IDG/Network World Fusion: “Linux evangelists are keeping the faith, even when it comes to the elusive Holy Grail of the open-source operating system: taking a significant chunk of the desktop market.”

“Embedded Linux for X86 – DeviceGate-E uses embedded Linux for the X86
family of microprocessors as its operating system. The Linux standard
distribution includes open source code and support for a wide range of
peripheral hardware. emWare has pre-configured the DeviceGate-E embedded
Linux distribution specifically for its embedded gateway software so that it’s
ready to run right out of the box.” Read the press release at PR Newswire.

O’Reilly has published Andy Oram’s recent speech “Research Possibilities in Peer-to-Peer Networking.” The speech, delivered at an Internet2 online conference in early October, highlights the various uses of P2P within educational realms, and some of the issues facing widespread, effective implementation. Internet2 is a consortium of over 180 universities working, with industry and government support, to develop new infrastructure and applications for the Internet.

In the latest Slashdot interview by moderation format, readers currently have the chance to ask digital rights activist John Young a question. In addition to being the force behind Cryptome, Young is an outspoken opponent of RIAA, MPAA and their paid-for legislation, including DMCA and SSSCA.

From the linux-kernel list: “I’m personally convinced that my tree does the right thing VM-wise, but
Alan _will_ be the maintainer, and I’m not going to butt in on his
decisions. The last thing I want to be is a micromanaging pointy-haired
boss.”Subject:
Re: 2.4.14-pre6
Date:
Wed, 31 Oct 2001 11:38:44 -0800 (PST)
From:
Linus Torvalds
To:
Michael Peddemors
CC:
Kernel Mailing List

On 31 Oct 2001, Michael Peddemors wrote:
>
> Lets’ let this testing cycle go a little longer before making any
> changes.. Let developers catch up..

My not-so-cunning plan is actually to try to figure out the big problems
now, then release a reasonable 2.4.14, and then just stop for a while,
refusing to take new features.

Then, 2.4.15 would be the point where I start 2.5.x, and where Alan gets
to do whatever he wants to do with 2.4.x. Including, of course, just
reverting all my and Andrea’s VM changes 😉

I’m personally convinced that my tree does the right thing VM-wise, but
Alan _will_ be the maintainer, and I’m not going to butt in on his
decisions. The last thing I want to be is a micromanaging
pointy-haired
boss.

(2.5.x will obviously use the new VM regardless, and I actually believe
that the new VM simply is better. I think that Alan will see the light
eventually, but at the same time I clearly admit that Alan was right on a
stability front for the last month or two 😉

> My own kernel patches I had to stop because I couldn’t keep up …. Can
> we go a full month with you just hitting us over the head with a bat
> yelling ‘test, dammit, test’, until this is tested fully before
> releasing another production release?

I think we’re really close.

[ I’d actually like to thank Gary Sandine from laclinux.com who made the
“Ultimate Linux Box” for an article by Eric Raymond for Linux Journal.
They sent me one too, and the 2GB box made it easier to test some real
highmem loads. This has given me additional load environments to test,
and made me able to see some of the problems people reported.. ]

But I do want to make a real 2.4.14, not just another “final” pre-kernel,
and let that be the base for a reasonably orderly switch-over at 2.4.15
(ie I’d still release 2.4.15, everything from then on is Alan).

Linus

Anonymous Reader writes, “LinuxDevices.com founder Rick Lehrbaum provides a retrospective on the past two years of the Embedded Linux Market on the occasion of the second birthday of LinuxDevices.com. Also included, is the first photo released publicly of LinuxDevices.com’s new Board of Directors.”

Some Free Software advocates have a problem with most anything described as “intellectual property,” but this sounds like an interesting conference with some good speakers, including the often conflicting EFF and RIAA. It’s November 14, 2001, at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. The press release follows.

Intellectual property protection has always been a contentious field of
study, but one largely left to ivory tower elites and industry insiders.
With the rise of the Internet, however, IP disputes have become a matter of
widespread public interest and concern. Controversial issues and questions
abound: What rights do artists and inventors have in their intellectual
creations? Now that “Napsterization” of copyrighted works is upon us, do we
need to rework incentives for promoting the “useful arts”? Should newer
works receive the same copyright protection as the existing body of
copyrighted material? Or can existing laws along with market solutions, such
as digital rights management, protect copyrights? Is there still a role for
compulsory licensing, or has digitization taken away the market failure
arguments that supported it in the past? Is the anti-circumvention provision
of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act unconstitutional? And when does
“fair use” become an illegal circumvention? On the patent front, are new
forms of “business method patents” a break from the past, or are they simply
a logical evolution of existing standards? Those issues and many others will
be explored in this one-day Cato conference.

A program is enclosed. Keynote speakers include Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.),
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and
EFF founder John Perry Barlow. If you’d like to register online, please
visit http://www.cato.org/events/futureip/mediareg.html.

Conference Program:

• 8:00-8:30 a.m. Registration

• 8:30-8:45 a.m. Welcoming Remarks,
  Patrick Dillon, Editor, Forbes ASAP

• 8:45-9:30 a.m. Morning Keynote Speech,
  Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.)

• 9:30-10:30 a.m. Panel #1: First Principles,
  “Framing the Great Debate: What Rights Do We Have in Our Intangible
  Intellectual Creations?”

  Moderator: Adam Thierer, Director of Telecommunications Studies, Cato
  Institute;

  James V. DeLong, Senior Fellow, Project on Technology and Innovation,
  Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Author, Property Matters;

  Tom W. Bell, Associate Professor, Chapman University School of Law

• 10:30-10:45 a.m. Break

• 10:45 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Panel #2: Copyright-1:
  “Digital Rights Management, Fair Use and Compulsory Licensing or Where
  Is Copyright Headed in the Post-Napster World: Legal or Market Solutions?”

  Moderator: Wayne Crews, Director of Technology Studies, Cato Institute;

  Frank G. Hausmann, Chairman and CEO, CenterSpan Communications Corp.;

  Mitch Glazier, Senior Vice President of Government Relations and
  Legislative Counsel, Recording Industry Association of America;

  Stan Liebowitz, Professor of Managerial Economics, University of Texas
  at Dallas;

  Robin Gross, Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation and
  Campaign for Audiovisual Free Expression

• 12:00-12:45 p.m. Lunch-Wintergarden

• 12:45-1:30 p.m. Luncheon Address,
  Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)

  1:30-2:45 p.m. Panel #3: Copyright-2:
  “Technology vs. Technology: Should Code Breakers Go to Jail? The
  Limits of Fair Use and Anti-circumvention”

  Moderator: Declan McCullagh, Washington Bureau Chief, Wired News;

  Marc J. Zwillinger, Partner and Group Leader of the Cyberlaw and
  Information Security Practice, Kirkland & Ellis;

  Emery Simon, Special Counsel, Business Software Alliance;

  Julie Cohen, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center;

  Mike Godwin, Policy Fellow, Center for Democracy and Technology

• 2:45-3:00 p.m. Break

• 3:00-3:30 p.m. Afternoon Keynote Address:
  John Perry Barlow, Co-Founder,
  Electronic Frontier Foundation

• 3:30-4:45 p.m. Panel #4: Patents: “Business Method Patents: Logical Evolution or Radical Break from the
  Past?”

  Moderator: Drew Clark, Senior Writer, National Journal Technology
  Daily;

  Paul Misener, Vice President, Global Public Policy, Amazon.com;

  Michael Nugent, Heller Ehrman, Financial Technologies Practice Group,
  and former Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Walker Digital;

  Peter Wayner, Author, Digital Copyright Protection and “How Can They
  Patent That?”;

  Greg Aharonian, Editor, Internet Patent News Service, and Creator of
  www.bustpatents.com

• 4:45-5:00 p.m. Closing Remarks

CNet reports that IBM is trying to accelerate its effort to make money from its “Eliza” plan to let servers manage
themselves by adding the self-healing server technology to its Global Services division.

Linux NetworX, a provider of powerful and easy-to-manage Linux cluster computing solutions, announced today plans to unveil its innovative ICE Box 1500 cluster management hardware appliance at the SC2001 trade show in Denver, Nov. 12-15. ICE Box empowers administrators with advanced serial switching and remote power control capabilities, and is the only appliance of its kind designed specifically to improve the manageability of Linux clusters. This is the latest product development focused on improving cluster management from Linux NetworX.

ICE Box features include node health and environmental monitoring, power control, node reset capabilities, and advanced serial switching, which allows administrators to maintain redundant serial connections in a cluster. By providing direct serial access to individual nodes within the cluster, ICE Box delivers a level of control, convenience and manageability not previously available for Linux cluster systems.

“IDC’s many studies on cost of ownership and return on investment
typically show that staffing makes up over fifty percent of the cost of a computing solution,” said Dan Kusnetzky, vice president system
software research at IDC. “Clustering products, such as ICE Box and
ClusterWorX®, are clearly focused on reducing those costs in an
environment in which the power of many systems has been harnessed
together for reliability or higher performance.”

Tularik, a biotechnology company specializing in drug discovery and
development using gene regulation, is using a 150 processor Evolocity
cluster from Linux NetworX, and is one of the first organizations to use ICE Box in production.

“The ICE Box appliance is an ideal cluster management tool that provides vital features like serial access to nodes and remote power control so I never need to go down to the server room,” said Gene Cutler, bioinformatics scientist for Tularik. “Cluster management tools from Linux NetworX are setting the standard – ICE tools allow us to concentrate on finding new genes that cause disease and not worry about cluster management.”

ICE Box is an integral component of the Linux NetworX Integrated Cluster Environment (ICE) cluster management tools, which also includes ClusterWorX management software. Computer cluster technology is a method of linking multiple computers, or nodes, together to form a unified, more powerful and reliable system.

Until now, cluster management has been a barrier to the wider adoption of Linux clustering. ICE cluster management tools allow administrators to control the cluster from a single interface, while providing the tools to monitor and take action on the cluster onsite or remotely. Each Linux NetworX Evolocity cluster is integrated with ICE cluster management tools.

ICE Box has already received significant attention when it, as part of the ICE product offering, received the Best Integrated Solution Award at the LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco, Aug. 2001.

To view or download images of ICE Box, or for more information, please visit the ICE Box online press kit at
http://www.linuxnetworx.com/news/ice_kit.php

About ICE Box

ICE Box is a scalable hardware appliance, enabling administrators to
manage their Linux cluster systems with direct node access, advanced
power control, temperature monitoring, redundant serial connections, and local and remote access. Powered by Linux for stable runtime
environment, ICE Box can be updated without cluster downtime. ICE Box
can integrate with ClusterWorX for a complete cluster management
solution. With a unique hardware design, ICE Box rackmounts into
standard 19-inch racks without taking up any usable rackspace.

Features
Hardware
· Remote temperature monitoring of CPU temperatures
· Serial concentrator
· 10Base-T Ethernet connection
· Node reset
· Multiple ICE Boxes can be linked to support large clusters (up to 2560 nodes)
· Fits in standard 19-inch rack without taking up usable rack space
· 12 serial ports (supports 10 nodes and two auxiliary devices per box)
· 12 AC sockets (10 switchable, two auxiliary)
· Embedded CPU powered by Linux for stable runtime environment
· ICE Box software update capability without cluster downtime
· Integrates with ClusterWorX
· Access using standard terminal emulator or Telnet client (such as
Minicom and Linux Telnet)
· Power sequencing on start-up

Command and Control
· Remote power control and reset of individual nodes
· Onsite node management using keypad and LCD display
· Serial data buffering from each node
· Command line interface for extensive control and monitoring capabilities
· Serial communication network
· Out of Band (serial support from host to any node) network communication
· Direct port connections (reverse Telnet)
· Command line interface accessible via Telnet

About Linux NetworX
Linux NetworX (www.linuxnetworx.com) brings its powerful and
easy-to-manage cluster technology to those demanding high availability and high performance systems. Linux NetworX provides solutions for organizations involved in aeronautical and chemical modeling, biotechnology research, oil and gas exploration, graphics rendering and visual effects, Web serving, ISPs, ASPs, and other technological research fields. Through its innovative Evolocity hardware, ICE cluster management tools and professional service and support, Linux NetworX provides end-to-end clustering solutions. To date, the company has built some of the largest cluster systems in the world, and boasts numerous Fortune 500 customers.

Linux is a registered trademark owned by Linus Torvalds. All other
products, services and companies are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

—
Brad Rutledge
Public Relations Director
Linux NetworX, Inc.
www.linuxnetworx.com
801-562-1010 ext. 218

– By Robin “Roblimo” Miller –

If you’re reading this at Linux.com, you were probably a bit surprised to suddenly see NewsForge news front and center. The way it is being done now is only temporary. Both sites are in the process of being rewritten almost from scratch, and you will see many changes to them in coming months.We’re still working out a lot of the changes. We’ve already gotten hundreds of helpful suggestions about what the two sites should become, and what information each one should carry. “News” was the single item most often suggested as an addition to Linux.com. Okay, now there’s news. And because we’re now sort of running two (click) two (click) two sites in one, we have a larger news budget than ever before, so we can give you more thorough coverage of Linux and Open Source news than we’ve been able to do in the past.

This does not mean we are going to stop carrying the useful tutorials and HOWTOs that have been most of Linux.com’s past content. If anything, we want to run more of them, for users ranging from rank beginners to “old hands” working on complex networking and grid computing projects. We are also working to build an improved index of Linux and Open Source documentation, along with a rating system that will let you decide which technical articles, of the many thousands that have been published online, are the most (and least) useful for users at different skill levels.

The one big difference between Linux.com “now” and Linux.com “then” is that we will now pay at least token sums for all articles we publish other than opinion pieces. NewsForge has always been a professional site. Now Linux.com will become one. This doesn’t mean we are going to turn away contributions from the many fine volunteers who have helped build Linux.com to its present level, but that we will now pay them for helping us take it to the next level.

All the current Linux.com material is still available on the same pages where it has always been, and still carries the same OpenContent License under which it was originally published. Material published on Linux.com after October 27, 2001, is covered by the same Terms of Service as other OSDN Web sites. (NewsForge has always been covered by OSDN terms of service, so no change there.)

One tiny addition we’ve made to Linux.com’s front page is a link to the Linux Counter. We’ve always supported this attempt to count as many Linux users as possible, and feel it has never gotten nearly as much publicity as it deserves. Please join us in registering yourself as a Linux user. And if you are reading this on NewsForge, and have never checked out Linux.com, please do so. You’ll find that there is a lot to the site behind the front page, everything from a list of Linux Users Groups to advice for new Linux users.

What else? In a way, that’s up to you. We’d say, “Keep those cards and letters coming, folks,” if we were a ’50s TV quiz show, but this is the Internet, so it’s more accurate for us to say, “Keep that email coming.”

We may not be able to respond individually to every writer, but we promise to read and carefully consider each and every suggestion we get.

Robin “Roblimo” Miller is editor in chief of OSDN and Linux.com.