Anonymous Reader writes: “TurboLinux, which has fallen on hard times in recent months, has apparently been sold, says this report in Linux and Main. If the reports are accurate, the company will continue to exist, though its future form is unknown.”

jeff writes: Tuesday, August 20th, 2002 from the home of Wayne’s World, Aurora IL, tonight LIVE on
www.thelinuxshow.com

At 6pm pt, 7pm mt, 8pm ct, and 9pm et…. Kevin Hill, Jeff Gerhardt, Doc
Searls (Linux Journal), Arne Flones and Russ Pavlicek; have another
strange and wonderful show lined up tonight on The Linux Show!!

Segment One- The News. We will cover THE HOT NEWS of the
last few weeks tonight. In particular, we will talk about the continued
growing political
atmosphere in the IT idustry. We will have a special update on all the
cool stuff at Linux World Expo (how about that water cooled PC).

Segment Two- Webcasting Made Easy– the start of a new era.
Tonight we are pleased to make a special announcement. The Linux Show
team has come to an agreement with William Goldsmith (and additional
parties) to manage a new Open Source project. This new project has the
working title of Radio Free Universe, and will have a web site in the next couple days. The name of the project is a knock off of the “Radio Free” network used by the US government during WWII and the cold war to broadcast pro-American messages. Radio Free Cuba still broadcasts today. However, our name is to suggest a release from the shackles of the monopolistic broadcast/entertainment industry.

William Goldsmith is better known in broadcast circles as Wild Bill one of the famous (infamous) folks at KPIG and Radio Paradise in California. This partnership with Bill was natural as he has developed a number of PHP-web based radio management tools for broadcasters, and we at TLS are very adept at manipulating streaming technology to our will. This is an ideal partnership.

The purpose of this project is to begin to assemble into a single unit all the open source tools required by individuals, organizations or companies; that they may need to do LEGAL webcasting in the post-carp era. Details about the project will be discussed on tonights show.

Do not forget the:
Tell Ten Friends Campaign

We ask that you tell 10 of your friends and associates about the AOTC and
GeekPAC and the need to contribute to BOTH organizations. Also ask them
to Tell Ten Friends of their own. This will make the AOTC nd
GeekPAC grow like an organic entity, like a political virus.

It is important that people contribute to both organzations, if they can
legally do so. ONLY US voters may contribute to GeekPAC. Anyone may
contribute to the AOTC, even our friens from around the world. Donation forms are located at
here
for the AOTC, and here
for GeekPAC.

If you are in a band or represent an artist, please contact us asap to be added to our play list.
Please join us on the show, and check our IRC
Chat(irc.thelinuxshow.com #linuxshow).
Remember tune in at 6pm pt, 7pm mt, 8pm ct, and 9pm et. NOTE: we are now on Daylight Saving Time in the US.
Catch the Linux show at www.thelinuxshow.com.

– By Thomas C. Greene –
–The Register –

We’d be hard pressed to identify a person with better Open Source advocacy credentials than Tim O’Reilly. So it came as a mild surprise to read his column over the weekend lamenting the politicization of software by a radical fringe.

He characterized the efforts of Peruvian Congressman Edgar Villanueva Nuñez to mandate Free Software in government as “great theater,” but ultimately misguided. Particular IT solutions should never be mandated, he argued quite reasonably.

He also dismissed the Digital Software Security Act, a (halfhearted?) “proposed law” written chiefly to draw attention to Open Source alternatives for government bureaux, delivered to the SanFran City Hall during the recent LinuxWorld Conference by Red Hat honcho Michael Tiemann and our own occasional guest columnist and evangelist-at-large Bruce Perens, along with a few stragglers.

Perens wrote a good column for us here, in which he advocated not specific mandates for government, but a few basic principles for government to consider in choosing software. Personally, I found them modest and sensible: maintaining open standards, using Open Source development as a way to keep publicly-funded research in the public domain, that sort of thing.

There was nothing “radical” about it. Perhaps the DSSA was a bit much; but surely one can indulge in a bit of theater like it or the Villanueva proposal to dramatize an important issue without actually being a maniacal all-or-nothing insurgent.

Where are these “radicals” O’Reilly is concerned about? Apparently he’s been frightened by a handful of teenage Slashdot trolls. Meanwhile the grownups are making sense, so far as I can tell. So what if they get a bit dramatic to make their point? Drama, like Open Source software (and skateboarding), is hardly a crime.

Common sense
Ensuring a citizen’s right to communicate electronically with the vast bureaucracy which regulates his life from cradle to grave, involving everything from his indoor plumbing to his public behavior, certainly doesn’t depend on forcing every bit of software in use to be GPLed. It does, however, require that open standards be mandated.

Suppose a government decided to accept only document files “certified” in some way (think Palladium). Fine if the certification mechanism is open and available to all document files, and the formats are open and interchangeable.

Let’s use Palladium as an example. MS says the certification standard will be open, and that’s grand. Perhaps they’re even telling the truth (though their past inclination to use secret little coding land mines to thwart competitors isn’t encouraging). But for the sake of argument, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt: the Palladium standard will be open, and there will be no tricks. This means OpenOffice.org can incorporate this certification scheme into their own, open document format. So far, so good.

But there’s more to it; suppose MS keeps its Word format closed. This might well mean it won’t be possible for an “open” document application to create a Word document with the required certification, so it becomes useless if the government or business entity one wishes to communicate with insists on a certified and proprietary file format like Word. That’s how I see Palladium working in the end (if it ever succeeds); and that’s how I think MS sees it working, the sneaky bastards.

Currently there’s no legislation in effect anywhere in the world that I’m aware of which would prevent government bureaux from using proprietary standards for documents and Web services. I really don’t care what software they use, so long as they take it easy on taxpayers by doing an honest cost of ownership analysis (none of this mickey-mouse MS marketing propaganda) and choose the least expensive solution that addresses their needs adequately; and so long as whatever software they buy interoperates with “alien” files, browsers, software apps and hardware.

Even with the best of intentions, e-government may end up shutting out citizens through some unforseen “catch” buried within reams of cheerful marketing and lobbying propaganda eagerly proffered by certain software behemoths with the resources and inclinations necessary to pile on the distractions until it’s too late.

The answer is legislation demanding — yes, demanding — open standards for Web access and document formats. Not particular standards, mind; that would be just another drag on innovation. I’m merely saying that whatever IT solutions a government chooses, costs have got to be calculated rationally and standards have got to be open so that citizens aren’t paying more than necessary or getting locked out of the public debate merely because they’ve chosen their own software.

Government should never be forced to choose a particular brand of software or type of licensing scheme; but it should certainly be forced to pinch pennies and consider open-source alternatives seriously. And that’s all I hear the “radical fringe” saying.

Fancy being frightened by a proposal like that.

All Content copyright 2002 The Register

Sasha writes: “IBM just launched a two part tutorial series on IBM WebSphere Studio Application Developer for Linux Version 4.0.3 (WSAD) covering how to develop, test, run, and debug a complete J2EE application. The application includes entity and session EJBs, a servlet, a JSP page, and an HTML home page, and the tutorial focuses extensively on EJB development. First, you’ll have to register once(a quick 30 seconds max) for it all. Part 1 shows you how to use WSAD to develop the J2EE application, while Part 2 shows you how to deploy and test the application on WSAD for Linux. You’ll need the WSAD download as well.”

On August 14th 2002, MandrakeSoft’s Board of Directors voted to extend the
Increase of Capital (BSA/warrants operation) which was first introduced on
May 28th, 2002.
Why the new extension?

MandrakeSoft has received commitments for most of the available warrants;
however, only part of the payments have been received. Subscriptions are only
finalized when the funds are received by MandrakeSoft. The new expiration
date for the warrant is October 31st, 2002 (barring any unforeseen
circumstances). We will close the Increase of Capital as soon as all the
available warrants are subscribed.

Anyone who is interested in investing in MandrakeSoft is welcome to join:
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/investors/bsa

The earlier we can close the increase of capital, the sooner we can focus our
energy in the development of Mandrake Linux.

ShaoLin Microsystems writes: “ShaoLin Microsystems Ltd., a Linux-based systems and solutions developer, announced the release of ShaoLin CogoFS today at the 2002 San Francisco LinuxWorld Conference & Expo. ShaoLin CogoFS (Cogo File System) is a high-performance stackable compression file system for Linux; it reduces network traffic, file server load, and
disk-space usage. CogoFS uses a progressive compression technology for performance, reliability, and easy migration.

Previous systems that performed compression and decompression with slow CPUs on virtual-volume compression file systems may have been slow and unreliable. CogoFS does not use virtual volumes, it presents compressed files in your existing file systems as normal files. Corruption risk is minimal because compression is done on individual files. With today’s fast CPUs, decompression speeds can easily outperform most uncompressed disks transfer speeds because the compressed file system will significantly reduce actual data transfer to and from the physically-slow hard disk media.

ShaoLin CogoFS does not manage disk blocks; it works transparently on top of all common file systems, even network-based file systems. CogoFS transfers compressed files over the network to decompress at the client kernel, so the server does not experience additional CPU load. The performance of the server and network is improved due to reduced disk I/O and lower network bandwidth usage. This innovative design benefits all network-based file access and transfers.

ShaoLin CogoFS uses ShaoLin’s unique Kypertec compression engine which works in the kernel space with state-of-the-art memory management and CPU utilization. It fully utilizes multiple CPUs on SMP systems and is able to operate even in extremely low memory situations. The high compression ratio of ShaoLin CogoFS significantly lowers the amount of disk mechanical movements by reducing disk access to all compressed files, resulting in reduced power consumption and extended disk drive life.

About ShaoLin Microsystems Ltd.

ShaoLin Microsystems Ltd. is focused on the creation and development of Linux-based systems and solutions. ShaoLin gives customers full command over their desktop computing networks with end-to-end software solutions based on our cutting-edge Linux kernel, file system, and network management technology. ShaoLin Microsystems was founded in 2000 with a mission to develop and market superior Linux-based solutions to multiply efficiency in organizations, increase productivity, and reduce costs. We believe our success relies on the capability to understand the needs and desires of customers and consistently deliver excellent products and services.We strive to provide customers the best solution based on our 3R strategy,the “Right thing at the Right time for the Right person”.

For more information, please visit our web site www.shaolinmicro.com.

For press and analyst inquiries, please contact:
Ms. Sufan Kan, Marketing & Public Relations
ShaoLin Microsystems Ltd.
E-mail: sufankan@shaolinmicro.com
Tel: +852 2352 5568

“

Grok writes: “You may have heard about a company named ActiveState before. Maybe you’re a Perl programmer and have used ActivePerl, ActivePython or some of their other various programming-related tools. Well, today MozillaNews has an interview with David Ascher, a senior programmer at ActiveState, and the tech lead for Komodo.”

Let’s Act Merry writes: “It’s a problem that big projects are facing more and more, as more and more people use Linux: what to do about features that users request, but that unpaid developers don’t much want to write. In his weekly column, Linux and Main’s Dennis E. Powell describes a proposal the KDE project is considering and offers an idea that might — might — work.”

Anonymous Reader writes: “Quite a few of you may have noticed that the Lycoris Community Site has looked a little outdated since Sunday. In fact, it has been transported back in time to June 3, 2002 due to an unfortunate administrative error. The site administrators and the community are now working to correct this problem as swiftly as possible. Please note that this will not affect requests for help from the community — we’re still all here. More details are available on this page.”

Anonymous Reader writes: “Today,

NIKKEI(Japanese story) announced that
Turbolinux Inc. sold
worldwide Linux business to
SRA, Japanese SI company.
Turbolinux has burned through at least $100 million raised across three
rounds from a dazzling collection of companies including Intel, IBM,
and many Japanese companies.”