The Register: “In his keynote to the recent Government Leaders Conference Bill Gates warned developing countries against using dreaded GPL software in their governments and universities. If they did so, he said, they would be unable to commercialise the resulting programs, and they would never be able to develop an IT industry.” Read more here.

w3.org writes “29 April 2002: The Web Services Architecture Working Group has released the first Working Draft of Web Services Architecture Requirements, the reference architecture and the constraints used to determine implementation conformance.”

w3.org writes “29 April 2002: Amaya is W3C’s Web browser and authoring tool. Version 6.1 is a bug fix release adding support for more international documents and encodings and new MIME types; enhanced SVG, MathML, annotation, and CSS support; and other new features.”

From ZDNet: “Germany’s SuSE said on Friday that the new version of its Linux operating system distribution does not include the latest version of StarOffice because its proprietary, fee-based license would have increased the cost of the operating system. The shift in policy of one of several changes to SuSE Linux 8.0, which includes revamped core technology and new graphical desktop software.”

Anonymous Reader writes, “In this guest column at LinuxDevices.com, John Drabik (former VP and CTO for Digital Media at Lineo) shares his ideas on how to successfully develop and market Embedded Linux toolkits and services — and make money.”

Dell and Oracle today extended their relationship to deliver high-performance database solutions on Linux, with specific plans to build Oracle’s next generation database software for Linux using Dell PowerEdge servers and Dell | EMC storage.

This follows a recent report by industry analyst firm D.H. Brown Associates, Inc. that shows the evolution and maturity of the open-source operating system proceeding at a rapid pace. The report, entitled “Linux Strategies and Solutions,” cites Dell’s combination of products, partnerships and services to support customers migrating from UNIX to Linux make the company a leader in driving Linux further into the enterprise.

“Dell?s enterprise strategy is likely to result in a leadership position for volume, commodity Linux servers based on the company?s ability to deliver high customer satisfaction throughout the ordering, fulfillment and deployment process,” said Pierre Fricke, executive vice president, D.H. Brown Associates. “This strategy already has allowed Dell to take the lead on system pricing. The company also is recognized for its Customer Factory Integration services, which offer customers significant value and flexibility in specifying, purchasing and deploying systems.”

Integral to Dell’s momentum in the Linux market is a focused strategy that includes relationships with software leaders such as Oracle and SAP, and with supercomputer leader Cray Systems.
Dell has worked extensively with Oracle to deliver the first Oracle 9i Database Certified Configuration running Red Hat Linux and the first Oracle clustering certification on Dell | EMC storage. Oracle built its Oracle9i database and Oracle9i Real Application Clusters software on Dell PowerEdge servers and PowerVault storage systems. Together, the companies can provide simplified, cost-effective ways to implement enterprise-level Oracle database solutions on Linux.

“Over the last six months, we have seen a significant increase in interest from our corporate customers for Linux,” said Russ Holt, vice president of Dell?s Enterprise Systems Group. “Financial, telecommunication, industrial and other Fortune 500 companies are turning to Dell and Oracle to take advantage of the dramatic cost and performance benefits we can provide with Linux operating systems.”

Additional information on Dell Linux solutions is available at www.dell.com/linux.

About Dell
Dell Computer Corporation (Nasdaq: DELL), the world?s most preferred computer systems company, is a premier provider of products and services required for customers worldwide to build their information-technology and Internet infrastructures. The company?s revenue for the past four quarters totaled $31.2 billion. Dell, through its direct business model, designs, manufactures and customizes products and services to customer requirements, and offers an extensive selection of software and peripherals. Information on Dell and its products can be obtained at www.dell.com.

Dell and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Computer Corporation.
Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.
Copyright 2001 Dell Computer Corporation. All rights reserved. [Published in the United State of America. Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that permitted by U.S. copyright laws without the written permission of Dell Computer Corporation is unlawful and strictly forbidden.]

NZheretic writes, “An intriguing question on ask.slashdot.org: Microsoft will be including Interix in its next release of Services For Unix (SFU). How can Microsoft use GPL licensed products, such as GNU GCC, for the express purpose of ‘interoperating’ with Unix and Linux systems and at the same time deny everybody else the right to use GPL licensed products to interoperate with Microsoft’s own products?”

From MandrakeSoft.com: After the sales in the First Quarter of the 2001-2002 fiscal year showed little change in comparison with the previous year, MandrakeSoft has seen a significant rise in the Second with the turnover increasing by 155% to Eur0.97Million. This is particularly noteworthy, as sales in Q2 and Q4 can reasonably be expected to be lower than the other two since they do not benefit from the ‘launch effect’ of new versions of Mandrake Linux. For example, the new 8.2 version of Mandrake Linux was launched in the beginning of April 2002 (Q3).

From Wired.com: “The Bush administration is lukewarm on a plan to embed copy-protection technology in software and consumer electronics.

James Rogan , the Commerce Department’s undersecretary for intellectual property, has expressed mild skepticism about a bill championed by Senate Commerce chairman Fritz Hollings (D-South Carolina).”

Miles Gillham writes: SnapGear engineer, Greg Ungerer, has recently completed uClinux support for the new Motorola MCF5249 ColdFire® CPU, specifically for M5249C3 development board. Patches have been made available for 2.0.x and 2.4.x versions of uClinux kernels.
Chief Software Wizard, Greg Ungerer, said, “The standard ColdFire peripherals — UART, timer, and interrupts are working. I have cranked the internal PLL up to 140MHz which is giving something like 125 Dhrystone MIPS, this is a fast chip!”

The Motorola MCF5249 CPU, which uses a V2 ColdFire processor core, is a highly integrated microprocessor with on-chip audio and IDE controllers which mean lower development costs and shorter time-to-market. The processor was designed to enable fewer system components and, with low system power requirements, allows the design of products with longer battery life.

Motorola’s 32-Bit Embedded Controller Application Manager, David Seymour, stated “The MCF5249 is entering the market at a time when a convergence between home audio electronics and computer technologies is taking place. The MCF5249 is aimed directly at such growing markets as biometric security, industrial control, and even personal audio.”

“We’re very pleased to partner with SnapGear Inc for board support and reference designs. SnapGear Inc is always quick to provide uClinux board support for processors that do not feature memory management units. The Linux API is freely available as an industry standard and as long as GNU public license conditions are met there are generally no royalty payments. That translates to per unit savings when shipping as well as a more widespread pool of experienced application engineers to draw upon.”

The next distribution of uClinux now contains full target support for the M5249C3 board. Development is likely to continue until May 2002 to round out audio support. When available code will be available from the uClinux CVS repository at http://cvs.uclinux.org

Further information on Motorola 68K/ColdFire®

Further information on uClinux

Further information on SecureEdgeTM Development Platforms

Further information on SnapGearTM VPN Routers

SnapGear and SecureEdge are trademarks of SnapGear Inc. ColdFire is a trademark of Motorola. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.