– By Nathan Joel Lunt –

I was discussing Linux in all its glory with a friend of mine, a Windows
XP user, the other day. I told him all of the great things I could do
with my Free Software, and offered to make him a copy, knowing there would
be no legal stipulations on me doing so. He responded, “What can you do
with Linux that I can’t do with Windows?” So I proceeded to let him know
that I could do everything he was doing, but legally. Unfortunately, this
didn’t persuade him, because he gets all his software for free, too.
Using Free Software doesn’t offer him, the basic desktop user, any
advantages, because “pirating” proprietary software doesn’t affect his bank
account, and there is a prevailing if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it
mentality that locks people into using vastly inferior software. For now.

The Business Software Alliance, the
self-proclaimed software police, have released a survey that
demonstrates wide-spread software theft to the tune of “billions of
dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs every year.” Out of 1,026 users
surveyed, 81 percent neglected to pay for all the copies they made, and
57 percent of those rarely or never pay for the proprietary software they
download. Interestingly, only 12 percent admit to software piracy.

I understand the absurdity of likening copying software to raiding ships
of all their cargo, but for the sake of discussion, it’s best to deal with
proprietary software advocates on their level. “Software piracy” should
best be defined as violation of the license agreement that’s required for you to be able to use the software. This is more accurately termed “breach of contract” and applies to proprietary software when the vendor’s distribution model is usurped or to Free
Software when the source code is used beyond the guidelines of the GPL.

Free Software groups would be very offended if another group started
selling software released under the GPL in a format similar to proprietary
software, with only a binary executable, copy restrictions, and
a BSA-backed extortion scheme. Why should we, then, expect proprietary
software vendors to involuntarily play by the rules of the GPL and not be
offended? The assumption on the part of the proprietary software vendors
is that they will be able to compete with Free Software on a completely level
playing field, where everybody follows every license to the letter, but,
as the BSA survey shows, users will typically avoid paying for
prohibitively-licensed software whenever possible.

On the other hand, GPL violations are few and far between, and actually become big news items within the GNU community, as in the alleged cases of NuSphere and Lindows.

Free Software advocates have a terrific advantage in encouraging EULA
compliance. Not only can we encourage our friends and colleagues to put
their money where their mouth is by paying the exorbitant license fees to
use the inferior software and be prohibited from making necessary backup
copies, but we can also provide services to companies who are in danger of
being audited by the BSA, helping them to easily convert to Free
Software solutions, provide training, and save them thousands of dollars
in fees paid to the BSA in the process.

We should encourage people and corporations to follow restrictive licenses
of proprietary software precisely. Not only will this give Free Software
a boost in users, but it will give Free Software creators credibility when
they require strict adhesion to the GPL. As long as users and corporations can
justify and rationalize using proprietary software without paying for it
and ignoring the End User License Agreements, Free Software loses its primary
selling points: Freedom.

“Commentary” articles are contributed by Linux.com and NewsForge.com readers. The opinions they contain are strictly those held by their authors, and may not be the same as those held by OSDN management. We welcome “Commentary” contributions from anyone who deals with Linux and Open Source at any level, whether as a corporate officer; as a programmer or sysadmin; or as a home/office desktop user. If you would like to write one, please email editors@newsforge.com with “Commentary” in the subject line.

We are happy to announce version 1.1.2 of CrossOver Plugin. This is a
maintenance release which builds on the 1.1.1 release to further improve
stability and support for all environments. We recommend this update for
all of our customers, but if CrossOver Plugin is working well for you,
you should feel no urgent need to upgrade. There will be no time limit
on downloading this version of CrossOver Plugin.

Here is the list of changes since 1.1.1:
 * Fix: The main sound issues, again.
 * Fix: A bug which caused Windows Media Player to stop working after
        upgrading to 1.1.1.
 * Fix: PluginSetup had problems with some broken mailcap files.
 * Fix: The scripts (quicktimeplayer.sh, etc.) should work again in
        multi-user configurations.
 * Fix: cleanup_crossover.sh now works for multi-user configurations.
 * Fix: In multi-user setups, non-root users should pick up newly
        installed applications automatically now.
 * Fix: KDE associations were not always detected.
 * Fix: Gnome association are now completely removed when uninstalling.
 * The installer will now only install in new or empty directories.
 * Improved: Also set the umask when running applications or plugins 
        as root so that all users will have access to the new codecs 
        and plugin dlls.
 * Improved: Compatibility with associations created by CrossOver
        Plugin 1.0.1 and older.
 * Improved: This version better handles 'broken' associations like 
        those used by Windows Media Player (using %L instead of %1).

All customers can download a copy of 1.1.2 by going to our support
system, and signing in with your email address and password:
    http://support.codeweavers.com/login.php

If you have lost or never received a password, the system will
automatically generate one for you. Then you can download the full
installer and simply run it to upgrade your existing installation. 
Doing so will preserve your associations and the plugins you have
already installed. For all support issues, please contact us at
plugin-support@crossover.codeweavers.com.

Finally, I once again want to thank you all for your business and your
support.

Best regards,

-- 
Francois Gouget
fgouget@codeweavers.com

The Linux Test Project test suite LTP-20020607.tgz has been released.
Visit our website to download the latest
version of the test suite, and, for information on test results on pre
release, release candidate and stable releases of the kernel.
There is also a list of test cases that are expected to fail, please find the
list at http://ltp.sourceforge.net/expected-errors.php

The highlights of this release are:

White paper titled “Analysis of Linux Test Projects Kernel Code
Coverage” This analysis paper aims at identifying areas in the
kernel that are currently tested by LTP and also identify areas that
require attention.

LTP’s Kernel code coverage web site
http://ltp.sf.net/coverage/index.html. Provides a testcase for each
kernel source file mapping.
LTP is available in i386 binary RPM format for download. Also, the
LTP source RPM and spec file are available for download to allow
binary RPM builds.
Linux Test Tools Table. A comprehensive list of tools and
testsuites available to test Linux.
MIPS, s390 and 64-bit x86 updates.

We encourage the community to post results, patches or new tests on
our mailing list and use the CVS bug tracking facility to report problems
that you might encounter with the test suite. More details available at
our web-site.

Gerry Patterson writes: “Microsoft has always endorsed the doctrine of Attack being the best form of Defence. In the Battle for the Desktop, last century Microsoft chose the battle field and fought from a position of strength. It ended in a rout. The First Clone War was also fought and won in a similar manner. Microsoft at first fought by proxy, providing others with munitions, at first surreptiously and then openly. When the time came to show their hand, Microsoft once again chose the field and fought from a position of strength, defeating it’s old technology rival decisively.

Now it appears the Second Clone War is about to begin.
Significantly these are not firmware clones as in the previous conflict, but software clones and the battlefield is a dominion that Microsoft had supposedly secured last century. The PC Desktop. It is curious therefore, that with the DOJ still not completely relinquishing it’s bull-terrier-like grip on Microsoft’s nether regions, and powerful old foes like IBM lining up with new opponents such as HP, Sun and Time Warner on the Open Source Side, that Microsoft should choose security as the theme of it’s opening gambit. Security is probably the weakest link in the Microsoft chain. Does Microsoft know something that the rest of the world doesn’t? Do they have a secret weapon?

Or have they just lost the plot?

Read More“

It’s up at http://www.adti.net/html_files/defense/opensource_whitepaper.pdf.

It’s in PDF, of course. The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution takes on the GPL, copyleft and “the myth of a public software community.”

“I know you’re a busy man — probably the world’s busiest man — but I need your help. And not the help Word offered me when I typed the
above salutation, either. “It looks like you’re writing a letter,” the paper clip announced. “Would you like help?” it continued. “Get help with
writing the letter,” it suggested redundantly. “Just type the letter without help,” it offered unhelpfully.

No, I’m looking for some help in your role as Chief Software Architect. I need your word that you will do everything within your power to
protect the freedom of the Internet from the attack of special interest groups, most notably the Hollywood studios and media companies.” More at IDG.net.

The inevitable rebuttal to the troll about the limitations of Open Source on ZDNET, here on O’Reilly.net. I think Derek hits the nail on the head when he says the problem stems from the fact that he “ignores the fact that many in
the open source community are not in total agreement with the outlook of the FSF.”

This guy at ZDNET has a few sort of right ideas, but his knowledge of the situation is limited. Like thinking free means “no cost.” Natural assumption, but wrong. It adds up to another case where the FSF’s words are being used against them. After reading this article about the limitations of Open Source, I am lefting wondering, “what’s the point of this story if not just to get linked on Slashdot and drive traffic to ZDNET?”

Khiya Shinde writes: “Some time ago I had reported release of DALP under the news head POWERFUL opensource API to connect to MySQL server from PocketPC, Palm and Nokia 9210 Applications. I used this library for one of my clients. The platform was a Treo (Palm OS). We connected the client to his database server and he could see his database online even when he was travelling all he has to do is connect his TREO to the internet!!.

Recently I happened to speak to the company who developed and released DALP, Kalpadrum Infotech Private Limited. I spoke to the CEO of the company Mr. Randhir, he told me that the latest release 1.0 is very stable and has a better memory management model. He also mentioned that they have developed a product called PocketMySQLAdmin, which uses this DALP to administer the MySQL database server. They plan to sell this product to raise funds to further develop the DALP. They plan to incorporate compression and also secured connection in the future releases of DALP. He also mentioned that previously they had plans to make similar library for the Oracle and Sybase database, but now they have dropped that plan. Due to shortage of funds they are now going to concentrate only with MySQL. Kalpadrum has also signed up as official partners with MySQL AB.

Whats more this library is under GPL. I also happen to check the Oraclelite on the PDA. I find the DALP solution to be more better than the Oraclelite solution. I personally feel that we should let a PDA be a PDA than make it a database server. DALP also fits in perfectly with the MySQL opensource ideology. I think its a good answer to the dominating Oracle solutions.

On the critic side I would like to comment that the developers of DALP should provide sample programs to use this library. I had a though time to start using this library. Although the support from the developers is good.

To check out the latest releases of DALP check out the Sourceforge Website, or on the DALP WEBSITE.

“

– By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols –

You say you love Linux, but you absolutely must have your Microsoft
Office and Quicken, too? Well, you’re in luck, NetTraverse’s latest Win4Lin 4.0
Workstation lets you run Office XP, Quicken, Lotus Notes, PhotoShop
and a host of other common-and not so common-office programs.
Of course, there are other ways to bring Microsoft Windows to Linux, and
recently Codeweavers, with Crossover Office, is providing a way for Microsoft Office
lovers to use Office, and a few other programs including the Lotus
Notes 5.0x client, on their Linux machines. That said, for stability,
speed, and sheer range of Windows applications supported, it’s hard
to beat Win4Lin 4.0.

Win4Lin enables you to run Windows 95, 98, 98 Second Edition (SE) or
Windows ME on any of its supported Linux distributions. To do so, of
course, you actually need to have an installable copy of Windows in
hand. An update Windows disc won’t do the job any
more than it would on a PC without an operating system. You can also
forget about installing NT, 2000 or XP.

For my money, your best choice is Windows 98SE. ME will run just as
well as ME ever does, which is just another way of saying you’re
better off with 98SE.

On the Linux side, you will need to use one of NeTraverse’s modified
kernels or modify the kernel yourself. Some people have asked that
NeTraverse just issue a modified kernel for every Linux implementation
that comes down the pike. Because that’s expensive and NeTraverse just
announced its support for UnitedLinux, that’s not going to happen. In any case, with support for most popular desktop Linuxes, the vast majority of Linux users will never even notice.

If you already have Win4Lin 3, it’s an easy upgrade path to version 4. You
will, however, need to purchase a new installation license. This
costs $49.99. If you’re new to Win4Lin, you can download and run it
for $89.99. A boxed version is available for $99.99.

Whichever way you get a copy, installation is a breeze. I installed
Win4Lin on both a HP Pavilion running Red Hat 7.1 with a 1.4 GHz
Athlon XP and an HP Pavilion with SuSE 8.0 and a 1GHz Pentium III.
With the Red Hat machine, I set up fist Windows ME and then 98SE. On
the SuSE system, I stuck with 98SE.

Once Windows was on these machines though, I did run into some
customization problems. For the most part, these were commonplace
Windows ME/98SE problems that I’ve seen before in ordinary Windows
installations.

The one exception was in setting the machine to use a Virtual Network
(VNET) so that I could more easily use the Windows Network
Neighborhood to hook up to my network drives and printers. My problem
was that I couldn’t connect with my network Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol (DHCP) IP address server. A quick look through
the release notes quickly set me right. In any case, had I chosen to
give the VNET adapter a static IP, I wouldn’t have run into any
trouble at all.

To see what Win4Lin could really do, I decided to take the logical
step of installing my full application workload on the SuSE
system and work on it for a week.

So I installed all of Office 2000, except Outlook;
FrontPage 2002 from Office XP; Pegasus Mail 4.01; Adobe Acrobat 5;
RealPlayer 6; Adobe PhotoShop 5.5; Lotus Organizer 6.0; Internet
Explorer 5.5 SP2; Macromedia DreamWeaver 4.0 and that blast from word
processing’s past, WordStar 7.0.

But, especially with the Microsoft products, that was only the
start. I also had to update and patch many of these programs to block
security holes. This can often go wrong when you’re running one
operating system on top of another, but Win4Lin delivered and
installed the updates like a champ.

In fact, this is when I noticed one of the advantages of running Win4Lin with 98SE
over running 98SE directly on the hardware. Shutting down and booting the Windows operating system went much faster on Linux than Win98SE did on the same system running by its self.

The real proof of any system though is how well it does when handling your day-to-day work, not just looking good in a benchmark suite. Once more, Win4Lin proved itself a winner. Over a week, the system never froze — although Windows had locked up on that very same hardware running the same workload. I can’t claim that everyone will find Win98SE more stable on Linux, but that was my experience.

I also found the system to be very fast. The total system RAM was
256MBs, and with this edition of Win4Lin, I can access up to 128MBs
of RAM. This made a real difference when running such memory hungry
applications as PhotoShop and DreamWeaver at the same time, which is
something I do often. While not as fast as they would have been
running natively on the hardware, they were perfectly usable.

And, for my day-to-day work combination of Word, Excel, Lotus
Organizer, Pegasus Mail, and Internet Explorer, I didn’t really
notice that Linux was also running … if it wasn’t for the fact that I
also had my typical Linux application package of KDE 3.0, Netscape
6.2, Konqueror, elm, and vi running.

Now to make Win4Lin perform like this, you do need to pay attention
to the release notes. In particular, you must enable backing store in
XFree86-4.0.x. In most distributions the default is to turn this off,
but turning it on gives Win4Lin a real graphics kick in the pants.

You may also want to give Windows access to more memory using the
winsetup configuration set up utility located in /usr/bin. By
default, for example, Win98SE only has access to 24MBs of RAM. Simply
adding more RAM to your Window session may not actually help you,
though. As is always the case with system performance tuning, you
should read all the instructions and not simply assume that the
maximum values are the best values.

For my purposes, daily office work, Win4Lin is a keeper.

It may not, however, be for you. While it now has support for wheeled
mice, it still lacks support for USB, FireWire, DirectX, CD-writing
and many other useful, but not necessarily essential, hardware and
software additions.

But, if what you want is a solid way to bring most Windows office and
home applications to either your desk or to your workplace, Win4Lin is for
you.