Posted at LinuxPR: “Blue Linux makes a push to help with Linux Standards. As Linux evolves some
standards need to be put into place. We ask that a wide variety of Linux users,
Programmers , and Designers get involved in this project.

We have created a Common Linux Installer Group (CLIG) that will design and
develop a Standard for Linux Installers. We will develop a Linux Installer that will
be GPL’ed and we will push Distributors to move to this installation program.”

In the latest edition of links for the Python community: The International Python Conference is coming soon, progress is being made on a faster Python compiler, the benefits of a simple pickle, a command line filter for processing MIME messages, and a handful of new software announcements. Posted at LWN.net.

From LinuxSecurity.com: “This week, perhaps the most interesting articles include “Best Practices for Secure Development,” “Netfilter and
iptables: Stateful firewalling for Linux,” and “The Value of Honeypots, Part One: Definitions and Values of Honeypots.”
Also, you may find the article “Encryption Essentials: A PGP Quick-Start Guide” useful, and want to take a look at
“The £10,000 Linux virus challenge.””

LWN.net has posted Bruce Schneier’s monthly newsletter covering computer security and cryptography. In this edition, Schneier comments on cyberterrorism, the SSSCA, and the dangers of port 80, among other things.

Portland, Ore.-October 15, 2001-In a move that will provide an invaluable tool for open source developers, accelerating and enhancing Linux for data center and carrier-class capability, the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL), has added the Scalable Test Platform (STP) to the list of services provided by the lab. Until now, open source developers have not had a centralized resource for stable, scalable testing of Linux kernel enhancements. STP allows for easy, automated testing of this work, filling a critical need in
the open source community.
STP allows developers to easily test Linux enhancements, selecting from a variety of tests, kernel trees and server configurations. This testing will improve the characterization and quality of Linux advances, speeding the development of open source software by providing a readily accessible means for performance measurement and comparison. All test data is archived and users may choose to post their results on the OSDL web site, making this valuable information readily available to the open source community.

Access to STP is available through the OSDL web site, www.osdl.org, Kernel patches or upgrades can be directed to OSDL?s large test lab, running a variety of tests on 1-way up to 16-way systems. STP will compile the designated kernel with the user’s changes, install Linux with the changed kernel on an OSDL dedicated server, run the selected test, report the outcome to the submitter and archive the results on the site for future reference.

“The STP initiative provides developers with the stable environment required for enterprise and carrier-class testing” said Tim Witham, OSDL lab director. “Developers can test their code early with only minimal effort required to configure and run the tests. It also ensures that system configurations remain stable over time and that results are logged, allowing developers to make decisions based upon these repeatable tests and past performance information to compare against the current test results. The archived results also provide the necessary data for retroactive analysis, accelerating the development process and improving the quality of intermediate output. Everyone, from Linux developers to end users, will benefit from STP.”

STP will give developers access to a wide range of performance and
regression tests, including dbench, LMBench, Bonnie and the library of
performance tests developed and compiled by the Linux Test Project. With STP’s stable, repeatable environment measuring changes across many applications and environments, OSDL has created an indispensable tool for developers worldwide.

About the Open Source Development Lab
Supported by a global consortium of industry leaders, the Open Source
Development Lab (OSDL) is an independent, vendor-neutral, non-profit
organization dedicated to enabling Linux and Linux-based programming for enterprise and carrier-class functionality worldwide. Headquartered outside Portland, Oregon, OSDL fulfills a critical need in the open source development community to have access to the high-end hardware for programming and testing. More information on OSDL is available at www.osdlab.org.

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Press Contacts:

Leslie Proctor (818) 364-8061
Siobhan Lyons (310) 407-7911
Alexander Ogilvy Public Relations
lproctor@alexanderogilvy.com
slyons@alexanderogilvy.com

From a press release posted at LinuxPR: “NuSphere Corporation today announced that
ITology Ltd., a software development company, selected NuSphere®
PHPEd(TM)Advantage to complete its newest product suite, ITSportsNet, an
online league management solution for amateur sports. NuSphere PHPEd
Advantage is based on NuSphere Advantage, a standards-based platform that
brings web developers both the scalability and manageability of a proprietary
platform, and the affordability and reliability of Internet technologies such as PHP
and Apache.”

Dave writes “eWeek have reviewed Red Hat Linux 7.2, the latest edition of one of the most popular Linux distro’s available, which, according to the article, ships next week.” The most significant change in Red Hat’s 7.2 distro, writes the reviewer, is the addition of ext3, a new journaling filesystem.

An anonymous reader sent in this item from ExtremeTech: “Microsoft is fleshing out its web-services lineup to include not only consumer offerings, but a set of developer services,
code-named Iris, that will be licensed — and, in some cases, hosted — by Microsoft.

The company already has announced its consumer web services — .Net My Services (formerly code-named Hailstorm).
Microsoft has begun delivering to key partners, such as eBay, beta versions of some of these My Services offerings such as
.Net Alerts.

But Microsoft also is briefing selected developers under
nondisclosure about other, future collections of
web-services that it is working to put in place.”

Ernest Miller writes “Ever wanted to ask former chairman of the FCCReed Hundt a question? Now is your chance! LawMeme is soliciting questions to be forwarded to Mr. Hundt, who has agreed to answer them. Mr. Hundt is also author of You Say You Want a Revolution which is a memoir of his time as FCC Chairman and is available for free online. So, Ask Reed Hundt.”

An anonymous reader submitted a link to Russell Pavliceck’s column at InfoWorld: “When you hear about open-source people objecting to the proposed W3C rules or
ranting about the SSSCA legislation, do not assume they are merely leftist nutcases trying to
subvert the rights of copyright owners. They are not. They are, however, fighting against
proposals that may damage the structure of the Internet by crippling or destroying
open-source software use.

It is one thing to protect the rights of copyright owners, but it is something else to make
freedom illegal while doing so. There must be a better way.”