Tosatti: “So here it goes.”

Download: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/testing/patch-2.4.18-rc1.gz

rc1: 
- PPC MPC8260 update                            (Tom Rini)
- eepro100 fixes                                (Jeff Garzik)
- Make natsemi hardware workaround a config 
  option                                        (Jeff Garzik)
- Add serial board PCI ID                       (Jeff Garzik)
- Add support for another tulip clone           (Jeff Garzik)
- Fix typo in winbond driver                    (Jeff Garzik)
- Move initialization of tridentfb before 
  the generic drivers                           (Geert Uytterhoeven)
- Reiserfs bugfixes                             (Oleg Drokin)
- More __devexit_p assorted fixes               (Andrew Morton)
- Merge some -ac bugfixes                       (Alan Cox)

Anonymous Reader writes: “Sue Mosher, http://www.slipstick.com, one of only five Microsoft Outlook MVPs and a recognized authority on Outlook and Exchange says that Microsoft Exchange isn’t the only server for Outlook anymore. She validates a Linux server, at ExchangeAdmin.com.“

johnmark writes: “From zone: “Every good software package comes with good docs. This includes both helpful documentation for the end user and technical documentation for programmers who wish to work with the code. In this article, we discuss how to create standard documentation using LyX, SGML, XML, and LinuxDoc.” Read the rest at the PHP Foundry.”

– by Tina Gasperson –
Dave Whitinger, the guy who created
LinuxToday.com, is taking a position as
director of business development with
Linux Weekly News.

In 1997, Whitinger founded a Linux news
Web site called “Three Point’s Linux
News Service.” He marketed it all over
the Net, posting announcements and press
releases about his news feeds and
mailing lists.

Whitinger later got together with Dwight
Johnson and in 1998 they redesigned
Three Point’s, redubbing it LinuxToday.
When Internet.com took note of the
site’s success and purchased it from
Whitinger and Johnson in October of
1999, one of Whitinger’s conditions was
that he’d be “free to go off and not be
a part of LT anymore.”

Whitinger went off and started a few
“less glamorous” sites: Linevents.com,
Lintraining.com and Linsight.com.
Linsight’s been absorbed into the other
two sites, which are still being updated
daily. Whitinger’s marketing talents
were evident with the early publicity he
snagged for Linsight. In a January 2000
Linux.com interview, he cited links from
Netscape.com, Internet.com, Yahoo!, Wide
Open News, and others.

Another popular Linux news site, Linux
Weekly News was “let go” by
former sponsor Tucows.com last October,
after being picked up by the software
download site in April 2000. Tucows cited expenditure cutbacks in a
faltering Internet economy as the
reason for its divestiture of LWN, which itself warned that it was in danger
of disappearing entirely from the Net
if it couldn’t come up with salary
money. “The online advertising market
is difficult, to put it mildly, and
attempts to turn up corporate
sponsorships have not been successful,”
wrote the editors.

After making a plea to the
community and months of soliciting
suggestions and discussion, things must
be looking up for LWN, now that they can
afford to place Whitinger, a former
director of the Web technologies team
for Atipa, on staff. What does
being the director of business
development for LWN entail?

“In the
short term, I’ll certainly be pursuing
revenue in the form of advertising
campaigns with companies who would
benefit from exposure to the specialized
audience of LWN,” he says. Long term, nothing’s been
finalized. “We’re only now beginning to
discuss our plans.”

NewsFactor Network writes, “With a download size of just over 2 MB, Opera Software’s OS X Web browser adheres to a much stricter fat-free diet than either Netscape’s or Microsoft’s browser. The company claims that when coding Opera, speed and efficiency were designated as the two highest priorities. In most cases, Opera’s claims of superiority in size and speed seem to be true. The newest OS X-native beta version of the software, Opera 5.0 for Mac OS X Beta 4, launches faster than any other browser currently available for OS X and renders pages more quickly.” The story’s at osOpinion.com.

Slashdotters discuss a report from Reuters saying the holdout states in the Microsoft antitrust case want to see the inner workings of Windows. ” In a bid to pry open one of the world’s most valuable pieces of intellectual property, the states argued they need to see the Windows source code in order to verify Microsoft’s claim that it is not technically feasible for the company to offer a stripped-down version of the operating system.
“

Anonymous Reader writes, “A Bangalore, India based development company perceived an opportunity
between the high-end, high-cost Pocket PC PDAs and the low-end, low-cost Palm PDAs, and created a new PDA called “Kaii” to fill that gap. The device attempts to leverage the nascent Linux-PDA market being created by Sharp’s new Zaurus PDA, by offering a high level of software compatibility with the Zaurus. But unlike Sharp’s device, the Kaii uses a 160MHz Hitachi SH3 processor and provides an on-screen, rather than physical, keyboard — differences meant to bring about a less costly device. Read the LinuxDevices.com article on the Kaii here.“

BBC: “A formidable array of technology companies, consumer groups and cyber libertarians are taking on Microsoft over its ambitious plans to make people use more of its software and services. The groups claim the software giant’s strategy will dent consumer privacy, limit consumers’ choices and stifle competition in the technology industry.” Read more here.

jochem writes: “On the Debian internet site the 7th edition of the Debian Weekly News can be read. This weeks opening feature is the soon-to-be-held election for Debian Leader.”

CNN: “Imagine computers in a group providing disk storage for their users, transparently swapping files and optimizing their collective performance, all with no central administration… That scenario is part of the Farsite project at Microsoft Corp. Farsite is just one of several projects at Microsoft Research and other labs around the world that will render operating systems all but unrecognizable in 10 years. Farsite embodies several characteristics — such as fault tolerance, self-tuning and robust security — that will distinguish operating systems of the future.” Read more here.