Reported by ZDNet UK: “Borland has revamped Kylix, its Linux software development tool, to include better support for Web applications, including Microsoft’s .Net.

Kylix 2, announced on Tuesday, builds on the tool’s popular graphical programming environment and adds more features for Web services, including support for Web service standards like SOAP (simple object access protocol), XML (extensible markup language) and WSDL (Web services description language), the company said.”

“The newest version of the GNOME open source desktop will not be ready in time to ship with Solaris 9 next year, but it will be included with a subsequent Solaris 9 quarterly update, a Sun executive told searchSolaris… Sun’s ultimate goal is to make GNOME 2.0 the new default desktop for Solaris. But there will be a period of transition she said, where users will be able to choose between GNOME and CDE.” Full story at searchSolaris.com.

KDE.News links to an interview with SecureONE, an Internet security business using KDE for a variety of uses and functions. Here’s the direct link to the story at KDE.org. Here’s what SecureONE says: “KDE offers our organisation a cheap,
functional, stable, reliable and pretty
desktop interface.”

From ZDNet: “Microsoft’s blockage of competing Web browsers from MSN.com has been good news for
some plucky rivals: They are experiencing record traffic and downloads, and a leading
Internet authority is heaping scorn on the software giant.”

The Register reports at Apache’s marketshare among active Web sites is up slightly, and Microsoft is down slightly, but among top developers, Apache fell.

SliconValley.com has a story about the fight between the customers and the record labels and how the proposed SSSCA fits in. “Sen. Ernest ‘Fritz’ Hollings, chairman of the Senate
Commerce committee, circulated a bill this fall that would
require manufacturers to build in copy protection on
consumer electronic devices and PCs. It would cover any
device capable of ‘storing, retrieving, processing,
performing, transmitting, receiving or copying information
in digital form’ — a sweeping mandate that would cover
television sets, VCRs, personal-video recorders and camcorders.”

MozillaQuest Magazine (MozillaQuest.com) reports: “The Mozilla Organization released the source code for the Milestone Mozilla 0.9.4.1 edition of its Mozilla browser-suite yesterday afternoon. This Mozilla 0.9.4.1 source code is the code AOL-Time-Warner’s Netscape division used as the base for its Netscape 6.2 browser-suite upgrade for the Linux, Macintosh, and Microsoft Windows platforms … This is a source-code only release. There are no accompanying binary builds of Mozilla 0.9.4.1 available directly from the Mozilla Organization FTP server. However, if you do not want to compile Mozilla 0.9.4.1, then you will find the core browser-suite components (browser, mail, news, composer) Netscape 6.2 binaries to be pretty close to Mozilla 0.9.4.1 binaries.” The
story’s at Mozillaquest.com.

Slashdot links to the decision of a California court of appeal overturning a lower court ruling barring Web sites from publishing the DeCSS Linux DVD-playing code. Here’s a quote from the opinion: “In the case of
a prior restraint on pure speech, the hurdle is substantially higher [than for an ordinary
preliminary injunction]: publication must threaten an interest more fundamental than the
First Amendment itself. Indeed, the Supreme Court has never upheld a prior restraint,
even faced with the competing interest of national security or the Sixth Amendment right
to a fair trial.”

joabj writes, “Hitachi and a company called LiveDevices are working on a real-time 8 bit kernel and TCP stack that could be used in microcontrollers for consumer devices. Evidently the thing that has held appliance makers back in the past from making their toasters and blenders and washing machines Internet ready has been the cost of the 32-bit chips needed to implement the TCP/IP stack. So these two companies have produced on a kernel and TCP/IP stack that works in the 8 bit format. The OS is free, though the SDK for this OS–called Realogy Real-Time Architect–costs $3500. Also, many add-ons are available for a fee such as FTP, DNS and e-mail clients. EE Times has the story here.”

Eugene von Niederhausern writes, A new web site was announced today to help small businesses realize the benefits of Linux within their organization. Linux4SmallBiz.com looks at Linux and Open Source from the unique perspective of a small business. “Most small businesses must get to the bottom line fast,” according to Eugene VonNiederhausern, the site’s founder. “They can’t wade through a bunch of technical literature or Linux jargon to find the benefits and assess the applicability. They simply don’t have the time.”

The site is organized to present the benefits of Linux up front, on the first page and in language a small business owner can understand. It “nets out” the advantages and disadvantages of Linux straight out, then provides resources to let business determine if it makes sense for their organization. The whole site assumes the visitor has no prior knowledge of Linux and Open Source Software.

Perhaps the most useful section is the Business Guide. The Guide includes an extensive software catalog with a software “selector” which allows the small business to find comparable Linux software given the names of programs they normally use. The site introduces small businesses to Linux and how it can be used to improve their information technology and business processes through open source.

“We want it to be a comprehensive resource for small businesses of all kinds,” says VonNiederhausern. “We hope it will serve as a shared resource between those small businesses with an interest in Linux and the people who can help them use Linux effectively.”

For more information, visit the Linux4SmallBiz web site at www.l4sb.com or www.linux4smallbiz.com.