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""

LinuxPlanet has a year-end review discussing their picks for favorite linux software in several categories, from window managers to time-wasters.

kengreenebaum writes: "Webtechniques has a short but interesting article on HP's approach to a secure but expensive LINUX distro. Basically they started with RedHat 7.1 and added compartments; an extension to the age-old chroot jail concept where the processes representing major services run. Kernel extensions allow HP (or the administrator) to specify which compartments can access which kernel resources including individual files, network stacks, and each other. HP has Technical Product Brief as well as other material online. Interesting to compare HP's approach to that of the NSA's Secure Linux projects. These concepts sound like a solid way to prevent buffer overflow type security holes in individual services from compromising the entire machine. At $3000 HP-LX is too expensive for many to experiment with but the NSA's code seems to be more readily available. Anybody have experience with these distributions or with similar approaches to Linux security?"

A reader writes:"This article is what I needed a few years ago, when I first started playing with Linux. It's about building a fast and usable desktop using software that doesn't need a squillion horsepower." Good article if you are putting together an older machine to run as a dedicated box, or what to cobble together a terminal with spare parts.

Dean Siren asks: "Has anyone put a copy of Linux at a public or school library, free to check out, copy, install, and return? It's legal, and for many people would be a more convenient way to get ahold of Linux than purchasing or downloading (by putting it in a school library, it's almost as much forced exposure as Channel 1). I'm still talking with my local librarians about it, and wondering if it's an effective way to get 'converts'." What an interesting thought. I may have to check on doing this at my local library and those of you interested in this can check in your neck of the woods, as well. It would be interesting to see how such an idea is received.

Ben Mayer asks: "I work for a company that is looking to start using Linux on our servers along side of the Windows 2000 boxes that we already have. We have been looking at tools like HP OpenView and IBM Tivoli for package distribution and backups. They both support Windows and a variety of U*IX but not Linux. I have spent a couple of days searching but have not found any products that support Win 2k and Linux and are of enterprise quality. Is Linux lacking in this area?"

Weedstock writes: "In an article on LinuxWorld, Joe Barr is once again making 10 predictions about the success of Linux for the new year." The first of many sets of predictions for 2002, no doubt. And some guy named "Robin" or "Roblimo" or something like that wrote about Linux in 2003 for Newsforge.

A reader writes "Kerneltrap has recently interviewed Dave Jones who currently lives in London, employed by SuSE as a Linux kernel hacker. In the past six months since he graduated from the University of Glamorgan he has gotten involved in an impressive range of kernel related projects, including Powertweak, x86info, OProfile and the Kernel Janitors Project. Additionally, he maintains a -dj patch for the 2.5 development kernel, helping to sync it with the stable 2.4 kernel as well as offering increased stability. "

Jonny5 writes: "In preparation for the transition from windows to a Linux based workstation, the main focus is that of peripheral compatibility. Sure Linux is rock solid stable, and has an almost totally customizable GUI, but dammit, if my hardware won't work, what's the point? ...After hearing about TurboPrint, and their claim to provide 'Printer set-up and configuration is as simple as on Windows or MacOS,' I had to rise to the challenge. LinuxLookup.com has done a full review of TurboPrint For Linux."

ThatComputerGuy writes "Linux kernel 2.4.17 is final, with a lot of fixes/updates. Check out the huge changelog. If you're on a desktop machine, you should try using RML's preempt patch, it definitely helps response times."

jeffy124 writes: "Lineo has added yet more rebuttal against Microsoft regarding the FUD MS put in a whitepaper comparing WinXP Embedded to Embedded Linux. Elsewhere, IT-Director.com did their own independent review of the whitepaper, with some facinating conclusions."

dpilgrim writes: "Looks like some powerful players want to see Linux going toe to toe with Unix 'big iron.' Would you like to be able to run two Linuxes simultaneously on the same box? Or seemless swap processor and memory in and out of your machine? The Atlas project aims to bring you all that and more. There's a press release from TurboLinux reported here, and a more in-depth article running on SourceForge's Linux on Large Systems Foundry."

Michael Stutz asks: "The Duke of URL announced today that he's closing up shop. His site was, I think, the best for getting a handle on seeing what new hardware worked well with Linux, with lots of smart reviews and links to deals. Better than any hardware database I've seen, the Duke of URL offered opinions based on personal experience and knowledge. Not having time to try out and tinker with all the latest myself, it was good to check out his latest Linux Buyer's Guide and see what came recommended as not only working with Linux but working well with Linux -- it was kind of like the old "Alice & Bill" column in Computer Shopper magazine, except for users of Linux and Open Source software. So now where to go to get good recommendations on hardware that works well with free software?"

Hitch asks: "My LUG's mailing list has had a thread for about a week now arguing about Red Hat's policy which prohibits calling CD's burned from iso's available on Red Hat's site 'Red Hat Linux' or including 'Red Hat' in the name of the CD in any way. This includes things like 'Sombrero Rojo' and 'Maroon Head Covering' according to some of their pages. And according to some others, you cannot make a CD called 'My Linux' with the line 'Contains Red Hat version X.X' in small print underneath. We have, however, found another page that says precisely the opposite, also on the Red Hat website. I was wondering what the rest of the community's thoughts on this are, and perhaps since I know Red Hat people read this, what the official word is. Primarily we're concerned for Installfests, burning and handing out CD's to friends, and things like CheapBytes. How does this affect them?" According to a recent article on NewsForge, Red Hat has changed their Trademark policy. Hopefully the new changes will make the policy less confusing. What do you think about the new changes to the policy?

Canyon Rat writes: "According to this story, less than a quarter of a percent of desktop users have adopted Linux. The survey was based on web surfers so it may be accurate." Anne Onymus adds a link to an interesting reaction over at lowendmac.com.

weierophinney asks: "In a past job incarnation, I was a graphic artist and page layout technician for a small guidebook publisher. We were a Windows-based shop, and I used Macromedia Freehand for drawing maps, Adobe Photoshop for scanning and sizing images, and Quark XPress for book layout. I have since moved on to web programming, but occasionally want to do something that would use these tools. While I use GIMP regularly, I have yet to find a -good- free, open-source, alternative to the 2D vector graphics programs I used, or a page layout program with the power of Quark XPress. Is anybody in the Linux community doing publishing or using such tools, be they commercial or otherwise? Is Linux a viable option for small publishers (where profits are often slim and money for software upgrades is sparse)?"

abolishPenguinPhobia asks: "I am a teacher at a comm. college and was looking to install Linux on a couple machines for students to use. I figured since the students have to learn *nix anyway they might as well have access to some Linux machines. Anyhoo...I was told by the network administrator that the linux machines were not to be connected to the network for fear of viri, DoS attacks, and so on. My question for the /. community: Why do people fear Linux? It seems to me that people are misinformed that Linux is only a 'hackers' OS. How can we change this?" This is only one of the common Linux "myths", and there are several more where these came from. Is there a central clearing house of such myths and intelligent efforts at debunking them somewhere online?

Several folks have e-mailed about the formation of Tungsten Graphics, which is composed of quite a number of ex-Precision Insighters. Linuxgames is carrying a bit of a conversation with Frank LaMonica, the CEO of the new company. They've got a contract with Red Hat already in place. Frank's statement summarizes what they are doing well: "The work we are doing involves Mesa ^? and XFree86, including both 2D and 3D multi-screen technology, and we are working very closely with the OpenGL ^? ARB to maintain the integrity of the OpenGL API. We believe that OpenGL 2.0 needs more industry support, so we are working to help generate that support. DRI ^? technology is still in its infancy, and TG plans to help bring it to full fruition. Our first step in that goal is to significantly improve the existing open source DRI driver for the Radeon chipset. That driver is tentatively scheduled for release in late spring or early summer of 2002. "

From the people at Eklektix Inc. (ok, everyone knows them simply as LWN or Linux Weekly News) have written the Linux 2001 Timeline (you can read it all at once with this link, though it's 1MB download). Lots of funny notes from Linus, Eric Raymond, RMS, some sad moments. Who would have remembered that Linux kernel 2.4.0 went out only a year ago (Jan. 4, 2001), Eric Raymond promising SourceForge mirrors, and other tidbits -- A definite must-read.

jeffro writes "Dont know if this has been submitted yet, but the Independent news UK has a rather newbiesh article on the ups and down of Linux software as a free alternative to Windows. "Perhaps Linux shouldn't be regarded as an operating system at all, but more as a sophisticated multi-player game with a large number of enthusiastic players. You can lose yourself in Linux for hours, tweaking here, updating there. It's great fun if you like that sort of thing. But if you need to produce a document, spreadsheet or presentation, you're still likely to be able to do it faster and better by sticking with the Microsoft devil you know.""