Reports InfoWorld: “Although the stringent testing process Microsoft put in place for Windows 2000 Datacenter Server brings the server closer to the realm of Unix-based hardware and software integration, competitors are not convinced that Windows can compete with Unix. Vendors that build both the hardware and software can more effectively integrate the two, said Rich Sands, analyst for Solaris marketing at Sun Microsystems.”

Fujitsu will release two notebooks using Crusoe processors from Transmeta in November; that brings the total number of companies coming out with Transmeta-based
products to seven, reports CNet.

From a story at LinuxWorld:”Even though Trolltech responded to the GNU community and placed KDE under an
open license, developers may still turn away. Nick Petreley fears they just won’t want to
pay the license fee associated with the Qt toolkit with which KDE was created.”

There’s been a lot of reporting about the first virus targeting handhelds. From CNet : “The first virus targeting Palm users has been discovered by antivirus software makers,
raising new questions about the security of handheld computers and wireless devices. The Phage.936 virus was discovered by antivirus researchers at McAfee.com and Finland-based
F-Secure last night. The virus erases third-party applications on infected Palm operating systems,
filling the display screen with a dark gray box.”

The Washington Post has a story about the long-running domain-name dispute between animal rights group PETA and peta.org, the fictitious People Eating Tasty Animals, which links to mink merchants, trapping clubs and cattle breeders.

CNet has a story on SafeMessage, a messaging service that lets people send heavily encrypted
email directly to each other, which could be a boon for privacy advocates but a
headache for law enforcement authorities.

CT2600 has gone on the offensive against the MPAA in the Connecticut version of the DeCSS cases. CT2600 has filed a motion to dismiss claiming that the motion picture companies are the wrong plaintiffs and that DeCSS is not an access circumvention device. Read the brief here. -Anonymous Reader

After many delays, the NewsForge discussion page is finally open for business (and pleasure). There is no such thing as an “off topic” post in any one thread here, unlike a certain other site we could name.Also unlike that other site, only our editors have moderation power so far, but that may change; we’ll see how things go.

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GovTech.net interviews Open Source evangelist Eric S. Raymond: “A few
months
ago, I was
talking to
Raymond
on the
phone,
when I
called a
computer
criminal a
hacker’
instead of
a ‘cracker.’ He hung up on me. I bet
I’m not the first. I suspect that
somewhere there is a ‘Survivors of
ESR’ support group for journalists.
They probably have T-shirts and
everything. It took more than a few
e-mails to smooth things over.”

From a story at ZDNet: “Intel Corp. may have a Halloween treat for tech trick-or-treaters the launch of the Pentium 4 processor for desktop PCs. The chip maker will launch the next-generation processor for desktops in the last week of October, probably Oct. 30.”