LinuxPlanet takes a look at the second beta of Progeny Linux, the latest product from Debian founder Ian Murdock’s new company, Progeny Linux Systems.

From Linux Journal: “There are two things I am sure of after all these years: there is a growing societal need for high assurance software, and market forces are never going to provide it.
Superficially, I’m going to offer a few comments on the technology underlying the NSA release. My real intent is to induce the Open Source community into building on
this release–so when society wakes up to the fact that this stuff is really, truly needed, something is actually there. You won’t get rich working on high assurance
technology, but you may end up feeling pretty good about how you spent your career.”

There’s still a possibility that US-style software patents will become reality in the EU. What may eventually become official could bear greatly on the issues discussed during a parliamentary committee meeting next month in the Netherlands. Linux Journal has the full story.

Digital Creations, leaders in time-to-market-focused content management solutions, today announced the release of Zope 2.3, a new edition of the leading Open Source application server. The new release is focused on increased ease-of-use and improved performance.

Zope specializes in rapid delivery of rich content to wide audiences, and Digital Creations bases its services business in content management on the Zope platform.

New in the 2.3 release:

Scripts allow safe web management of logic, dramatically improving the ease of site design

Cache Manager provides a powerful caching infrastructure for dramatically improving site responsiveness while retaining dynamicism

Built-in infrastructure for complex virtual hosting of multiple sites in one server

Significantly improved Zope Management Interface for web-based authoring and administration

Other important changes, such as improvements in WebDAV support, customizable object creation, running an optional server for browsing source documents, significant improvements in cataloging and indexing, and support for abstract interfaces.

“This is the most significant release since the move to Zope 2.0 in summer 1999,” says Paul Everitt, CEO of Digital Creations. “We took a major step on easing the learning curve and accelerating speed of development, which will be the focus over the coming months. At the same time, we’ve rolled in important improvements for content management.”

“Our products and services require full use of the power Zope delivers,” says Doug Hellmann, Director of Portal Development for ZapMedia (www.zapmedia.com). “The 2.3 release shows the increase in Zope’s growth through the substantial improvements in performance, scalability and ease-of-use.”

Zope 2.3 will be released in January 2001, in source form and with binaries available for Linux, Windows, and Solaris.

About Digital Creations.br>
Digital Creations was formed in 1995 as a joint venture with Infinet, itself a joint venture between newspaper chains Gannett, Knight Ridder, and Landmark Communications. Infinet’s goal was to bring newspapers online, providing a point of presence on the Web for every newspaper, that could then be resold under the paper’s own brand.

Digital Creations was commissioned to develop a classified advertisement engine for the Internet. As part of that work, they developed Bobo, a free toolset for publishing and storing Python objects; Principia, a commercial superset of Bobo aimed at the application server market; and Aqueduct, a commercial package that integrated relational data into the application server. When the partnership with Infinet dissolved in 1997, Digital Creations received the intellectual property rights for the products.

In November 2000, Digital Creations closed a $12 million round of Series C funding, led by Whitney & Co. The funding round is being used to scale the company and build significant strategic partnerships.

About Zope
Zope is the leading Open Source application server for dynamic, high-performance Web services. Zope’s unique integrated object database and object model greatly simplify the job of creating and deploying truly impressive Web applications. Zope delivers content management, comprehensive database integration, application development and support for a wide range of operating systems, Web servers and databases.

Since Digital Creations introduced Zope as an Open Source product in late 1998, Zope has quickly become the platform of choice for demanding application developers and content managers. As an Open Source solution, Zope is available free of charge, and comes with complete source code. More information about Zope is available at www.zope.org.

Key Customers
Digital Creations has provided high-end solutions for organizations such as newspapers and other media, telecommunications firms, the government, the military, educational institutions, and Internet businesses. Customers include WebMD, the U.S. Navy, HomeGain.com, ZapMedia, Cox Communications, and a major television-broadcasting network.

###
Press Contact
Melissa Light
Digital Creations
540/372-4119

From PR Newswire: Delivering improved software update
notification, rapid deployment for Linux and new enterprise management
integration, Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) today announced enhancements to
some of Compaq’s leading Intelligent Manageability tools. Compaq ActiveUpdate
2.0, in addition to software updates, now delivers the newest product
information proactively to customers over the Internet. The SmartStart
Scripting Toolkit v1.1 now includes rapid deployment support for Compaq
ProLiant Servers running Linux and adds support for Norton Symantec Ghost.
Updated integration modules provide support for the latest Compaq platforms.
These modules deliver easy integration for CA Unicenter, HP Openview, Tivoli
NetView, and Tivoli Enterprise with Compaq Insight Manager.

Internet Week has a story about e-businesses
managing those server farm techology. “Caldera Systems (stock: CALD) last week
released Volution, management software that provides
similar functionality for Linux systems.”

– By Grant Gross –
Linux stock prices haven’t set any records recently, but the bearish market isn’t hurting exhibitor or registration numbers at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo next week in New York. In fact, questions about Linux companies’ finances may help boost attendance at the event.

“With the value of our show being in people’s ability to talk to one another, the existence of a lot of questions fuels a better event, quite frankly,” says Rob Scheschareg, vice president of events for IDG World Expo. “What LinuxWorld is able to do that other events are not able to do is that everyone there is talking about Linux and Open Source. Questions about the market get answered at our show, when they may not get answered anywhere else.”

Registration for conference programs is up 48% from a year ago, with overall registration up about 15%. Scheschareg expects between 22,000 and 25,000 people to walk through the doors of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center during the four-day event, Jan. 30 to Feb. 2.

More than 200 companies have registered as exhibitors, compared to about 150 at last year’s New York event, and the expo has nearly doubled its floor space, according to Scheschareg. What that means is a lot more bigger companies, as opposed to small, cash-hungry startups, taking up more space per exhibit. “Part of the growth of that is seeing a lot of established companies starting to adopt Linux,” he says.

Scheschareg advises conference attendees to keep an eye on IBM, which will have some of its top brass in attendance. “IBM’s having a huge splash at the show,” he says.

Also worth checking out, especially if you’re a businessperson, are several new programs focusing on Linux in the corporate market, notes Scheschareg.

Look for several vice presidents of marketing and e-commerce to be wandering around the conference, and even some “C-level people” — CEOs, CIOs, etc. People from the core industries in New York — retail, financial services, and communication companies — will find information aimed at how Linux can help their companies, Scheschareg says.

“I think people will say, ‘Wow, here are some applications that can help my business,'” he adds.

The business/legal issues track at the conference includes sessions such as “Open Source Licensing and the Impact on Emerging Business Models,” “Righteous Hacks and the Next New Thing or How the .org Community is Affecting the Business of Linux,” and “Giving Linux Legs to Stand On — Enhanced Usability for Consumers and Businesses.”

Another new feature, at least for the New York version of LinuxWorld, will be a complete certification program from Sair Linux and GNU Certification. Attendees can get administrator certification at LWE for no charge beyond conference registration; the cost of this certification would otherwise be more than $5,000.

NewsForge editors read and respond to comments posted on our discussion page.

In recognition of the importance of the open source community, Progeny Linux Systems and Maximum Linux magazine are holding a raffle for Debian GNU/Linux at LinuxWorld in New York. The raffle will cost $2 for each entry or $5 for three entries.

The drawing will be held at 4 p.m. February 1 at the Maximum Linux booth (Booth #469). Prizes will be presented by Ian Murdock, president and CEO of Progeny, and Woody Hughes, Senior Editor of Maximum Linux. All money raised will go to the Debian project.

“Maximum Linux magazine and web site (http://maximumlinux.com) wouldn’t exist without the efforts of the free software community,” says Alison McCreery, Marketing Manager at Maximum Linux. “And the Debian Project (www.debian.org) is a free software success story. With over 6000 packages and nearly 600 developers, Debian is one of the largest free software projects. They are extremely dedicated to upholding the cooperative values of the free software movement and have proven the value of open source development. The raffle is our way of acknowledging their contribution.”

Ian Murdock, president and CEO of Progeny Linux system (www.progeny.com) agrees. “As Progeny moves towards the release of its first products, we want to acknowledge our roots in the community,” Murdock says. Murdock, who founded the Debian Project, but has not been actively involved in it for several years, goes on to say, “Even though Progeny is a commercial company, we rely on the advice and efforts of the free software community. In fact, all of Progeny’s development is built on Debian and will be contributed to Debian. You could call this raffle the first repayment of our debt.”

First prize in the raffle is a 600 Mhz Sony VAIO C1VN Picturebook, valued at $2300.. The Picturebook includes a Transmeta Crusoe processor, a 12 gigabyte hard drive, 128 megabytes of RAM and a 56.6 modem, and is pre-loaded with Progeny Debian. Additional prizes include T-shirts from Progeny printed for the event, and hats, plush toy penguins and messenger bags from Maximum Linux.

Attendees of Linuxworld can enter the raffle at the Maximum Linux booth on January 31 and February 1. Winners need not be present to win. For more information, please send e-mail to info@progeny.com.

ABOUT PROGENY LINUX SYSTEMS

Progeny Linux Systems develops Linux-based software and services for network computing environments. Progeny Debian, a commercial version of Debian, is available as a free download, with the final version scheduled for release in March 2001. Linux NOW, a revolutionary system that makes a network of Linux workstations act as a single integrated system, is due later this year. Progeny offers individual and corporate technical support and professional services for Debian. A software and systems management service for Debian will be available in the spring of 2001.

ABOUT MAXIMUM LINUX

Maximum Linux Magazine is the magazine for both dedicated Linux professionals and hard-core enthusiasts. Every issue features cutting-edge reviews, in-depth how-tos, technical features, and hard-hitting news stories, and an editorially-driven CD-ROM. Each CD is packed to the penguin gills with the latest distributions, drivers, demos, and Linux applications. Regular magazine sections include Open Road, a column dedicated to the troops in the Linux trenches; a technical Q&A, IT Corner, Security Watch, Ask The Penguin; and Linux Lowdown, a revolving tech section dedicated to various Linux hardware and software configurations.

Submitted by Bruce Byfield.

eWeek reports on Hewlett-Packard’s plans for LWE, including demonstrations of Linux system manageability software.

Eric S. Raymond writes:
“What comes after the classic Unix environment variables PAGER, MAILER,
and EDITOR? Why, “BROWSER,” of course — an environment variable that
informs programs of the user’s preferred web bowser for launching URLs.
My latest experiment in hacking social systems is to find out whether
the open-source community can successfully manage to adopt a standard
that requires small but coordinated changes to possibly as many as
several dozen projects in order to make it really effective.
I’ve written, tested, and submitted patches to Gnu Emacs, Python, and
urlview(1) that make them aware of the new BROWSER environment
variable. I have also submitted a patch for the Linux environ(5)
manual page.
Widely publicizing that I’m doing all this is also an essential part
of the experiment. How far will this meme spread? Can we bootstrap a
new standard environment variable into existence at this late date in
Unix’s evolution?
There’s a BROWSER project page at
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/BROWSER.
There, I will log reports of BROWSER support being folded into other
programs that must call browsers.”