Joe “Zonker” Brockmeier writes, “Caldera is the first Linux vendor that has released a negative press release about another Linux vendor. Caldera’s release is self-serving and a very bad thing for the community.

Complete story at DissociatedPress.net.”

C|Net’s News.com has the update: “The long-awaited open-source version of the Netscape Web browser has reached a major development milestone as it nears a first official release.

The 3-year-old Mozilla project has finally stopped adding major new changes as its developers prepare a final 1.0 version of the software. Previous beta, or test, versions have been circulating for years.”

Salon.com has the story: ” If you think techies hate Microsoft, try asking them about Hollings — Sen. Ernest F. ‘Fritz’ Hollings, that is, the South Carolina Democrat who finally introduced his long-dreaded copy protection bill into Congress last week. If there’s an axis of evil for technology, Hollings has made the list.

Hollings’ bill, formerly referred to as the SSSCA (Security Systems Standards and Certification Act) but now dubbed the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA), would require any device that can ‘retrieve or access copyrighted works in digital form’ to include a federally mandated copy protection system.”

Maria writes, “Linux is rapidly gaining wide acceptance for Web serving, e-mail and Internet service. Open Source
tools and applications are now being used in e-infrastructure, e-commerce, retail applications, as well
as traditional enterprise applications. During this session, IBM VP of Linux servers, will discuss the Intel-based Linux
market, customer adoption trends, the IBM Linux Strategy, and how software developers can partner with IBM to capitalize
on this exciting opportunity. Learn about more exciting oportunities at developerWorks Live! – The IBM technical developer conference with more.”

– by Tina Gasperson –
“We’re in the ‘week for preparing binary packages’ period,” wrote KDE developer
David Faure.” They’re talking release dates for the newest version of KDE,
an anxiously awaited improvement to the already popular graphical user interface
that comes packaged with most Linux distributions and also runs on Unix. But the
word is out: KDE 3.0 is already available for download from CVS.Binary packages haven’t been released yet, but speculation by sources close to the project is that the official announcement will come in the next couple of days. March 31st, April 1st and April 2nd have been suggested, but some of the project members were concerned about announcing the release on April 1st because it is April Fool’s Day.

KDE has a tradition of quality development

According to the Web site definition, KDE is “a network transparent contemporary
desktop environment” that is completely free and open. It is also a development
framework that makes it much easier to create software that runs with a
graphical user interface (GUI).

KDE got its start back in 1996, and the first beta was released one year later
in October 1997. KDE 1.0 appeared in July, 1998. Today, the cvs repository
contains about 1.5 million lines of code, and the project boasts hundreds of
developers working voluntarily to continually improve that code by fixing bugs
and adding new features.

KDE development tends to move at a more rapid pace than other Open Source
projects, perhaps because of adherence to the project’s stated philosophy:

• “Get it done NOW!
• Focus!
• Use available tools rather than
  reinventing existing ones!
• When making a
  suggestion, change “we should..” to “I will..”; grandiose plans are useless
  unless you are willing to put in the work.
• Improve
  iteratively.
• Start with reasonable functionality and
  configurability and then improve over time.

Anonymous Reader writes: “There’s no shortage of computing power in the computer science department at Yale University, in New Haven, Conn. Along with assorted high-powered workstations and other computers, the department has two Linux-based Beowulf clusters. But taking advantage of the computing power in those clusters hasn’t always been easy.

Until recently, students and professors who wanted to harness the processing power of the Beowulf clusters — one of which uses 20 Dell servers, the other 20 IBM Netfinity systems — had to modify the programs they were using to run in parallel. That, says Prof. Martin Schultz, of Yale’s computer science department, requires having access to the program’s source code, and using a low-level tool such as Message Passing Interface (MPI) to modify it — not always a simple task. “MPI has over three hundred commands,” Schultz says. “It’s not easy to master.”

Thanks to Turbolinux’ Enfuzion, which Yale is now running on both Beowulf clusters, that’s no longer the case. Enfuzion, says Schultz, is easy to use, because it takes care of distributing programs across the various nodes in the cluster, so they run without having to be modified. Researchers and students at Yale can now take advantage of the super-computing level of power provided by the clusters, without having to do any special programming.

The importance of that “can not be overestimated,” says Schultz. “If scientists have to spend time making changes to their software program, it can take a long time to get their research up and running. When you’re competing with other researchers, you don’t want a system that takes a long time to use, you want to crank out results.”

Now that it’s possible to run programs on the Beowulf clusters without spending lots of time to modify them for parallel computing, Schultz plans to assign projects involving cluster computing to his classes. Several dozen other professors and graduate students, both in and out of the computer science department, will be using Enfuzion to run programs as well.

Eventually, Schultz expects lots of departments on campus to use the clusters. For example, the Yale medical school and the university’s biology departments do a lot of computationally-intensive research. “I expect Enfuzion will play a big role there,” Schultz says. Since Enfuzion can easily manage clusters consisting of thousands of computers, Schultz anticipates no problems expanding the clusters to handle the load.

But the clusters may not have to grow at all. Yale is taking advantage of Enfuzion’s unique ability to harness idle CPU cycles on computers outside the cluster. The university will use Enfuzion to distribute programs to 20 other computers, which sit on the desks of students and professors in the department. Enfuzion’s load balancing facilities will automatically run programs on these systems when they’re not otherwise in use. “If you don’t use them, these CPU cycles disappear,” say Schultz. “It’s not a resource you can store up. But with Enfuzion, these machines will be in use nights and weekends, or whenever someone is not actually sitting at the keyboard using them. It lets us make maximum use of our computing resources.”

About Turbolinux EnFuzion
Turbolinux EnFuzion clusters all available computing resources on a corporate network to create a powerful “virtual supercomputer” and, as a result, allows companies to reduce time and costs associated with computationally demanding data processing jobs. Traditionally, these jobs – such as complex financial calculations – have been handled by expensive high-end servers. With the growing need to process increasing volumes of complex jobs in a shorter time period, the cost of traditional solutions becomes prohibitive. To learn more please visit www.turbolinux.com.

Elvis writes: “With the use of location-based services, we all have something to worry about, and that’s more spam. But, are there benefits that we should look at as well. This article at developerWorks shows us how location-based services work in a real world way, and how to use them to our advantage.”

Frank writes: “There’s a Robocode extravaganza in this months issue of the free
developerWorks journal, with articles on creating your own robot,secrets from the Robocode masters, and reflections from the creator of this smash download from IBM alphaWorks. Robocode teaches you Java while you build Java-Bots, real Java objects — that battle onscreen against other robots. Also in this issue you’ll find articles on porting your Java applications to AIX, a collection of no-charge downloadable code and components and the latest scoop on Java
security.”

garyedwards writes: “ZDNet with the Reuters Story: The federal judge overseeing the Microsoft antitrust case said on Tuesday she wants to know more about new computer technologies such as handheld devices to determine whether sanctions against Microsoft should be expanded. During the past week Judge Kollar-Kotelly has been permitting a wider range of evidence about more recent developments in the computer industry. The judge said she will factor them into her decision about what sanctions would work best, but not as new allegations of wrongdoing against Microsoft. Hummm. So much for the DOJ deal, er “settlement agreement” with MS.”

SuSE Linux and IBM
today annnounced a broad services alliance that will enable both companies
to jointly provide Linux support and services to corporate customers around
the world.

In the agreement, IBM Global Services and SuSE will collaborate on support
and professional services. IBM will package and support turnkey
implementations of SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), backed by SuSE’s
expert development, maintenance, and support teams. In addition to this
complete services offering, the two organizations will also collaborate on
customer engagements and supplement each other’s skills to provide a
formidable Linux services delivery capability for corporate customers.

“We are happy to partner with SuSE because it is an industry leader in
delivering Linux enterprise products and services that corporate customers
require. IGS’s global reach and comprehensive portfolio of services and
solutions, combined with SuSE’s advanced Linux offerings, are the complete
Linux solution for corporate enterprise customers,” said Patricia Gibbs,
Vice President, IBM Global Services, Linux Services.

The agreement provides for IBM and SuSE to jointly offer a full range of
Linux services for the enterprise, including:

System Integration/Customization services
Rollout and implementation services
System Management services
24 x 7 Worldwide Maintenance and Support Services

“With the new IBM and SuSE worldwide service alliance, corporate customers
benefit from the availability of enterprise Linux solutions combined with a
broad range of joint support and service offerings anywhere in the world.
This is a major step to make Linux corporate computing a reality,” said
Gerhard Burtscher, CEO of SuSE Linux.

About SuSE

SuSE Linux AG, Nuremberg/Germany, is one of the world’s leading providers
of complete solutions based on the Open Source operating system Linux.
In addition to operating systems and application software for private
customers, SuSE Linux AG offers software solutions and complete systems
for the deployment of Linux in companies.

SuSE supports its enterprise customers with a comprehensive range of
qualified consulting, training, and support services. The company, which
hosts the world’s largest development team for Open Source solutions, has
made its unique project and support know-how accessible via the Internet
in the largest existing Linux knowledge database. For further information
on SuSE, please visit www.suse.com

About IBM Global Services
IBM Global Services is the world’s largest information technology
services provider, with approximately 150,000 professionals serving
customers in 160 countries and annual revenue of more than $35 billion
(2001). IBM Global Services integrates IBM’s broad range of
capabilities — services, hardware, software and research — to help
companies of all sizes realize the full value of information technology.
For more information, visit: www.ibm.com/services