Wired.com previews this week’s LinuxWorld Expo in New York. The “no-nonsense” show this year will feature more realistic advice and entry-level instruction on using Linux than ever before.

Johannes writes, “Swedish Gnuheter has a story on Nick Moffitt arranging with his X-headers in way that makes it impossible to read his email with Microsoft WebTV or Outlook Express. Moffitt states: ‘The folks using Outlook Express have locked themselves into a
limited subset of the information that can flow over the Internet, and
are blaming me personally for not limiting my transmissions to that
outlook-centric subset.’
See also original email (in English).”

Jedi/Sector One writes, “FreeBSD 4.5-STABLE has finally been tagged. The web site doesn’t reflect the change yet, but you can finally download it. Major changes include security and reliability fixes for the TCP/IP and NFS implementations. And there are still more and more ports, all up-to-date. This release is supposed to be the best so far, in term of stability and performance.”

Jorg Janke writes, “Compiere Looks is a 3D color extension of the Java Metal Look and Feel. It was inspired by the Kunststoff Look and Feel and adds color capabilities as well as texture backgrounds. Compiere Looks is free and Open Source. One of the added features are ‘hierarchical tabs,’ which allow to communicate a hierarchical structure easily. Compiere Looks is based on Java 1.4.0.

Compiere Looks Utilities allow you to change the Look and Feel of your application by the individual user. This is not restricted to the standard and Compiere Looks, but also jGoodies and Kunststoff. You can also define and save your own Theme.”

For details and download see http://www.compiere.org/looks/.

– by Tina Gasperson –
Mono, the Open Source .NET project created and led by Ximian, is changing the license that comes with the formerly GPLed class libraries.

An announcement released today by Ximian states that because of increasing
corporate participation in the Mono project, the libraries will be
developed under the less restrictive X11 license, also known variously as the X or MIT license, which allows anyone who
obtains a copy of the software to modify it and redistribute it under any
license, including proprietary ones.

This is good, Ximian says, because it encourages companies like Intel to continue contributing
to Mono without any fear of having to release their own proprietary code if it
is linked with the Mono class libraries. “This makes the libraries usable by
anyone,” says Ximian co-founder and CTO Miguel de Icaza. And the libraries are
important; as the Mono Web site states, “the sooner they are done, the sooner we
can start using this platform to create new and exciting applications.”

Even Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and author of the GPL agrees, for the most part.
“It is a good idea to use a license more lax than the
GPL for the class libraries,” Stallman says. “There are strategic reasons why it is advantageous, for
the long-term overall progress towards Free Software, to make it possible to use
free C# class libraries for any program that could run with Microsoft’s C# class
libraries.”

Stallman believes that the Lesser GPL would have been a better choice for the
libraries, because “using the X11 license makes a major unnecessary concession:
It allows non-free versions of the libraries themselves.” He says that using the
LGPL would allow linking to non-free programs, but would preserve the free
status of the library itself.

“This issue doesn’t particularly rock the Free Software community’s world,” says
Karsten Self, a systems administration and programmer who also co-founded the
Gestalt System, an Open Source data analysis tool. “I
think it’s a potentially very powerfully positive development for the
Ximian Mono project tactically in taking on Microsoft’s .NET, and may be
the precipitating event in stealing initiative from Microsoft on .NET.”

.NET is Microsoft’s XML Web services platform. It promises to “allow
applications to communicate and share data over the Internet, regardless of
operating system, device, or programming language,” according to the .NET site.
The technologies developed by Microsoft in conjunction with .NET, including
the C# programming language and the Common Language Infrastructure,
have been standardized and are freely available from the ECMA, a European association for standardizing
information and communication systems.

DotGNU is another project
taking advantage of the open
framework of .NET to develop Free Software alternatives to the Microsoft
initiative. Originally, the Free Software Foundation heralded both DotGNU and
Mono as Free Software projects, but Stallman now says that Ximian has “parted
ways” with the movement.

Anonymous Reader points us to an article at PCWorld.com, which gives the workstation three stars out of five. “This speedy, well-rounded, reasonably priced system is a good
choice for people who want to use Linux or who would like to try the OS out
without having to install it on their own.”

Vivienne writes, “What’s new? The new MandrakeControl Center look and feel.
A new reworked installation, with updates download, and a new minimal installation mode (with only basesystem).
Drakbackup, a system backup tools.
New scannerdrake.
Better printerdrake.
New installation rescue mode, with an help menu to automatically mount your old system, rewrite lilo and more.
Encrypted filesystem support.
New diskdrake with encryption support, network filesystem support…
New share function to export local files.
New task-oriented menu.
X session remote-control tools: rfbdrake. To take control remotely of an X session.
Improved urpmi and its graphical interface, rpmdrake.
New MandrakeOnline with updates warning feature, to signal any new updated package available.
New msec, security focus will be one of the major point for 8.2.” Editor’s note: The supplied download sites didn’t work, but here’s one from the Mandrake site.

NewsFactor Network writes, “In a move that extends its affinity for open source computing to mainframe servers, IBM has unveiled two Linux-only servers aimed at moving mainframes into the mainstream for small and mid-size business. IBM said the dedicated Linux servers, a zSeries mainframe and a mid-range iSeries server, can consolidate from 20 to hundreds of servers from Sun Microsystems or Intel. The new servers also can bring together as many as 15 stand-alone Linux and Windows servers on one machine, according to the company.”

– By Grant Gross –

One company related to the Linux desktop pulled the plug this week, while another finally released an early version of its product. NewsForge’s Tina Gasperson got a sneak peak at the LindowsOS sneak preview, while leading Linux gaming company Loki Entertainment Software shut down.

Gasperson’s review, the first available for the much hyped LindowsOS, noted that the claims of easily running Windows software on a Linux-based operating system don’t exactly ring true yet, but it is only a beta-type release. At least LindowsOS, which seems to a customized version of the long-active Wine Windows emulator for Linux tied to the Xandros Linux distribution, can’t be called vaporware anymore.

Over at Loki, company president Scott Draeker talked to NewsForge about the decision to shut down and what’s next for him.
The news of his company’s demise came from a leaked memo, but you heard it first from Draeker on NewsForge/Linux.com. A lot of the discussion on NewsForge centered around mourning for Loki and what happens to gaming in Linux next.

Meanwhile, back at AOL Red Hat …

Last weekend, the Washington Post reported that AOL Time Warner was in talks to buy Red Hat. After a firestorm of debate in the Linux community, with leading Linux kernel contributor Alan Cox saying he’d leave Red Hat if AOL bought it, AOL denied the report.

That didn’t stop the debate from continuing. NewsForge business columnist Jack Bryar suggested that if AOL and Red Hat aren’t talking, maybe they should be. A columnist at osOpinion suggested an AOL alliance with Linux could finally compete with Microsoft.

Other interesting news

A Gartner Group survey found 15% of Asian companies running Linux in one form or another.

A columnist at BusinessWeek suggested the hassle of learning alternatives to Microsoft Office like StarOffice aren’t worth the $400-plus cost savings. And I thought businesses were trying to save money these days.

The headline on the story by a writer from The Register just about says it all: “How Microsoft drove me to Linux.”

Success story of the week

DesktopLinux.com details the switch to Linux by TrustCommerce. It’s interesting, but certainly not the first time we’ve seen Linux used on the desktop in an office-like setting. Check out the NewsForge reports on the city of Largo, Florida, schools in India.

New releases

A couple sites noted the release of Wine 1.0 coming soon. So it’s not really a new release, yet, but worth watching, because Wine is what projects like Lindows are built on.

Newly reviewed

NetworkComputing.com says Evolution 1.0, the Outlook-like mail and calendaring program for Linux, “revolutionizes the Open Source desktop>.” Now if I could get it working with my company mail server …

LinuxJournal.com likes Red Hat 7.2. “Apart from my bias, however, it installs cleanly, comes up without any problems, and it simply works. “

New at NewsForge and Linux.com

Other stories that NewsForge and Linux.com reported first this week:

For all you people new to Linux, NewsForge’s Robin “Roblimo” Miller answers the question, “Why bother to use Linux?” It’s a pragmatist’s answer to the question.

Russell Pavlicek takes a look at NetBSD through the eyes of a long-time Linux user. It’s not that easy to set up, he says, but it’s a good, compact operating system.

We check out User-mode Linux and some other Open Source Linux virtual machine projects.

Stock news

The Nasdaq ended the week at 1,937.70, up just over seven points from Jan. 18’s close of
1.930.34, but down nearly five points Friday itself. Our list of 11 Open Source and related companies reflected that small growth, with seven companies posting mostly modest gains in their stock prices, and four companies posting losses.

Red Hat’s rumored dance with AOL Time Warner released its fourth quarter results, a 17% increase from the third quarter and up 7% from a year ago. Its stock rose a few cents on the news.

IBM announced the result of Linux-only mainframes this week.

Here’s how Open Source and related stocks ended this past week:

Company Name	Symbol	1/18 Close	1/25 Close
Apple	AAPL	22.17	23.25
Borland Software Int’l	BORL	15.39	15.65
Caldera International	CALD	0.86	0.87
Hewlett-Packard	HWP	22.61	22.47
IBM	IBM	114.25	109.28
MandrakeSoft	4477.PA	e4.63	e4.44
Red Hat	RHAT	8.41	8.56
Sun Microsystems	SUNW	12.12	11.16
TiVo	TIVO	6.34	6.76
VA Software	LNUX	2.40	2.42
Wind River Systems	WIND	18.03	18.13

Anonymous Reader writes, “Attitude makes a world of difference. Xine installs easily, offers clear documentation, and is supported by development community that encourages newbies. Oh, and as a streaming media player for Linux, Xine performs fabulously.”

http://www.linuxworld.com/site-stories/2002/0125.x ine.html