ST. PAUL, MN-(June 11, 2002)-CodeWeavers, Inc., a leading Windows-to-UNIX software developer, today unveiled CrossOver Office Version 1.1, the newest version of its breakthrough software solution that allows Linux and Unix users to operate Microsoft Office and Lotus Notes on their PCs without the Windows operating system.

 With Version 1.1, CodeWeavers is officially supporting both Microsoft
                       Outlook and Internet Explorer, in addition to the already-supported Microsoft
                       Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and IBM Lotus Notes. This enables organizations
                       to make the transition to a Linux desktop without having to completely replace
                       their internal systems. "With Outlook and Internet Explorer support, we feel that
                       we have rounded out the most important features of the Microsoft Office Suite,
                       and have made it simple and painless for an organization to adopt the Linux
                       desktop" said Jeremy White, founder and CEO of CodeWeavers.

                       Outlook and Internet Explorer Support in Multiple Languages.
                           Version 1.1 provides support for most Western languages, including
                       German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and many more. "The support
                       for Portuguese was something invaluable that will enable wide scale use for
                       both private and government institutions. It will close one of the last issues
                       preventing nationwide adoption of Linux," said Rodrigo Barbosa Chief Security
                       Officer of TIS, a Brazilian IT company.

                       CodeWeavers expects to complete support for double byte languages such as
                       Japanese, Chinese, and Korean in the near future, which will then complete
                       the CrossOver language support.

                       Best TrueType® Reproduction in Linux
                           CrossOver Office now includes the logic necessary to exactly reproduce
                       Apple TrueType fonts in Linux, so that all Windows fonts appear as cleanly
                       and crisply in CrossOver as they do in Windows. This extends to printed
                       documents which now precisely match those printed on Windows. Version 1.1
                       also provides a wide range of other bug fixes and enhancements, including
                       better support for document automation.

                           CrossOver Office is priced at $54.95 per user, with workgroup, site, and
                       enterprise license discounts available. For additional information, and to
                       purchase CrossOver Office or other Windows-to-Linux porting solutions, visit
                       www.codeweavers.com or call (651) 523-9300.

                       About CodeWeavers, Inc.:
                       Founded in 1996, CodeWeavers develops, markets and supports solutions for
                       Linux-based systems. The Company brings expanded market opportunities for
                       Windows software developers by making it easier, faster, and more cost-effective
                       to port Windows software to Unix. CodeWeavers is recognized as a leader in
                       open-source Windows porting technology, and maintains development offices in
                       Minnesota, California, the Netherlands, and Germany. The company is privately
                       held. For more information about CodeWeavers, visit www.codeweavers.com.

                       CrossOver Office is a trademark of CodeWeavers, Inc. Linux is a registered
                       trademark of Linus Torvalds. Windows, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
                       are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and
                       other countries. Lotus Notes is a registered trademark of Lotus Development
                       Corporation and/or IBM Corporation. TrueType is a registered trademark of
                       Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other
                       trademarks and registered trademarks are owned by their respective companies.

A very pro-Microsoft article about the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. The event is going hi-tech, with speeds and results measured in digital accuracy and transmitted to judges using Windows 2000 all the way. They say they’re very confident nothing will go wrong and that no hackers will be able to mess things up. Linux was not chosen because of a “lack of applications.” Somebody is pulling the British wool over somebody’s eyes, aye? Read all about it at BBC.

“Representatives from three southern California legislators are coming to evaluate Linux for its use in schools and we are seeking
information on school applications that are easy to load.

The purpose for the meeting is to show legislators that an alternative operating systems exist, and use of those systems can benefit
both students, the development community and the entities required to pay for software.” More at SEUL.org.

– By Dan Berkes –
With a faltering economy forcing companies to cut spending whenever possible, less expensive and freely available Open Source software solutions may be gaining in popularity. Those wanting proof can look no further to PHP taking the top server-side scripting spot in a recent Internet host survey.
In April 2002, Netcraft’s monthly Web server survey revealed that 24 percent, or around 9 million of the 37 million sites it surveyed, were using Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) for a server side scripting language. For the first time, an Open Source scripting solution had passed Microsoft’s proprietary Active Server Pages scripting to claim the top spot on the Netcraft survey.

For both the April and May Netcraft surveys, PHP and ASP were almost too close to call, with Microsoft’s product offering coming in just a hair under 24 percent of all hosts running a server-side scripting language. With PHP having a fairly consistent growth rate of 6.5% per month since the summer of 2000, many Web professionals expect the gap to grow wider — to Microsoft’s detriment — in the coming months.

“There was a resistance [to Open Source products] a couple years ago; that isn’t the case now,” says Tom Weirick, a Web designer based in San Jose, Calif. “In 2000 we had clients who wouldn’t believe that something free could work as well, they would look at Microsoft charging a couple hundred or thousand for something doing the same thing and in their minds the Open Source stuff was inferior … because it wasn’t expensive.”

“The message back then was ‘spare no cost, just get us online’ and now it’s ‘get us online, and save us money while you’re at it.’ So that’s a chance for me to bring Open Source into the conversation and in the process give the client a good deal.”

Jeremy Conn believes that the technical merits of Open Source software like PHP are far superior to any bottom-line appeal: “It wouldn’t matter one bit if it didn’t do the job it was designed to do,” said Conn, who’s worked on projects for companies including long-distance carrier AT&T, toothbrush maker Oral B, and Zap.com, a fisheries’ failed attempt to become a Web portal.

Both Conn and Weirick said they present most new customers with a technology package called LAMP: Linux for an operating system, Apache for serving Web pages, MySQL for a database, and PHP for server-side scripting.

PHP, an Apache Software Foundation project, has been around since 1995, first taking form under the name Personal Home Page Forms Interpreter (PHP/FI) a series of public domain Perl scripts cobbled together to help its creator Rasmus Lerdof track hits to his online resume. Public feedback led to additional features being added, eventually resulting in the public release of a larger and more full-featured C implementation.

Around 1997, PHP/FI received a makeover including a new recursive moniker, Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP). One of the most significant additions made to this version of PHP was allowing programmers to write extension modules customizing PHP for their own needs.

The current major version of PHP is called PHP 4, with the first 4 version released in May 2000 (version 4.2.1 was announced last month). Considered by many to be the first version of PHP ready for enterprise deployment, PHP 4 features support for a wide variety of cross-platform Web servers, the ability to track user sessions, and a basic scripting driver, the Zend Engine.

PHP 4 can be found in use on a number of large-scale sites, including American broadcast network CBS, Japan wireless company NTT DoCoMo, and communications giant MCI Worldcom.

“That appearance of a level playing field has a huge appeal for companies,” said Weirick. “The dry cleaner down the street or the kid in the family computing room has access to the same tools that multinationals have, and not only that, they can have a say in how future versions are developed. That makes a huge difference from Microsoft, who says it’s their way or the highway.”

“It’s fun to bash Microsoft,” adds Conn, “but the bottom line, I think, is that PHP is popular because it does what I need, what other people need it to do. As long as it stays fresh and relevant to what everyone is doing on the ‘Net, then it will probably stay number one.”

LinuxSecurity Contributor writes “This week, perhaps the most interesting articles include “Enhancing E-Mail Security With Procmail,” “Monitoring Linux firewalls with firelogd,” “Anti-virus/anti-spam mail server setup using MailScanner,” and “Privacy vs. Security: A Bogus Debate?”

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/forums_article-5107.html“

Anonymous Reader writes
“StarOffice is a complete package. It’s no longer free as in beer, but it’s a good buy, especially if you get it as part of a bundle such as a Linux distribution or Ximian’s Red Carpet Express.”
Full story at Linux World.

The MITRE Corporation has released a case study of Open Source in business originally prepared in July of 2001. In contrast to some recent arguments to the contrary, this study suggests Open Source software does have some merit.

SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 10, 2002 MontaVista Software Inc., the company powering the embedded revolution, today announced that it has accepted an
invitation to serve on the board of directors of eclipse.org. This prestigious open source community develops the Eclipse Platform, an integrated
development framework designed to allow easy interoperability between different software solutions. MontaVista Software will be represented on the
Eclipse board by its CEO and president, and embedded industry pioneer, Jim Ready.

 
As a member of the Eclipse board, MontaVista Software will contribute its vast experience in developing software tools for embedded Linux applications ranging from consumer devices to telecommunications. MontaVista Softwares principal products include MontaVista Linux® Professional Edition and MontaVista Linux® Carrier Grade Edition.

 
 
Eclipse welcomes MontaVista Software to this leadership role, said Skip McGaughey, chairperson of the Eclipse board. With its strong record of contribution and commitment to open source and unsurpassed expertise as a provider of development platform and tools for embedded Linux applications, MontaVista Software will be a great asset to the Eclipse community.

 
 
The Eclipse community brings together the broad range of software tool developers and providers needed to establish, refine and promote high-quality shared software technology.

 
 
“MontaVista Software strongly believes in the benefits of open source and looks forward to contributing to this initiative,” said Jim Ready, CEO and president, MontaVista Software. MontaVista Software is supporting the Eclipse Platform because we believe that this industry-wide effort is responding to a very strong demand from the market for open standards and common platforms.

 
 
MontaVista Product Plans on the Eclipse Platform

 

MontaVista Software is developing a common and integrated development environment built on Eclipse-powered technology. The company plans to ship WebSphere Studio Device Developer as part of the companys Java product offering in the next Java product release, which will be based on Eclipse technology. MontaVista Softwares Java customers will be offered support for Eclipse and WebSphere Studio, a plug and play integrated developer environment, with the full support for all of the current Java developer tools available under VisualAge® Micro Edition for MontaVista Linux. This new open standard development environment will work across multiple development platforms, including Linux, Solaris, and Windows, allowing all developers on a project to share the same toolset, irrespective of their development host. The advantage of such an open development environment, powered by Eclipse, is that tools from different vendors can work together seamlessly, allowing developers to choose the best tools available to meet
their project needs.

 
 
About eclipse.org

 

Eclipse is an open source community of software development tool vendors and tool developers that has formed the core of a community interested in collaborating to create better development environments and product integration. The community shares an interest in creating products that are integrated and inter-operable in an easy to use way based upon plug-in technology. By collaborating and sharing core integration technology, tool vendors can concentrate on their areas of expertise and the creation of new development technology. Eclipse can be found on the Web at http://www.eclipse.org.

 
 
About MontaVista Software Inc.

 

MontaVista Software Inc. powers the embedded revolution by providing open-source systemssoftware solutions for embedded developers. Founded in 1999 by real-time operating system (RTOS) pioneer James Ready, MontaVista Softwares principal products include MontaVista Linux® Professional Edition and MontaVista Linux® Carrier Grade Edition. The Professional Edition is a Linux-based embedded source and binary distribution, cross development platform and a set of tool kits for x86/IA-32, PowerPC, StrongARM, MIPS, SH, ARM, XScale, Xtensa and other microprocessor architectures. The Carrier Grade Edition is a second-generation high availability product that is an ideal Linux platform for telecommunications and carrier-grade applications. MontaVista Software also provides several complementary technology products addressing specific customer needs such as the Java development environment, high availability technology, powerful graphics toolkits and more. MontaVista offers developers a family of products and services
for embedded design and development targeted for applications ranging from communications infrastructure to consumer devices.

 
 
Headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, in Sunnyvale, Calif., MontaVista Software is a privately held company funded by leading investors such as Alloy Ventures, US Venture Partners, RRE Ventures, WR Hambrecht + Co., IBM, Intel Capital, Panasonic and Sony Corporation. For more information about MontaVista Software, please visit http://www.mvista.com, email to info@mvista.com or call (408) 328-9200.

 

 
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. MontaVista is a trademark of MontaVista Software Inc. Java and all Java-based marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. All other names mentioned are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective companies.

 
 
Contacts:

 

Joe Samagond,
Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications,
MontaVista Software Inc.,
Phone: (408) 328-9234,
E-mail: jsamagond@mvista.com

 
Patricia Colby,
PR Strategy and Business Development,
Pacifico Inc.,
Phone: (408) 293 8600 x340,
E-mail: pcolby@pacifico.com

The Sydney Morning Herald examines The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution’s white paper questioning Open Source security. “The entire AdTI study is a commercial funded by Microsoft, whose sole aim is to counter the growing adoption of GPL’d software. The report contains nothing constructive or useful. It is a sham.”

IDG offers analysis on reports last week of the German and Taiwanese governments embracing Open Source. “The perceived benefits of open-source software have moved government officials in countries including Germany, France, Finland, the Philippines, South Korea, and China to try out the technology. A decision to replace Microsoft’s Windows at least in part with open-source alternatives is often the result.

Officials within these countries have identified open source as a potential driver for cost savings. Some say security is enhanced by embracing open-source software. Others have said use of open-source software could stem software piracy, and lead to growth of local software alternatives.”