This month there is a special talk. We are honored to have Bradley Kuhn,
Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation (http://www.fsf.org)
coming to New York to speak to the GNUbies group this Wednesday, July 10,
2002. He was invited to come to speak to GNUbies after he gave an
excellent talk at the last LinuxWorld and he has been kind enough find time
in his hectic schedule to make the difficult round-trip from Boston by
train to speak to us this Wednesday. Below are details, a bio, and some
information about the talk. (please note security procedures at the bottom of the page)
Wednesday, July 10, 2002

6:30-7:00 : General Questions & Answers

7:00: Bradely M. Kuhn,
Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation

on Software Freedom and the GNU Generation

at The IBM Building
590 Madison Ave.
(57th Street and Madison Avenue)
**note security procedures below

After the meeting those interested can join us to go out to eat or drink
and continue discussions.

At this meeting there will also be some gifts/swag from IBM on a first
come first serve basis.

As always, the most up-to-date information can be found on our website at:

http://www.gnubies.org

All of our meetings are free and open to the public (although subject to
the security procedures mentioned below).

Bio:

Bradley M. Kuhn is a supporter of the Free Software Movement: a movement
that creates software that can be freely copied, shared, modified, and
redistributed, and that brought the popular GNU/Linux operating system into
existance. Mr. Kuhn writes, teaches about and documents Free Software and
advocates the importance of software freedom. He began working with the
Free Software Foundation and the GNU project as a volunteer in the
mid-1990s. In February 2001, he was hired full-time as Vice President of
the FSF, and was officially named Executive Director in March 2002. When
not putting in overtime for his official duties, Mr. Kuhn contributes to
GNU software as a volunteer by hacking on various Free Software programs
and Free Documentation.

Mr. Kuhn holds a summa cum laude B.S. in Computer Science from Loyola
College in Maryland, and an M.S. in Computer Science from University of
Cincinnati. Before working full-time for the FSF, he worked as a Free
Software consultant in the technology industry.

About the talk:
Software Freedom and the GNU Generation

In this talk, I introduce the issues of software freedom, copyleft, and the
history and future of the Free Software Movement to an audience that is
generally familiar with computer software. (The talk is geared toward
computer users, but developers will not be bored.) I discuss in detail the
most popular copyleft license, the GNU General Public License (GPL), and
introduce its advantages for users, programmers, and businesses.

In contrast to the talks given by the Free Software supporters who founded
the community (such as Richard Stallman), this talk comes from the
perspective of someone who came of age in the Free Software Movement after
the early work was complete. Thus, this talk addresses the “GNU generation”,
those of us who learned of Free Software only after GNU/Linux
systems were beginning to become popular.

In particular, I address the stark contrast of two existing worlds in the
software industry: the developers of proprietary software and the
developers of Free Software. As someone who has lived in both of these
worlds, I speak with some authority about the terrible challenges and
drawbacks faced in the proprietary software realm, and how the free
software community has overcome them by giving the same freedom to all
users, whether they program often, occasionally, or not at all. I explain
how one specific copyleft software license, the GNU GPL, has worked to
ensure freedom while creating a thriving user, developer and business
community.

Finally, I discuss the great challenges that we, the Free Software
Movement, face in the years ahead. Too often, people assume that since the
job of writing a core operating system is done (namely, GNU/Linux and
emerging GNU/HURD systems) that there is nothing left for the Free Software
Movement to do. I dispel this misconception by giving real-world examples
where we face challenges today. I also identify dangerous trends that
indicate challenges that we may face in the future.

**Security Procedures:
Since Sept 11, 2001 IBM has implemented new security measures for those
attending meetings in their building. It is necessary to to bring a
picture ID to show upon entering the building, and to send your name (as
it appears on the ID) in advance in order to attend. You can use the link
from our website (http//www.gnubies.org) or send email to
lo+gnubies@eskimo.com (note that is a plus sign not the letter t) with
the Subject “July 2002 GNUBIES” and your name as to body of the message.

Please submit your name even if you are on the “cumulative list”.

MauriceV writes: “Wired has the sad story.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,53704,00. html.”

Gerry Patterson writes: “Loyalty can cause a scientist to cling too long to a discredited theory, even though one of Karl Poppa’s ‘black swans’, has come home to roost on it. It can cause a consumer to keep buying a particular brand even though a cheaper and superior product sits on the very same shelf …

In this article I abandon objectivity and ask why does loyalty often seem to turn a complete one hundred and eighty degrees? Such switches in loyalty can be most unreasonable and unyielding when we suspect that it is misplaced or worst of all betrayed.

Read more at Pgts.com  …”

Dave B writes: “The EU commission has come out in favour of the open source model for government software. Software can be, and will be, commercial but open source is preferred as it enables best of breed software to be localised and shared among the member states. The Register has the story.

M.Bora CAN writes: “The new Amiga known as AmigaONE can run MacOS using MOL on Linux without any problems. See ScreenShot. ” The AmigaOneG3-SE is a G3 PPC motherboard board capable of running Amiga OS4.x(release expected Q3 2002) and PPC versions of Linux. (Also now MacOS on Linux by using MOL Emulator.)The board uses an IBM 750CXe PPC cpu running at 600MHz. The IBM/Motorola PPC CPU’s deliver far more througput per clock MHz than an x86 cpu, and this, coupled with the high efficiency and mature, designed-in, multitasking capabilities of the Amiga OS means the the new AmigaOneG3-SE is anticipated to deliver levels of user responsiveness far greater than that of equivalently priced Wintel or Macintosh computers  .The AmigaOneG3-SE uses a standard ATX form factor (and can therefore use any case capable of taking a full-sized ATX motherboard), supports up to 2GB of main memory and has 4 x PCI + 1 x AGP slots and Sound+Modem+Ethernet on board.”

LogError writes: “In this article, Ross Anderson writes: “Some members of the open-source and free software community argue that their code is more secure, because vulnerabilities are easier for users to find and fix. Meanwhile the proprietary vendor community maintains that access to source code rather makes things easier for the attackers. In this paper, I argue that this is the wrong way to approach the interaction between security and the openness of design. I show first that under quite reasonable assumptions the security assurance problem scales in such a way that making it either easier, or harder, to find attacks, will help attackers and defendants equally. This model may help us focus on and understand those cases where some asymmetry is introduced.” Read more.”

This month there is a special talk. We are honored to have Bradley Kuhn,
Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation (http://www.fsf.org)
coming to New York to speak to the GNUbies group this Wednesday, July 10,
2002. He was invited to come to speak to GNUbies after he gave an
excellent talk at the last LinuxWorld and he has been kind enough find time
in his hectic schedule to make the difficult round-trip from Boston by
train to speak to us this Wednesday. Below are details, a bio, and some
information about the talk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wednesday, July 10, 2002

   6:30-7:00    General Questions & Answers

   7:00         Bradley M. Kuhn
                Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation

   on           Software Freedom and the GNU Generation

   at           The IBM Building
                590 Madison Ave.
                (57th Street and Madison Avenue)
                **note security procedures below

After the meeting those interested can join us to go out to eat or drink
and continue discussions.

At this meeting there will also be some gifts/swag from IBM on a first
come first serve basis.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As always, the most up-to-date information can be found on our website at:

http://www.gnubies.org

All of our meetings are free and open to the public (although subject to
the security procedures mentioned below).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bio:

Bradley M. Kuhn is a supporter of the Free Software Movement: a movement
that creates software that can be freely copied, shared, modified, and
redistributed, and that brought the popular GNU/Linux operating system into
existance.  Mr. Kuhn writes, teaches about and documents Free Software and
advocates the importance of software freedom.  He began working with the
Free Software Foundation and the GNU project as a volunteer in the
mid-1990s.  In February 2001, he was hired full-time as Vice President of
the FSF, and was officially named Executive Director in March 2002.  When
not putting in overtime for his official duties, Mr. Kuhn contributes to
GNU software as a volunteer by hacking on various Free Software programs
and Free Documentation.

Mr. Kuhn holds a summa cum laude B.S. in Computer Science from Loyola
College in Maryland, and an M.S. in Computer Science from University of
Cincinnati.  Before working full-time for the FSF, he worked as a Free
Software consultant in the technology industry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About the talk:
                 Software Freedom and the GNU Generation
                 ---------------------------------------

In this talk, I introduce the issues of software freedom, copyleft, and the
history and future of the Free Software Movement to an audience that is
generally familiar with computer software.  (The talk is geared toward
computer users, but developers will not be bored.)  I discuss in detail the
most popular copyleft license, the GNU General Public License (GPL), and
introduce its advantages for users, programmers, and businesses.

In contrast to the talks given by the Free Software supporters who founded
the community (such as Richard Stallman), this talk comes from the
perspective of someone who came of age in the Free Software Movement after
the early work was complete.  Thus, this talk addresses the "GNU generation",
those of us who learned of Free Software only after GNU/Linux
systems were beginning to become popular.

In particular, I address the stark contrast of two existing worlds in the
software industry: the developers of proprietary software and the
developers of Free Software.  As someone who has lived in both of these
worlds, I speak with some authority about the terrible challenges and
drawbacks faced in the proprietary software realm, and how the free
software community has overcome them by giving the same freedom to all
users, whether they program often, occasionally, or not at all.  I explain
how one specific copyleft software license, the GNU GPL, has worked to
ensure freedom while creating a thriving user, developer and business
community.

Finally, I discuss the great challenges that we, the Free Software
Movement, face in the years ahead.  Too often, people assume that since the
job of writing a core operating system is done (namely, GNU/Linux and
emerging GNU/HURD systems) that there is nothing left for the Free Software
Movement to do.  I dispel this misconception by giving real-world examples
where we face challenges today.  I also identify dangerous trends that
indicate challenges that we may face in the future.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Security Procedures:
--------------------
Since Sept 11, 2001 IBM has implemented new security measures for those
attending meetings in their building.  It is necessary to to bring a
picture ID to show upon entering the building, and to send your name (as
it appears on the ID) in advance in order to attend.  You can use the link
from our website (http//www.gnubies.org) or send email to
lo+gnubies@eskimo.com (note that is a plus sign not the letter t) with
the Subject "July 2002 GNUBIES" and your name as to body of the message.

Please submit your name even if you are on the "cumulative list".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We are grateful to IBM for providing this space.

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting.

Lyn
GNUBIES
The GNU/Linux/Free OS Beginners' Group




Distributed poC TINC:

Jay Sulzberger 
Corresponding Secretary LXNY
LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization.
http://www.lxny.org

MozillaQuest Magazine (MozillaQuest.com) reports: “Watch out AOL, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Netscape! The Linux Desktop Browser War is heating up. KDE’s Konqueror Web browser is about to get Tabbed Browsing . . . the addition of tabbed-browsing to KDE’s Konqueror browser is just another example of how the Linux desktop keeps getting better, and better, and better.” “The K Desktop Environment (KDE) certainly has done lots to narrow the gap between the Linux desktop and the Microsoft Windows desktop. And the addition of tabbed-browsing to KDE’s Konqueror browser is one more large step in closing that gap . . . once the Konqueror tabbed-browsing is fully integrated into the KDE binaries, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) will be the only major browser that does not have tabbed browsing.”
Check this MozillaQuest.com story for, details, links, pics, and full story.

James Chivers writes: “Surrey, UK, 8th July 2002 – Open Clustering announces Shogun – a powerful software suite developed to enable administrators to configure, manage and monitor large-scale system deployments built from Open Clustering’s Samurai Blade Server, or blade hardware and rackmount systems from other vendors.

“Shogun marks the very beginning of our development of large-scale infrastructure management applications”, announced Mr James Chivers, Open Clustering’s CTO. “We are delighted with the extensible management platform that is Shogun, and believe that it will have a major impact on the way large and complex multi-site Blade and rackmount server installations are managed. Our future strategy with Shogun includes a move into fully autonomous system setup, configuration and management, self-healing and replication, and auto cluster deployment.”, Mr Chivers concluded.

A selection of Shogun’s extensive features include:
  » Full SNMP Logging, Alerts & Management
  » Remote System Access (SSH, Telnet & VNC)
  » Remote Hardware Management (Power On/Off/Reboot)
  » Cluster Software Configuration & Monitoring (openMosix, Linux-HA & Beowulf)
  » Multi-Tier Authentication & Access Permissioning
  » Detailed Operating System & Networking View
  » Asset Tagging & Management
  » User-Adaptive System Probing
  » Integrated MRTG (Multi Router Traffic Grapher) Support
  » Infrastructure Resource Monitoring & Planning
  » Infrastructure-Wide Search & Query Agent
  » Real-Time System Status Ticker
  » Third Party Module Support & Integration
  » Multi-System Actions (Concurrent Operation Support)
  » System Data Export & Reporting Functions

Through Shogun’s platform independent core, the application is able to support Blade Servers from Open Clustering, RLX, Dell, Compaq/HP, Tatung and forth-coming offerings from IBM and Sun Microsystems. Additionally, hardware systems managed need not be based solely on blade server technology, and can thus be standard rackmount/server systems, or are combination of the two technologies. Supported operating systems include Linux (RedHat, SuSE, Debian and others), *BSD, Sun Solaris and Microsoft NT/2K/XP. Application support is rich and varied depending upon OS under management.

Further information and an online demo of Shogun and Open Clustering’s products and services can be found at http://www.openclustering.com

“

– by Tina Gasperson –
If you use instant messaging clients and you’re familiar with the Open Source
community, you’ve probably heard the term “Jabber.” It’s an open protocol for
instant messaging that is similar in function to Yahoo! Messenger, AIM and
others. Nice idea, especially if you’re an advocate of Free Software and open
standards. But other than that, who really cares, especially since none of the
popular, tested, reliable IM services cost a penny?
Instant messaging (or IM) began as a natural evolution
of the chat rooms made popular by AOL and Compuserve in the early 1990s. It is
a way for people to get online, see if their “buddies” are online, and send text
messages that immediately appear on the screen, kind of an on-demand, on-the-fly
private chat room. In 1996, a company called Mirabilis introduced ICQ (“I seek
you”), which was the first instant message service, though they didn’t call it
that back then. “ICQ will totally change the way people work on and surf the
Net,” prophesied Sefi Vigiser, president of Mirabilis Ltd., in the original press release.
“From now on, every log-in to the Internet is an invitation to a social
experience. When logging in, the user will know if his friends and colleagues
all over the world are on-line, thus enabling him or her to easily contact them
in real time by text, voice or video or any other user-to-user application.”

At least there was one dot-com startup that didn’t bust. That new technology
from Mirabilis (now known as ICQ.com) spawned imitations from Microsoft, AOL,
Yahoo!, and many others. In fact, AOL acquired Mirabilis in 1998 and still gives
away the messaging client as ICQ, in addition to its own AIM (AOL
Instant Messenger), which has overtaken ICQ in popularity. Instant messaging on
the whole has become so widely-used that for many individual users it has taken
the place of long-distance telephone calls to family and friends, much like
email has arguably obliterated the custom of writing and mailing letters via
postal mail.

Likewise, corporate America has caught on to the money and time-saving benefits
of instant messaging, with some directing employees to first “IM” contacts
before calling to make sure they’re available, avoiding wasted long-distance
charges, or eliminating those long-distance calls entirely by requiring that
conversations take place completely via instant messaging.

Just about all of this IM activity is hosted on public servers set up
specifically to handle instant messaging traffic. The servers are, of course,
owned by the various companies providing the IM services. All of it is available
without charge, so far. But what if the companies decide it is time to start
charging?

“It may appear that these IM services are being
provided free of cost,” says Viswanath Gondi, a Harvard Graduate School of
Design student who has provided several Jabber instant messaging servers. “But
our data is being locked into these services. Imagine the problems we would
face if one day [the proprietary services] would coolly declare IM to be a paid
service. All our contacts will be locked in, and it
would be impossible to get all the contacts back in again on another free
service. We will have to pay up, whatever the cost may be to get uninterrupted
service.”

For personal users who have amassed hundreds of contacts, having them taken
hostage could be quite a nuisance. But for corporations who are depending on
services like .NET Messenger Service, losing access to
their data could be disastrous.

“It will be very difficult
to get out of the problem if public IM service has interwoven with our process
flow. It is like having a free Yahoo! mail account for all the employees and
finding one day that pop access to the account is being blocked,” says Gondi.
“One day a company may find all its IM messages blocked/truncated because it
did not subscribe to the premium service. Also, all the messages pass
through their servers and there is no guaranteed service. So what do we do? We
need IM capability in our office, but cannot put in a lot of money to
develop or out-source IM server software.”

That’s where the openness of Jabber comes to the rescue. Because Jabber is an open
protocol, no one can ever close it up and take anyone’s data or messages
hostage. “Jabber is to instant messaging what SMTP is to email,” says Gondi. For
example, Jabber Inc., which owns the trademark “Jabber” but not the Jabber
protocol, is a supporter of the Jabber Open Source effort. Jabber Inc. is using
the Jabber protocol to create enterprise-level solutions for companies like HP,
Disney Internet Group, BellSouth, and RE/MAX.

The Jabber Software Foundation is working to have the Jabber protocol
included in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) collection of RFCs
(request for comments). The foundation recently submitted an Internet-draft that outlines in great detail the Jabber protocol. But as of yet,
the draft hasn’t been accepted as an official document by the IETF.

One of the nice things about Jabber is that it can communicate with other IM
systems, in theory, “if the other side is willing to play the game. AOL and recently Yahoo have been
blocking connections from other messaging systems,” says Gondi.

Jabber, Inc., is sponsoring the upcoming JabberConf Americas 2002 conference dedicated to “accelerating development of the Jabber technology, marketplace, and standards.” More information is available at www.jabberconf.com.