Kelly McNeill writes: “Industry watchers say the settlement might block many of the tactics used by Microsoft to seize control of the Internet browser market. But that struggle ended years ago, when exhausted browser rival Netscape Communications Corp. was bought up by America Online Inc. These days, Microsoft can easily afford to change some of these sharp-elbowed practices, because its browser monopoly now appears unshakable.”

Kelly McNeill writes: “If it were not for the inexpensive, cutthroat PC market, Microsoft wouldn’t have a perch on which to base its monopoly, and Linux might not have been written, had Linus been unable to afford a computer required to write it. Yet if price is the only factor that establishes a sustainable market, then Apple shouldn’t exist. So why is Apple still around?”

Anonymous Reader writes: “What is most interesting about the GIDI Digital Jukebox is that it comes in three distinct body designs for home use, professional use, and for car/boat use. The 80GB players run between $715 for the car unit and $795 for the rack mounted Pro unit, not bad considering the 5GB Apple iPod is listing for $400. The GIDI also offers their players in 20, 40, and 60GB versions. The article includes photos of all the body styles.

http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2001/gidi.html“

Math enthusiast writes: “Hi folks ,
Just saw that the mathworld site is back online, http://mathworld.wolfram.com/
and the author’s note on the saga and the court case is actually here…
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/authors_note.html

check that out will you,
kris”

“Yes, you read that right: the release candidate for Evolution 1.0 hit
the wires this evening. After two years of hard work and more than
700 thousand lines of code written, the sleepless hackers at Ximian
are finally getting to the long-awaited 1.0 release of Evolution, the
GNOME groupware suite.”

Evolution 0.99 is feature-complete for 1.0.  All user-visible text 
and user interface details are the same as they will be for version
1.0.  Barring the discovery of major bugs, this Release Candidate 
will become the 1.0 build.  All that stands between the this 
software and the title of "1.0" are thousands of users trying to 
find fault with the software.

Despite the impending 1.0 release, you shouldn't stop looking for
bugs.  If you find a problem, we want to know about it!  You can
submit a bug report at http://bugzilla.ximian.com or with the GNOME
Bug Report tool (Programs ->Utilities ->Bug Buddy).  Prizes will be
awarded to those reporting the nastiest and strangest bugs, and of
course for the greatest number of reports.

Every Thursday, developers and users of Evolution gather to find,
isolate, and destroy bugs.  To participate, open your IRC client and
visit the #evobugs channel, located on the irc.gnome.org server.
Ximian QA master Luis Villa will be in attendance between 9 AM and 9
PM Eastern Standard Time.


AVAILABILITY

If you use Ximian GNOME, you can install this version by subscribing
to the Ximian GNOME channel in Red Carpet (System -> Get Software).

If you do not have Ximian GNOME installed, you can download Evolution
binaries from our FTP server at:

         ftp://ftp.ximian.com/pub/ximian-gnome/

or visit our Source Code page at:

         http://www.ximian.com/devzone/source.html

to get the latest source tarballs.


KNOWN ISSUES

  - In this build only, Palm-OS sychronization is temporarily
    disabled.  It will return in the next release.
  - Under certain rare circumstances, IMAP connections over SSL can
    hang Evolution.  We expect to have this issue resolved shortly.


CHANGES SINCE BETA 5:

Shell:

  - Fixed problems with icons not showing up in the assistants.  
    (Ettore, Anna)
  - Fixed some drag-and-drop bugs.  (Ettore)
  - Fixed some random crashes and made the shell more robust in case
    of activation problems or components crashing.  (Ettore)
  - Implemented a newer, prettier about box.  (Ettore)
  - Made sure the quit message always gets displayed.  (Ettore)
  - Made sure the shell doesn't allow folder names with slashes.
    (Ettore)
  - Made the folder selection and folder creation dialogs play better
    with the WM for out-of-proc components.  (Ettore)
  - Make sure components don't display dialogs before the shell
    windows are displayed.  (Ettore)
  - Fixed some problems with copying/transferring/renaming folders.
    (Ettore)
  - Made the pop-up folder bar have the expected size when popped up.
    (Ettore)

Mailer:

  - Fixed SMTP truncation, IMAP/SSL truncation/hangs when
    sending/appending messages.  (Jeff)
  - Implemented rename for imap/maildir folders.  Rename also tracked
    in vfolder and filter code.  Use rename for local folders when we
    can instead of copy/delete.  (Michael, Jeff)
  - Fixed startup wizard next page race bugs. (Michael)
  - Fixed toolbars vanishing. (Michael)
  - Made filter/vfolder on mailing lists honor domains, but also
    backward compatible.  (Michael)
  - Fixed the password coming up behind the main window.  (Michael,
    Ettore)
  - Fixed numerous crash on startup/exit/while doing nothing/switching
    folder/components, many races and other architectural errors.
    (Michael, Jeff)
  - Bunch of vFolder fixes and feature completion. (Michael)
  - Added a 'index body' option to configure folder.  (Michael)
  - Fixed 'unread' counts, again.  (Michael)
  - Fixed some problems leaking file descriptors and overusing them
    when not necessary.  (Michael)
  - Implemented iconv() caching and Solaris friendly iconv name
    converter.  Made override display charset work in more cases.
    (Michael, Jeff)
  - Various untranslated buttons/menus and other translation issues
    fixed.  (Michael, Jeff)
  - Offline searching in IMAP. (Michael)
  - Don't warn the user if he drags a message and drops it in the same
    place.  (Jeff)
  - Fixed replying-to and forwarding messages with attachments to
    attach the appropriate attachments in the new message.  (Jeff, 
    Larry)
  - Don't allow the user to edit the default searches and keep all the
    search menus consistant accross all folders.  (Jeff)
  - Allow the user to drag-and-drop and/or move messages to the Trash
    folder.  (Jeff)
  - Various fixes to the filtering code.  (Jeff, Michael)
  - Make various dialogs non-modal.  (Jeff)
  - Fixes to POP3 UID caching so users can "leave mail on server" and
    not get duplicates.  (Jeff)
  - Fixes to IMAP caching code where servers support the UIDPLUS
    extension. Will also now un-cache a folder when the user deletes
    it from the IMAP server.  (Jeff)
  - Removed support for PGP 2.6.x due to security issues (pgp would
    always return 0 suggesting that the signature was valid even when
    it wasn't).  (Jeff)
  - "Whitespace-only" recipients are now ignored, rather than being
    flagged as invalid. (Trow)
  - Fixed bugs related to message searching: memory leak, i18n 
    problems, etc. (Trow)
  - We no longer leave stray windows lying around after doing the
    "Add Sender to Addressbook" operation. (Trow)
  - Bcc: headers are now shown when viewing drafts, sent mail. (Trow)
  - Lots and lots and lots of other little and not so little things.
    (Michael, Jeff, Dan, Trow)

Addressbook:

  - General bug fixes.  (Everybody)
  - Printing fixes.  (Trow)
  - Fixed the dreaded "this should never happen" bug.  (Trow)
  - Plugged memory leaks.  (Trow)
  - Fixed use-score sort ordering when doing completion.  (Trow)
  - Fixed EAddressPopup race conditions.  (Trow)
  - Implemented transfer function for shell, so moving contact
    folders now works.  (Trow)
  - Fixed occasional completion flakiness.  (Trow)
  - Fixed contact count on folder bar.  (Trow)
  - Fixes for LDAP/multibook address completion.  (Toshok, Trow)
  - Added a "Do you want to save changes?" dialog to the contact 
    and contact list editors. (Toshok)
  - Fixed date (birthday and anniversary) handling for LDAP. (Toshok)
  - Fixed nasty LDAP modification bug. (Toshok)
  - Add a config setting (/Addressbook/default_book_uri) to specify 
    where vcards and email addresses from mail messages are stored as 
    contacts. (Toshok)
  - Fixed problem that arose in an earlier beta where some contacts
    couldn't be modified or deleted from local addressbook.
    (Toshok)
  - LDIF Importer.  (Toshok, Michael M. Morrison)
  - Fixed Memory Leaks.  (Trow)
  - Always show the correct message about the number of contacts on 
    the message bar.  (Trow)
  - Fixed printing of contacts.  (Trow)
  - Fixed the incredibly annoying bug which caused completed
    (underlined) contacts to spontaneously revert when edited.
    (Trow)
  - Better event handling in minicard view.  (Chris Lahey)
  - Fixed Bold font in select names dialog.  (Chris Lahey)
  - Show error dialog if saving a contact to a file fails.  (Chris 
    Lahey)
  - Handle carriage returns in any contact field properly.  (Chris 
    Lahey)

Summary:

  - Worked around gnome-vfs problems that were causing crashes.  
    (Trow)
  - Set the defaults to be CNN and Boston (Ettore)
  - Move the location of the RDF file to be in a place that will 
    always exist.
  - Fixed numerous assorted bugs. (Trow, Iain)
  - Made the offline operation work correctly. (Iain)
  - Fixed a bug were the summary wouldn't retain settings if all 
    folders, or RDFs, or weather stations were removed. (Iain)

Importers:
  - Made the pine importer work for multidepth mail folders. (Iain)

Calendar:

  - Underlined accelerators now work in the editor dialogs.  (Damon)
  - Many fixes for scheduling meetings.  (JP)
  - Status bar messages for long queries.  (Rodrigo)
  - Appointments with empty summaries are now deleted from the views.
    Also, you can press Escape to cancel editing.  (Federico)
  - The alarm daemon no longer displays "old" alarms twice. (Federico)
  - Alarms now handle timezones correctly.  (Federico)
  - Repeating alarms are now handled.  (Federico)
  - The alarm daemon is launched as soon as the calendar starts, not
    when you actually open a folder.  (Federico)
  - You can now set a default reminder to be added to new appointments
    .  (Federico)
  - Fixes for printing week views.  (Damon)
  - Tasks printout now matches the task list better.  (Damon)
  - Better handling of DATE values, as opposed to DATE-TIME ones.  
    (Damon)
  - Many changes to handle the default timezone better.  (Damon)
  - Recurrence generation fixes.  (Damon)
  - Fixed merging of complete VCALENDAR components.  (Damon)
  - Fixes to the folder transfer functions.  (Ettore, Federico)
  - Tasks activation fixes.  (Damon)
  - Outlook interoperability fixes.  (Damon, JP)
  - Miscellaneous fixes to the event/task editors.  (Damon, JP, 
    Federico)
  - New iCalendar importer.  (Rodrigo)
  - Fixed problems introduced in Beta 6 due to the changes in the URI
    management functions.  (Rodrigo)
  - Prettier alarm notification dialog.  (Larry)
  - Session management for the alarm daemon.  (Federico)
  - Added activity bars for long calendar operations.  (Rodrigo)
  - Added iCal file importer.  (Rodrigo)
  - Show error dialogs on calendar failures.  (Rodrigo)

Conduits:

  - Addressbook phone numbers now preserved if they can't all be
    synced to desktop. (JP)
  - Sync addressbook phone numbers from non-english pilots. (JP)
  - Various memory leak fixes. (JP)
  - Handle multi-day calendar events (without recurrences). (JP)
  - Make sure task records are marked complete in every relevant 
    field. (JP)
  - Use new timezone stuff everywhere. (JP, Damon)
  - Translate task priorities better. (JP)
_______________________________________________
gnome-announce-list mailing list
gnome-announce-list@gnome.org
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-announce-list

Internet.com: “Turbolinux 7 Server’s large file support capabilities enable users to transfer files up to 4 TB. According
to Turbolinux, the increasing use of Linux in animation production and for scientific clustering, as well as the continued growth of PC/x86 hardware for those applications,
illustrates the need for large file support.”

Anonymous Reader writes: “A new version of PHP-Nuke has been released today. PHP-Nuke 5.3, the most popular web portal script (Content Management System) written in PHP, has a lor of new features, bugs and security fixes. Some of the most important enhancements are the implementation of a new SQL abstraction layer with support for 8 databses servers, a new themes system and a new modules administration system, among others. With this improvements, PHP-Nuke will become the most powerful script ever wrote. Additionaly the web official web site look has been changed. PHP-Nuke is sponsored by MandrakeSoft (creators of Linux Mandrake, one of the best Linux distros) but looks that they need some more sponsors for the project. PHP-Nuke official site: http://phpnuke.org
PHP-Nuke Download page: Here.”

Kelly McNeill writes: “Although KDE is the best GUI that I’ve seen and used — I have not seen OS X — it still suffers from squareness. Unfortunately, KDE is trying to look and behave more like MS Windows. I can’t think of anything more constrained than MS programs. I want it my way, not Microsoft’s.”

Kelly McNeill writes “The proposed settlement between Microsoft Corp. and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has caused a split in the DOJ’s plaintiff partners — 18 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia. Half of the 18 states that had joined the DOJ’s prosecution in the Microsoft antitrust case said Tuesday they would sign the negotiated settlement between the company and federal lawyers, and half said they would continue to pursue the litigation in an effort to get harsher restrictions.”

– By Grant Gross –

Alan Cox is not only a long-time Linux kernel contributor and maintainer, he also isn’t afraid to make waves once in awhile. While Linux kernel creator Linus Torvalds usually stays above the fray of the politics of Open Source and related topics, the U.K.-based Cox, sometimes referred to as Torvalds’ second in command, isn’t afraid to weigh in on several topics, including his opposition to the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Last week, Cox announced that he’s passing the maintenance of the 2.4 kernel onto another member of the kernel team. We thought it was a good time to check in with him, and ask him what’s next on his plate. (Links added by NewsForge, not Cox.)

Work issues

NewsForge: You announced recently that you’ll be passing on the maintenance of the 2.4 kernel to Marcelo Tosatti, but it sounds like you’ll continue to be involved in kernel development and in other Linux issues. What are your plans in the coming months?

Cox: I have a list of things I want to get done in 2.5, most of which consist of
removing old ugly code. There is some device driver stuff I want to work on,
and there are a whole collection of userspace things I want to play with
somewhat more — especially configuration tools and usability. There is basic
stuff that bugs me and I don’t have to fix right now — like PPP
configuration tools not bothering to say, “You have no firewall configured
would you like to run the firewall configuration tool.”

NewsForge: You said you’d like to spend more time working on Red Hat customer needs. What’s your role at Red Hat and how do you interact with customers?

Cox: Primarily I work on the kernel and kernel related projects but I’m also
there to ensure that we can deliver our enterprise customers an extremely
high level of support in deploying Linux, in customising Linux and very
importantly in supporting them by getting problems fixed fast.

DMCA issues

NewsForge: You recently announced that you wouldn’t detail Linux kernel security fixes because of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Concerns raised about your choice seem to be along the vein of, “How can the DMCA be used against you with your own code?” You answered that Linux’s standard security features may be used for “rights management” of copyrighted work. Can you explain your view further without running afoul of the DMCA yourself?

Cox: The DMCA makes no distinctions about intent, ownership or even permission. Those are perhaps the biggest problems it has in the general case.

File permissions are rights management. The DMCA makes it very difficult to
discuss anything that might compromise “rights management,” even if all you
did was show that the products people were using are dangerously insecure.
Right now, for example, it’s not clear that someone finding a rights management
systems used by a friendly company was flawed without being prosecuted.

The advice given was pretty simple — chances of being arrested non-zero; chance of being convicted by a sane U.S. court — nil. However, spending six
months trapped in the U.S.A. does not appeal to me.

NewsForge: In July, you called for a boycott of U.S. technology conferences, including the Annual Linux Showcase happening this week, because of the DMCA and the U.S. FBI’s use of it to prosecute Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov. What’s the status of that boycott?

Cox: It stands. I’m far from alone in the boycott. Some conferences —
particularly security vulnerability ones have relocated outside of the U.S.A.
fearing persecution. I’m hopeful that the Felten case will settle the issue
and bury that problem for good. [In the case, a Princeton professor’s team was threatened with DMCA prosecution for presenting research on a music industry anti-copying technology. Edward Felten is now suing the recording industry and the government over those threats.] It’s just unfortunate that the politicians don’t seem to think that making sure a law is constitutional is part of their duty. Sadly that isn’t a U.S.-specific disease. I’ve recently joined the FIPR [Foundation for Information Policy Research] advisory council to help make sure our politicians don’t do unfortunate
things due to lack of knowledge of the IT field.

Kernel issues

NewsForge: We read that you and Linus have resolved a virtual memory disagreement you’ve had. Are you happy with the new code?

Cox: As of 2.4.14, it is looking good. It looks like that will be the first 2.4
kernel (well plus a small fix or two) that passes the Red Hat QA test sets
without serious adulteration. That can only be a good thing.

NewsForge: You’re quoted in an eWeek story saying that the biggest disagreement remaining is over dynamic device naming in 2.5. Can you explain that issue to people who don’t
follow the kernel development team that closely?

Cox: Computer systems get a lot more dynamic in configuration — you can now hot-swap many devices without expensive bangs and smoke. One of the problems
that causes is that historically Unix was tied around a static naming and
structure. Your /home didn’t wander around for example.

One of the big issues therefore is how you handle naming and finding objects
that can shuffle around over time and between boots. Linus favours a more
devfs like approach, I favour a real /dev file system and creating nodes on
the fly by a usermode daemon. This allows you to remember file permissions
and policy more easily. It also means you need a way to describe a device
(traditionally a major/minor numbering) which Linus doesn’t like.

NewsForge: The last year or so has seen more corporations involved in Linux development, namely IBM. Are you happy with how companies like IBM have worked with the kernel team?

Cox: They vary. Some of it is corporate culture. A lot of Intel has been very
difficult to work with because they have an almost secret service-like need
-to-know basis for a lot of information. Over time both sides are learning
how to improve that but its still pretty rocky in places both from that and
also because there are Perl people with long memories who regard the
Randal Schwartz affair as still grounds for non-cooperation.

IBM has been a mixture. The S/390 people basically turned up with a complete
Linux coding style compliant and “Linuxthink” S/390 tree ready to merge.
That was quite an amazing achievement. Other bits of IBM turned up with
ugly Windows escapee code that took time to clean up. The PPC64 stuff is up
in the air but will get there.

Some of it has worked very well. I’ve had an Intel performance improvement,
improved further by Compaq and bugfixed by Dell, for example. Gradually these
big companies are figuring out how to make the system work while not
accidentally revealing future product directions that might be useful to
competitors.

It has been good, and we have received a lot of very general improvements
from big companies that people overlook — system 5 semaphore optimisations and
shmfs stuff from SAP, scsi pieces from HP and so on.

NewsForge: In general, what’s next for the Linux kernel? What features/changes would you like to see in upcoming kernels?

Cox: I really want to see the Compaq clustering code, the IBM DLM and OpenGFS in the 2.5 tree creating a real clustered Linux with true failover
facilities. That will really open the door to the enterprise market.

NewsForge: Where do you see Linux in a couple of years? What’s your vision for Linux in the near future?

Cox: Initially, still the server end of things and embedded systems. Over time,
however, I think Microsoft’s expensive software creation methods and
spiraling price hikes will open the desktop up to competition. I think StarOffice will be important here and also InterMezzo. InterMezzo is the perfect basis for building an environment where there is “the company file system”
and it is scalable enough to deliver that.

Some of that depends on the states fixing the Microsoft “settlement.” Unless they go beyond “can ship two operating systems” to “can ship non-Windows PCs without penalty” and also “can ship non-Windows OSes cheaper than they sell Windows” then it’s going to be a slower and harder battle.