From Slashdot.org: “Billing software and a lot of other infrastructural nitty-gritty is probably keeping a lot of businesses from switching to
the joys of Open Source software for their backend. And if it requires 21 3rd-party modules to make Freeside work
well, wouldn’t some bright soul like to sell the work of neatly packaging those modules back to Freeside, so all will
benefit from them? It would certainly make a nice diagram in the to-be-written textbook The Economics of Open
Source Software.”

“VA Linux (ed: VA owns Newsforge) has done little with its pricey acquisition of Andover.Net and its popular geek sites other than to lump all of
Andover’s holdings together VA’s net properties together in a division called the Open Source Development
Network, or OSDN. To exploit OSDN’s alleged potential, VA
has just hired Oracle’s old Unix veep Richard French to run the operation.” From LinuxGram.

ZDNET.co.uk reports that the chip, launched at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las
Vegas, was first available over US cable television channel Home
Shopping Network (HSN) beginning Saturday. The chip is now
available from more than 100 PC manufacturers worldwide,
including Compaq and Hewlett-Packard.

Max Kincora writes: ”

Stepping up from desktop- to server-level memory capabilities is a big challenge for Linux in the enterprise marketplace. This SearchEnterpriseLinux.com exclusive explores the steps the Linux community is taking to meet that challenge.”

A “proof of concept” virus, dubbed PHP.NewWorld, written in
Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) scripting language, was found by
Central Command last week. PHP is a popular free server
scripting language and, although NewWorld is not especially
harmful, Central Command believes it could spawn a hoard of
copycat viruses written in PHP. ZDNET.co.uk reports.

Renee Daniels writes “Lutris Technologies Inc., a leading open source enterprise software and services company, today announced a licensing agreement with Nokia, the world’s leader in mobile communications, to simplify and accelerate the creation and deployment of applications for Nokia’s mobile handsets. This agreement marks the first time that the application server and development tools for Nokia’s platform are available in one complete package.
Under the terms of the agreement, Lutris Enhydra 3.5, the company’s Java/XML open source application server will ship with Nokia’s suite of mobile development tools, including the Nokia WAP phone emulator, Nokia Activ Server as the WAP server, and the WAP toolkit. The Nokia Activ Server, the world’s most recognized WAP server for the corporate market, allows mission-critical information from a website to be available on mobile devices. The WAP phone emulator runs in connection with a single user Nokia Activ Server, thus providing a real-life simulation environment for Enhydra developers. Developers will have complete access to Nokia Activ Server functionality, which allows them to check compiled size of decks and debug WML source by means of a complete WML 1.1 parser with visual error feedback. The combined solution will significantly reduce the development and deployment cycle of enterprise WAP applications.

“New online access methods for the enterprise have gone far beyond traditional PCs and now include various portable and handheld devices, including WAP-enabled-handsets,†said Yancy Lind, president and CEO, Lutris Technologies. “Our agreement with Nokia makes possible a combined technology offering that creates a state-of-the-art multi-channel delivery platform to enable mobile transactions. The result is direct access from WAP handsets, via the Lutris Enhydra 3.5 application server, to back-end systems.â€

In addition, Lutris has developed a two-day Wireless Training program focused on accelerating wireless development on the Nokia WAP platform. Lutris Wireless Training courses provide developers interested in the creation and delivery of wireless applications with the tools and experience necessary to serve content to wireless phones and other mobile devices. Further, Lutris has joined Nokia’s WAP developer partner program, entitling Lutris to participate in developer education seminars and remain at the forefront of WAP developments.

“The Nokia Activ Server is the world’s most mature WAP software product for enterprises and managed service providers,†said Gerhard Romen, Vice President of Strategic Software, Nokia Internet Communications. “Nokia welcomes the addition of the Lutris Enhydra open-source community, along with the training and expertise Lutris brings to wireless application development. The powerful combination of Lutris Enhydra 3.5 and the Nokia Toolkit allows developers to quickly and easily implement professional WAP services, which result in enhanced productivity, increased customer satisfaction, and rapid payback.â€

About Lutris Technologies
Lutris Technologies, a leading open source enterprise software and services company, is the original developer and primary sponsor of Enhydra, a leading open-source Internet application server supporting Java, XML, and wireless technologies. Lutris offers a full range of support services and technical training to Lutris Enhydra customers and provides complete Internet consulting services, including strategy and development services, to the Enhydra community and to Internet-savvy businesses. Clients range from entrepreneurs and companies launching new Web ventures to Fortune 500 IT organizations growing their business with an online presence. Additional information about Lutris products and services is available at www.lutris.com.”

“We purchased Caldera’s eDesktop 2.4 several months ago. It was released last May. It is on sale today at
Staples for under $10.00.” From LinuxTests.org.

Linux Today posted it: “Handle with care. I think the fs updates are right but I don’t guarantee it.”

Anandtech reports: “The 4060M is the latest member of MidiLand’s ever growing S4 speaker line. Take a look as we put this 2.1 speaker set to the test.”

Mikael Pawlo writes “The Swedish website Flashback is getting back online. The controversial web site is now hosted by the Swede Zenon Panoussis, currently living in the Netherlands.The website has an interesting story. Flashback is a web site, a newsletter, a magazine and an virtual ISP. It’s editor in chief and CEO is Jan Axelsson, a Swede well-known for his strong believes in freedom of speech. All business is conducted in the spirit of “freedom of speech – use it or loose it”. Everyone is welcome to publish their opinions or host their websites with Flashback, as long as they do not break the laws of Sweden, such as threats, defamation and so forth.

Nevertheless, a Swedish politician, Bjorn Fries, has been trying to shut Flashback down for a long period of time. Fries is a famous nazi-fighter in Sweden and has received several awards for his work. Fries argues that he’s beeing threatened by one of the web sites hosted by Flashback. However, he did not try to shut the site down in court. Instead the municipal lawyer of Karlskrona (where Fries is chairman of the municipal executive board) wrote all the mayor Swedish cable and Internet providers, urging them not to sell Internet access to Flashback. This also happened.

All the larger companies denied Flashback access and they denied smaller ISPs backbone access if they would take Axelsson as a customer. Thus Flashback was put offline. Axelsson has sued the major companies for breach of the EC competition law, but such law suits take long time in Sweden and it’s a tough case to win.

This has raised interesting questions whether major ISPs should be able to choose their customers and the customers of their ISP customers. Please note that no legal suite has predestined the shutdown of Flashback.

The current location of Flashback.

Index of articles about the incident – most of them in Swedish.”