The winners of the WebTechniques 2000 Web Tools Awards have been announced. Debian was the readers’ choice winner for the Infrastructure category, and the GIMP picked up an honorable mention in the Design category.

ZDNet News reports: “VeriSign’s subsidiary, Network Solutions Inc., has joined with several other companies accredited by ICANN to register domain names in .com, .org and .net in submitting a joint application for three new TLDs, .web, .info and .site. (California Representative Lois) Capps and (Massachusetts Representative Edward) Markey, both members of the House Commerce Committee, expressed concern that by approving this proposal, it would be in effect extending VeriSign’s market share. They added that Image Online Design, which is located in Capps’ district, has been running a .web TLD on an alternate root for several years.”

According to Debian Planet, just a few security issues and bug fixes are left to clean up before version 2.2r2 is released to the masses. Estimated time of arrival for this next version — which will include CD images — is any time within the next ten days.

In a press release at BusinessWire, TeamLinux Corporation announced Yit K. Lee as its new Chief Operating Officer. Lee joins the Dayton, Ohio-based enterprise service provider with over fifteen years of experience with technology-related companies.

In a press release at Internet Wire, CyberTeams announced the latest beta version of its WebSite Director product line. A server-based content updating system, WebSite Director runs on a variety of platforms including Linux.

The Register’s interview with Linus Torvalds is so big, it needs two parts. In this part, he talks about his decision-making process in getting 2.4 ready to go.

The Register interviews Linux godfather Linus Torvalds, asking him, among other things about Richard M. Stallman’s insistance that free software is not Open Source. Linus responds: “That’s OK. I don’t like the politics, and RMS is way too political about it — too black
and white. I’m more pragmatic. I don’t want to get involved in those discussions. I
don’t like the other side either, Eric Raymond also gets way overboard. There’s a lot
of, basically, discussion about issues that shouldn’t be issues at all.

At the same time I understand RMS and have to respect what he’s trying to do. But
the same time I dislike it (laughs). It’s something very honorable but at the same time
disasteful.”

Red Herring features Gnutella: “Gnutella had very peculiar beginnings. After inventing the program, Nullsoft’s Justin Frankel and Tom Pepper
were forbidden by the company’s corporate parent, America Online, to do any further work on
the project or even to speak to the press about it. So Gnutella’s development was then left to a loose
amalgam of programmers from all over the world. It’s a model of development that is just as anarchic as
Gnutella’s network. But the programmers have one unifying tenet: a steadfast commitment to maintain the
interoperability of all of the different versions of the program.”

From LinuxPR: Tuxtops has been honored with the prestigious Linux Journal 2000
Editors’ Choice Award for the best mobile device. “Choosing the Best Mobile
Device in Linux Journal’s 2000 Editors’ Choice was an easy decision — a Tuxtops
laptop,” said Richard Vernon, editor-in-chief of the monthly
magazine, Linux Journal. “Their people are great and their products are
outstanding.”

The Register examines some of the poltics behind IBM’s decision to dump a Transmeta chip from one of its laptops. IBM Mobile Systems marketing director
Leo Suarez … “was bound to get asked about the Transmeta ThinkPad cancellation, so he
was bound to have his story straight when he talked to ZDNet and CNet. Or was
he? According to ZD, Suarez lashed out at Intel for focussing almost exclusively on
the GHz wars while forgetting about low power CPUs for notebooks. But when
Transmeta arrived on the scene, Intel ‘woke up.’ So Transmeta’s power
management was good, right? But according to CNet, IBM dumped Transmeta
because its power management wasn’t good enough. Right.”