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A whole bunch of people wrote in with this but RUAOK was the first. He writes "The Recording Industry Association of America is sueing Diamond Multimedia for selling the Rio portable MP3 player. This is the first attack of a major player in the MP3 community. The RIAA is backed into a corner and trying to lash out at anyone that is willing to stick out their neck. " You can also read about it at Wired or at ZDNet.

Oracle plans to distribute and support Linux, probably licensing an existing distribution to bundle with their database. However they will still support all 4 major distributions ( including I assume Redhat (US), Pacific HiTech (Japan) and SUSE (Europe)) wanting to be the people who are called if a user has a problem with Linux. Read more below. Over 20,000 Linux developers have signed up to Oracle's development programme while the total number of developers has doubled from 55,000 to 110,000 over the past few months. This may have helped cause this momemtous announcement.

Yesterday at Internet World, Larry Ellison criticised Microsoft's servers everywhere' distributed computing model showing it for it is: a strategy to avoid admitting NT's scalability problems while maintaining high revenues with per seat licensing. Ellison's solution still follows the network based vision he had for network computers (now sort of dead). However instead of relying on Java, he may now be relying on Linux and Oracle's Database technology: Oracle will be investing over $100 million in a developer program to encourage developers to build "Internet Computing" applications, based around Oracle's database -- with as carrot free software licenses, training and tools.

With IBM's interest in e-commerce making it push Java, Oracle's interest in network services such as iFS (Internet File System), and Intel's recent murmurings about application specific devices all make for an interesting battle shaping up between the computing industry and Microsoft.

This week's Linux Weekly News' lead article discusses the possible impact on independent VARs if Robert Young's prediction that 6 of the 10 major PC manufacturers will start distributing Linux turns out true. An article in PC Week lists likely contenders to be Gateway (has been doing certification tests with Linux for six months, and most likely will install Linux across its enterprise server line next year, said Ray Hebert, senior manager of servers), IBM, Dell, Hitachi, Toshiba, Compaq and HP which have all made some sort of positive noise about Linux...

Seems that Microsoft doesn't want to stop in PC's, now they're going to manufacture....a cordless phone
According to ZDNET, Microsoft will start Selling a 900Mhz Cordless phone which you can hook to your PC and manage Caller ID and Voice mail
The price will be $199.99 and it will be availble next month
Now I wonder what will happend in the middle of important call...General Voice fault? :)

Apparently IBM views Microsoft and Windows as the major threat to its e-commerce strategy, which hinges on open standards such as Java. To fight this danger, it wants to push Java onto 50% of all PCs by teaming up with Netscape. Cisco and Network Associates also worry IBM. Interestingly, OS/2 has no future in this vision -- Ed: which hopefully means even more new Linux recruits. It'll be interesting to see if IBM attempts to enlist the Free Software Community to restore Java's momentum.

Timodious wrote in to say that "ZDNet has a story entitled "Compaq Embraces Linux Groundswell", and claims that Compaq is considering shipping servers with Linux. Direct quote: "adding Linux to their quiver could give them the lift they need to overtake Sun Microsystems." Too cool. " Wonder what it means for the Alpha stuff.

Stu Charlton writes " Eric Lundquist explains why watching linux grow in popularity will be the most entertaining thing in years. No factual errors, very cool piece. (this might be a ZDNet first.. hah)"

James Renken wrote in to tell us about a humorous ZD articles revolving around the destruction of those annoying office assistants. Death to Clippy! Brett Taylor wrote in to say that the October issue of Daemon News, a BSD based ezine, is now out. Bill Kilgallon sent in a link to what is unquestionably the Ultimate PalmPilot Case. And lastly, several folks wrote in to tell us that ZD now has something they call "the ultimate linux resource". Hit the link to read some notes about moderation as well as comments about future direction of Slashdot content) Ok lately, a huge number of purely Linux news items have been popping up. Slashdot can't run them all, but many of them deserve reporting. Is it worth creating another section on Slashdot which is purely Linux news? It wouldn't have any real effect on Slashdot, but it would provide a forum for the Linux news that doesn't make it on Slashdot. It also would be nice for those folks who don't care about geek humor, or the latest web CGI that slangifies a URL...

We can actually create a few of these systems, and many have been suggested lately. Several people asked for a section simply on Open Source Advocacy. We're already running Ask Slashdot in a seperate section now, is it worth doing a few more of these?

The way I see it, Slashdot will still feature the same content, but it can select it from these other sections as appropriate. Then I can make the BSD crowd happy as well as the Linux crowd. Eventually filters will be available for you to select your own mix of content. That'll be pretty excellent.

As for moderation, well, I wrote most of the moderation code yesterday. I'll start testing it with a small group of moderators some time next week. Don't email and ask for the job! The system is pretty cool. I think it's an excellent compromise of ideas that will prevent Moderator Abuse, won't take anyone a lot of time, and will allow everyone to determine how much they want to read. So if you don't want moderation, you'll just set your threshold really low, and you'll see everything just as you do now. I've got a general description of the system if you're interested in abit more details. Hopefully in the next week or 2 it'll be fully live.

I still haven't released Slash v0.3. I had some technical difficulties, so I wrote the moderation code while waiting for a test server to be usable. Still hasn't happened, so maybe I'll write some more Slash customization stuff next week :) Or maybe start planning for ALS.

Random Personal Aside #1:I installed and went through Gnome 0.3 lately. I find the panel stuff combined with Window Maker to be a quite nice combo. I just wish the .deb's for balsa, eeyes and the help stuff weren't randomly crashing. I also wish I had infinite bandwidth so I could just download the source. Oh, and infinite CPU and diskspace so I could compile and run these beasts. Gnome needs a better looking battery monitor, and my ePlus days are calling out to me.

Random Personal Aside #2: I saw Antz & Pi today. If people want a review of Antz, email and if there is some demand I'll write it. I also have to shoot a lot of film, finish a project for my design class, as well as write some code for an epoc32 this weekend for a class though, so it may fall off the bottom of the TODO.

James Renken wrote in to tell us about a humorous ZD articles revolving around the destruction of those annoying office assistants. Death to Clippy! Brett Taylor wrote in to say that the October issue of Daemon News, a BSD based ezine, is now out. Bill Kilgallon sent in a link to what is unquestionably the Ultimate PalmPilot Case. And lastly, several folks wrote in to tell us that ZD now has something they call "the ultimate linux resource". Hit the link to read some notes about moderation as well as comments about future direction of Slashdot content) Ok lately, a huge number of purely Linux news items have been popping up. Slashdot can't run them all, but many of them deserve reporting. Is it worth creating another section on Slashdot which is purely Linux news? It wouldn't have any real effect on Slashdot, but it would provide a forum for the Linux news that doesn't make it on Slashdot. It also would be nice for those folks who don't care about geek humor, or the latest web CGI that slangifies a URL...

We can actually create a few of these systems, and many have been suggested lately. Several people asked for a section simply on Open Source Advocacy. We're already running Ask Slashdot in a seperate section now, is it worth doing a few more of these?

The way I see it, Slashdot will still feature the same content, but it can select it from these other sections as appropriate. Then I can make the BSD crowd happy as well as the Linux crowd. Eventually filters will be available for you to select your own mix of content. That'll be pretty excellent.

As for moderation, well, I wrote most of the moderation code yesterday. I'll start testing it with a small group of moderators some time next week. Don't email and ask for the job! The system is pretty cool. I think it's an excellent compromise of ideas that will prevent Moderator Abuse, won't take anyone a lot of time, and will allow everyone to determine how much they want to read. So if you don't want moderation, you'll just set your threshold really low, and you'll see everything just as you do now. I've got a general description of the system if you're interested in abit more details. Hopefully in the next week or 2 it'll be fully live.

I still haven't released Slash v0.3. I had some technical difficulties, so I wrote the moderation code while waiting for a test server to be usable. Still hasn't happened, so maybe I'll write some more Slash customization stuff next week :) Or maybe start planning for ALS.

Random Personal Aside #1:I installed and went through Gnome 0.3 lately. I find the panel stuff combined with Window Maker to be a quite nice combo. I just wish the .deb's for balsa, eeyes and the help stuff weren't randomly crashing. I also wish I had infinite bandwidth so I could just download the source. Oh, and infinite CPU and diskspace so I could compile and run these beasts. Gnome needs a better looking battery monitor, and my ePlus days are calling out to me.

Random Personal Aside #2: I saw Antz & Pi today. If people want a review of Antz, email and if there is some demand I'll write it. I also have to shoot a lot of film, finish a project for my design class, as well as write some code for an epoc32 this weekend for a class though, so it may fall off the bottom of the TODO.

Freud writes "I havent seen the following on /. yet, but there's a 17 minute long interview with Linus right here . You need a realplayer for this one. "

Not to be outdone, Caldera will be receiving investments from as yet unspecified companies, Ransom Lowe has been saying. Ed: I'd like to see some other companies/organisations from around the world getting backing (think Suse, Kheops, DLD, Debian Japan etc). Anyone from Siemens, Philips, Fujitsu, NEC, Sony listening? Thanks to Linux Weekly News Daily for the reference.

Josh Baugher wrote in to tell us about a zdnet article about Internet 2 broadcasting surgery. It's good to know that Internet2 is still progressing. We really just need infinite bandwidth and infinite IPs. I2 & IPV6 take us one step closer to both of those goals. The article isn't anything spectacular, unless maybe if you're a doctor, but I just like knowing that more bandwidth is coming before I die.

Microsoft's understanding of Intel and Netscape's recent investment in Redhat is atypically dumb. Ed Muth, enterprise marketing group manager for NT, believes that because there is no proprietary IP in Linux (GPL oblige) "there is no reason to stay in the market". Given that Microsoft is built on marketing and some level of support, I have difficulty believing this statement is anything but FUD or some smoke-screen. The article goes on to a legal-expert who seems to believe that applications use linux source code. Thanks to Dan Speers.

Well, approximiatly 20 million of you folks submitted the latest Berst column about Linux, over at ZDNet. However, what has been intersting to read is the different submittors take on the article-some of them have embraced whole-scale, while others (myself included) just think that he's hedging his bets, and trying to straddle the fence. So, give it a read, and let me know what you think.

Well, it's a very boring day, no news, so I found something that everybody here will be agreed about.
Go ahead and read it
What do you think?

Jamie writes "An article on ZdNet says that Intel and Netscape plan to Invest in Red Hat. The announcement will be made at ISPCon '98, and the money will most likely go towards creating an enterprise support group within RedHat. "

Otis Wildflower wrote in to send us a link to a ZD Net article where you can read about companies selling the whois database on CD. Who else gets irritable knowing that their email address, home address and phone numbers is being sold to companies who will contact you and waste more of your time? I'm sending bills to spammers from now on.

Robert Sheehy writes "For 5 years the Internic has had a monopoly on the internet domain name business. That's all about to change. It's going to be turned over to a not-for-profit group."

alexandre writes "ZDNet has an article saying that HP, Sun, Dunix, Sco and Unixware are going to work on a common interface for drivers on the intel platform. Maybe this could be emulated in Linux for those evil vendors who arent giving their specs! "

Therac-25 writes "Intel is planning on shutting out overclockers, and AMD is considering following suit. Apparently this is intended to deal with the problem of resellers selling overclocked chips, as the problems caused damage Intel's reputation. Life sucks, eh? "

Michael Procario writes "Interactive Week has a story about how Intel plans to support Linux on Merced." We've know about this for awhile I guess, but its nice to get a little bit of confirmation. Can you imagine Linux not running on Merced? Think of all the PowerPC chips we'd buy!

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

tgd writes "This week (Septermber 7th) issue of Inter@ctive Week has a cover story about Dell being the first major PC supplier to offer Linux as on option on their systems. They've been doing it for about 18 months informally, but are now formally offering it."

Torpor writes "This story covers an interesting phenomena being perpetuated amongst online news media -- the worse the news is, the more money they make. " I don't doubt this for a second, but is it really unique to online media?

Kevin writes "ZD-TV is carrying a story about the FBI and their "Information Superspyway", basically it says the telecom industry wants more money to implement the FBI's plan to be able to "wiretap" anyone with the push of a few buttons, as passed by Congress in 1994 in the CALEA. People's privacy begins to diminish little by little. This surveillance net is supposed to be implemented on Oct. 01, 1998 [doubt they make it]."

The submittor par excellence Hetz Ben Amo found a very thought provoking article over at Zdnet. Interesting stuff, and makes me right and properly paranoid. So, whaddya think? A bit paranoid probably but the idea itself is an interesting one.

ockman@penguincomputing.com writes "It looks like IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq have decided to get back in the game of adding real value. They have a PCI spec. [Ed's note - will have] that's six times faster than the current one. This was created without the support of Intel, as what these companies call "a grass-roots type of backlash" Sounds like good news - either Intel supports the superior technology and competes with Mylex and the gang, or loses market share. Besides, it looks as if Intel will support it anyway. More MHz never hurt anybody (no pun intended).

hRothGar writes "Here's s ZDNet article with Microsoft's Steve Ballmer paying lip service to Linux, and how he doesn't think free software is necessarily good (big surprise there)." He admits that they're worried, but shrugs it off. Says that Free isn't a customer plus.

Software Magazine has a very positive editorial about Linux and devotes its cover article to Linux. It's interesting to see how weak the counter arguments to use NT or a proprietary Unix appear. It's also good to see the snotty-14-year-old myth being dispelled. I expect the Linux community has a higher ratio of PhD's/highly educated people per head of population than Microsoft does itself... Thanks to Linux Weekly News for the second reference.

Nick writes "California joins Washington and Nevada in the list of states making it illegal to send spam using a fake return address. California ISP's may sue for $50/e-mail sent, up to a $25k maximum fine! (Plus attorney fees). You can read it here. "

Mike Brady writes "Interesting link about wireless LANs including using your AC and phone lines. Would be ideal for home or small businesses... I've seen products like this in computer hardware catalogs but the prices wern't really attractive. "

Alex Prestin sent us This Link to a strange picture of the iMac, and what appears to be its long lost little brother. Ewan Leith wrote in to tell the world that "PC Plus in the UK goes on sale tomorrow (the 27th) with Suse 5.2 on the cover CD, along with another CD full of linux programs." Donovan was the first to warn the world that the 2.1.119 kernel is now out. I compiled my 2.1.118 kernel a wopping half hour before the 119 release. Sigh. Colin Walls sent us a link to the latest Spencer F. Kat cartoon thingee. There's another piece of aftermath from last weeks standards hoopla. icetrey wrote in to say "OctobrX and Bishop have chosen me, icetrey, to be the new blackbox themes webmaster. It has a new look, as well as a few new themes for 40.x."

Richard Walkington writes "ZDNet are quoting comments from a discussion on slashdot yesterday in an article about Star Office for Java. The interesting thing is that they have chosen two quotes moaning about the size and speed of Star Office. These quotes do not really represent the general tone of the discussion." They also failed to credit the person they quoted, as well as linking through TCWWW^TM.

The fun just keeps rolling in with the iMac stuff so I guess I'll just keep posting it. The major notable is that LinuxPPC.org has a page up for the iMac/Linux porting effort. As we all know, the messy stuff is the USB support. Robert Petty sent us this link where you can read about the iMac mystery slot. Tom Drabenstott sent us a link comparing windows and Macs at various every day tasks. Finally Sean Harding sent us a link to a page dedicated to documenting the iMac firmware.

Alyssa Jenkins sent us a link to a zdnet article about Open Source and the Desktop. It's a fairly standard little open source article with an ESR quote as well as some mention of the new AbiSource stuff. All aimed at getting Linux to move from a Server OS to a mainstream desktop OS.

Kory Lasker writes "In the last place I would have expected to hear about Transmeta, PC Magazine (a ZDNET sibling) included a tantalizing bit about Transmeta in an article about the CPU landscape." It's stuff that a lot of us know (they're working on CPU stuff, its secret and something about a fast software translator for the x86 instruction set. And if you just want a nice laugh (it's saturday! Smile!) you should read The Linux Apocalypse by Christoph Lameter.

talon sent us this link talking about a small company's attempt to get 'invited pull' patented. What this means is that the tech that Netcaster, Backweb, Channels etc etc would all fall under this patent, and that the companies involved would be liable to pay money to the company in question, which has patented "Netdelivery". The patent was issued August 4, making me wonder about the timing, and how many of the "62 companies" have knowingly infringed upon their patent.

Aron Hsiao sent us a link to a Mining Co article on the LSA. ZDNet also has another story on the same topic. This one talksd about the division in the Linux community over the issue. Personally, I think the world has spoken and the LSA will be passed up in favor of Linux Compatibility Standards Project, and open collaberation between Red Hat and Debian. Update Michael McLagan of the LSA wrote back in to make this statement. Click on to read it. The following was written by Michael McLagan

They say that you learn something new every day, despite your age. I can honestly say that yesterday, I learned something. After several weeks of behind the scenes planning, organizing and work the announcement for the LSA was finally released. Despite what a number of yesterday's posters would like to think, this has never been a "fly-by-night" operation that was cooked up on a whim.

I would like to start by thanking Rob Malda for running Slashdot. I think he provides a valuable service to a segment of the net community, and he deserves to be commended for it. Slashdot calls itself "News for nerds" and in fact that is what it is. It is not, however, well known or even heard of within the corporate community where decisions are considered and made. Obviously there are exceptions to everything, and this is true as well.

The barrage of messages posted yesterday is, in essence, a tempest in a teacup. I respect the rights of every poster to speak their mind. In fact, I encourage it. Each and every one of you, anonymous or not, has the right to say whatever comes to mind. Of course, there's no requirement that what is said be well thought out or contain a shred of truth. There's not even a requirement that a discussion be held in a civil and reasonable fashion.

I will take this single opportunity to respond to some of the comments and criticisms leveled at the organization. From reading the 250+ messages posted in response to yesterday's announcement, I will address the following points:

1. The principles are unknowns. This despite several postings drawing a nice trail from one to the next to the next. Each or both of the principles in forming the LSA may very well be unknown to individual Linux users. It does not, however, mean that either of the companies involved hasn't been involved in Linux since it's early days. In fact, I would hazard a guess that I've been using/developing/promoting Linux longer than most of you have even known what it is.
2. Web site trivia. Yes, there was a reference to "FrontPage" in the frames page, and yes there's a reference in one other page. Last time I checked, there was no crime associated with using an available tool to do a job. Nobody's bothered to check other pages, obviously, and note that they are devoid of that attribution. What of it? It's a tool, someone used it to build a page. How we jump from a reference to FrontPage to being funded by Bill Gates is one I'll never understand.
3. The VETO. I guess nobody bothered to read the little bit about how if 66.7% of the members voted in favour of an issue that the veto was NULL and VOID. It's a means of maintaining some form of control over the direction and productiveness of discussion, and *NOT* as some would suggest, to ram standards down members throats. Remember, this is a member based organization. The members can, at will, fold up their various tents and go home.
4. The FEE. It amazes me how quickly people forget the facts of life. Telephones, faxes, email, coffee, rent, travel and a whole litany of other things are *NOT FREE*. Standards organizations, with some exceptions, always been membership fee based. The idea of "pay to play" is not something we invented. It is, however, a very useful method of filtering out those who wish to make noise without purpose and those who are willing to get down and work on something productive. And in keeping with Linux, we are allowing participation by one and all in discussions thru the observer membership.
5. Intellectual Property. How "submissions become property" becomes "taking over Linux" is a stretch that doesn't get past first base in a reasoned and well thought out discussion. Linux is FREE SOFTWARE. No amount of claiming otherwise by us or any other organization will *EVER* change that. There's a noticable difference between someone submitting a white paper on an issue and the LSA being allowed to publish it at will and usurping Linux.

   What value is a standards process if the standard isn't owned and copyright by the association that created it? Anybody and their dog can come along, change it to suit their taste, republish it and claim that it's somehow related to the original. Not entirely productive. In addition, the value of a brand without IP protection is equally useless. 'RedHat Linux' is one such example. Based on comments I've gotten from others, I could whip up a distribution that is unrelated, stick a sticker on it taht says 'RedHat Linux' and proceed to give it away. Where does that leave Bob Young & co? Without a leg to stand on.

6. Consulting others. I find it outrageous that a single person on the forum can make a claim that we didn't consult others. Not one of you has participated in the work leading up to the announcement. True enough, I'll bet that not a single forum poster was consulted. Nor was there any need to consult them. However, I spoke personally on the phone to a number of prominant people in relation to Linux and sought comment and feedback.
7. The trademark. Lets clear something up, once and for all. A lot of you are under the seriously misguided belief that "Linux" is trademarked. There is a registration for the mark in the Trademark and Patent office. Dandy. There are certain laws about trademarks which are highly relevant here.

   The first of which is the original registration is invalid. By the same arguments that were made to wrench it away from the idiot in Boston (?) the mark should never have been issued. Had it gone to trial, that would have been the result.

   The second is that the owner of a trademark must vigorously protect the mark against one and all. Having become aware of a misuse, the owner must take immediate steps to protect the mark. Since it's transfer, Linus has not, to anyone's knowledge, sent out a single CEASE AND DESIST letter to anyone. He would have to require licensing from every book, web site, distribution, magazine, etc, etc and have enforced those within a reasonable time of becoming the owner of the mark to protect it.

   In short, THERE IS NO VALID TRADEMARK on the term "Linux". And if you will all look in your archives, I believe you will find statements from Linus turning over the mark to the public domain. He retained the physical registration solely to keep some other yutz from registering and trying to extort money from everyone.

In my opinion, most of the posters in the discussion here should be ashamed of themselves. The level of hypocracy only grew and grew thruout the day as more and more emotionally driven people piled into the frenzy. I read more than enough comments about how Linux is Open Source and Free Software and the like, only to be told to dry up and blow away. It got to the point of being hillarous.

I would like to know where, at all, that the LSA indicated that it would DICTATE to any person what they were to use, how they were to use it or why they were to use it. If you find it, you're a much better person than I. I know for a fact that I have certainly never said it. Strangely enough though, each and every one of you telling the LSA to go away has. How is it different for you to tell the LSA that it can't develop and publish a standard? Where is the freedom of those participating in the LSA to use Linux in the fashion that *THEY* choose to?

Seems to me we have a significant problem. It's ok for you to take Linux home, hack it up on a PC and customize it to your liking. It's free source, it's a free country, it's your right. It's *NOT* ok for the LSA to take Linux home, hack it up into a form acceptable to members, customize it to meet user needs and do with it what we will. It's free source, it's a free country, but appearantly it's not our right.

The ZDNet article just about says it all. This has turned into a "family fight" because of a small bunch of self centered, egotistical individuals with a place to post a message. It's true that in any crowd you will find disenters. Doesn't matter what the topic is, some will stand up and lead cries of "fight, fight, fight". However, the vocal minority is just that, A MINORITY. As was stated last night, the mailboxes here have far more positive supportive comments in them than there are posts in response to the press release. There are a significant number of people who signed up as regular and observer members.

While I respect the right of people to express their opinions, I have to wonder if there shouldn't be a requirement that some thought and contemplation be required prior to expressing them. This forum has only served to discredit Linux in the eyes of some, as it indicates that the level of intolerance and hypocracy are very high indeed. It is for this reason that ISVs stay away from providing their popular applications on a Linux platform, because they want to stay away from the strife and the pain associated with dealing with the religious zealot faction of Linux users.

I will note that most of the comments are from USERS and not DEVELOPERS. It seems that those of you who wave the "Free Software" banner are primarily involved in getting free computing and not the least bit involved in contribution to it. I can stand here, today, and say that I have contributed 1000s of man hours and 1000s of dollars in support of Linux, including kernel code, device drivers, working with industry to get support for hardware and providing the linux.org services.

There is an old saying, "Do unto others as you would have done onto yourself". I make every attempt to live my life by it. I fail occasionally, but I'm generally successful at it. I wonder how many of you can look at your comments from yesterday and would feel comfortable on being the receiving end of them ?

I'll let you, and your various Gods, be the judge of that. Michael McLagan
President/CEO
Linux Standards Association
http://www.linuxstandards.org/

Registered Owner,
Linux Online
http://www.linux.org/

Brett James sent us on article that touches on one of the thornier issues surronding the Digital-Compaq merger: what to do with Alpha. It appears now that the Alpha advertising budget may be getting chopped.

lc writes "This article in LAN Times basically tells about Linux and what it is, and how its stability and speed are why NT professionals are switching to Linux. It also goes on to tell about the software companies that recently stated that they're supporting Linux such as IBM, Oracle, Informix Corp, and Netscape. Cover story too..."
As well, PC Week is running a good review of Caldera Netware, and tying Linux into x-nets.

Hetz Ben Hamo sent in this story about a Dutch company that is taking machines based on the Commodore 64, and make boxs for simple web browsing. The machines will cost under 400$US, and are expected to be revealed during CEbit at Hanover. Simple, scary, and well, cool.

Apparently, for Windows 98 users, year 2000 will happen early, and every year; Alledgedly, Windows 98 leapt two days forward or one day back when the clock ticked past midnight on New Year's Eve, for every year attempted... I guess Windows dates must be coded in unary. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates will have ample oppurtunity to discuss this, and other complaints at his public deposition in the DOJ-Microsoft court case. Perhaps, the rumour of a Microsoft Unix with the Win32 API is not so far-fetched after all... Thanks to Edgar Villanueva and Rob Dyke for their contribution. Well, apparently Winix is an April fool's joke that I had never seen before. I guess it gives us an indication of "Spencer"'s newsworthyness. Also some slashdot readers have already tested the year wraparound bug, and declared it not to be there. Either the Year 2000 test tool has a bug, or it only occurs in the UK version. Anyone from the UK care to comment?

I was afraid this was going to happen sooner or later, but the Redmondian lawyers came up with the idea to use Linux as part of their defense against the government. According to a PCWeek article Microsoft says IBM, Sun Microsystems and Linux vendors are also integrating "Internet technologies" into the operating system. Of course they forget to mention that, contrary to Windows 95/98, hardware vendors that include a Linux distribution are not at all obliged to bundle any application.

Jonathan Williams writes "ZDNet's Jesse Berst has a another story on open source "Silicon Valley's Latest Escape Plan: Open Source Software". They point to a number of signs which indicate the Open Source movement is gaining momentum (in the popular media, perhaps). " It is interesting to note that Berst thinks MS will be around for "decades", but is open to the idea of other sources coming in.

ZDNet currently has an interesting poll online. The question is "Is Linux a threat to Windows?". Readers can answer Yes or No. Go see for yourself for the results so far.

Modbuster writes "ZDnet has a story about Back Orifice being the highlight of DEFCON. Seems some DOD officials even hung around Vegas to 'evaluate the application'"

What is happening to this world when even the folks at ZDnet think Linux domination might come? Check out the PCWeek editorial. This is probably the most positive article about Linux I've ever seen at ZDnet.

Frank Earl writes "Today ZDNet reported that the DOJ is taking a different track in their case against Microsoft. Seems that they're broadening it in one way and narrowing the focus in another- they're now claiming that MS used the exclusionary contracts with ISPs and PC manufacturers along with the integration of IE into Windows in an attempt to shore up their monopoly. Apparently they've got proof from all the stuff they've been gathering in the research of the Anti-Trust case. Seems the DOJ's going more for the jugular now on MS- if they can prove this one, it's going to be very hard for MS to get an appeal to work like they did the last case."

Chris Carlin writes "The strangely fascinating saga of OurFirstTime.com continues. This article from ZDNet has the site administrators' sides of the story. They claim it's not a hoax after all and the show (as it is) will go on. Their side is here. "
However, the strange, strange story continues on with later news: pabs writes "A cracker broke into the DNS server for OurFirstTime and redirected requests to Disney, then the page was deleted and replaced with a message explaining the scam and making fun of the page's creator. Last time I checked, OurFirstTime was still down. Read the Wired article here. "

Robert Jones writes "See this column by our all-time favorite, Jesse Berst, about "A New Life for DOS" -- new tweaks in DR-DOS. Seems like alot of the uses he claims being opened, have been/will be covered by Linux. Dunno if this is a positive or negative article, but thought I'd bring it to your attention. "