"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"

Contents: Distro News News in General Software Announcements

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.

June 2001 Linux Journal

The June issue of Linux Journal focuses on world domination! No, actually it focuses on Internationalization & Emerging Markets, but it does have a cool cover picture of penguins erecting a Linux flag on the South Pole, with sixteen national flags in the background. Inside, there's a security article called "Paranoid Penguin", and a game review about taming monsters (Heroes of Might and Magic III).

Copies are available at newsstands now. Click here to view the table of contents, or here to subscribe.

All articles through December 1999 are available for public reading at http://www.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/mags.html. Recent articles are available on-line for subscribers only at http://interactive.linuxjournal.com/.

May/June 2001 Embedded Linux Journal

The May/June issue of Embedded Linux Journal focuses on Cross Development and includes an overview of the second ELJ contest, based on the New Internet Computer (NIC). Subscriptions are free to qualified applicants in North America - sign up at http://embedded.linuxjournal.com/subscribe/.

Linux Journal's 2001 Buyer's Guide

The guide is available on newsstands through August 1, 2001, and is available at the Linux Journal Store on-line at http://store.linuxjournal.com/.

Russian Distributions of Linux

This spring two new distributions of Linux came out in Russia.

ASP-Linux is based on Red Hat 7.0, and has been modified to provide the Linux 2.4 kernel as an installation option and given a new installation program that can be run from Windows to partition and install ASPLinux as a dual-boot option on an existing Windows machine. The installation program is called EspressoDownload. Although ASPLinux has strong Singaporean connections, the development team is largely Russian.

ALT Linux is a decendant of Mandrake Linux. The creators of this distribution were previously known as IP Labs Linux Team, but now have firm of their own. ALT Linux are distributing a beta-version of their new server distribution ALT Linux Castle. This distribution will have crypt_blowfish as main password hashing algorithm and a chrooted environment for all base services. Download is available.

Caldera

Caldera Systems, Inc. has announced its completion of the acquisition of The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. (SCO) Server Software and Professional Services divisions, UnixWare and OpenServer technologies. Caldera will now be able to offer "customized solutions through expanded professional services". Furthermore, Caldera has also acquired the assets of the WhatifLinux technology from Acrylis Inc. WhatifLinux technology provides Open Source users and system administrators with Internet-delivered tools and services for faster, more reliable software management.

Caldera has announced the launch of the Caldera Developer Network. Caldera developers, including members of the Open Source developer community, will have early access to UNIX and Linux technologies, allowing them to develop on UNIX, on Linux, or on a combined UNIX and Linux platform. This, plus the network's worldwide support and additional services, will enable members to build and develop their products with globally portable applications and get to market faster.

Mandrake

MandrakeSoft have just announced the availability of their latest version, 8.0, in download format. This includes the newest version of the graphical environments KDE (2.1.1) and GNOME (1.4) featuring many new enhancements and applications. The 8.0 version promises to be the most powerful and complete Linux-Mandrake distribution while at the same time retaining the simplicity of installation and use that has made MandrakeSoft a recognized leader in the Linux field.

Rock

Version 1.4 of ROCK Linux is ready to roll. This version is "intended" for production use, although the announcement warns that waiting another minor release or two would be prudent. ROCK is often referred to as being "harder to install" than other distributions. This is not strictly true. It aims to remain as close to the upstream software as possible rather than offering distribution bells and whistles. That said, a binary install is pretty easy, and a source install is not out of the question for an experienced user. ROCK does not contain an intrusive set of system administration utilities. The ROCK philosophy might be worth reading as would their guide.

SuSE

SuSE Linux 7.2 will be available June 15th. It includes kernel 2.4.4, KDE 2.12 and Gnome 1.4.

In addition, 7.2 for Intel's Itanium-based (64-bit) systems will be released June 20th, but this version will be available directly from SuSE only.

Upcoming conferences and events

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

Linux Expo, Milan	June 6-7, 2001 Milan, Italy http://www.linux-expo.com
Linux Expo Montréal	June 13-14, 2001 Montréal, Canada http://www.linuxexpomontreal.com/EN/home/
Open Source Handhelds Summit	June 18-19, 2001 Austin, TX http://osdn.com/conferences/handhelds/
USENIX Annual Technical Conference	June 25-30, 2001 Boston, MA http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix01
PC Expo	June 26-29, 2001 New York, NY www.pcexpo.com
Internet World Summer	July 10-12, 2001 Chicago, IL http://www.internetworld.com
O'Reilly Open Source Convention	July 23-27, 2001 San Diego, CA http://conferences.oreilly.com
10th USENIX Security Symposium	August 13-17, 2001 Washington, D.C. http://www.usenix.org/events/sec01/
HunTEC Technology Expo & Conference Hosted by Hunstville IEEE	August 17-18, 2001 Huntsville, AL URL unkown at present
Computerfest	August 25-26, 2001 Dayton, OH http://www.computerfest.com
LinuxWorld Conference & Expo	August 27-30, 2001 San Francisco, CA http://www.linuxworldexpo.com
Red Hat TechWorld Brussels	September 17-18, 2001 Brussels, Belgium http://www.europe.redhat.com/techworld
The O'Reilly Peer-to-Peer Conference	September 17-20, 2001 Washington, DC http://conferences.oreilly.com/p2p/call_fall.html
Linux Lunacy Co-Produced by Linux Journal and Geek Cruises Send a Friend LJ and Enter to Win a Cruise!	October 21-28, 2001 Eastern Caribbean http://www.geekcruises.com
LinuxWorld Conference & Expo	October 30 - November 1, 2001 Frankfurt, Germany http://www.linuxworldexpo.de
5th Annual Linux Showcase & Conference	November 6-10, 2001 Oakland, CA http://www.linuxshowcase.org/
Strictly e-Business Solutions Expo	November 7-8, 2001 Houston, TX http://www.strictlyebusinessexpo.com
LINUX Business Expo Co-located with COMDEX	November 12-16, 2001 Las Vegas, NV http://www.linuxbusinessexpo.com
15th Systems Administration Conference/LISA 2001	December 2-7, 2001 San Diego, CA http://www.usenix.org/events/lisa2001

Linux@work Europe 2001 for FREE -- call for participation.

For the third year, LogOn Technology Transfer will be organizing a series of Linux events throughout Europe called "Linux@work". Each "Linux@work" is composed by a conference and an exhibits. These 1-day, city-to-city events, will take place in several European venues in 2001. Among the keynote speakers: Jon "maddog" Hall, President Linux International and Robert J. Chassel, Executive Director Free Software Foundation. To register and for the full conference programs: http://www.ltt.de/linux_at_work.2001/.

Linux NetworX Expands Market Reach into Europe

Linux NetworX, a provider of Linux cluster computing solutions, has announced an international partner/distributor agreement with France-based Athena Global Services. Athena Global Services, a leading value-added distributor of new IT technologies in France, is the first authorized Linux NetworX distributor in Europe. The Linux NetworX newsletter has more details.

TeamLinux | explore New Interactive Kiosk Product Line

TeamLinux | explore have announced the immediate availability of a complete product line including six new units. Ranging in suggested base price from $1,499 to $6,500, the kiosks are designed for a wide variety of business environments and offer a selection of optional feature packages to suit the multimedia and transactional needs of users. The TeamLinux | explore's new kiosk line incorporates multiple performance and peripheral options including touch screens, printers, magnetic card devices, modems, keyboard and pointing devices, videoconferencing capabilities, and wireless connectivity.

IBM Offers KDE Tutorial

IBM has added a free tutorial on desktop basics using "K Desktop Environment" or KDE to its growing collection on the developerWorks Linux Zone. This tutorial will teach Linux users of ever level to customize thier own KDE GUI. Released February 26, KDE 2.1 addresses the need for an Internet-enabled desktop for Linux.

Linux Breakfast

Times N Systems is hosting a technology breakfast series and would like to invite you. Their technology focuses on IP-SAN and storage virtualization...and works well with Linux.

The breakfast is educational and they have got Tom Henderson from Extreme Labs coming to speak. RSVP online.

Linux Links

• The Duke of URL has posted its review of Libranet Linux 1.90. The review covers the usual on a distribution and includes the installation, post installation, a little Libranet history, as well as info on what makes Libranet more than just another Debian clone.
• the Duke of URL has also posted an article covering the installation of Promise FastTrak 66, 100 and Lite IDE RAID cards under Linux, covering a complete HowTo for these cards as well as an overview of RAID and how it works for RAID beginners.
• Review of NetBSD 1.5.
• Finally, there is Linux Buyer's Guide 10, recommending hardware to build a cheap system, a mid-range system, an SMP rig and a Power User's rig.

• Shakeup time at Mandrake.
• IBM given community service following Linux sidewalk graffiti.
• Smart Routers and the potential for more vice-like control of traffic.
• In a similar vein, The Fight for End to End parts one and two look at the policy considerations which may threaten the end-to-end paradigm. (The end-to-end paradigm means that the network is dumb and the applications at either end are smart, which is how the Internet works. A dumb network just connects anybody who asks. The alternative--a smart network--can potentially skew traffic in favor of certain commercial interests, squeezing out the little guy.)
• Digital Copyright by Jessica Litman explains the past, present and future of copyright law and why the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) is so evil. Litman is a law professor, so she knows her stuff.

Python

• PyDoc, the new Python help system.
• The Pointless Window Manager, written in Python, read more about it at LinuxPlanet.
• Slashdot interview with Guido van Rossum, creator of Python.
• An article about a Python search engine module.

Bad economy is good for open source.

Microsoft denounces open source.

mamalinux is one of Montreal's largest Linux portals.

May 9 (1996) was the day that Linus Torvalds said he wanted a penguin to be the mascot for Linux... a cute and cuddly one at that... :). So, belatedly, you can view A Complete History of Tux (So Far) as a kind of birthday celebration.

FirstLinux.com are watching TV with Zapping under Linux.

A correspondent has recently written an article showing how Xalan-J can be used in a Java servlet to perform XSL transformations and to output HTML and WML. Perhaps of interest.

Recycling computer debris.

ssh 2.9

ssh 2.9 has been released. Thanks to LWN for the story.

Aladdin StuffIt: Linux and Solaris Betas

Aladdin Systems, Inc. unveiled public beta versions of StuffIt its compression technology , and StuffIt Expander, a decompression utility, for Linux and for Sun's Solaris operating systems. StuffIt for Linux and Solaris can be utilized to create Zip, StuffIt, Binhex, MacBinary, Uuencode, Unix Compress, self-extracting archives for Windows or Macintosh platforms and it can be used to expand all of the above plus tar files, bzip, gzip, arj, lha, rar, BtoAtext and Mime. The StuffIt public beta for Linux can be downloaded at www.aladdinsys.com/StuffItLinux/, and StuffIt for Solaris beta can be downloaded at http://www.aladdinsys.com/StuffItSolaris/.

XFce

XFce is a GTK+-based desktop environment that's lighter in weight (i.e., uses less memory) than Gnome or KDE. Applications include a panel (XFce), a window manager (XFwm), a file manager, a backdrop manager, etc. Version 3.8.1 includes drag and drop, and session management support. Several shell scripts are provided as drag and drop "actions" for panel controls (e.g., throw a file into the trash, print a file). All configuration is via mouse-driven dialogs.

Heroix Announces Heroix eQ Management Suite for Linux

Heroix Corporation have released the Heroix eQ Management Suite, which unifies management of Windows 2000, Windows NT, Unix, and Linux Systems. The new product family improves the performance and availability of eBusiness and other critical applications by unifying monitoring and management of multiplatform computing environments.

New Product Brings Computation to the Web

Wolfram Research Inc. is pleased to announce the upcoming release of webMathematica, which is a solution for including interactive computations over the web. While not yet officially released, it is currently available to select customers under the preview program.

There has been significant interest in webMathematica during the testing phase, resulting in several new partnerships for Wolfram Research. Select banks, engineering firms, and other institutions are already using webMathematica. See http://library.wolfram.com/explorations for examples of possible webMathematica applications.

Lutris To Speed Development of Web and Mobile Applications with Hewlett Packard

Lutris Technologies Inc., a provider of application server technology for wired and wireless development and deployment, has announced a sales and marketing agreement with Hewlett-Packard to deliver Lutris Enhydra 3.5 to HP's customers for developing and deploying enterprise-level applications on HP Netserver systems running Linux and Windows 2000. The solution will enable the creation and deployment of Internet and wireless Web applications.

QuickDNS 3.5 for Linux

Reykjavik, Iceland-- Men & Mice release QuickDNS 3.5, a comprehensive DNS management system for Linux systems. QuickDNS is the leading DNS management system for Mac for nearly 5 years. QuickDNS on Linux will enable simultaneous management of DNS servers on different platforms, using an easy-to-use interface. Setting up QuickDNS is simple as it runs on top of BIND 8.2.x.

QuickDNS 3.5 retails for $495 for one licence and $790 for a pack of two licences. Free downloads are also available

Opera News

Opera Software and Google Inc., developer of the award-winning Google search engine, have signed a strategic agreement under which Opera will integrate Google's advanced search technology into its search box feature on the Opera Web Browser. Available now, direct access to Google's search technology enables Opera users to quickly search and browse more than 1.3 billion Internet pages.

Opera Software have launched a new version of Opera for Linux. Opera 5 (final) offers an Internet experience for the Linux platform as hassle-free as on Windows. Today's release affirms Opera Software's leadership in cross-platform browser development.

In addition to the usual Opera features such as speed, size and stability, users will find exciting features not yet implemented in the Windows version. The extensive customization possibilities for user settings, additional drag-and-drop features and the Hotlist search function are features only available in the Linux version. An add supported version of Opera 5 is available for free download.

New Free Xbase Compiler: Max 2.0

PlugSys have announced availability of Max 2.0 Free Edition, the 32-bit Xbase compiler for Linux and Windows providing free registration to application developers worldwide. Using classic Xbase commands and functions, Max developers write character-based applications that access data from FoxPro, dBASE and Clipper. To ensure scalability, Max also connects to all popular SQL databases. The product can be downloaded from the PlugSys.com web site.

Loki Games and Nokia

Nokia and Loki have formed an Agreement to Distribute Linux Games with the Nokia Media Terminal, a new "infotainment" device that combines digital video broadcast, gaming, Internet access, and personal video recorder technology. As part of the agreement Linux-based games from Loki will be pre-installed on the Media Terminal. Anticipated roll out of the Media Terminal will be early Fall in Europe. Nokia is demonstrating the Media Terminal and will show the ostdev.net open source network at the E3 exhibition in Los Angeles 16-19 May.

Loki Software, Inc. have announce that MindRover: The Europa Project for Linux will ship on Wednesday, May 23. MindRover from CogniToy is the 3D strategy/programming game enabling players to create autonomous robotic vehicles and compete them in races, battles and sports. MindRover has an SRP of $29.95, and is now available for preorder from the new Loki webstore. A list of resellers is also available.

VMware/Cisco Mutliple OSs on a Single Box and Streaming Media

Version 0.7.1 of OSALP Available

Beta release 0.7.1 of the Open Source Audio Library Project has been released (Linux, Solaris Sparc, and FreeBSD). The OSALP library is a C++ class library that provides the functionality one needs to perform high level audio programming. The base classes allow for building audio functionality in a chain. The derived classes support such functions as audio editting, mixing, timer recording, reading, writing, and a high quality sample rate converter. New in the 0.7.1 release is support for FreeBSD, numerous bug fixes, new Makefile system, and a new mp3 reader module based on the open source splay library.

Other software

Copyright © 2001, Michael Conry and the Editors of Linux Gazette.
Copying license http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html
Published in Issue 67 of Linux Gazette, June 2001