Mikael Pawlo writes: “I have just finished my interview with Nick Moffitt. Moffitt elaborates his thoughts on free software, why we should not use the GIF format, what the refund day was all about and the future need of hacktivism. Moffitt’s answers are often tounge-in-cheek and I therefore decided not to translate his answers to keep the style intact. Plus: now you all can read it in plain English!”

– by Tina Gasperson –
Parisian Linux distributor MandrakeSoft released its third fiscal quarter
revenue report on Wednesday, touting what it calls the “all-time highest”
revenues over any previous quarter.The report references “consolidated revenue” which, according to MandrakeSoft
CEO Jacques Le Marois, just means “revenue,” but has “consolidated” attached to
it because the report concerns not just the company but all the
subsidiaries — for example, the U.S. MandrakeSoft Inc. located in Altadena,
California.

MandrakeSoft expects the third quarter increases to cause a “significant
decrease” in operating losses. The company says it will release further third
quarter information in an upcoming announcement.

After a poor showing in the second quarter, with consolidated revenue down to
.97 million EUR, income shot up over the last several months, mostly because of OEM
deals, and MandrakeClub subscriptions, plus sales from the new
MandrakeStore — revenue streams that MandrakeSoft says account for 35% of total third quarter income.

In addition to the recently announced deal with
Microtel, in which the Mandrake-Linux distribution is preloaded on Walmart.com
systems, MandrakeSoft has an OEM deal with HP/Compaq, in which Mandrake Linux is
a option on some of the desktop lines such as Vectra
and the e-PC.

The MandrakeStore sells a full line
of retail Mandrake products and third-party software, as well as OEM products
and support packages.

“If you search for hidden messages on the Web and find nothing, what should you conclude — that there are no messages, or that the terrorists are too sophisticated, and your tools don’t work?

The answer to this question turns out to be a highly personal one, a matter of individual psychology and interest rather than a reasoned decision based on collective safety and the immutable laws of math. Ask security types, or people who make software to aid security types, and they say that steganography is a grave threat to our safety. Defenders of steganography, and its cousin cryptography, take the opposite view.” More at Salon.com.

“The car has five separate computer systems (running Windows 98, by the way), and a trunk so full of electronics you can forget about the golf clubs.
I’m a technology reporter, so perhaps that’s why I’m not keen on being surrounded by bleeps and blurbs and computer chips when I get in a fancy red sports car.” More at MSNBC.

“AOL renegotiated deals with failing dot coms; and in a deal with eBay, booked all of the revenue generated from the resulting transactions as gross revenue, rather than simply its commission. AOL also scrambled to turn an arbitration settlement with a British entertainment company Wembley plc into an ad deal, lifting artwork without permission as it raced to put the ads online. $23 million that would have been booked as a special item was instead booked as advertising income. A similar deal was reached with TicketMaster, according to the Post.” The Register.

“There’s an interesting thing happening at Macworld this year. Apple is visibly morphing into a “geekier than Microsoft” computer company.

Apple is now the biggest supplier of Unix-based operating systems in the world — “bigger than Sun, bigger than Linux” — Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced during his Macworld keynote speech on Wednesday.” More at Wired. om.

Dave Mills writes “Linux for Astronomy Volumes 7,8 and 9 are now available. This is our largest collection yet. Three cdroms full of Astronomical software pre-built for the Linux operating system (on x86 and compatible cpu).

The Linux for Astronomy project (LfA) is dedicated to compiling the most comprehensive collection of Astronomical software, and making it available for the Linux operating system. LfA provides point-and-click installation, a complete on-line library of searchable documentation, and much more.

Now in its 8th year, LfA is in use by both amateur and professional astronomers worldwide. The packages on LfA represent the state-of-the-art in Astronomical data processing, and are identical to the versions used on high end scientific workstations.

The combination of ever decreasing hardware prices, and the superb Linux operating system, makes it possible to use these same packages on a “standard” personal computer.

Features

• 4+Gb of astronomical software and documentation, pre-built for Linux
• All applications tested with the latest Redhat (7.3) and SuSE (8.0) distributions
• New all graphical package installation tool, for easy single click installs.
• Automatic integration with KDE and GNOME desktops
• Integrated online documentation library covering all packages.

The Random Factory also produces

• Linux Apogee driver SDK cdrom
• Linux for Biotechnology cdrom
• Linux for Chemistry cdrom
• CML Reference collection cdrom

Contact : Dave Mills (Director)
(520) 822 5221
fax (520) 822 5223
email rfactory@theriver.com
www.randomfactory.com“

Anonymous Reader writes “This LinuxDevices.com “device profile” introduces National Scientific Corporation’s StarPilot Linux-based mobile communication platform. The compact device, which mounts discretely in a vehicle’s trunk or under one of the front seats, provides location information servers that can connect the car’s onboard systems, and its occupants, to a broad spectrum of wireless data services. Read it here“

Anonymous Reader writes “OSNews features an interesting review of Gentoo Linux, discussing its installation procedure, portage system, its SPARC port, and its speed.”

Twstdroot writes: “Linuxwatch.org has posted a review of LindowsOS and the Microtel PC available from Walmart.com ‘Overall, if you are looking for a low cost machine to run Windows or Linux, I would purchase this machine and immediately get rid of Lindows and destroy the recovery disc as I am about to do. Hopefully Lindows will figure out where they have gone wrong, and fix the problems that exist. I don’t expect a software vendor to be perfect, but this product is *far* from it.’ The full review is available here“