From Business Wire: “Red Hat (Nasdaq:RHAT), a leader in developing, deploying and managing open source Internet infrastructure, today introduced the SID project, an open source
hardware simulation framework for embedded developers. This package consists of software components interacting with each other to imitate the behavior of
physical hardware before its actual creation.”

Slashdot readers discuss O’Reilly’s latest article from Perl guru Nathan Torkington, “What every Perl programmer needs to know about .NET.”

Robert LeBlanc was part of the original team that evaluated Linux, the open source movement and decided that this was where IBM should be. IBM’s recently announced billion dollar fund is proof that IBM is serious about Linux. Here, Mr. Robert LeBlanc talks about a variety of issues including the reasons for choosing Linux, the status of Monterey and the release of AIX code into the open source community.

Interview on FreeOS.com–Mayank

From SecurityFocus: “Unchecked buffers exist in a particular handler for URL requests that
begin with two dots “..”. Depending on the data entered into the buffer,
WebLogic Server could be forced to crash or arbitrary code could be
executed on the system in the security context of the web server. In
the event that random data was sent in order to crash the server,
restarting the application would be required in order to regain normal
functionality.”

The press release sings praises of this handheld device, which is supposed to be not only a (copy-protected) eBook reader and multimedia player, but also a PDA, and talks of how thousands of developers are already writing software for it, and about its compatibility with Red Hat 6.1, and so on. (NewsForge editors, being kindly souls heavily imbued with the Solstice Holiday spirit, will not speculate about what percentage of those developers are working harder on cracking the device’s copy protection scheme than on developing apps for the thing.)

“Jabber Platform Brings Instant Messaging to Wireless and Mobile Computing Devices,” is the subtitle of ths brassy press release.

Eavesdrop on a Slashdot discussion (that has hundreds of posts, so it may take a while to download) about this ZDNet article and its contention that Linux must “become less overwhelming in order to capture the desktop.”

San Francisco, CA, December 21, 2000 — BigStorage Inc., the market leader in
open-systems storage, today announced its successful installation of 10TB of its iRAID and nearline data storage at EMusic.com, an e-commerce music company based in Redwood City, CA that specializes in the distribution of MP3 audio files over the World Wide Web. The installation is the largest successful Linux storage network to
date and sets a precedent for Linux’s ability to power high-volume storage in an
enterprise environment.
“BigStorage’s tech support and knowledge of Linux filesystems were awesome – far beyond
what we could have anticipated, especially given how affordable their hardware is,”
said Neil Overmon, Manager, Server Operations for EMusic. “This really proves the
potential of open systems technology for high-end storage.” Sam Bogoch, CEO of
BigStorage, Inc., said, “EMusic really gave BigStorage the chance to show how effective
our iRAID technology can be. Since they deal with such a high volume of audio files,
EMusic needed storage that was not only high-capacity, but that could also sustain the
demands of constant file transfer and be configured to meet their specific archiving
requirements.”

In addition to its iRAID hardware, BigStorage Inc. implemented a backup software solution
to create a comprehensive storage system that would integrate with EMusic’s existing
network. EMusic’s complete iRAID and archiving system is backed by BigStorage’s benchmark
24/7 LiveResponse customer support policy to guarantee optimal storage performance,
around-the-clock uptime, and failsafe protection of their storage investment.

About iRAID technology
iRAID is a revolutionary hardware product that brings the aggressive price performance
of UDMA drives to high-end storage capacities. With an UltraWide SCSI interface to the
host system, and eight UltraDMA hard-drive bays that offer up to 525G of usable storage
space, the iRAID is the leading choice for budget-conscious e-business customers who want
the reliability and performance of an external RAID subsystem at an affordable price. The
4U form factor of the iRAID makes it ideal for businesses that are rapidly adding to their
storage capacity within an existing industry-standard rack. To learn more about iRAID
technology, please download a PDF copy of our datasheet at
link About EMusic
Since it was founded in January 1998, EMusic (Nasdaq: EMUS) has established itself at the
forefront of how new music will be discovered, delivered and enjoyed in the next decade.
In addition to having the Internet’s largest catalog of downloadable MP3 music available
for purchase, EMusic operates one of the Web’s most popular families of music-oriented
Web sites including RollingStone.com, EMusic.com, DownBeat.com, and IUMA. The company
is based in Redwood City, California, with regional offices in Chicago, Los Angeles,
New York and Nashville.

About BigStorage Inc.
Founded in 1999, BigStorage Inc. is the market leader in storage solutions for open-source
platforms. BigStorage offers an extensive product line, including IDE, SCSI and
FibreChannel RAIDs and nearline archiving and back-up technology. This complements
BigStorage’s outstanding service, including LiveResponse 24/7 telephone support, onsite
support and a gateway to the Linux development community. Headquartered in San Francisco,
the privately held company has offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Dallas, Denver,
New York, and Atlanta.
The company’s homepage is
link Click here to download a PDF copy of this press release.–Huw Thornton

– by Tina Gasperson –
What first drew me to investigate and ultimately review the Linux knowledge base (lkb), being that I’m a woman in a field that is over-populated with men, is the logo for lkb. It’s a picture of a woman (fully-clothed, even) working on a laptop, and by the caption “technical Linux info for technical Linux people” we are given the impression that she is involved with Linux. She’s sitting on a sofa with her bare feet propped up on the coffee table. The expression on her face: a touch quizzical with a sprinkle of disgust thrown in. This could be me! I can identify! Show me the Knowledge!The Bad Stuff:

There were a few annoying bad internal links at the Linux knowledge base. I signed up for a free membership, in order to have access to an LKB mailing list that provides news about updates to the site, and promises free Linux support. After I typed in my personal information and clicked ‘join,’ I got a 404 error. Before that, an attempt to take a look at ‘kb articles’ revealed that there are no articles. Trying to access “linuxnews.cheek.com,” an internal link, brought another “not found” error. Once or twice I hit deadends when clicking on links to outside sites – though I have to give the benefit of the doubt on this; URLs can change faster than Clark Kent in a phone booth.

Another complaint/question: what the heck is that stuff on the right side of the page, under “recently updated items?” When I click on those links, I just get a blank template page. Intentional, or a mistake? If it’s intentional, it’d be nice to know what’s going on.

The Good Stuff:

Before you get the impression that I didn’t like the site, allow me to correct you: I like it a lot. It’s a good compendium of information about Linux, and while there are quite a few Linux info compendium sites, this one seems to go the distance in its effort to lay it all out for easy use.

The top of the site shows you links to categories for hardware, software, networking, development, quick information, and miscellaneous stuff. Digging down through the links takes you to ever more specific information. Navigating this way is good for when you ‘sort of’ know what you’re looking for, or you just want to do some free-form learning. At times when you’re honing in on an exact target, you can type in a keyword and search the entire database. For instance, a search on the keyword ‘linksys’ turned up 48 matches, and a search on 3com delivered 124.

In addition to standard ‘how-to’ links, there’s a collection of MAN pages and access to Usenet posts. It’s a pretty good bet you’ll find the information you’re looking for here.

Once I became a member, signing up for mailing lists was as easy as a single click (Amazon, are you listening?). There are four to choose from, so far: a discussion of the source code for the lkb, a general discussion list, an lkb advocacy list, and lkb-tech, to talk about issues with Linux.

The tips and tricks section is truly a site unto itself. LTT, it calls itself, and it contains no less than 189 TTs (tips and tricks) to study and learn from, all sorted into categories like web, SAMBA, drivers, hardware, and “FMTYWTK,” which stands for “far more than you wanted to know.”

The owners of the Linux Knowledge Base are working on a new version. It’s a full-blown project with a site on SourceForge. (Disclosure: SourceForge is owned by VA Linux, which also owns Newsforge.)

Lkb is open to suggestions and they’d love for you to spread the word about the project. My suggestions: add a detailed “about” page to explain what they want to be and how they intend to get there. Why don’t you go visit and send them your suggestions?

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

Newsforge reader Sensei sent this link: “I am retired. So I do have time – if not inexhaustible funds. I have been trying to successfully install and use Linux since the first “User friendly” attempts were made. I have a lot of USER experience. I have fought with USER levels of Concurrent DOS, MSDOS, Unix and every iteration of Windows. As of this morning, I have not been able to *ever* successfully install a USEABLE Linux system. Latest attempts being Mandrake 7.2 and after great frustration, RedHat 7.0. Which went on like a dream compared to the ” user friendly” M72.”
Check it out at Linuxnewbie.org.Discuss it here.