As posted on LWN, Linux 2.4.13-pre2 has been released for testing.

pre2:
 - Alan Cox: more merging
 - Ben Fennema: UDF module license
 - Jeff Mahoney: reiserfs endian safeness
 - Chris Mason: reiserfs O_SYNC/fsync performance improvements
 - Jean Tourrilhes: wireless extension update
 - Joerg Reuter: AX.25 updates
 - David Miller: 64-bit DMA interfaces

pre1:
 - Trond Myklebust: deadlock checking in lockd server
 - Tim Waugh: fix up parport wrong #define
 - Christoph Hellwig: i2c update, ext2 cleanup
 - Al Viro: fix partition handling sanity check.
 - Trond Myklebust: make NFS use SLAB_NOFS, and not play games with PF_MEMALLOC
 - Ben Fennema: UDF update
 - Alan Cox: continued merging
 - Chris Mason: get /proc buffer memory sizes right after buf-in-page-cache

From ZDNet: “Netfilter, Linux’s in-kernel “packet mangling” infrastructure, and iptables, the administrative tool that manages it, represent a substantial improvement over ipchains, the previous option available under the 2.2 kernel.”

From DebianPlanet: “I was a developer for a Linux handheld PDA produced by a company. Recently, most of the original developers have quit due to the dissatisfaction of the support from the company. Those of us who have left are seeking to create an alternative distribution.”

From C|Net, details on Intel vs. AMD and other chip advances, ISP woes, Microsoft licensing changes, and the 30th anniversary of e-mail.

From TheDot: “LinuxJournal has published the results of their 2001 Readers’ Choice Awards, based on ballots gathered from six weeks of on-line voting. KDE itself won in the “Favorite Desktop Environment” category…”

From the folks at Kerneltrap: “Kerneltrap has launched a new series. Once a week we
intend to release an interview with a member of the kernel
hacking community. Though the people we interview tend to
be quite technical, we hope to keep the interviews broad in
scope and accessible to all.
This week’s profile interview is with Robert Love who currently maintains the
preemptible kernel patches, among other things. He’s been using Linux now for
about 7 years, with numerous contributions in the current kernel. All of this is
best described in his own words.” It’s at Kerneltrap.com.

LinuxSecurity: “The director of open source consultancy NetProject, Eddie Bleasdale, has reiterated his pledge to give £10,000 to anyone who can infect his Linux
computer with a virus. He made the challenge amidst increasing concerns over the security of Microsoft’s webserver software, which has been hit by a
series of high-profile viruses.”

Chris Bergeron writes: “It appears that kernel’s 2.4.10 through 2.4.12 have some major issues with at least block devices, causing random file device problems, and a serious slow down on HDD device throughput (as noted on PCBurn). For more info, check out the kernel.org mailing lists. The 2.4.11 kernel release is currently listed as “DONOTUSE”.”

From MSNBC: “Speech recognition, one of the computing world’s long-deferred dreams, will be highlighted in separate initiatives from Microsoft and IBM next week.”

Advogato has a brief statement from Bruce Perens: “I have accepted a position on the W3C Patent Policy Board.”