“This is the GNOME Summary for 2001-11-24 – 2001-11-29.”

==============================================================
Table of Contents
--------------------------------------------------------------

1. Preliminary results to Gnome Foundation elections 2001 announced
2. Galeon reaches 1.0
3. GNOME 2.0 activity
4. Sun releases GNOME User Guide draft
5. DRAFT Human Interface Guide release (0.1)
6. GNOME VIM bonobo component
7. LinuxSalute seeks GNOME Slackware testers
8. CSL 0.2.0 Release
9. Hacker Activity

==============================================================
1. Preliminary results to Gnome Foundation elections 2001 announced
--------------------------------------------------------------

The elections for the 2001 Board of Directors finished with the winners 
announced. The elections proceeded very smootly for which the membership and 
elections team must be congratulated. Looking at those who were elected there 
is a good mix of experienced hands that represent different interest groups 
within GNOME. There seem to be more people who focus on applications rather 
than the core libraries which probably reflects wider community better. for 
those worried about commercial interests it is worth noting that board members 
serve in a personal capacity serving the wider interests of GNOME. Finally, we 
must thank the outgoing board members who I think have done a sterling job this 
last year. 

        
http://lists.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2001-November/msg00037.htmlhttp://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/11/28/0754234&mode=thread

==============================================================
2. Galeon reaches 1.0
--------------------------------------------------------------

Galeon is a web-browser built on top of the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine. It 
uses native GTK+ widgets to reduce its overheads making it fast and stable. 
Along with this it has introduced a host of features making it a favourite for 
many users. As the team says in their short announcement, they have finally hit 
their major release after a year and a half of hard work. If you haven't tried 
it now is the time too, the team is already proceeding with new features! 

        http://galeon.sourceforge.net/news/index.php#26http://theregister.co.uk/content/4/23024.html

==============================================================
3. GNOME 2.0 activity
--------------------------------------------------------------

Telsa sent an update on the timetable pointing out that the first beta is due 
in under a week. This has caused everyone to consider how much work is left to 
do and realise that a date slip is very likely. On the good side Seth Nickell 
announced some screenshots of the current desktop - it looks amazingly similar 
to the current desktop which is the basic idea for the first release. Michael 
also announced a picture of nautilus up and running on the GNOME 2.0 desktop. 

        
http://lists.gnome.org/archives/gnome-2-0-list/2001-November/msg00603.htmlhttp://www.stanford.edu/~snickell/gnome2.pnghttp://primates.ximian.com/~michael/nautilus2.png

==============================================================
4. Sun releases GNOME User Guide draft
--------------------------------------------------------------

Pat Costello announced an initial release of a User Guide for Gnome. Internally 
to Sun this is the guide that will be used for the Solaris version of GNOME, 
but Pat feels the content is suitably generic that it can be used elewhere. At 
this stage the documentation team would like feedback and comments so that they 
can improve it. This is great work and lets hope it will have a bit impact on 
the level of help users have when starting with GNOME. 

        
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-doc-list/2001-November/msg00078.html

==============================================================
5. DRAFT Human Interface Guide release (0.1)
--------------------------------------------------------------

The Userability Project has been working really hard in the last few months. 
They've now released an initial version of the Interface Guidelines which will 
show hackers how to give their applications a consistent look and feel. The 
idea is that GNOME applications will increase the user experience by making 
them easy and intuitive to use. Lots of things are missing at this stage and 
the team is adding stuff all the time - so if you'd like to get your two cents 
of comment in now is the time to do it! 

        
http://lists.gnome.org/archives/gnome-2-0-list/2001-November/msg00545.html

==============================================================
6. GNOME VIM bonobo component
--------------------------------------------------------------

Jason Hildebrand announced a new Bonobo component that wraps vim via a number 
of the GtkHTML interfaces. This means that with a little bit of help Ximians 
Evolution can be made use use vim for editing emails rather than the current 
default editor. It is also a very nice example of the power of components. 

        http://www.opensky.ca/gnome-vim/

==============================================================
7. LinuxSalute seeks GNOME Slackware testers
--------------------------------------------------------------

The LinuxSalute team is hoping to do for Slackware what Ximian has done for 
lots of other distributions by making GNOME easy to install and maintain. If 
you're interested in helping their effort by testing out the packages visit 
their homepage and send them an email. Good luck! 

       http://www.linuxsalute.com/

==============================================================
8. CSL 0.2.0 Release
--------------------------------------------------------------

CSL is an effort to remove some of the problems in sound support for the 
desktop. Tim Janik explains it as being a wrapper around the hardware and sound 
daemons removing other dependencies. They have now released an API and would 
love for all interested parties to send comments in so that they can make 
whatever alterations are required at this point. 
For eagle eyed readers you will note that this is out of date, I accidently 
missed it out a few Summaries ago after promising Tim I would include it! 

        http://www.arts-project.org/doc/csl-0.2.0.html

==============================================================
9. Hacker Activity
--------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for Paul Warren for these lists.

Most active modules:
 184 gnucash
 73 gnome-core
 71 gimp
 57 galeon
 54 evolution
 49 gnome-utils
 37 gtk+
 37 web-devel-2
 36 porting-doc
 30 atomix
 29 gnomeicu
 27 mc
 27 gtkmm-root
 27 guikachu
 26 gnome-python
 25 gnumeric
 24 pybliographer
 23 gnomemm
 22 gmime
 21 SashComponents
[134 active modules omitted]

Most active hackers:
 70 menthos
 57 rlb (gnucash)
 55 warlord (gnucash)
 39 cactus
 39 malcolm
 38 seth
 38 baddog
 37 murrayc
 35 mmclouglin
 31 fejj
 29 linas
 28 peticolas (gnucash)
 27 linas (gnucash)
 26 owen
 24 veillard
 24 rodrigo
 23 jens
 23 fredgo
 22 msw
 22 hp
[152 active hackers omitted]


It's a pretty quiet week on the Summary; partially this is time constraints on 
my part but judging by the lists everyone is working on the GNOME 2.0 rlease so 
not much else is going on. 
Until next time, 
Steve 

This week in DotGNU - no 7 (December 1, 2001)
=============================================
See http://www.dotgnu.org for general information about DotGNU.

1. "Curse of Frogger" C# video game released
2. IRC meeting of DotGNU, GNUCOMM, GNU Enterprise, phpGroupWare
3. New FAQ page on the DotGNU website
4. Discussion of Virtual ID systems



"Curse of Frogger" C# video game released
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rhys Weatherley has released "Curse of Frogger", a curses-based game
in the tradition of the "Frogger" arcade game.  It is written mostly
in C#, with a small amount of C to provide the curses glue logic via
PInvoke.  Version 0.2.6 or later of Portable.NET is required.  This
game is not just a mere amusement, but a demonstration that it is now
possible to implement real programs with DotGNU Portable.NET, and an
invitation to everyone to experiment with the C# compiler and
development tools.

Web Page: http://www.southern-storm.com.au/portable_net.html
Download: http://www.southern-storm.com.au/download/pnetcurses-0.0.1.tar.gz



IRC meeting of DotGNU, GNUCOMM, GNU Enterprise, phpGroupWare
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bradley Kuhn has organized an IRC meeting with representatives of the
GNU projects DotGNU, GNUCOMM, GNU Enterprise and phpGroupWare to
discuss possible cooperation.  Consensus has been reached on the
following points:

  * GNU Enterprise folks will try to write a wrapper library for as many
    languages as possible that will abstract away the details of XML-RPC,
    SOAP, and other such protocols.  Other projects will adopt this
    library if and when it comes into being for their chosen
    implementation language.

  * In the meantime, GNUe, DotGNU, GNU Groupware Standards, and
    phpGroupWare will favor XML-RPC over other RPC protocols whenever
    possible.  SOAP is the second choice if XML-RPC is impossible for
    some reason.


New FAQ page on the DotGNU website
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An FAQ page has been added to the DotGNU website which answers
32 questions about the DotGNU vision, about contributing to the
DotGNU project, and about licensing issues.  The most noteworthy
parts of the FAQ are the definition of "webservices", the discussion
of how DotGNU can solve the vendor lock-in problem, and the list of
packages which need to get ready in time for DotGNU 1.0

http://www.dotgnu.org/faq.html


Discussion of Virtual ID systems
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A good, high-level discussion of Virtual ID systems has started on the
auth list.  Those who are not subscribed (yet) are encouraged to read
the conversation in the archives, starting with message
http://archive.dotgnu.org/pipermail/auth/2001-November/000377.html
You can subscribe to the list at
http://subscribe.dotgnu.org/mailman/listinfo/auth



                             *   *    *

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Translations of "This week in DotGNU" into other languages are
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"This week in DotGNU" is Copyright (C) 2001 by Norbert Bollow.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire issue is
permitted in any medium or format, provided this notice is
preserved.
==================================================================END.

Wired: “The flurry of virulent e-mail worms that attack Outlook users can be prevented by a free patch on Microsoft’s website. The problem: It’s impossible to find and cumbersome to install.”

LinuxSecurity: “This week, perhaps the most interesting articles include “Theo de Raadt Discusses OpenBSD and Security,” “Telecommuting:
Keeping Data Safe and Secure,” and “Vulnerability Life Cycles.” Also this week the “qmail Anti-Spam HOWTO” and “Securing
Debian HOWTO” was released.”

– By Joe Barr –

Ximian Inc. today officially releases its long awaited 1.0 version of
Evolution, a sophisticated mail client/address book/calendaring
package. Evolution has been in production for more than two years and consists of more
than 750,000 lines of code. In a second announcement, Ximian announced
an Evolution plug-in called Ximian Connector Exchange 2000. Ximian
Connector allows Evolution users to seamlessly interact with Microsoft Exchange 2000
servers.

Code-named “Lucy” after the so called “missing link” between man and ape discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, Ximian Connector will be available early next year. It will be followed by a second version compatible with Exchange 5.5.

While Evolution is much larger piece of work than Ximian Connector in
terms of lines of code and time and effort to develop, it may be that
Connector is the more important of the two to Ximian’s future. Unlike
Evolution, which is free software licensed under the terms of the GPL,
Connector is a proprietary add-on. This mix of proprietary and open
source represents a new business model for Ximian. And it’s sure to cause
some controversy in the Linux/Open Source communities.

I had a chance to spend a few minutes on the phone with Nat Friedman,
Ximian co-founder and vice president of product development, last Friday to
discuss the announcements. Friedman had the kind of elation in his voice
that comes at the end of a very long, very large development process.
He told me that Evolution 1.0 has been through about 20 preview
releases. About 10,000 people a day are downloading the nightly snapshot, and Friedman estimates that there are already about 100,000 people using
Evolution.

Friedman recounted Ximian’s goals when the team first began work on
Evolution. They saw that none of the existing Linux mail clients could really
step up to provide the full functionality and interoperability required
for acceptance on a corporate desktop. They wanted to deliver a
product which would increase the Linux presence on that desktop. In his
words, “We saw a major opportunity for Linux to penetrate the corporate
environment if the appropriate corporate tools were available.”

Evolution 1.0 will be available for download today for free,
from the Ximian site. It will also be part of the two boxed versions of
Ximian Desktop, which sells for $29.95 in the Standard Edition and
$49.95 in the Professional Edition. It debuts with support for Red Hat
versions 6.2 to 7.2, Mandrake versions 7.0 to 8.0, SuSE 6.4 to 7.2, Debian
2.2, and TurboLinux 6.0. Also supported are YellowDog 1.2 and 2.0, LinuxPPC
2000, and Solaris 8. More versions will be supported in the near
future, with Mandrake 8.1 coming as early as two weeks.

As you go over the feature list for Evolution, it becomes clear that it
is intended to become the Outlook/Outlook Express for Linux and Unix.
Except in regard to security, of course. Although I’ve asked Friedman
the question before, with the BADTRANS worm circulating the wild world
of Windows recently, I asked again if Evolution would be as vulnerable
to such things as Outlook and Outlook Express are. The answer was no. He
explained that “we do not provide the facility for executing code that
you receive in the mail.” Friedman added that Ximian “treats all the
data that comes off the network as hostile, and we audit the code which
is network facing.”

Turning to the subject of Ximian Connector, I asked if Ximian expected
flamage from the community for selling a proprietary software package.
He replied, “We expect less than we would have expected awhile ago. I
think that people understand that businesses have to survive. And the
people know that the bloody carcasses of Open Source companies line the
horizon right now.”

Selling proprietary software is a major step for Ximian, and Friedman
explained it is not a decision lightly made. Then he gave four reasons
why they decided on this course:

• It doesn’t hurt the Open Source community.
• Evolution, the core product, is completely open and GPLed.
• Ximian has contributed more than 2 million lines of Open Source code.
• The only customers who will buy Ximian Connector have already
  decided on a proprietary environment.

But the bottom line came when I asked if it had to be proprietary
because of the inclusion of proprietary Microsoft protocols or API. He said
no. Instead, Friedman said, “It is proprietary is because they (Ximian)
intend to make money from it.” He added that “it is an opportunity for
us to make money. This is business activity which will support us.” He
projects that sales of Ximian Connector will completely underwrite the
Open Source development of Evolution.

Although Friedman says Ximian does expect some criticism and debate over
the plan, he is completely comfortable with the model. He told me that
“I really like the model of having this core enormous piece of software
which is totally free, and then filling out little pieces on the side
for corporations.” And he has a question ready for all those who react
ideologically against it: Would they rather Evolution not exist at all?

Ximian Connector will sell for $69 a seat. Its value proposition is
that it can replace an entire Windows machine. In many large
corporations, there might be 50,000 Windows users and 5,000 Linux/Unix users.
But corporate standards might dictate the use of Microsoft Exchange for
mail and calendaring. Where that’s the case, a second PC has to be put
on the desk of the Linux/Unix users simply to comply. Ximian
Connector, Friedman says, “solves the two desktop problem” because now all the
needs can be met on a single Linux or Unix box.

Harry Zink writes: “The PostNuke Project announces the release of version 0.70, codename ‘Rogue’. The latest version of PostNuke further enhances the lead over other CMS/WebLog systems with a new unified admin/user permissions system, MD5 passwords for added security, a db abstraction layer (based on the ADODB architecture), support for running multiple sites from one code-base, a language tool that assists in the creation of lingual files, support for wiki and bbcode for text input formatting, more modularizations, and now support for conversions from myPHPNuke… and a bugfix marathon has virtually eliminated all reported bugs. The Rogue release represents a milestone in PostNuke development.”

Fairfax IT reports that “the Queen of England has dumped a two-year association with the open source community by dumping Linux in favor of Microsoft.”

– By Grant Gross –

This week’s news featured a couple of conflicting studies about the cost of using Open Source or Free Software in business settings. In the more scientific study, the CRN news weekly’s Test Center found that a small Linux network of computers cost 93 percent less to set up than a similar Windows network.

The CRN Test Center concluded: “Linux and associated Linux applications can accomplish many of the same tasks as the Wintel standard at a much lower initial cost.” That’s something many Open Source/Free Software advocates have been preaching for a long time, but maybe studies like this will open the eyes of more businesspeople.

On the other hand, some people are still talking about the “hidden costs” of Open Source/Free Software. An article at Designtechnica.com (warning: not viewable in some browsers) suggests that running Linux and Free Software can be time-consuming. But the article doesn’t really put a cost to that time. Now if someone would do a study combining the cost-savings of Open Source software and the time spent, that might be really interesting. My guess, after you factor the time a business’ computer dudes spend on the security problems and frequent Blue Screens of Death that haunt Microsoft products, Open Source products save time after the initial set-up.

DMCA foes take a beating

Backers of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which many in the Open Source and Free Software communities have opposed for its anti-circumvention provisions, won a couple of battles in court this week.

A New York court ruled that 2600.com could be banned from publishing the DeCSS code, which allows Linux users to decode and play DVDs on their systems. Of course, dozens of other sites — we won’t name any names — have published or linked to that code, and it’s even been printed on a T-shirt.

This same week, a New Jersey judge dismissed the lawsuit of Princeton Professor Ed Felton’s research team against the music industry and the U.S. government over threats the team would be prosecuted for publishing its research on anti-copying technology. An appeal is planned.

As Wired.com summarized: “Copyright law foes lose big.”

IBM talks up grid computing

IBM this week announced that a computing grid, using Linux for critical functions, will help several university hospitals diagnose and research breast cancer. IBM execs are pitching grids as the next big thing in computing, and the company is using Linux with those grids.

Success story of the week

NewsForge freelancer Daniel P. Dern looks at how Turner Consulting Group is saving money and building affordable custom solutions for its customers by using Open Source software.

Newly reviewed

LinuxLaboratory.org likes the Galeon 1.0 browser (I’m using an earlier version to browse while I write this story) so much that the reviewer says it spells doom for competing Opera.

Freelancer Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reviews the handful of options for running Windows programs on Linux, detailing each one’s strengths and weaknesses.

NewsForge’s Tina Gasperson checks out the qtella file-sharing program for Linux and finds it faster and more advanced than the competition.

New at NewsForge and Linux.com

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

Gasperson reports that Lineo has granted unrestricted use of the CP/M technology, bringing a popular site about the operating system for microcomputers back online.

Business columnist Jack Bryar has some advice for Sony: Embrace Linux because Microsoft is out to get you.

NewsForge’s Robin “Roblimo” Miller addresses the problem of lack of hardware support in Linux by telling Linux fans to sell more people on the operating system.

Stock news

It was a mixed week for the tech-heavy Nasdaq index and Open Source-related stocks this week. Nasdaq ended the week at 1930.58, down Friday 2.68 points, but up from 1903.20 Nov. 23. Open Source-related stocks were mixed, but Linux-related companies Red Hat and Caldera both rose sharply this week, possibly because of IBM’s announcement it would support Red Hat on its server products.

Among Open-Source related stocks going the other way this week: TiVO and MandrakeSoft.

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

Company Name	Symbol	11/23 Close	11/30 Close
Apple	AAPL	19.84	21.30
Borland Software Int’l	BORL	13.50	14.46
Caldera International	CALD	0.50	0.77
Hewlett-Packard	HWP	20.94	21.99
IBM	IBM	115.35	115.59
MandrakeSoft	4477.PA	e5.84	e5.40
Red Hat	RHAT	5.84	7.98
Sun Microsystems	SUNW	12.81	14.24
TiVo	TIVO	5.80	5.21
VA Linux Systems	LNUX	2.43	2.67
Wind River Systems	WIND	18.57	17.20

Slashdot is discussing a Kernel Trap article about the evolution of Linux from a discussion on the Linux Kernel mailing list (lkml).

Anonymous Reader writes “CRN features a cover story in its Dec. 3 issue in which its CRN Test Center put together a Microsoft Windows-free network with a Linux server and five workstations at a 93 percent software cost savings to a comparable Windows solution.
Full story here”