Slashdot Mirror

Omniscientist writes "A recent post on KernelTrap details the lkml post by Chris Wright talking about a centralized place to report security issues pertaining to the Linux Kernel and the discussion that was generated by it, including Chris's followup. It would appear that they now have created a security team to privately handle the bugs, who act as the alternative to reporting the flaw to the public immediately."

HishamMuhammad writes "The rumors reported earlier at /. are confirmed. The latest offerings in the Pentium 4 family now support AMD's x86-64 architecture, even though Intel is not willing to admit it very openly, by using cryptic names like EM64T and (gasp) IA-32e. (The naming issue was discussed on lkml, and the consensus there was to use 'x86-64,' even though sometimes AMD refers to it as 'AMD64'). Intel's FAQ admits their implementation is basically compatible with x86-64, except for the minor differences that have always set Athlons and P4s apart. It's about time Intel jumped on AMD's bandwagon, since its homegrown 64-bit architecture seems not to be doing very well."

Uncle Humph1 writes "There's an interesting article at NewsForge by Robin (Roblimo)Miller about Vint Cerf giving a presentation to NOVALUG about the Interplanetary Internet and having lunch with them afterward. An interesting read. One of the quotables by Vint with regard to security reads 'We're building in security from end to end,' he says, 'because we don't need headlines saying, '15-year-old takes over Mars.'" Here is some more information about the interplanetary Internet.

An anonymous reader writes "Saw this new benchmark on the linux-kernel mailing list. Although NAMESYS, the developers of ReiserFS has many benchmarks on their site, they only have one Ext3 benchmark. The new benchmark tests Ext3 in ordered and writeback mode versus ReiserFS with and without the notail mount option. Better than expected results for Ext3. Big difference between ordered and writeback modes."

Ivo writes: "kerneltrap is reporting: Michael Cohen announced to the lkml his intention to begin a new 2.4 development tree. The first release of his -mjc branch includes a number of performance enhancing patches, including Robert Love's preemptible kernel patch, Rick van Riel's reverse mapping patch and George Anzinger's real time scheduler patch. Michael says of this patch, "I feel that there's need for a rapidly developing '-ac [like]' tree, and so, here we go. Feel free to test it""

Dale Woolridge asks: "Suppose I want to increase the availability/reliability of my home network's connection (to the internet) and high-speed & low-latency are important. I've been using cable for almost two years now, but there are sometimes inexplicable outages which leave me without net access for hours at a time. Rather than switch to another type (aDSL) of provider, I augmented my connectivity by adding another provider. I want to automate the selection of outgoing route, but am willing to live with manual failover in cases where a particular interface/route is available but my upstream provider is having routing problems. Basically, I want to be multi-homed, but my choice of options is limited; clearly, I cannot fiddle with upstream routing."

"To that end, I did a little searching and came up with a few items to help me along the way. First, I had to download the iproute2 package, add a routing table for multipath routing based on this example, and do some interface/packet matching using this information. Unfortunately, none of this seems sufficient to do what I want. Based on what I've read, the issue lies in source address selection. If the multipath table is my default table, I think it chooses the source address based on the weights of the hops in that route. Even with interface selection rules (ip rule add dev eth0 table ...) the issue (routing problems to/from linux box) persists. While I am using the 2.2.19 kernel, I would consider moving to a newer kernel iff I can achieve my goal with it.

Based on the above, my question is this: Has anyone successfully configured their home network as described above under linux? I am interested in knowing how to do it."

Dale Woolridge asks: "Suppose I want to increase the availability/reliability of my home network's connection (to the internet) and high-speed & low-latency are important. I've been using cable for almost two years now, but there are sometimes inexplicable outages which leave me without net access for hours at a time. Rather than switch to another type (aDSL) of provider, I augmented my connectivity by adding another provider. I want to automate the selection of outgoing route, but am willing to live with manual failover in cases where a particular interface/route is available but my upstream provider is having routing problems. Basically, I want to be multi-homed, but my choice of options is limited; clearly, I cannot fiddle with upstream routing."

"To that end, I did a little searching and came up with a few items to help me along the way. First, I had to download the iproute2 package, add a routing table for multipath routing based on this example, and do some interface/packet matching using this information. Unfortunately, none of this seems sufficient to do what I want. Based on what I've read, the issue lies in source address selection. If the multipath table is my default table, I think it chooses the source address based on the weights of the hops in that route. Even with interface selection rules (ip rule add dev eth0 table ...) the issue (routing problems to/from linux box) persists. While I am using the 2.2.19 kernel, I would consider moving to a newer kernel iff I can achieve my goal with it.

Based on the above, my question is this: Has anyone successfully configured their home network as described above under linux? I am interested in knowing how to do it."

It's backpedaling time when it comes to the alleged Sega / Nintendo joint venture ... just goes to show how easy it is to get signals crossed in a business where no fact is necessarily stranger than fiction. Words from our recent FBI visitee. More Lego madness too, combining modern technology with that funny smile that haunts even we scoffers. All below -- smile!

It was still an interesting concept, though. Gemini writes: "Just thought I'd let you know IGN made an error regarding Sega and Nintendo forming a joint company. Their retraction is [here]"

Tenryujin adds: "IGN DC reported that Sega has not stated that they will be developing software for rival consoles. They also have already stated in the past that their next generation console beyond the Dreamcast is already in development (as I'm sure Sony's hard at work on their PlayStation 3), but that's far in the future. "shifting focus" and "moving away completely" are two entirely different things. :)

Nowhere have they announced that they are getting out of the hardware business. This time next year, we'll have X-Box, PlayStation 2, Indrema, Gamecube and Dreamcast."

Marge, your child is so artistic. Keep him away from my family. You've seen a massive lego train layout, and you've seen the lego desk, but are you ready for ... something more inspiring and enigmatic? Eric Harshbarger, reknowned sculptor of the Lego Desk is at it again. He circulated an e-mail saying, "... I have finally finished the 'LEGO Mona Lisa'. It is viewable at: [this link] whew..." Yow. If you are anywhere near Auburn, Ala. this week, perhaps a polite e-mail to Eric will let get you a close-up look, but he will be packing it up this weekend (Nov. 5th).

The mind boggles.

And the fastest update in the West -- hwaara writes: "The guy who got ruined by FBI has updated his page with answers to common questions by Slashdot readers, check it out here." That includes questions like: 'What the heck were you doing visiting a just cracked site and port-scanning?!' to which Andreas has some pointed words.

Thinking (witch) caps for next year ... Karl writes "Halloween: the perfect opportunity to share the software. Instead of handing-out shrink-wrapped candy, give out the ole' stack of Debian GNU/Linux CD's when those trick-or-treaters ring at the door. The implications and possibilities are endless. If anyone wants to be part of this GNU/Linux Halloween give-away distribution rampage, please e-mail me. I'll probe all sorts of sponsors and get the CD's to give out in 2001. We can print CD labels that have helpful URLs, or LUG URLs and stick them to the CDs. E-mail me with any enthusiasm, ideas, or comments: your input will steer the project. (NOSPAM: karl-at-tux.org)"

This sounds like a great idea to me. Save up all those nice boxes that America Online has been spamming you with, remove the inner label, and re-use. ;)

An Anonymous Coward writes: "http://boudicca.tux.org/hypermail/linux-kernel/this-week/0084.html has a post by one of the developers working on NTFS utilities for Linux, stating that Microsoft has dropped legal threats against them and apologized. Therefore, development of these NTFS utilities will continue." Our previous story was here.

From a hundred feet up, the action on the floor at FOSE would look like that of any technical tradeshow. Eager vendors try to get their names into the heads of buyers, and the aisles are jammed with swag-toting prospects. The show floor has plenty of the power suits and eager vendors that any other shows do, but also more than a scattering of military insignia, camouflage and Marine crew cuts. And for the first time, just a quick stroll from the 50,000 square foot Microsoft display, this year's FOSE floor also featured Linux vendors and a dedicated Linux pavilion. (Read more.)

Why FOSE matters

Linux at computer trade shows is nothing new -- but this show in particular targets no one outside the largest buyer of computers and software in the entire world, bar none: the Feds. The Federal government spends upward of 35 billion dollars each year on computer systems and software; how much more depends on who you ask.

"If you ask Federal sources, they pin it around 38 billion dollars, and that's become an accepted number -- that includes telecommunications buying. One of the reasons that the estimates are so diverse is that the government doesn't count things the way businesses do," says FOSE consultant Peg Hosky. Remember, that estimate too is conservative: trying to calculate the depths of the black budgets which drive some of the largest and most secretive IT purchases, not to mention contingency spending hidden in euphemized line items, is a black art.

The Departments of Defense, Energy, the Interior, Transportation, the Federal Aviation agency (and all the other agenices associated with the every Federal department) --- the list stretches from the White House to the most distant exploratory spacecraft.

The goods on offer at FOSE, though, are for the most part more mundane. Though the show is now simply called by its acronym, the initials stood for Federal Office Systems Exposition: you won't find radar systems or flight control computers on offer at the show. But for anything related to desktop computing, "FOSE's always been the introduction point of new technologies to the Federal government, because the government leaders and the national press focuses on this show," said Hosky.

Getting penguins in the door

The main-floor pavillion was the brainchild of Northern Virginia LUG (NoVaLUG) member Tim Bogart, by day a network server administrator for a major telecommunications company, and furthered by Lois Rude, industry manager with FOSE. After a Washington-area Linux exposition was cancelled nearly a year ago, Bogart asked himself and fellow LUG members "Why don't we get in on the real action?"

He began angling at a more ambitious target than the Linux enthusiasts who populate LUGs and Linux-only conventions. A previous job had put Bogart into the realm of Federal purchasing as the manager of a 20-million dollar IT project, and he knew how complicated government purchasing was. "My background isn't as a coder -- I'm an electrical engineer by training. I thought this was a way I could contribute to the community," he said. "You have no idea how complicated it gets."

Going from interested user to organizer put Bogart into contact with a receptive FOSE executive, and that made all the difference. "[Bogart] called on the sales people, and the salesperson didn't understand what he was asking for, so they gave him to me," says Rude. "I was new with FOSE at the time. We talked, we had lunch together and the more we talked, the more we realized it would be mutually beneficial to have all of them do something within FOSE."

Billy Ball, Linux book author and fellow NoVaLUG member, helped spearhead the effort too. "Bill and Tim came in and gave our sales team an amazing demonstration with Linux, and really educated us about it," says Rude.

Abstract goals like education are fine -- and to that end, volunteers from several local LUGs donated time in the pavillion answering questions of every level -- but the organizers also have a more pragmatic reason to make Linux more visible to Federal buyers: "I would like nothing more than to reach my hand down into Bill Gates' pocket and pull out $11-18 billion in accounts receivable," says Bogart.

To that end, he and the other volunteers solicited donations of software and information from Linux vendors, and cajoled others to actually show up at the show. Applix and Caldera occupied booths flanking the pavilion, but as you'll read they were far from the only vendors present.

The problem with "free" The biggest obstacles to getting Linux onto Federal desktops currently running Microsoft operating system is not just perception -- hardware vendors industry wide are touting their Linux compatibility, and mainstream magazines have featured Linux on their covers -- but the inertia which characterizes federal sales even more than it does the private sector.

High-performance computing centers like Sandia National Laboratory and Los Alamos aside, the problem is the desktop. Open-source software, Linux or not, tends to advance more rapidly and with less oversight than government purchasers are comfortable with.

Col. Stephen Quick, who specializes in training and retention for the U.S. Air Force, put it this way: "We've got a force of about 75,000 Air Force personnel who we've got to train to sustain that [desktop software investment]. Of course, our user community is all of the Air Force, about 550,000 people. So you've got to make sure you've got standardization, configuration control in whatever you do." The other armed forces face similar constraints -- workforces that shift at the drop of an order, and a work force made up of people enlisted for just a few years.

"We use a lot of UNIX in the command and control centers, but we use NT for the desktop," says Quick. With open-source software, "you could well have somebody developing a little application that they become dependent on. The person who develops it leaves, somebody else moves in who's never seen it before. If that's your expert, and they're now over in Saudi, you're kind of out of luck."

Citing manpower restraints for support as well as development, many vendors said their products would remain Microsoft-centric for the foreseeable future. "In my 20-person shop," said one biometric device manufacturer's rep who asked not to be identified, "we're doing everything we can to get even one client version out the door. We don't rule out porting to other platforms, but frankly we have to go where the market is. After NT, we're working on Novell, because that has the second largest installed base among our customers. Other clients have to wait."

Hits and misses

This may be the first year for a Linux pavilion, but Linux also showed up at the fair in unexpected corners: Apple, for instance.

While work on the BSD-based OS X is moving along, no machines at FOSE were demonstrating the new OS. However, under a sign proclaiming High Performance Computing, developer Kai Staat of Terra Soft Solutions happily demonstrated Yellow Dog Linux 1.2 on a Macintosh G4. With a few keystrokes, he switched from a KDE desktop to the usual Mac desktop -- or rather, to Mac On Linux, in a KDE window. "To the Mac OS, it's as if you just pushed the power key on the keyboard," he explained to some onlookers from the Air Force, showing them that both systems were happily coexisting on the machine.

After one of these demonstrations, NIST robotics researcher David Gilsinn told me "My scientific work, it's on UNIX, so I have to either run X, or go sit at a UNIX box to do it, so that [Linux on G4] looked like a really good option." Gilsinn said that his workplace is currently Sun based, but that "we're trying to cut down the cost of our systems, especially Unix systems, and Linux is getting to be a viable option."

Corel's large exhibit showed off, in addition to their Windows products, both Corel Linux and the company's office suite. And API, who manufacture the Alpha processor, were also out in force. I spoke with Michael Foley, API technical marketing engineer, about what Linux meant to their product. And despite the availability of BSD Unix, Foley said, "With NT no longer on the Alpha platform, I think [Linux] offers the best possibilities. The BSD Unix is a great Unix, but it doesn't have the push behind it that Linux does today. And the Digital Unix, True64 -- that's owned by Compaq, and it doesn't have the popularity [of Linux]."

Linux also shows up in many products which don't tout the OS unless prompted: it serves as the embedded OS driving Watchguard's firewall and VPN devices, and Linux on x86 serves as the platform for Trend Micro's AntiVirus software, which patrols for virii stalking more vulnerable desktop OSes. And a small company with the inscrutable name of Applied Business Services is quietly reselling and customizing open-source accounting software which runs on both Linux and Windows to both government and private buyers.

From the impressed looks on visitors to the Corel Office 2000 Linux kiosk, not to mention those on everyone who stopped to examine the tiny embedded-Linux Web server on display at the Linux pavillion, the interest in Linux products seemed palpable.

A Wednesday-afternoon panel hosted by Ball and featuring some of the biggest names in commercializing open source software, though, drew only sparse attendance and seemed aimed at a less Linux-saavy audience which didn't materialize -- perhaps because it intersected the 4 p.m. end of the Expo day.

Chris DiBona of VA Linux and Red Hat's Bob Young joined SGI VP of marketing for servers and high-end graphics Jan Silverman and Rene Schmidt of Corel's Linux division.

Unsurprisingly, and despite a few friendly jabs at each other and at mutual rival Sun Microystems, the four mostly agreed with each other: Linux is stable, extensible and high-quality. No brass from the big agencies showed up for their presentation, though, which reflects the tenor of many of the buyers at the show.

"We're an NT shop and we're going to stay that way for the foreseeable future. I don't see us moving from that to Linux or any non-Microsoft OS," said one Social Security official.

Whether those words get eaten remains to be seen, but both Bogart and Rude are upbeat about next year. "Next year, mark my words, they'll have to cross names off the list [of Linux exhibitors]," says Bogart.

This week, for your questioning pleasure, we have assembled a four-member panel of antitrust experts who are willing to speculate on what might happen to Microsoft next - if anything. But before you start posting questions, please hit some of the links we've provided to several other stories about the potential results of Judge Jackson's Nov. 5 Findings of Fact. (more below)

First, let's introduce our guests:

Don Weightman was the gentleman who did our Instant Legal Analysis immediately after the Findings of Fact announcement. We had many requests for him as an interview guest. So here he is.

Richard Hawkins engaged in the general practice of law for five years prior to obtaining his Ph.D. in Economics and Statistics. He is currently a visiting assistant professor of economics at the University of Northern Iowa, and practices only in antitrust and other economic issues in the law. His past includes both hardware and software development, including the mail-merge patch for LyX.

John Lederer is a retired lawyer in Oregon, Wisconsin. He is currently active in technology and intellectual property issues. He practiced in the antitrust and transportation areas and argued three U.S., Supreme Court cases.

David Niemi is a system engineer with a background in economics as well as software. He has been administering and developing for UNIX and Linux since 1987, and has been following Microsoft's antitrust adventures closely since 1993.

Next, a few selected stories about the Microsoft Saga that you may not have read:

• Findings of Fact, A Two-Themed Opus (from The Linux Show.)
• Jerry's Take On The Microsoft Decision: Wrong! (Jerry Pournelle in Byte.)
• Microsoft willing to settle antitrust case (from the Boston Globe.)
• Now bust Microsoft's trust (from The Economist.)
• Militant Microsofties Bunker mentality... (from SF Gate.)
• Don't You Sass Me, Mr. Micro-Smartypants! is a humor piece we couldn't resist including that talks about how things might go if Judge Judy was in charge of the Microsoft trial. It's from - believe it or not - The New York Times. (Free registration required to read.)

Necessary Legal Disclaimer: Although three out of our four panelists are attorneys, all they are providing here is speculation. While our panelists are smart and well-read, no one can predict the future accurately, so you should not base business or personal decisions on their answers to Slashdot readers' questions. For legal or investment advice, please arrange a personal consultation with a qualified professional.

Now Let's Get Down to Business

As usual, moderators will select the most interesting questions, and Tuesday afternoon Slashdot editors will do the final "cut" and forward 10 - 15 chosen questions to the panelists - who are all Slashdot readers, just so you know. Answers will appear Friday. So ask away!

swestbrook writes "It appears that Mandrake 6.1 final is out. It's starting to appear on the mirrors everywhere-grab it from here or the usual places. No news of the release on their website but details should show up today. Update: 09/14 10:44 by H : I've been informed by Mandrake that it is not out yet-they are still going through the beta process, so don't be surprised by bugs in the current beta. You've been warned.

Kathleen Ellis, editor of the Privacy News Portal, has written an excellent feature about how The President's Export Council Subcommittee on Encryption (PECSENC) has recommended dropping almost all export controls on strong crypto, and why it is unlikely that this group's recommendations will be acted on in any meaningful way. (More below)

White House Subcommittee Endorses Crypto Reform.
Will Someone Please Listen?
By Kathleen Ellis

Another shot was fired in one of the longest-lasting and most contentious battles regarding Internet policy last Wednesday, when a White House advisory subcommittee announced it has recommended that the Clinton Administration all but reverse its restrictive stance on the export of encryption products.

The President's Export Council Subcommittee on Encryption (PECSENC) was formed earlier this year by the White House to provide guidance in the U.S. Government's development of encryption policy, which has been the subject of heated debate. As many Slashdot readers already know, the government has insisted for years that liberalizing encryption export could cause serious problems for national security by giving terrorists and criminals access to the technology. Of course, net activists and industry folk assert that the right to privacy supercedes the wishes of any bureaucrat, and that terrorists and criminals can just as easily get their crypto from any other country that does not restrict cryptographic exports.

Critics of the Administration's policy had expected to gain little support through the subcommittee's recommendations. William Crowell, the subcommittee's chairman, is currently President and CEO of Cylink Corporation, an internet security firm, but previously served as Deputy Director for the National Security Agency. Several committee members also had ties to law enforcement or other government agencies; Stewart Baker, an attorney with the Washington-based Steptoe & Johnson, is former general counsel to the NSA and is a vocal opponent of loosening restrictions on encryption. Steve Walker is former president of Trusted Information Systems (now owned by Network Associates), a leading producer of key escrowed encryption products, which the FBI has lobbied to make mandatory even for domestic use.

Despite these ties, however, the subcommittee cited a need for the U.S. government to "recognize market realities" and reverse its course on encryption policy. Among its recommendations:

- License-Free Zones: Recognizing that the European Union is planning to drop all cryptographic export rules between member countries, the US should likewise identify a list of countries which do not pose any major terrorist threat, and allow encryption export (hardware and software products) without a license.

- On-Line Merchants: On-line merchants based in other countries will be added to the list of business types permitted to have encryption products exported to them from the US. Banks and a limited number of other financial institutions currently enjoy this license exception.

- Mass-market hardware and software: Mass-market products which utilize up to 128-bit key length triple DES will enjoy license exception. "The US government should recognize the difficulty of controlling mass-market products once they are allowed to be exported to even limited sectors".

The subcommittee also suggests eliminating cumbersome reporting requirements for manufacturers of encryption products, as well as removal of source code, cryptographic Application Programming Interfaces and devices such as encrypting routers from the list of restricted technologies.

So cypherpunks across the nation will soon be free to export their code at will? Subcommittee chairman William Crowell is hesitant to say yes. "The Administration will have its own ideas about which of these recommendations are implementable. Vice President Gore has said that the administration would consider additional liberalization over what they announced last year, so it was important to get these recommendations to the table while they were thinking about it". He expects that the administration will make further changes to its export policy based on the recommendations sometime in September.

There are other signs of change on the horizon regarding the government's attitude toward encryption. The successor to the current Data Encryption Standard algorithm, which will be used by the U.S. Government for a multitude of purposes, will be chosen by the National Institute of Standards and Technology with the next few months. Four out of the five Advanced Encryption Standard finalists were developed, at least in part, by cryptographers based overseas or holding foreign citizenships. The fact that such decisions could be made by NIST requires the acknowledgement, at least on some level, that good encryption can be produced in countries not affected by U.S. export law, and hence, can be made available around the world.

However, one prominent activist is still skeptical about the potential effect this announcement may actually have on U.S. policy. "This doesn't change policy, this is just yet another group that has come forward and said 'the U.S. policy is abysmal, it needs to be scrapped'" says David Banisar, Deputy Director of Privacy International, and co-author of "The Electronic Privacy Papers". "Many distinguished groups in the past have made similar recommendations...the Clinton Administration has thus far rejected any attempts to dramatically reform export control laws".

Banisar likened the potential influence of the PECSENC recommendations to those of a report published by the National Research Council in 1996. Much more conservative than the PECSENC subcommittee's suggestions, "Cryptography's Role In Securing the Information Society" was written by a committee comprised of government officials, representatives from the computing industry, and academics. The NRC committee's recommendation that 56-bit DES encryption took two years for the Bureau of Export Administration to implement, and many of the other valuable points in the report have never been implemented. The NRC report suggested that U.S. policy should take into account the "nonconfidentiality uses" encryption has to offer. U.S. policy still does not support the use of encryption for the purposes of authentication, which the committee identified as an "important crime-fighting measure". Indeed, one would think that the F.B.I. and the Department of Commerce would hasten to encourage the use of such technologies.

Banisar also expressed concerns about the provisions favoring online merchants. "The e-commerce exports have already been promised to online merchants...they will get what they want, which helps the Clinton Administration divide and conquer their opposition". Banisar stated that civil libertarians lost a powerful lobbying ally when banks were granted the same licensing exemptions now promised to entrepreneurs online. "When a wealthier group gets what they want, they stop fighting, and the everyday users get screwed."

It also seems that the recommendations do not go far enough to help the people who need encryption technology most. Barbara Simons is President of the Association for Computing Machinery and one of the members of the PECSENC committee. "It appears that the recommendations don't address the needs of people working for human rights in countries with repressive regimes," she says.

The human rights issue is a valid one within the debate on U.S. encryption policy. The American Association for the Advancement of Science's Cryptography, Scientific Freedom, and Human Rights program trains human rights workers to use encryption technology in countries like Guatemala and China, where oppressive governments have a way of making insurrectionists disappear. A letter from AAAS to the House or Representatives Committee on International relations states that "human rights activists are killed, tortured, disappeared and jailed for trying to expose horrendous abuses...[they] use encryption to protect themselves, the victims and eyewitnesses they are interviewing, and human rights colleagues around the world when they communicate sensitive information on grave abuses of human rights".

It would be wise and compassionate for the Clinton Administration to authorize a new class of license exceptions for human rights workers travelling into countries that don't fall under the "favored nations" exemptions for encryption exports. If national security were really a concern in these cases, they could add strict guidelines describing who the software could legally be distributed to within those countries. Unfortunately, PECSENC seems to have overlooked this important issue.

Despite these shortcomings, there are some definite gains to be made by following PECSENC's recommendations. Net activists will be keeping their fingers crossed when the White House reviews them next month. Progress has been far too slow in coming, and if there's ever been a time for our government to start making some positive decisions, this certainly is it.

According to an email written by Linus, "a feature freeze in about two weeks is the current plan", so people who wants their patch included (a hint to ISDN dev. guys) should work/write faster. I guess kernel 2.4 may be out this fall after all.

Henry Cipolla asks: "Somebody recently asked a question about text to speech with Linux. Following the links brought me to festival, but I could not find anything that worked happily with Esound. Does anybody know of any hacks or patches or whatnot that will allow some sort of text to speech under Esound?"

Phaid writes "As if you weren't already being flooded about this, linux 2.2.4 is out. Here's the official Announcement from The Man Himself. There's a small problem with BSD Process Accounting that can be easily fixed with the patch. " You know the routine-go get'em.

Phaid writes "As if you weren't already being flooded about this, linux 2.2.4 is out. Here's the official Announcement from The Man Himself. There's a small problem with BSD Process Accounting that can be easily fixed with the patch. " You know the routine-go get'em.

Fernando Perez writes "A new Linux distribution called BeroLinux is out. It's RedHat 5.2 based and seems to have been put together by a single guy." It notably includes kernel 2.2, GNOME, KDE, and Pentium+K6 optimized binary. Secondly, fellow Debian developer Adam Heath (doogie) wrote in with something I'm surprised hasn't been posted yet: Matrox has released G200 specs. Next off, Alan Cox throws us a hat trick. Staring with ac1: For those of you who remember the Echelon articles from awhile back, you can take a "UK ballon trip of a lifetime" over the NSA's listening post in Menwith Hill. ac2: A linux-kernel post where you can read about HP working on a port of Linux to the Merced. ac3: Before Alan worked with Linus, he worked with a man who wrote an entire Unix clone for himself. He's released the source at the website, and has named it, appropriatley enough, OMU (One Man Unix). Finally, for those of you in the DC Metro Area, NOVALUG will be meeting tomorrow morning at 10AM in the Lee Center (check the website for more information).

Fernando Perez writes "A new Linux distribution called BeroLinux is out. It's RedHat 5.2 based and seems to have been put together by a single guy." It notably includes kernel 2.2, GNOME, KDE, and Pentium+K6 optimized binary. Secondly, fellow Debian developer Adam Heath (doogie) wrote in with something I'm surprised hasn't been posted yet: Matrox has released G200 specs. Next off, Alan Cox throws us a hat trick. Staring with ac1: For those of you who remember the Echelon articles from awhile back, you can take a "UK ballon trip of a lifetime" over the NSA's listening post in Menwith Hill. ac2: A linux-kernel post where you can read about HP working on a port of Linux to the Merced. ac3: Before Alan worked with Linus, he worked with a man who wrote an entire Unix clone for himself. He's released the source at the website, and has named it, appropriatley enough, OMU (One Man Unix). Finally, for those of you in the DC Metro Area, NOVALUG will be meeting tomorrow morning at 10AM in the Lee Center (check the website for more information).

The ever diligent and kind David Niemi has written an essay which talks about (and is titled) why software developers benefit from open source. It talks about the advantages of open source from the viewpoint of someone working in a corporation, and he cites his own personal experience in the paper. You may disagree with some of it, but it's very interesting, and worth a look.

It's that time again :) Saturday (not Friday - I didn't realize it was Thursday until awhile after I posted this..), the DC Linux Users group will be having an Installfest in Bethesda, Maryland. I'll be there (NOTE: I am NOT CmdrTaco), and so will half a dozen Red Hat guys. Feel free to drop by. You can get the skinny here. We are notorious for our fests. Secondly, Cowdog wrote in with a link to some cool Tux reversions. Yo quiero ese Tux! But, Tux does not stop there: according to DrMalte, his brother found some Tux-shaped shampoo bottles. Finally, phargrov writes "'Itsy' project leader Bill Hamburgen of Compaq Computer Corporation Western Research Laboratory (formerly DEC WRL) will speak about Itsy at Stanford University on Wednesday the 24th. Details available on the EE380 class page. "

Ryan wrote in to say "Apparently Creative Labs is looking to hire someone full-time to develop and write Linux kernel drivers for their audio products, as this posting to the linux-kernel mailing list shows. Specifically meantioned is the role of this person to grow a team of engineers to support Linux. I'm unsure if this team is in the OSS community, or internal to Creative. There is also meantion of ALSA, my favorite Linux sound system. Assuming the resulting drivers are available for free (even if only in binary format), everyone with a Creative sound card will win big."

peyote wrote in to say Linus has finally released 2.2.0pre1. A good mirror for kernel.org is ftp.tux.org. The file is in the v2.2 directory. See below for Linus's note.

Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 14:42:51 -0800 (PST)
From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com>
Subject: Linux-2.2.0 (pre1) Ok, we're in the pre-2.2.0 series now,
I'm all synched up with Alan,
and I don't have anything pending any more.
Over the internet nobody can hear you all
scream in pain over all your favourite
features that didn't make it. Linus "another year older and wise as hell by now" Torvalds

jd was the first to write in to let us know that Linus has graced us with yet another development kernel. We're almost in 2.2 land, folks. I can feel it. Update: scratch wrote in with a link to Linus' comments on the release: "...the only reason I don't call it 2.2 is that I'm chicken."

Electric is a VLSI design tool with a long history, and it just went open-source. For the latest version, go here It supports VHDL, which should be of interest to the Freedom CPU project since they've decided to use VHDL (why not Verilog?). Unfortunately it does not support Verilog as of yet. Verilog is used in many CPU companies as many designers find it a more natural language in which to express state-machines.

Brad Alexander writes "Latest word on Galaxy 4 from the word of a friend and former coworker who is that the latest word from Hughes is they suspect a fuel cell exploded. They were apparently having thruster problems with it when trying to get it back on orbit. If this is the case, even if they get it back in the "box," they are looking at about a year of life expectancy. Needless to say, a Hughes and others are hopping trying to get customers transitioned to neighboring satellites... "

Jamie Zawinksi wrote in to tell me to tell everyone to lay off Mozilla.org and try one of the many mirrors- the huge demand has crippled the machine. Hit the link below to get a decent list of com and edu mirrors. Update:Couple of neato things, A screenshot of NS5 was sent in by Christopher Blizzard, and an insider who requested anonymity sent us a picture from this mornings big event, wrote "The main three people in this picture are Jim Barksdale, Jamie, and Tara Hernandez. Tara is manager of the build team. Just to the left of JimB is Jim Roskind, who led the Java-ectomy." Thanks guys.

ftp://odin.appliedtheory.com/pub/mirrors/mozilla/

http://www.gbnet.net/public/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.landfield.com/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.epix.net/pub/mozilla/

ftp://netscape.primehost.com/pub/ftp.mozilla.org/

ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/packages/www/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.muc.muohio.edu/pub/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.bogalusa.com/mozilla/

ftp://sod.off.net:211/pub/mozilla/

ftp://mirrors.javanet.net/pub/mirrors/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/net/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.cache-world.com/mirror/mozilla.org/

ftp://ftp.dqc.org/pub/

ftp://powermike.com/powermike.com/pub/ftp.mozilla.org

ftp://ftp.tos.net/pub/ftp.mozilla.org/

ftp://pfaffben.user.msu.edu/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.shuttle.org/mozilla/

ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/mozilla/

http://www.us.inside.net/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.cise.ufl.edu/pub/mozilla/

http://sunsite.utk.edu/ftp/netscape-source/

ftp://mirror.tummy.com/pub/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.one.net/pub/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.mindwell.com/pub/mirrors/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.ntr.net/pub/mozilla/

ftp://ftp-netscape.connectnet.com/pub/netscape/source/

ftp://mozilla.meer.net/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.inetdev.org/mirrors/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.yggdrasil.com/mirrors/site/ftp.mozilla.org/pub/

ftp://mozilla.savages.com/

ftp://mirrors.xmission.com/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.dsnet.net/pub/