“The service was built using Sun’s Java programming language, uses the Java Message Service for its connection architecture and runs on the Solaris operating system. The deal is significant because it marks one of the first instances of Sun putting its Internet platform to work to build the type of Web services that could one day help boost productivity for consumers and business professionals.” Network World Fusion.

Announcement posted at Linux Weekly News: “Back on October 25th, 2001, the PostgreSQL Global Development
Group quietly released Beta1 of PostgreSQL v7.2, in order to get the first
round of packaging and testing of our upcoming release in motion.

Today, almost two weeks later and with few major bugs reported, we
are please to announce our second Beta for broader testing.”

IT-Director: “IBM informs us that it has over 300 zSeries customers who are piloting Linux. It also claims that a further 400 are likely to get involved in pilots. The zSeries is the current brand name for the S390 mainframe. So we are witnessing a significant interest in Linux from big companies (by and large, it is only big corporates that have mainframes).

To this news, we can add the remarkable conversion of Amazon to the Linux cause.”

ZDNet: “Can technology aficionados forget about security concerns, the slumping economy and their own job insecurity for a few days to focus on the latest advances in wireless networking and digital cameras?
That’s the key question for the scores of vendors who will be hawking their latest gadgets to shell-shocked visitors at the Comdex Fall 2001 show in Las Vegas next week.”

– By Dan Berkes –
The Fifth Annual Linux Showcase and Conference kicked off its three-day trade show of all things Linux on Thursday morning, and while commercial vendors were on hand to talk about almost anything related to computing, few were willing to discuss the conference itself.
“This is the worst attendance I’ve seen at this show in three years,” said one attendant at a booth selling technical books.

Sales were slow, she admitted, noting that past events always saw her company run out of stock on at least two titles. “I’m going to take home a lot of books this year,” she said.

Almost 90 exhibitors were present for ALS 2000 in Atlanta, including such unlikely business names like America Online and the recently defunct Linux General Store. The economy has taken a toll on the number of exhibitors present for this year’s show — a meager 28. On the brighter side, there was only one no-show at this year’s gathering: Sun Microsystems.

Situated at the entrance to the hall were the two large booths offered by Compaq and Hewlett Packard who, if all goes according to plan, should occupy a single booth come this time next year.

The smaller show gave it a decidedly more community feel than in years past. One of the most popular aisles was organization-heavy, with GNOME, Open Source Development Labs, the Free Standards Group, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and several Linux community organizations.

Of the exhibitors from last year who were contacted to find out why they weren’t at the show, only three were willing to say something, as long as they or their employers weren’t mentioned by name.

All company representatives said their trade show budgets had been slashed dramatically. While they would love to attend ALS if they had the resources, the larger crowds generated by LinuxWorld Expo presented a better value.

Why the cloak and dagger anonymity act? A rationalization came from one corporate explainer: “ALS is the community show and no one wants to be on record by name telling the Linux community, ‘Sorry, you’re just not that important to us right now.'”

The first day of the exhibition was well-attended for a brief period of time. Doors opened at 10 a.m. and a few people drifted in, glancing at the exhibits and then leaving.

Some of the commercial exhibitors were slightly upset by the low turnout, pulling anyone they could into their booths. As I passed by the Cambridge exhibit, a representative wandered up to me and asked “100 terabytes for 12 to 15 thousand dollars?”

“No thanks, I just ate,” came my reply. He retreated back to his booth, disappointed, and I made a mental note not to toy with the emotions of other exhibitors I encountered.

The Linux in Action classes for Linux newcomers that were slated to start around 10 a.m. finally launched some time after 11 a.m. The official reason remains unknown, but there didn’t appear to be a crowd of any sort at the original start time. Both classes were filled to capacity, however.

Traffic did eventually turn from a trickle into a torrent around 11:30 that morning, and stayed that way for the next couple of hours. By 3 p.m., however, the hall was practically empty.

One straggler managed to provide some perspective, however.

“It’s only Thursday,” said conference-goer Brandon Andrade, who described himself as “head geek whipping boy” for a San Francisco dot-com. “This will probably hit critical mass on Friday and maybe do a little better on Saturday. People just can’t take off from work like they used to anymore. We’re in a recession, remember?”

Help Net Security: “An input validation error exists in Sendmail’s debugging functionality. This could be used by an unauthorized user to gain privilege.” Fixed binaries are available.

“Lyris Technologies, Inc., developer of email
messaging and filtering software, announced today that downloads of its
applications for Linux have surpassed all other Unix-based versions combined.
Lyris core products include ListManager for opt-in email newsletters, and
MailShield for server-based protection against unsolicited email.”

Since January 2001, Linux versions of Lyris software have grown from 40% to
more than 60% of the company?s Unix downloads, the balance of which are spread
between FreeBSD and two types of Solaris. ?The increasing demand for our
software on Linux is a real testament to the power of Linux, which we use
extensively in our own ListHosting service business, moving away from Solaris,?
said Lyris CEO John Buckman. ?As we discovered in our research written up
in Sys
Admin, Linux offers the highest performance for mail delivery.? Buckman?s
reference is to an article he co-authored in the June 2001 issue of Sys Admin
Magazine, ?Which OS is fastest for advanced network applications??

Lyris customers using Linux have also achieved significant business results.
UK-based Chinwag, an email and CRM consulting firm, takes advantage of Lyris
ListManager?s ability to handle custom programming extensions. ?We strive to
create the best possible experience for email list members,? said Sam Michel,
CEO of Chinwag. ?And we do that with Linux, which allows us to integrate custom
Java and Perl applications with Lyris ListManager.? Chinwag also runs a
successful list hosting business on Linux that delivers nearly six million
email messages per month. Since converting from Majordomo to ListManager,
Michel has seen an 80% decrease in administrative workload.

Lyris anticipates an even greater demand for Linux in the future. ?Sun-Oracle
has long been the enterprise solution, but we?ve had far more calls for Linux
this year,? commented Buckman. ?Because of that market shift, we?ve decided to
offer ListManager for Linux-Oracle.? Release of the Oracle version is scheduled
for December 2001. Lyris is also evaluating a version for Postgres, given a
growing interest in open-source databases.

More information about ListManager is available at
http://www.lyris.com/products/listmanager/

About Lyris Technologies, Inc.

Based in Berkeley, California, Lyris is a privately held company founded in
1994. Over 3,000 Lyris ListManager and Lyris MailShield licenses are in use
today, by customers ranging from Fortune 500 corporations to fast-growing
startups. New products launched this year include ListManagerSQL for
database-driven mailings, and MailEngine for fast mail delivery and relay. For
more information, please contact (510) 549-4350 or visit http://www.lyris.com

MSNBC: “In a classic display of Microsoft pugnacity, the company hammered
opposing government lawyers on nearly every conceivable point, no matter
how small. Eventually exhaustion became a factor, lawyers on the
government side acknowledge. “It was a marathon session, and new
[settlement] language that had not been there before and that had not been
vetted by the staff showed up in new drafts,” one government attorney says.
“The provisions were weakened at every turn by qualifying exceptions.” Is MSNBC allowed to say this?

InnerPeace Volunteers writes: “An interesting article from the BBC says:

“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. “The company is also facing legal challenges from two companies who claim that key planks of Microsoft’s central net strategy are based on technologies they pioneered.”

theHighlander writes: “From CIOL: Strange are the ways vendors support technologies. Their support is driven less by belief in the technologies and is merely opportunistic. Consequently, you would find them supporting conflicting standards. The result – both consumers and technologies suffer. The latest technology on the block is rewritable DVD.”