Linux

LWCE Bits and Pieces 123

Well, we've gotten a massive number of submissions with the haps at LWCE. I've distilled some of the good ones below: Chanc_Grokon wrote to us with the press release from Ximian about the monthly charges for Red Carpet, their installer. He also raises the "Why not just use apt-get?" point. A number of people wrote pointing out LinuxLookup.com's Day 1 coverage and Day 2 coverage. Of particular interest to Daeslin was Larry Lessig's attack on overly strong intellectual property laws. A number of people, Krismon included, have voiced some disappointment at the excitement of the show - not being there, I make no judgments. Sun has unveiled more details about StarOffice 6. Compaq's CTO also made comments about Linux improving in the enterprise. jrbw sent in Linus' thoughts (dismissive) of .Net/Hailstorm. And KDE has won the "Best Open Source Project" award. Newsforge has also got a round-up and coverage piece. More news as it happens.
Linux

Windows-On-Linux Emulator Shootout 247

securitas writes: "ZDNet has posted a comparative review of 5 Windows-on-Linux emulators from VMware (2), NeTraverse, WinToNet and Wine." The results encountered varied quite a bit -- none of the products are perfect, but it looks like they hit a particularly disappointing time with Wine.
Linux

Quicktime In Linux 354

brianmed writes "Yes, it works. Codeweavers has just announced their crossover plug-in. It enables users to access popular Windows files and plug-ins in Linux. Right now it is geared towards Quicktime, Shockwave, and Word viewers. Quicktime trailers play just fine. I also have pine setup to launch the the MS Word viewer on command. It is a happy day." Alright, time to start testing. I've also been talking with Jeremy White of Codeweavers: he's got a request for help, as well as an interesting piece on business models -- the Crossover is not entirely GPL. See the above for more information.
Linux

Linux 10th Anniversary Celebration Report 70

Marc MERLIN wrote to us with his follow-up report on the Linux 10 celebration in Silicon Valley. Marc comments "The event was a great success, several hundred people showed up, and the money left over is going to the EFF." Marc, in addition to being a great guy, also has lots of reports from other shows.
SuSE

SuSE CTO & President Steps Down 113

peterprior writes: "According to this press release, Dirk Hohndel, SuSE CTO and president has left SuSE. The article simply says that 'Dirk steps away from SuSE to pursue his personal and professional interests.' It goes on to say that 'His departure from SuSE comes at a time when SuSE gathers its forces and resources to strengthen SuSE as a business positioning itself to lead the world towards what is the most powerful and acknowledged alternative to the dominance of one proprietary operating system.'"
Linux

NYSE Goes To Linux 312

Aligrip writes "It appears that IBM has convinced the folks at the Securities Industry Automation Corp (SIAC) to move their entire trading network to Linux as explained in this article in the Investors Business Daily. The authors predict that this deal could give Linux "a hot new beachhead with financial institutions". Cool!"
Linux

New Release Of NSA SELinux 210

rstewart writes: "The NSA has released a new version of SELinux for public consumption. It is based on the 2.4.9 kernel and the utilities patches are known to work on Redhat 7.1. More information and the source can be found at the NSA SeLinux site." You can read the what's new for more information.
Mandriva

Mandrake Linux 8.0 Final Released For PPC 178

rstewart points to this press release, writing: "Mandrake has released version 8.0 final for the PPC architecture. Now Mac users have a choice of distributions between Mandrake and Yellow Dog. Now if only we could easily buy parts and build them cheap in our basements. " And PPC choices already include SuSE, LinuxPPC, Debian, NetBSD and more.
Linux

Linux Is 10 Today 247

genixia noted that the BBC was the first to note that Linux has turned 10 today. Happy birthday and congrats to the hackers whose labor pains keep giving us new tarballs.
Linux

ALSA vs. OSS vs. OSSFree 32

scenic writes "I was wondering what experience the /. community has had with ALSA vs the sound drivers that are part of the Kernel and the various other choices (such as the 4Front OSS packages). I've used the commercial OSS drivers as well as the "included" Linux drivers. I've started to look to ALSA for better sound response (for example, I've noticed with esd and the basic linux drivers, there is sometimes a lag when playing back video files through esd. I understand that esd is part of the issue, but it's sort of important to be able to multiplex sound). What have others' experiences been? What other solutions are there aside from things like esd?" Which sound systems do you find work for your system, and which don't? If specific hardware / software combinations can be endorsed or critiqued, it'll probably help a lot of people.
Linux

What Happens To -AC (And Other) Kernel Mods? 164

RedLeg wrote with this poser: "So, looking at the changelog for the 2.4.9 kernel release, I see a few '- Alan Cox: driver merges' entries. Intelligent consumers of (or those of us who modify them for our own uses) RedHat Kernel src.RPMs look at the patches in the RH kernel builds. Alan's (and other persistent RH) patches don't seem to be integrated into Linus' 'mainstream' kernel trees on any kind of a predictable basis, and this frequently causes projects like freeswan to have difficulty merging their patches (not intended for kernel inclusion) with kernels that appear 'in the wild' like the kernel RPMs from RedHat. Often, kernel patches for obviously older kernel versions continue to be applied (in the RPMs) to newer kernel versions. Alan is a RedHat-er, so he obviously has an inside track to RedHat kernel builds, but he's also Linus' Right-Hand man, but his patches are not (apparently) consistently making it into the 'mainstream' kernel. What am I missing?" Who better to answer this question than Alan Cox? Alan was kind enough to write an explanation of the (still complicated) process of merging -- and it's not as simple as who works for what distro maker ;)
Red Hat Software

Why Redhat Choose ext3 For 7.2 250

mz001b writes "There is an interesting article from RH posted on LinuxToday discussing why they chose ext3 over the other available journaling filesystems (ReiserFS, xfs, jfs,...) for RH 7.2"
Linux Business

HP To Sell Custom High-Security GNU/Linux Distro 227

bc90021 writes: "CNET has this story about Hewlett Packard's new secure version of Linux. Using 2.4.2, it can supposedly detect attacks as they happen. (At $3,000, I think it should counter-attack, too.) It will be available on HP servers (duh), or on servers that pass the RedHat 7.1 server qualification tests."
Linux

Linux: Browser Wars 352

Anderson Silva writes "LinuxToday has an article doing a pretty basic comparison on some of the major linux browsers. Although a nice article, and with a fair result, I still think Opera is the best browser available for Linux." I prefer knoqueror, although recent builds seem to have random hangs on images.google.com.
Mandriva

Mandrake 8.1 Beta1 (Raklet) Released 245

keegnotrub writes: "Mandrake just dumped 8.1 Beta on their servers. Along with updated software (KDE 2.2, kernel 2.4.8, etc) they have reworked their control center to include many new features." Word to the wise: there are some reactions to this beta -- as well as a list of known bugs and fixes -- at mandrakeforum.com. What I'd like to know is if a Wacom Intuos USB tablet will work out-of-the-box on 8.1, since I just bought a refurbed one ;)
Linux

Handing Over Root Passwords to Clients and Contractors? 24

waa asks: "I have a client who's system I remotely administer. This particular machine has been up performing its various duties 'problem-free' for 4 months (since last kernel patch/fix). The client has, on-site, a consultant who pretends to know things he certainly does not know; Linux systems administration for one, and they now have requested the root password. Since it is their system, I'd imagine they have every right to the root account, however I know for sure that as soon as this is handed over, things will start to mysteriously malfunction, and I will get an emergency call to get them back in service (or worse, I will be blamed; ie: back-stabbed). I'd rather not have to troubleshoot and fix a completely preventable, and possibly complex problem. What are peoples' experiences regarding this situation? How have you handled it? Is some form of 'release from responsibility' contract in order? I need some advice soon" In situations like this, communication with the client is important. If you ever run into a situation like this, talking to the client and informing them of the potential problems is always a good idea. If any problems happen afterward. Start documenting them, and pass them back to the actual client if things start to become a problem. Anyone else care to weigh in?
Linux Business

Loki Speaks up on Chapter 11 216

Traivor writes "Loki sent an email to all its customers about the chapter 11 filing. The most interesting bit is they claim to be making money." I've been rooting for Loki forever (and I've taken to buying all their releases even tho I don't have time to play them lately ;) Anyway, I've atached the email to this story so you can read it if you're curious.
Linux

2.4.9 Kernel Released 290

Justin writes: "Linus is off to Finland for a week or so and released 2.4.9. " Here is the Changelog for those of you interested. Yeah, it's probably gonna be a little crowded for a bit. Please post mirrors in the comments.

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