– by Tina Gasperson –
Enterprise-scaled management tools for the IT department are nothing new — software that will organize resources, monitor systems and automate processes is a necessity for companies that have LANs and WANs to take care of. Microsoft will sell you a pre-built “solution,” or refer you to a contractor for something specialized. IBM, Intel, HP and Novell each has its own brand of network management software. Even Red Hat provides what it calls “Enterprise Systems Management” consulting.And Caldera has Volution Manager, a product that is pre-packaged but quickly customizable for the unique needs of enterprise. HON Industries is the biggest mid-market office furniture maker in the United States. They use Volution Manager to take care of their continental scale WAN. A case study at Caldera’s site reveals that Jon Syvertson, HON’s UNIX systems manager, needed to run the company’s network from one location. “We had planned to create our own tools for network management internally-until we found Caldera Volution Manager,”
Syvertson said.

“Volution Manager could do exactly what we needed. We didn’t have to spend the time or money creating our own management solution because Volution Manager was already packaged and could be customized to fit our specific network management needs.”

Another benefit of using Caldera’s Volution Manager is the ability to preset profiles and policies so that IT managers don’t have to spend time configuring individual systems.

Volution will run on several Linux distributions, including Caldera’s own desktop and server products, and Red Hat, Mandrake and TurboLinux. You’ll need $2,995 per server installation.

Caldera’s Volution recently was recognized by Network World as a “Category Breaker” favorite product for 2001. “The important thing is that Volution marks almost a ‘coming of age’ for Linux,” wrote Network World columnist Dave Kearns. “The management utilities your CIO wants to see for business-critical operating systems are now available for Linux in a policy-driven, directory-enabled package.”

If you’re interested in Volution as an enterprise solution, you can try before you buy. A free 60-day evaluation version of the Volution product line is available for download at Caldera’s site.

Net-Security.org: ”

If you enter a password that contains a mix
of non-alphabetic and alphabetic characters
to an MS IE password input and then use the
keyboard to select it while holding down tab
the cursor / selected region jumps between
the non-alphabetic characters in exactly the
same manner as it does when you apply the
same technique in word, Interdev, vb etc.”

NWFusion: “Over the past few years, advocates of
the Linux operating system have
mounted several failed offensives to
try and conquer the desktop, but at
the same time a less visible battle
has been going on in the personal
digital assistant market. The
difference? Linux may actually have a
chance on PDAs.”

ZDNET: “A recent government-commissioned study conducted by the Fraunhofer Institute
for Systems and Innovation Research and the Max Planck Institute for Foreign
and Informational Patent, Copyright and Competition Law advised that Europe
should avoid the U.S. model, which allows patents on software that does not
have a technical effect. The German ministry voiced its support for the study
last week, concluding a long and controversial consultation period on
software patent law within the European Commission.”

MSNBC: “The FBI is developing software
capable of inserting a computer virus onto a
suspect’s machine and obtaining encryption
keys, a source familiar with the project told
MSNBC.com. The software, known as “Magic
Lantern,” enables agents to read data that had
been scrambled, a tactic often employed by
criminals to hide information and evade law
enforcement.”

Net-Security.org: “A format string vulnerability exists in gnupg
1.0.5 and previous versions which is fixed in
1.0.6. This vulnerability can be used to
invoke shell commands with privileges of the
currently logged-in user.”

The Register: “The PNG development community should not fear Apple’s
recently revealed alpha blending patent, a leading member
of that band of coders has said.

Greg Roelofs, author of PNG: The Definitive Guide and a
member of the PNG development team, this weekend said
Apple’s patent, number 5,379,129, was “irrelevant” to the
ongoing evolution of PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
format.”

“The new Linux Journal web site, frame-free and run by PHP, will feature new
content daily, host discussion groups and allow customizable user account
preferences. The Linux Journal web site also features an all new archive
containing thousands of articles in an easily searchable format.”

The Register: “It appears that someone has again associated at least
fifty (probably more) domain names with microsoft.com, and
given them humorous titles tending to disparage the mighty
Redmond Leviathan.”

While Russell said that identification and logged information can be useful to targeted individuals or companies — often leading ISPs to kick attackers off of a network —
actually hacking in return is still illegal.

“Even if you’re under attack and it’s legitimate, it’s extremely illegal for you to attack them back,” Russell said. More at NewsFactor.