command:

emerge linux-sources

This grabs the latest kernel, 2.4.19, and drops the source in /usr/src/linux. Ten minutes have elapsed. Now comes the fun, compiling your kernel. That's right, everyone who installs Gentoo compiles their own kernel as a matter of process. I like this. There are some distributions out there that actually say you should never compile your own kernel. Shame on them. I use make menuconfig and the standard commands to compile my kernel. Since Gentoo uses devfs I select /dev file system support and I am also careful to compile in support for XFS. I don't have the kernel mount devfs automatically at boot as the Gentoo startup scripts take care of this for me. Virtual Memory file system support is also enabled.

At this point in time I get to choose a logger. My choices are sysklogd, syslog-ng or metalog. I choose metalog, because it's got the coolest name. I download, compile and install it using a single command:

emerge metalog

XFS has some nice utilities, I better install those. I have some other essential programs to install, and I'm feeling a bit lazy so I chain them all in one big command.

emerge xfsprogs;emerge bitchx;emerge vim;emerge links

At this point I'm feeling pretty 7-Up. I edit my /etc/fstab file, my /etc/hostname file and /etc/hosts. The passwd command is run to set the root passwd. I add my NIC module to the file /etc/modules.autoload and edit /etc/conf.d/net. conf.d/net allows me to configure my IP address and settings, default gateway and alias. I take a look at /etc/init.d/net.eth0, even though I don't need to edit it. I can then add it to the startup script using this command:

rc-update add net.eth0 default

This adds the script to the default runlevel to be executed at startup. Startup scripts are another place Gentoo really shines. The startup scripts have a system of dependencies. For example net.eth0 can depend on pcmcia. The pcmcia drivers get loaded before net.eth0 - this is good.

Next I install grub. If you haven't used grub before, it's nice. You can boot to a kernel directly from the grub shell, without having to edit a config file. lilo is still available, for those of you who prefer it. Gentoo likes to let you make the decisions.

I exit my chrooted shell and unmount all directories. Reboot! Gentoo comes up and the install process is complete.

The Gentoo install process has taught me a lot about Linux, and I like the fact that the command line is embraced, instead of hidden behind gui or scripts. I also like the speed (which is debatable since all I can supply is anecdotal evidence). I wasn't too happy about waiting five hours for everything to compile, but I think it was worth it. I can tell you it compiles and greps noticeably faster than other distros I have run on the exact same machines. I really enjoy using portage, and the packages seem to stay up to date -- if not bleeding edge. This is not a conservative distribution like Debian, however I like the aggressive and intelligent direction gentoo is taking.

If you are considering trying out Gentoo I highly suggest #gentoo on irc.openprojects.net. Also subscribe to the mailing lists found at www.gentoo.org. The Gentoo community has helped me out of several jams in the past, I think they will treat you good too.

While writing this, I received help from a lot of people. However I would like to personally thank the people I ripped off word for word. Thanks notafurry of www.kuro5hin.org for your pointed help with the stilted second paragraph and thank you Ween from #gentoo on openprojects.net for your clean description of portage.

Anonymous American (Sherman Boyd) writes: "I was looking for a flexible, powerful distribution that makes it easy to build a 'custom' Linux box that meets my exacting specifications. I think I found it. Gentoo Linux has just released version 1.0 of their innovative meta-distribution and to celebrate I decided to throw it on my laptop and write this article based on my experiences." And good news for anyone interested in trying Gentoo: yesterday, Daniel Robbins announced the release of version 1.1a. Read on for AA's detailed look at putting Gentoo on his machine -- Gentoo has a different style than today's typical distributions, and it bears some explanation.

Gentoo solved many problems for me. Some distros install everything, whether you really need it or not. Not Gentoo; other than the base packages required for Linux to run, the only software installed on the system is the software you put there. Gentoo resolves dependencies automatically, eliminating RPM prerequisite hell. As an added bonus I got something I wasn't even expecting. Speed. Blinding, blazing, incredible speed.

The main advantage to the Gentoo distribution is Portage, a python-based ports system similar to BSD ports. For those of you unfamiliar with BSD ports, Portage is a package management tool that downloads and installs source instead of precompiled packages. When I need a program I download, install and compile it with one command:

emerge nmap

The above will download the nmap source code, compile and install it. Of course this method is slow, but it has its rewards. You can also opt to use prebuilt binaries if you are not extremely patient. It took me five hours to get the base Gentoo installed on my PIII with 128 megs of ram. It wasn't a big deal as I had other things to do, but I would like to see the installation process optimized so that it doesn't require any babysitting.

Gentoo is running two of my mission-critical servers right now, I consider it to be stable and mature. A warning, though: this is not a distribution for dummies. This is bare metal Linux, powerful and dangerous. If you do something without thinking you may fall into a bucket of pain.

Let's begin my story.

I download the iso from http://www.ibiblio.org/gentoo/releases/build /. There is a choice of install images here. My favorite way of installing Gentoo is to compile everything, a time consuming process. This method requires a slim 16-meg iso. You may want to grab an iso with pre-built binaries to speed things up, however. This fat iso weighs in at 103 meg. I download the big one with the prebuilt binaries even though I won't use them -- just in case.

I boot my laptop with my shiny new Gentoo CD. The Gentoo install uses isolinux by Peter Anvin. I like the fact that they don't obscure it, giving credit where it is due. It boots quickly and there is a PCI autodetection process, it shouldn't find much on my laptop. Interesting, it loads a SCSI module. Perhaps it has detected my IDE CD burner. Usually this will detect any PCI NIC cards that are installed, but it does not detect my PCMCIA device (of course). After the PCI detection I get a command prompt. I use nano (a small text editor) to open up install.txt, the excellent install doc. Usually these docs are sufficient but the latest ones can be found here:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/build.html

Keeping the install doc open in this virtual terminal, I hit alt-f2 to open a new one. I begin by loading the pcmcia drivers and installing networking. This is all done at the command line ( insmod, ifconfig, route, dhcpcd, etc.). I use nano to add my DNS servers to /etc/resolv.conf. A word of caution; get in the habit of always using the -w switch with nano. If you do not use the -w switch nano's word wrap feature will jack up your config files. I ping a reliable site, networking is up!

Next I partition my system using fdisk. I choose a simple layout with a swap partition, a root partition and a small boot partition. The boot partition remains unmounted during use, a nice precaution. For filesystems you have a choice of ext2, ext3, ReiserFS and XFS. In my personal experience I've noticed that Reiser performance really rocks when combined with SCSI drives, but as this is an IDE system I think I'll go with XFS. Besides, the XFS tools seem to be a lot more mature than the offerings from Reiser. I format and mount the partitions from the command line creating a /mnt/gentoo directory. I then untar the root filesystem; here I have the choice of the small tarball that requires you to compile everything or a larger tarball that contains pre-built binaries. If you untar the big guy you are almost finished with your install at this point. Using chroot and some scripts you chroot the /mnt/gentoo directory. From this point on you are operating under your new gentoo system.

The first thing I do under my chrooted system is issue this command:

emerge rsync

This downloads the latest version of the portage tree. The portage tree is found under /usr/portage and contains the ebuild scripts used to compile/install programs. Currently there are over 1000 up to date emerge sripts. Next I edit /etc/make.conf, here I can choose compiler settings. I optimize everything for i686. Now it's time to build the GNU compiler and libraries. I run the bootstrap script and leave for lunch. On my PIII 500 the boostrap process takes 2 hours and 2 minutes.

The second emerge command I issue is:

emerge system

Now emerge downloads, compiles and installs my base system packages. I sit back, relax and take the time to fax my legislators a rant about the DMCA. One hour and 30 minutes later it is finished.

Now it is time to download and install the kernel. First I make a link updating my timezone, and then I issue another emerge command:

emerge linux-sources

This grabs the latest kernel, 2.4.19, and drops the source in /usr/src/linux. Ten minutes have elapsed. Now comes the fun, compiling your kernel. That's right, everyone who installs Gentoo compiles their own kernel as a matter of process. I like this. There are some distributions out there that actually say you should never compile your own kernel. Shame on them. I use make menuconfig and the standard commands to compile my kernel. Since Gentoo uses devfs I select /dev file system support and I am also careful to compile in support for XFS. I don't have the kernel mount devfs automatically at boot as the Gentoo startup scripts take care of this for me. Virtual Memory file system support is also enabled.

At this point in time I get to choose a logger. My choices are sysklogd, syslog-ng or metalog. I choose metalog, because it's got the coolest name. I download, compile and install it using a single command:

emerge metalog

XFS has some nice utilities, I better install those. I have some other essential programs to install, and I'm feeling a bit lazy so I chain them all in one big command.

emerge xfsprogs;emerge bitchx;emerge vim;emerge links

At this point I'm feeling pretty 7-Up. I edit my /etc/fstab file, my /etc/hostname file and /etc/hosts. The passwd command is run to set the root passwd. I add my NIC module to the file /etc/modules.autoload and edit /etc/conf.d/net. conf.d/net allows me to configure my IP address and settings, default gateway and alias. I take a look at /etc/init.d/net.eth0, even though I don't need to edit it. I can then add it to the startup script using this command:

rc-update add net.eth0 default

This adds the script to the default runlevel to be executed at startup. Startup scripts are another place Gentoo really shines. The startup scripts have a system of dependencies. For example net.eth0 can depend on pcmcia. The pcmcia drivers get loaded before net.eth0 - this is good.

Next I install grub. If you haven't used grub before, it's nice. You can boot to a kernel directly from the grub shell, without having to edit a config file. lilo is still available, for those of you who prefer it. Gentoo likes to let you make the decisions.

I exit my chrooted shell and unmount all directories. Reboot! Gentoo comes up and the install process is complete.

The Gentoo install process has taught me a lot about Linux, and I like the fact that the command line is embraced, instead of hidden behind gui or scripts. I also like the speed (which is debatable since all I can supply is anecdotal evidence). I wasn't too happy about waiting five hours for everything to compile, but I think it was worth it. I can tell you it compiles and greps noticeably faster than other distros I have run on the exact same machines. I really enjoy using portage, and the packages seem to stay up to date -- if not bleeding edge. This is not a conservative distribution like Debian, however I like the aggressive and intelligent direction gentoo is taking.

If you are considering trying out Gentoo I highly suggest #gentoo on irc.openprojects.net. Also subscribe to the mailing lists found at www.gentoo.org. The Gentoo community has helped me out of several jams in the past, I think they will treat you good too.

While writing this, I received help from a lot of people. However I would like to personally thank the people I ripped off word for word. Thanks notafurry of www.kuro5hin.org for your pointed help with the stilted second paragraph and thank you Ween from #gentoo on openprojects.net for your clean description of portage.

DanielS writes "We finally converted OPN to use dancer-ircd at about 7:40 last night (AEDT - UTC+11) - and this time it's staying! The conversion was successful, apart from some minor services wrinkles which we had to iron out. If you have any issues with channels/services/whatever, please pop by #conversion and /notice one of the ops, and we'll eventually wake up and help you. Happy IRCing! :)" He's talking about irc.openprojects.net- also worth checking out irc.slashnet.org.

An Anonymous Coward writes: "The billennium party at OpenProjects.Net rocked! Check out the log for the whole event over here. Please don't forget to use one of the mirrors. Thanks :-)" Well, anyone have anything break due to the rollover?

Rob Levin writes: "Open Projects Net has just embarked on an expansion project, to increase its user base and provide better service to the community. We've revamped our web site and [Slashdot] readers might want to take a look. The new project is called Mister Toad's Wild Ride." As a satisfied "customer" of OPN, I have to say this sounds like a great move -- OPN is one of the friendliest IRC environments I've ever seen, and is always a good source of #help. Read the documents to see the dilemma that Rob (lilo) and the other volunteers at OPN are facing, and to learn about their ambitious plan to grow without sacrificing the community feel (or becoming DoS fodder). And more to the point, help! Technical skills, money,and even moral support would be appreciated, I bet.

Rob Levin writes: "Open Projects Net has just embarked on an expansion project, to increase its user base and provide better service to the community. We've revamped our web site and [Slashdot] readers might want to take a look. The new project is called Mister Toad's Wild Ride." As a satisfied "customer" of OPN, I have to say this sounds like a great move -- OPN is one of the friendliest IRC environments I've ever seen, and is always a good source of #help. Read the documents to see the dilemma that Rob (lilo) and the other volunteers at OPN are facing, and to learn about their ambitious plan to grow without sacrificing the community feel (or becoming DoS fodder). And more to the point, help! Technical skills, money,and even moral support would be appreciated, I bet.

Cerb writes: "Open Projects sounded most appealing as I was on the prowl to find one of the many IRC networks to link my idle server to. Having been involved with the open source community for quite some time, it seemed to me to be the place to be. It just seemed 'right' to link there. Now I'm simply stuck with these people. They are exactly what I was looking for. But, when I decided to help out, little did I know that I would end up in a project manager position. So here I am, it's 12.24 am in Vienna, and I'm mulling how to phrase this best."

"OPN have thought a lot about the current development of community sites for the open source community. While we believe that sites like sourceforge and the like do a good job in their category, there are not enough project-related news sites.

We have decided that it is time to gather information, ideas and reminders from the open source community as to how they would like to have a site developed, that actually tells them, all in one place, what is going on with people in the community and the projects they work on.

So we're approaching the community, trying to gather as many contacts as possible and start discussing this idea we had during one long frenzied night of IRC brainstorming. Users who think they can help us out with ideas, development time, written content, information about the open source community and the like are asked to please participate and sign up to our mailing list at http://lists.openprojects.net. That same host runs an nntp server gatewayed to the mailing list archives, in the newsgroup opn.discussion. If you feel you are qualifying as a volunteer right away, you can sign up to our volunteer database using http://lists.openprojects.net/db/

Spreading the word is not easy and wording this right is even harder, so I will not try to make this sound any better. I'll just send it off, hoping that it gets posted and many join us. Should you have more specific questions, please join me on IRC. The server is irc.openprojects.net, the channel is #content.

oh yeah... I am dmalloc on IRC and right now I have quite a problem allocating more sanity.

cheers...

On behalf of dmalloc, lilo and the rest of the gang on irc.openprojects.net"

So who's up for this? I'd like to see a by-project community site that goes beyond the few excellent sites over at LinuxCare's Kernel Central, like Kernel Traffic, though I wonder how hard it will be to pull off an organizational task of this size.

Cerb writes: "Open Projects sounded most appealing as I was on the prowl to find one of the many IRC networks to link my idle server to. Having been involved with the open source community for quite some time, it seemed to me to be the place to be. It just seemed 'right' to link there. Now I'm simply stuck with these people. They are exactly what I was looking for. But, when I decided to help out, little did I know that I would end up in a project manager position. So here I am, it's 12.24 am in Vienna, and I'm mulling how to phrase this best."

"OPN have thought a lot about the current development of community sites for the open source community. While we believe that sites like sourceforge and the like do a good job in their category, there are not enough project-related news sites.

We have decided that it is time to gather information, ideas and reminders from the open source community as to how they would like to have a site developed, that actually tells them, all in one place, what is going on with people in the community and the projects they work on.

So we're approaching the community, trying to gather as many contacts as possible and start discussing this idea we had during one long frenzied night of IRC brainstorming. Users who think they can help us out with ideas, development time, written content, information about the open source community and the like are asked to please participate and sign up to our mailing list at http://lists.openprojects.net. That same host runs an nntp server gatewayed to the mailing list archives, in the newsgroup opn.discussion. If you feel you are qualifying as a volunteer right away, you can sign up to our volunteer database using http://lists.openprojects.net/db/

Spreading the word is not easy and wording this right is even harder, so I will not try to make this sound any better. I'll just send it off, hoping that it gets posted and many join us. Should you have more specific questions, please join me on IRC. The server is irc.openprojects.net, the channel is #content.

oh yeah... I am dmalloc on IRC and right now I have quite a problem allocating more sanity.

cheers...

On behalf of dmalloc, lilo and the rest of the gang on irc.openprojects.net"

So who's up for this? I'd like to see a by-project community site that goes beyond the few excellent sites over at LinuxCare's Kernel Central, like Kernel Traffic, though I wonder how hard it will be to pull off an organizational task of this size.

JayZee writes "The guys at Shugashack have word on John Carmack's plans now that Quake3 is finished. He's going to be looking into cyberspace virtual realities, and even better he's going to be working on open source projects like glx much more! " Well, that's a nice mix: Free Software projects and realizing cyberspace realities, combined with a man who can make them happen.

Several readers wrote in to let us know that the maintainer of css-auth has announced the end of his involvement with CSS, while the DeCSS person has removed the source from his website. The source has been removed at the behest of lawyers representing "the film industry".

Several readers wrote in to let us know that the maintainer of css-auth has announced the end of his involvement with CSS, while the DeCSS person has removed the source from his website. The source has been removed at the behest of lawyers representing "the film industry".

Teancum writes "Legal actions have already started to happen against the programmers who wrote the DVD-CSS decription routines. This page contains the official response by the programmer, who has had his web site shut down by his ISP. I guess that the DVD Forum doesn't want to see an open source project that can read DVD-Video. More info about the Livid project can be found here. " Update: 11/05 04:33 by H :Check out the latest announcement from his site - eMedia has done a great report on the whole thing - read this.

Teancum writes "Legal actions have already started to happen against the programmers who wrote the DVD-CSS decription routines. This page contains the official response by the programmer, who has had his web site shut down by his ISP. I guess that the DVD Forum doesn't want to see an open source project that can read DVD-Video. More info about the Livid project can be found here. " Update: 11/05 04:33 by H :Check out the latest announcement from his site - eMedia has done a great report on the whole thing - read this.

Teancum writes "Legal actions have already started to happen against the programmers who wrote the DVD-CSS decription routines. This page contains the official response by the programmer, who has had his web site shut down by his ISP. I guess that the DVD Forum doesn't want to see an open source project that can read DVD-Video. More info about the Livid project can be found here. " Update: 11/05 04:33 by H :Check out the latest announcement from his site - eMedia has done a great report on the whole thing - read this.

Teancum writes "Legal actions have already started to happen against the programmers who wrote the DVD-CSS decription routines. This page contains the official response by the programmer, who has had his web site shut down by his ISP. I guess that the DVD Forum doesn't want to see an open source project that can read DVD-Video. More info about the Livid project can be found here. " Update: 11/05 04:33 by H :Check out the latest announcement from his site - eMedia has done a great report on the whole thing - read this.

Kazparr writes "This source code was posted earlier today at Livid. Derek Fawcus confirms that this is his decryption routine for the DVD css encoding scheme. Hopefully, LinuxDVD is one step closer. " So, now we've got some source - but how many of the keys do it actually have in there?

Kazparr writes "This source code was posted earlier today at Livid. Derek Fawcus confirms that this is his decryption routine for the DVD css encoding scheme. Hopefully, LinuxDVD is one step closer. " So, now we've got some source - but how many of the keys do it actually have in there?

Kazparr writes "This source code was posted earlier today at Livid. Derek Fawcus confirms that this is his decryption routine for the DVD css encoding scheme. Hopefully, LinuxDVD is one step closer. " So, now we've got some source - but how many of the keys do it actually have in there?

Linus has blessed what could very well be the last kernel in the 2.0 series, 2.0.38. The small patch fixes a dangerous TCP/IP bug, and two other small bugs. Please use a local mirror (ftp.us.kernel.org for us folks in the US). Update: 08/26 07:25 by J : It seems that 2.2.12 and 2.3.15 have also been blessed by the holy penguin pee :)

Since the NDA was lifted early this morning, several sites have released reviews of AMD's new Athlon chip (coming in 500, 550, 600, and 650MHz versions). The first was Bill Henning's CPUReview site. He reviewed the Athlon 600 and has several nice things to say about it. Next up is The Upgrade Center's review, and two more submitted by kimmo, the first at Ace's Hardware, and the second at AGN Hardware. Next, Magnetism submitted a link to Tom's review. Finally, as submitted by pmmay, the ZDNet review. To finish, an article at the SJ Mercury that discusses AMD's strategy for the chip market (thanks to Greg Miller for that one). Update: 08/09 12:31 by J : Thanks to The Evil Dwarf from Hell for links to the AMD Benchmark Page, which even has SPECint and SPECfp scores, and to an anonymous reader for the Ars Technica review.

Keefesis (the first of many who wrote in with the news) writes "The L.A. District Attorney dropped the case against Mitnick according to this article by MSNBC. Nice birthday present I guess :) " I wonder what this will do the movie Takedown (based on the book) that is currently in post-production, and stars Tom Berenger as John Markoff, and Skeet Ulrich as Kevin Mitnick. No joke. Update: 08/07 01:43 by J : To clarify, he is not out of the woods yet. The federal charges against him have not been dropped.

PseudoMan was the first with the news: XFree86 3.3.4 has finally been released (yes, you can actually see the contents of the directory now). Rumour has it that the new release contains support for various Matrox cards, and may be the last release before we see 3.9 show up. Update: 07/20 06:05 by J : It seems that the first public beta of 4.0, 3.9.15, is now available. xinerama, here I come!

According to this Wired news article, IANA has begun to "roll out" IPv6. Though it doesn't go into specifics, one assumes this means that the three major IP registries will begin assigning IPv6 addresses. The article mentions another chicken and the egg problem: no IPv6 software (correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Linux have IPv6 software?), so there is no need for IPv6 addresses, and vice-versa. It also mentions every traffic light on the planet could have its own IP. Update: 07/16 02:48 by J : Dave Whitinger at LinuxToday sent a link to a mail which clarifies the situation a bit.

Matthew Pavlovich, head of the new LiViD project, has released source code (from an anonymous source) to allow CSS unlocking on DVD drives. This means people with DVD drives (only IDE at the moment, SCSI soon) will be able to copy the raw, encrypted, MPEG off the disc. Once this software is refined, all that will be necessary to watch DVD movies under Linux will be a hardware decoder or a special software decoder (which would have to be non-free).

Matthew Pavlovich, head of the new LiViD project, has released source code (from an anonymous source) to allow CSS unlocking on DVD drives. This means people with DVD drives (only IDE at the moment, SCSI soon) will be able to copy the raw, encrypted, MPEG off the disc. Once this software is refined, all that will be necessary to watch DVD movies under Linux will be a hardware decoder or a special software decoder (which would have to be non-free).

Pseudonymus Bosch writes "Amiga has selected Linux as the OS kernel for the new Amiga Operating Environment that is scheduled for release later this year." I wonder what caused such a sudden about-face. Regardless, I hope Amiga does well, and makes some interesting changes to Linux. Even if they don't go into the mainstream kernel, I'm curious to see what they have up their sleeves. Update: 07/09 12:35 by J : A Letter from Jim Collas which might help explain things.

Nathan Laredo (the A/V guru from the expo who had 4 MPEG decoders in his machine running simultaneously) wrote in to say that he's "hacked out" full read/write/rewrite functionality for the Panasonic LF-D100 series of Panasonic DVD-RAM drives under Linux, and the diff is available at OPN. He says he's used the driver to copy three unencrypted DVDs, and that you probably don't want to use ext2 on the drive (though it can be done "painfully").

In a frenzy of porting, Be.com has unveiled that both the GIMP and Civilization:Call to Power will be ported to BeOS. With the news of a new low cost Be system, I'm gonna have to look closely at getting one. Update: 06/22 11:14 by J : flaggz writes "We've posted a screenshot of the GIMP toolbox for BeOS. "

Anonymous Coward writes "Matrox just released the hardware specs for the highly rated G400 here (must register). According to the guys working on the G200 driver (including John Carmack) from a driver perspective it is very similiar to the G200, so XFree86 and 3D support should be coming very soon. 1999 is going to be good year for Linux and high performance graphics. " With XFree86 4.0 out by the end of the year (hopefully), the Precision Insight news, and mandrake's work on xinerama, I'm inclined to agree. Now, if only I could get my hands on one of those babies...

Rather than spending all week posting lots of little bits about Linux Expo, I've saved them up for now: Russ Nelson sent us a collection of pictures, Brian Smith sent us his, and our own Justin sent us his collection and a mirror, and nicedream sent us a collection of pictures from the Debian boys. (featuring many light saber battles and nerf wars from the Slashdot booth) Marc Merlin sent us linkage to a scan of the linuxcare poster that Red Hat got so cranky about. He has a full report on the show. An anonymous reader sent us a TechSitings Story, Jonas Öberg wrote in to send us Telsa (Alan Cox's wife) take on the show for something a bit lighter.

ZDNet is reporting that IBM is forming a "$29M research institute". The assigned scientists will focus on using supercomputers to model real-life scenarios. Apparently, they plan to release some software for visual data representation in the near future under an open source license. Update: 05/25 09:40 by J : IBM is forming an alliance with Pacific HiTech where PHT will support IBM's DB2 under Linux. It also seems DB2 will ship with a special version of PHT in the future.

jmtpi writes "Hackers at MIT turned the top of the Great Dome in the center of campus into R2D2 yesterday. See story in Yahoo News. " Anyone have more pics? If so, label accordingly and make a submission - I'll be sure to link them. Update: 05/18 07:06 by J : An article at Wired.Update: 05/18 07:42 by J : Shot 1, Shot 2, and Shot 3. Thanks to Aidan Low. More pics from tcs.

jmtpi writes "Hackers at MIT turned the top of the Great Dome in the center of campus into R2D2 yesterday. See story in Yahoo News. " Anyone have more pics? If so, label accordingly and make a submission - I'll be sure to link them. Update: 05/18 07:06 by J : An article at Wired.Update: 05/18 07:42 by J : Shot 1, Shot 2, and Shot 3. Thanks to Aidan Low. More pics from tcs.

webslacker writes "According to ZDNet, Linux Systems will open up the much-coveted Linux.com website on Tuesday. Pretty good timing too... I can give it a visit before I get in line for you-know-what. " Hmm. I thought they were going to wait until Expotime, but I guess not. OctobrX, Linux.com webmaster and former themes.org head, will be in the Slashdot booth during the Expo. CmdrTaco is also one of the linux.com board members. I can't wait to see the site. Update: 05/17 11:39 by J : A news.com article about it.

adraken writes "It just seems like minutes ago that 2.3.1 was out, but 2.3.2 is out... " Remember folks: use a mirror. Standard "don't use unless you know what you're doing" disclaimer applies.Update: 05/15 02:43 by J : There seems to be a ChangeLog available.

An anonymous reader wrote in to say that "At the AMD shareholder's meeting today, AMD and KyroTech demonstrated a K7 system running at a cool 1 GHz! " Update: 04/29 10:26 by J : An article at news.com discusses AMD's plans for the chip, including pricing and initial speeds.

Wyatt Earp wrote in to tell us that macnn.com is reporting that Q3T is coming out this weekend for Macs first, then Linux and finally Windows according to Zaphod's Plan. According to Carmacks's Plan OS X is nice but "MacOS still sucks."Update: 04/25 01:36 by J : It's gone live. Go swap them servers.

An anonymous reader sent us this page (its in german! Use babelfish) which says that EGCS has been accepted as the official compiler of the GNU Project by RMS. I've seen a lot of confirmation of this, but nothing official on the GNU website. Anyway, I'm glad to see it. EGCS is a great compiler- it'll be even cooler once its simply GCC! Update: 04/21 01:26 by J : The GNU website has been updated. The EGCS steering committee has been renamed, and is now officially in charge of GCC.

Unknwn writes "Microsoft announced today their new optical mouse, the Intellimouse Explorer. For some reason, they think that optical mice or something new. I have some Sun 3s and Sun 4s lying around which make that a joke... =) " I happen to have an optical mouse at my feet right now. Looks nice, but is it worth $75? I have had the worst luck with MS peripherals (they were gifts!), but I have friends who swear by them...Update: 04/20 03:16 by J : A "concerned" reader wrote us to say that the mouse will not require a special pad like the older opitcal mice. He also said he had a chance to play with it, and that it was quite nice. Anyone else care to share?

Jim Hill wrote to us about the Puffin Group & Hewlett-Packard, a popular story today being on both MSNBC and in the public section of the Wall Street Journal. It's an interesting business case story for Linux and major corporations-send this out to your bosses to show them it can be done. And if anyone has a HP icon, send it my way. Update: 03/18 02:36 by J : For interested parties, the Puffin Group website.

The illustrious Elliot Lee writes "GNOME 1.0 is now available for download. Please peruse the press release and then download it via a convenient FTP mirror (as soon as they sync up). " Update: 03/04 08:36 by J : Whoops - forgot to plug my own program! If you've installed GNOME and want scrolling Slashdot headlines on your panel, check under Panel Applets ->Amusements->SlashApp. Thanks John, Chris, Fred, and everyone else!

At 00:00:00AM UTC, (7PM EST, and 4PM PST for you lucky bastards at LWCE) Debian will release Debian 2.1, codenamed "Slink". Slink has been frozen for four months, and was almost skipped. Right now, we are celebrating the release on irc.openprojects.net, #debian. Last time we had over 300 people in one channel, and had an incredible amount of fun. Order CDs and check out the party HQ at netgod.net. Be there or be square! Update: 03/02 06:47 by J : Looks as though the release has been delayed another week. An announcement should be on the web site soon.

Thomas Muldowney writes "Mozilla screenshots using GTK are up on Mozbin " They've also got binaries and stuff if you're interested, I haven't tested them, I have no clue how they are. Probably ought to download one and get Slashdot to render under it *grin*. J Thanks should go to Pavlov and msw. Also, msw just told me Rob's wish has been fufilled: nglayout-slashdot.png.

Robert Levin writes "We're coordinating a list of Beowulf mirrors. We could use more mirror sites outside the United States, and we need any Beowulf utilities available, as well as tar files and Debian packages for everything (what we have so far is the basic kernel source RPM). Help us keep Beowulf alive by demonstrating that the Source Is Out There. *grin* Please mail us with the URL of your mirror, so we can add you to the list! Thanks to everyone for their support. "

Robert Levin writes "We're coordinating a list of Beowulf mirrors. We could use more mirror sites outside the United States, and we need any Beowulf utilities available, as well as tar files and Debian packages for everything (what we have so far is the basic kernel source RPM). Help us keep Beowulf alive by demonstrating that the Source Is Out There. *grin* Please mail us with the URL of your mirror, so we can add you to the list! Thanks to everyone for their support. "

Teknix writes "Alan Cox (aka _Anarchy_) has agreed to come over and talk to us about himself, what he does for Red Hat, and elaborate on his contributions to the Open Source/Free Software community. The channel names will once again be #gnu for the speaker, and #gnu-d for discussion. We urge everyone to come over and pay your respects to Alan. ;) This forum is brought to you by a joint network effort between SomeNet and Open Projects. Please visit our forums page for more information. "

Teknix writes "The official forum log for the Richard Stallman talk is now available on our website. Click this link to view it. This forum was brought to you by joint cooperation between the SomeNet and Open Projects IRC Networks. Please visit the SomeNet website for more information on what we're doing for the Open Source/Free Software community. " It was an interesting forum. I was glad to be there as well. Looking forward to more of these in the future.

Robert Levin has written a response to Yesterday's editorial on the Tragedy of the Commons. It's an excellent rebuttal. What follows is an Editorial by Slashdot Reader Robert Levin

When Chris Marsten talks about the "tragedy of the commons", he's missing an important point. Neither the open source community nor the body of code it creates is a "commons."

The "tragedy of the commons" is an old problem in politics and economics. It describes what happens when a limited public resource is overutilized by the public; when even a single user can foul a public waterway or dump toxic waste in a village square. When a limited resource is owned by everyone, it's owned by no one. No one is responsible for preventing its overuse.

The open source community is not a commons. People in the community work on software because doing so meets their personal goals. Maybe they enjoy writing code. Perhaps they need to learn to code better. Quite likely they plan to use the program they are working on in their personal or business life. And many people just enjoy being part of a community, or just want the recognition. For most people, several motivations apply. Certainly there are people who write open source software for altruistic reasons; but I've been part of the community for 5 years, and for most of the developers I talk to, altruism is the icing on the cake.

But what about the product of the community? Is open source software itself a commons? Can users "foul" the product by using it and not giving anything back, or by asking for too many features? Can developers foul the product by providing too many features, or by creating multiple projects working on the "same" ground, or not working on the "right" things? I would argue not.

Developers work on open source because doing so advances their personal goals. They give it away because, at the very least, doing so causes them no harm. If I work on a project because I enjoy coding, I'm not planning on making money by selling it. I can give it away without losing anything. If I need to learn coding better, giving the code away is a clear win. People will comment on how it works for them. If I need the program for home or work, giving it away gives me a source of bug reports and patches.

If I produce a program people want, there'll be a market. People will use the program. They'll want fixes and new features, and they'll send in bug reports and feature requests. Bug reports help me fix problems, which is always a win. Feature requests give me more work to do---but if I have enough users, some will be programmers, and some will be good programmers. There will be people motivated to help me.

If I use my own program (how many developers in the community don't?), I'll want to enlist other people to help me turn out product. If I'm a good manager, the project will prosper; otherwise, someone will take my code and start a new project, with or without my assistance, and the users will flock to their door.

Is there a problem? Not so far. But what if several competing projects have similar goals? Isn't that wasteful, when programmers could be working on so many useful projects no one has yet started?

Who decides what projects are useful? Developers decide, and their decisions are ratified by their user base. This must be so. We've talked about what motivates developers, and the motivations are personal. It's all very well to talk about how "we must allocate the time of open source programmers efficiently," but programmers in our community are not objects. They come with their own motivations. If a developer thinks he should be working on his own project, he's going to work on that or, in most cases, nothing at all.

You can say that we don't need two desktops, so the Gnome people should continue, and the KDE people should pack it up and start working on a Kaliedoscope clone, but who died and made you god? If you want a Kaliedoscope clone, work on it yourself. If there's really a market for it, you'll get plenty of help.

But aren't there just so many programmers to go around? Shouldn't we allocate our programmers' time efficiently? Leaving aside the practicality and ethics of someone telling open source programmers what to work on (you can't do it, and you have no right to do it if you could), I don't buy into the limitation to start with. There are maybe 5-10 million Linux systems installed worldwide. This is a drop in the bucket compared to the number of Windows users, a percentage of whom are quite accomplished coders. And how many of those people could learn to code in the next ten years? Events like the Netscape open sourcing introduce a lot of people to the idea and benefits of open source. Efforts like Gnome will make Linux easier to use, which can only expand the base of users. Not everyone needs to program, but in a larger user population we'll find the people we need. Help's coming.

"Malignant featurism" is not a problem. If enough people use a program to make it worthwhile, there will be people to write the features. Too many applications? Give me a break. People will flock to use the applications they want, and again there will be plenty of help in coding. Thousands of half-coded apps, and too much diversity? Be real. If people used all of those Enlightnment themes, they'd get finished. Half-completed apps are a sign of lack of interest. The community allocates its effort to the projects it finds useful. Draw your own conclusions.

Should we shoot the next person to put out an X toolkit? I don't think so. Everyone who puts one out thinks theirs is the best. Let the users decide. If they like the toolkit, if they like the license, they'll use it. There's plenty of programming support out there for projects someone really wants, and there'll be more. To think otherwise is naive. This is free software, and where you find users you'll find support.

Free software is not a "commons." It is not based on altruism. It is a system whereby people achieve their own personal goals. Recognition is important, but it is not the goal of free software, it is the currency of free software. When someone does good work, they're recognized and people become interested early in their next project. But unless they meet the needs of their community, that next project will founder.

Is the system unstable? Not as long as people understand the motivations of the participants. If you think a project is important, work on it yourself. If you don't get any help, understand it may be because no one is that interested. Don't try to tell people what they should be working on, or what they need. It won't work, and it's not your business. The sum of everyones needs and desires are what keep the system running. If you understand that, you can participate efficiently and effectively in the open source / free software community.



Robert Levin

Robert Levin has written a response to Yesterday's editorial on the Tragedy of the Commons. It's an excellent rebuttal. What follows is an Editorial by Slashdot Reader Robert Levin

When Chris Marsten talks about the "tragedy of the commons", he's missing an important point. Neither the open source community nor the body of code it creates is a "commons."

The "tragedy of the commons" is an old problem in politics and economics. It describes what happens when a limited public resource is overutilized by the public; when even a single user can foul a public waterway or dump toxic waste in a village square. When a limited resource is owned by everyone, it's owned by no one. No one is responsible for preventing its overuse.

The open source community is not a commons. People in the community work on software because doing so meets their personal goals. Maybe they enjoy writing code. Perhaps they need to learn to code better. Quite likely they plan to use the program they are working on in their personal or business life. And many people just enjoy being part of a community, or just want the recognition. For most people, several motivations apply. Certainly there are people who write open source software for altruistic reasons; but I've been part of the community for 5 years, and for most of the developers I talk to, altruism is the icing on the cake.

But what about the product of the community? Is open source software itself a commons? Can users "foul" the product by using it and not giving anything back, or by asking for too many features? Can developers foul the product by providing too many features, or by creating multiple projects working on the "same" ground, or not working on the "right" things? I would argue not.

Developers work on open source because doing so advances their personal goals. They give it away because, at the very least, doing so causes them no harm. If I work on a project because I enjoy coding, I'm not planning on making money by selling it. I can give it away without losing anything. If I need to learn coding better, giving the code away is a clear win. People will comment on how it works for them. If I need the program for home or work, giving it away gives me a source of bug reports and patches.

If I produce a program people want, there'll be a market. People will use the program. They'll want fixes and new features, and they'll send in bug reports and feature requests. Bug reports help me fix problems, which is always a win. Feature requests give me more work to do---but if I have enough users, some will be programmers, and some will be good programmers. There will be people motivated to help me.

If I use my own program (how many developers in the community don't?), I'll want to enlist other people to help me turn out product. If I'm a good manager, the project will prosper; otherwise, someone will take my code and start a new project, with or without my assistance, and the users will flock to their door.

Is there a problem? Not so far. But what if several competing projects have similar goals? Isn't that wasteful, when programmers could be working on so many useful projects no one has yet started?

Who decides what projects are useful? Developers decide, and their decisions are ratified by their user base. This must be so. We've talked about what motivates developers, and the motivations are personal. It's all very well to talk about how "we must allocate the time of open source programmers efficiently," but programmers in our community are not objects. They come with their own motivations. If a developer thinks he should be working on his own project, he's going to work on that or, in most cases, nothing at all.

You can say that we don't need two desktops, so the Gnome people should continue, and the KDE people should pack it up and start working on a Kaliedoscope clone, but who died and made you god? If you want a Kaliedoscope clone, work on it yourself. If there's really a market for it, you'll get plenty of help.

But aren't there just so many programmers to go around? Shouldn't we allocate our programmers' time efficiently? Leaving aside the practicality and ethics of someone telling open source programmers what to work on (you can't do it, and you have no right to do it if you could), I don't buy into the limitation to start with. There are maybe 5-10 million Linux systems installed worldwide. This is a drop in the bucket compared to the number of Windows users, a percentage of whom are quite accomplished coders. And how many of those people could learn to code in the next ten years? Events like the Netscape open sourcing introduce a lot of people to the idea and benefits of open source. Efforts like Gnome will make Linux easier to use, which can only expand the base of users. Not everyone needs to program, but in a larger user population we'll find the people we need. Help's coming.

"Malignant featurism" is not a problem. If enough people use a program to make it worthwhile, there will be people to write the features. Too many applications? Give me a break. People will flock to use the applications they want, and again there will be plenty of help in coding. Thousands of half-coded apps, and too much diversity? Be real. If people used all of those Enlightnment themes, they'd get finished. Half-completed apps are a sign of lack of interest. The community allocates its effort to the projects it finds useful. Draw your own conclusions.

Should we shoot the next person to put out an X toolkit? I don't think so. Everyone who puts one out thinks theirs is the best. Let the users decide. If they like the toolkit, if they like the license, they'll use it. There's plenty of programming support out there for projects someone really wants, and there'll be more. To think otherwise is naive. This is free software, and where you find users you'll find support.

Free software is not a "commons." It is not based on altruism. It is a system whereby people achieve their own personal goals. Recognition is important, but it is not the goal of free software, it is the currency of free software. When someone does good work, they're recognized and people become interested early in their next project. But unless they meet the needs of their community, that next project will founder.

Is the system unstable? Not as long as people understand the motivations of the participants. If you think a project is important, work on it yourself. If you don't get any help, understand it may be because no one is that interested. Don't try to tell people what they should be working on, or what they need. It won't work, and it's not your business. The sum of everyones needs and desires are what keep the system running. If you understand that, you can participate efficiently and effectively in the open source / free software community.



Robert Levin

Robert Levin writes "Reminder: The Some.net forum with RMS will be held tomorrow at 1:30pm US/Eastern, 5:30pm GMT. I'll be moderating. Sponsors are some.net and openprojects.net. The two networks are presently connected." Hit the link below to see available servers. IRC Servers for RMS Forum irc.some.net
irc.openprojects.net

irc.au.openprojects.net
irc.eu.openprojects.net
irc.us.openprojects.net