ZDNet checks which software markets Microsoft dominates, where they’re slacking, where they aren’t, and where they could be, in their quest to be everything to everyone.

From a press release at PR News Wire: “Jabber.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Webb
Interactive Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: WEBB) today announced that Transvirtual
Technologies, Inc. has completed their integration of Jabber into the
Transvirtual PocketLinux(R) Platform.”

The December 21 edition of the Embedded Linux Newsletter is now available at LinuxDevices.

LinuxDevices reports: “Ever since Cygnus proposed EL/IX in the Fall of 1999, few companies — other than Red Hat, which acquired
Cygnus late last year — have committed to supporting the would-be embedded OS standard. Many Embedded
Linux companies have privately speculated that Red Hat’s primary motivation for promoting EL/IX as a Linux
application program interface (API) has really been to create the opportunity for applications to migrate from
Linux to eCos (“Red Hat’s other open source OS”) which, like EL/IX, Red Hat inherited through its acquisition of
Cygnus.”

“The purpose of XParts is to extend KParts over language,
toolkit, process and machine bounderies. XParts makes it possible to write KDE components with almost any toolkit or language an author prefers or to turn
existing applications into KDE components quite easily.”From an article by Matthias Ettrich, Simon Hausmann, and Lars Knoll.

“For typical desktop use… Linux has not
made much of a dent. It’s not as easy to use or easy to install as
other systems, nor does it have as many applications available
for average users. Fortunately, things are starting to change in
this respect. This series of articles will talk about what is
changing on the Linux desktop, starting with Helix GNOME.” More at Source Magazine.

“The goal of the relationship is to provide out-of-the-box, a unified
development, prototyping and debugging platform for Enhydra Internet
applications. Under terms of the agreement, Lutris Enhydra 3.5 will
include Borland JBuilderTM 4 Foundation for Windows, Linux and
Solaris development wizards for wired and wireless Internet
applications, build rules to facilitate fast prototyping from within the
JBuilder development platform, and tools that automate the deployment
of Lutris Enhydra applications.” The press release is at Linux PR.

Userlocal.com is reporting that the Slackware Linux port to SPARC is now available for download (ISO image and individual packages available). -Anonymous Reader

From ZDNet: “Extensible Markup Language accomplished the
seemingly impossible this year: It brought bitter
software enemies together, to speak the same tongue.”

“Over the past six months, Marcus Ranum, a
well-respected player in the security field and CTO of
Network Flight Recorder Inc., has become a focal point
in one of the most heated debates in the security
community. In July 2000, Ranum called for a reassessment
of the ethics of security practice, and in so doing,
challenged one of the community’s most sacred of cows:
the way in which security vulnerabilities are disclosed to
the public. In November, Mr. Ranum agreed to share his
views on that issue with Sm@rt Partner.”