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News Bytes By Michael Conry

Contents: Linux Links Conferences and Events News in General Distro News Software and Product News

Selected and formatted by Michael Conry

Submitters, send your News Bytes items in PLAIN TEXT format. Other formats may be rejected without reading. You have been warned! A one- or two-paragraph summary plus URL gets you a better announcement than an entire press release. Submit items to bytes@linuxgazette.com

August 2003 Linux Journal

All articles older than three months are available for public reading at http://www.linuxjournal.com/magazine.php. Recent articles are available on-line for subscribers only at http://interactive.linuxjournal.com/.

Joseph Pranevich's Wonderful World of Linux 2.6. Longish, but very detailed and a pleasure to read.

The E-zine LinuxFocus: has for July/August the following articles:

• Going 3D with Blender: Very first steps
• A GNUstep "small apps" tour
• Product Review: Textmaker
• IDS - Intrusion Detection System, Part II
• Book Review: Mastering Red Hat Linux 9
• GUI Programming with GTK - part 2
• A 1 Bit Data Scope
• Building an autonomous light finder robot

An overview of Linux's future on the desktop [PDF], commissioned by Mitch Kapor of the Open Source Applications Foundation is available online. It includes a checklist of things Linux needs to take a quantum leap in penetrating the desktop.

A couple of links from the O'Reilly stable:

• Introduction to Pulse Width Modulation.
• Point-to-Point Links by Rob Flickenger, author of "Building Wireless Community Networks, 2nd Edition".

Computer know-how spreading in Afghanistan: Atia Jeewa writes "The first class of 11 Afghan civil servants trained in Linux operating systems returned to work this week after completing a 10-day certification course supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)."

Some links of interest from Linux Weekly News:

• LWN interviews Linus on kernels 2.5.x, 2.7.x, etc.
• JBoss, a cautionary tale for open-source projects.
• New Debian-based distributions:
  • Adamantix (previously Trusted Debian).
  • Bonzai (previously miniwoody).
• SCons, a Make replacement using Python scripts instead of Makefiles.

Some links highlighted by LinuxToday:

• UnixReview have published a comparative review and discussion of instant messaging clients.
• ITWorld reports that the German government has published open source guidelines for Federal agencies, state and local governments, and other public-sector administrations in Germany interested in migrating their computer systems to open source software.
• A review of port scanners for Linux by News Factor.
• Is SCO bad, not only for Linux, but also for America?

Some links of interest from NewsForge:

• Basic Hardening of Linux.
• Centrino Laptops becoming popular among Linux geeks.
• AirTraf: A handy Wi-Fi site survey tool.
• Using ACID and SnortSnarf with Snort.

The Linux Router project is dead.

The Mercury News have interviewed Linus Torvalds.

Links of interest from The Register:

• Hacker group releases software-only Xbox mod details .
• AOL kills Netscape.

Dyne:bolic: A broadcast studio on a Linux CD. This Linux distribution promises to provide a multimedia studio -- complete with the ability to transmit Webcasts worldwide -- without ever installing any software on your hard drive.

Tim O'Reilly on why software licenses don't work, and Slashdot comments on the topic.

Listings courtesy Linux Journal. See LJ's Events page for the latest goings-on.

12th USENIX Security Symposium	August 4-8, 2003 Washington, DC http://www.usenix.org/events/
HP World	August 11-15, 2003 Atlanta, GA http://www.hpworld.com
Linux Clusters Institute Workshops	August 18-22, 2003 Yorktown Heights, NY http://www.linuxclustersinstitute.org
LinuxWorld UK	September 3-4, 2003 Birmingham, United Kingdom http://www.linuxworld2003.co.uk
Linux Lunacy Brought to you by Linux Journal and Geek Cruises!	September 13-20, 2003 Alaska's Inside Passage http://www.geekcruises.com/home/ll3_home.html
Software Development Conference & Expo	September 15-18, 2003 Boston, MA http://www.sdexpo.com
PC Expo	September 16-18, 2003 New York, NY http://www.techxny.com/pcexpo_techxny.cfm
COMDEX Canada	September 16-18, 2003 Toronto, Ontario http://www.comdex.com/canada/
IDUG 2003 - Europe	October 7-10, 2003 Nice, France http://www.idug.org
Linux Clusters Institute Workshops	October 13-18, 2003 Montpellier, France http://www.linuxclustersinstitute.org
LISA (17th USENIX Systems Administration Conference)	October 26-30, 2003 San Diego, CA http://www.usenix.org/events/lisa03/
HiverCon 2003	November 6-7, 2003 Dublin, Ireland http://www.hivercon.com/
COMDEX Fall	November 17-21, 2003 Las Vegas, NV http://www.comdex.com/fall2003/
Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE)	November 22, 2003 Los Angeles, CA http://socallinuxexpo.com/
Linux Clusters Institute Workshops	December 8-12, 2003 Albuquerque, NM http://www.linuxclustersinstitute.org

Intrinsyc Begins Shipping Linux-based CerfCube PPC 405EP

Intrinsyc Software International, a global provider of specialized, intelligent devices, today announced it is collaborating with IBM Microelectronics on the marketing of its IBM PowerPC 405EP embedded processor using Intrinsyc's new CerfCube 405EP reference platform.

Ideal for server appliances, data collection devices, scanners, and Internet-enabling machines, the CerfCube 405EP is also suited for network routers and concentrators, LAN-based video, wireless networking access points, and any application requiring the movement of significant amounts of data over a LAN. The full press release is available online.

ERP5 and Collaborative Portal Server (CPS) Teams Form Alliance to Provide World First Global Open Source Information System

ERP5 and Collaborative Portal Server teams announced at the Libre Software Meeting (LSM) international conference on Open Source / Free Software that they would join forces to provide the world first global Information System exclusively based on Open Source / Free Software. Collaborative Portal Server (CPS) is a content management and collaborative work system published under GPL license with more than 100 production instances implemented in large governmental organisations and very large industrial organisations. ERP5 is the first Entreprise Resource Planning system published under GPL license with successful implementation in European industry. The Alliance of ERP5 and CPS will provide corporations with seamless integration of collaborative and quantitative information systems based on the Zope Open Source / Free Application Server.

ERP5 allows to track quantitative information and implement management workflows. ERP5 features covers trading, invoicing, accounting, manufacturing, supply chain, stock, customer relation and product design.

CPS allows a group of users to share documents in multiple versions, implement administrative and publication workflows and create a single point of access to corporate information and services.

Free Software integrated solution for Governments

A Free Software System know as "GONUX" was launched on July 1st by the Free Software Consortium, a global organization dedicated to the promotion and commercialisation of free software.

GONUX is a compilation of programs widely used by public sector offices in Brazil, Argentina and Spain. It contains the GNU/Linux Operating System and server, Open Office, email and instant messenger, a calendar, a database, a web browser application and many other programs. GONUX is meant to be a common free government operating system platform for public sector offices worldwide, both server and client-side.

To obtain a full version of GONUX visit gonux.fsc.cc and register for it.

IO Anywhere Announces new Linux appliance

IO Anywhere Inc. has announced the release of its first generation product. IO Anywhere started with a mission to develop an appliance that cost less than $200, had to have lots of onboard I/O, multiple serial ports, was browser configurable, ultra low power, Ethernet enabled and could be easily adapted to virtually any data capture and control application. IO Anywhere devices provide affordable internet/intranet connectivity to a vast array of both legacy devices and leading edge stand alone equipment. Utilising the latest in CPLD technology and integrating Ethernet enabled microprocessor core modules produces a completely configurable platform for a broad range of applications.

Debian

Debian Weekly News highlighted Nori Heikkinen's howto document that describes in detail how to install Debian on a Dell Inspiron 8000 notebook. This includes configuration for the video card, an external mouse and hints on rescuing the system from the boot CD. She would appreciate any comments, suggestions and improvements people have about it.

Also from DWN comes the info that Adam Powell has relocated documentation on Debian Beowulf resources to the Debian Wiki.

IBM DeveloperWorks guide to creating Debian Linux packages.

Gentoo

A Gentoo Linux fork has been announced. Zach Welch annouced the fork of Gentoo Linux in a message to the gentoo-dev mailing list, the new project is to be called Zynot. Linux Weekly News have a good discussion of this development which includes links to background material.

Mandrake

MandrakeSoft CEO François Bancilhon has issued An open letter giving an update on Mandrake's status, and the progress that has been made since the company applied for Chapter 11 protection at the beginning of the year.

Red Hat

The Register recently reported on Red Hat's decision to discontinue retail sales and to refocus the business's interests.

SCO

SCO has announced that it has terminated IBM's right to use or distribute AIX software, and files amended complaint against IBM, including a permanent injunction against IBM for destruction or return of all copies of UNIX System V Source Code and permanent cessation of AIX distribution The SCO Group calls itself "a leading provider of business software solutions".

SuSE

SuSE Linux has announced that the SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 has reportedly achieved the highest performance rating on any 32- or 64-bit Intel based server running the Linux operating system in the Oracle Applications Standard Benchmark (OASB), in a non clustered environment. Testing for the OASB was conducted on Oracle E-Business Suite version 11.5.6 and Oracle-9i Database Enterprise Edition, Release 2. The benchmark was run on an IBM eServer xSeries x440 system, based on Intel� Xeon MP processors at 2.0 Ghz, using SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8, powered by UnitedLinux. For more information on the Oracle Application Standard Benchmark, please visit, http://www.oracle.com/apps_benchmark/

SuSE Linux has also announced that HP will resell and support SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8, powered by UnitedLinux, on industry-standard HP ProLiant servers and HP's Itanium-based servers.

SuSE Linux has announced that it has been chosen by Cray Inc. to drive key aspects of the U.S. Department of Energy's new massively parallel processing (MPP) supercomputer called Red Storm at Sandia National Laboratories, California, which, when completed, will be the fastest supercomputer in the US. Red Storm is expected to become operational in late 2004 timeframe and will use AMD Opteron processors. featuring HyperTransport technology in conjunction with Red Storm's high-bandwidth, low-latency internal switching architecture. The Sandia National Laboratories Red Storm supercomputer will be used for computer simulations of the U.S. nuclear stockpile and other applications.

An Gramadóir

Kevin Scannell has written an Irish Language grammar checker that works under Linux/Unix, etc. It has been built upon the same database used by Kevin to create wordlists for ispell and Gaelspell, and is distributed under the terms of the GPL.

IBM Unveils Linux-Based Employee Workplace Portal Solution for Medium Businesses

IBM has announced the IBM Integrated Platform Express for Employee Workplace, a new Linux-based server portal solution that is intended to enhance the productivity of midsized companies with busy office environments. Organizations with this solution will improve employee effectiveness by allowing them to access, communicate, customize and manage all their business information and collaborative workplace applications, all via a single Web browser.

Softbank Uway of Korea Selects Linux

Korea-based Softbank Uway recently replaced 45 database and Web servers from HP and Sun with a single new IBM z990 "T-Rex" mainframe. The company plans to move to Linux running in partition on the z990 with IBM's z/VM virtualization technology and, in so doing, dramatically simplify its systems management and reduce software costs.

SIMPL Announces v2.2.0 with Python Extensions

The SIMPL open source project has just released v2.2.0. Although the original SIMPL library was written in C, over the years an impressive array of language extensions have been added including Tcl/Tk, JAVA, C++ and now Python. The project claims that SIMPL messaging has now become almost language agnostic. SIMPL was originally developed to run on Linux. It has since been ported to AIX and Mac OSX. It also interfaces with QNX.

SIMPL has always been designed to be such that code is insulated from details of network messaging. There are surrogates for TCP/IP sockets with additional UDP, raw ethernet and raw serial surrogates in development. With the recent release of the IO Anywhere box the project comes very close to having "SIMPL in silicon" and certainly have a very capable SIMPL enabled appliance.

Mick is LG's News Bytes Editor.

Born some time ago in Ireland, Michael is currently working on a PhD thesis in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College Dublin. The topic of this work is the use of Lamb waves in nondestructive testing. GNU/Linux has been very useful in this work, and Michael has a strong interest in applying free software solutions to other problems in engineering. When his thesis is completed, Michael plans to take a long walk.