Reported at Network World Fusion: “In an effort to improve service and marketing to
developers and users of its .Net software
platform, Microsoft said Tuesday it has formed a
“Developer and Platform Evangelism” division.

The division, made up of parts of several other
divisions, is responsible for developer tools and
promotion of Microsoft’s .Net software platform
with books, online learning, courseware and
exams for developers, IT managers, decision
makers and consumers. The division also runs
Microsoft’s corporate Web site, the company
said in a statement.”

“As Microsoft prepares for the Oct. 25 liftoff ceremonies for its new operating system, Apple will
gather journalists and industry analysts for “the unveiling of a breakthrough digital device,”
according to invitations received Wednesday.

Apple will unveil the new device–“hint: it’s not a Mac,” according to the invitation received by
CNET News.com–during an Oct. 23 event at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.” ZDNet News.

“We’re entering the season of a new round of Linux releases, plus initial or new versions
of applications that have already been represented in one way or another in the Linux
sphere. There is a substantial and growing Linux installed base, not just in server space
but on the desktop.

Linux has not just arrived, but it arrived a little while ago. For a year or more, installing
Linux has been no more difficult than installing the alternatives. Hardware support is very
good — excellent, considering the low level of direct vendor support. There are still
some vendors to be avoided, but contempt for the customer is what drove many of us
from Microsoft’s fold to begin with, so we mustn’t be too surprised to learn that Microsoft
has no monopoly on that characteristic.” Commentary on LinuxPlanet

Here’s Mandrake’s advisory for the OpenSSH issue: “In some circumstances, the sshd server may not honor the “from=” option that can be associated
with a key in a user’s ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2 file if multiple keys are listed. This could allow
key-based logins from hosts which should not be allowed access.”

ZDNet News: “Microsoft’s decision to extend the deadline for business customers to join its new licensing
scheme has been welcomed by IT managers, but they say it has not addressed their
concern that the scheme will raise software costs.

Last week, Microsoft for the second time put back the final deadline for customers to join its
Software Assurance programme, under which they will receive operating system and application
upgrades in exchange for an annual fee.”

Arts and Farces: “Pretty soon all God’s creators gonna be pickin’ cotton for Bill. Or maybe Rupert or Walt.

Imagine that suddenly, all distributions of GNU/Linux were illegal in the United States. As well as Zope,
Python, Perl, Apache, and all other open source software products. While that arguably may not be the
goal of the Security Systems Standard & Certification Act (SSSCA), it would surely be a result. The
SSSCA would outlaw any digital device-including personal computers-that did not include a copy
protection mechanism. Right now the only thing keeping it from happening are the events surrounding 11
September.”

Economist.com: “Within IBM, employees joke
that “Sun is dead, it just doesn’t realise it
yet.” As the world’s leading server vendor,
Sun is not in any immediate danger.
Even as NT and Linux become more
popular, its Solaris franchise will continue
to be hugely lucrative; although its share
of the market may fall, revenues should continue to rise. But there are some contradictions in
Sun’s strategy, and in its attitude towards Linux in particular. On the one hand, Linux is a
convenient stick with which to beat Microsoft, Sun’s arch-rival in software. On the other, as
the leading Unix vendor, Sun has the most to lose if Linux becomes the standard server
operating system, from low-end boxes to mainframes, as IBM expects.

ZDNet commentary on The Microprocessor forum which took place in San Jose, not San Francisco, as the out-of-town writer seems to think: “…the true motor of our industry is good
old-fashioned engineering. Our long-term future doesn’t depend on whether a few extra
megahertz and a few percent off the price will rescue the Christmas market for PC makers. What
matters is whether there’s enough inventiveness and energy among the designers to open up
brand new and exciting ways for computers to be useful. The evidence this week is astonishingly
positive.”

CIO Magazine: “Some CIOs are opting to circumnavigate packaged software wherever
possible. They’re turning to open-source technologies such as the GNU and Linux
operating systems, the Apache Web server and Sendmail e-mail. “People are not
involved with [the open-source movement] for profit; they’re involved with it
because they want to write good product,” says Bill Lessard, coauthor of NetSlaves:
True Tales of Working the Web and a former developer for Prodigy and AOL Time
Warner. “If software makers see they are losing money to people going the
open-source route, then they will change. Until then, it will be business as usual
despite appearances.””

BBC News: “Security experts have warned that the secure computer network
planned by the US Government could be undermined by careless
users.

The Bush administration, newly focused on security since the 11
September attacks, wants to create a network, called Govnet, to
provide protected data and voice communications.”