ComputerUser Linux Advisor: ”

What now seems like eons ago–it was December 1997–I compared the costs of implementing a
Linux server versus a Windows NT server and found a wide difference in price without a significant
difference in functionality. Since then, obviously, Linux has made strong inroads in the middle-tier and
back-end server marketplace.

But what about Linux on the desktop? Many industry observers, pundits, and journalists have
speculated as to why businesses have not been adopting the cost-effective Linux platform on the
desktop. Opinions have ranged from the geekiness of the platform to a lack of commercial products.”

From The Register: “Today’s Hailstorm announcement was cultivated to gain maximum favourable
publicity for Microsoft, but Redmond’s concessions amount to nothing it hasn’t
already conceded, in one form or another.

In fact, seasoned watchers including Jeremy Allison – co-lead of the SAMBA
project – interpret the “concessions” as extending the requirement for Microsoft’s
partners to include proprietary technology in their .NET compliant web services.

So what was new, today?”

From ZDNet: “Microsoft confirmed Friday that it will offer discounted versions of Windows XP for home
users who want to install the new operating system on several PCs.

“Some people have multiple PCs at home, and this allows them an easy way to put them on
multiple machines,” said Jim Cullinan, Windows XP lead product manager.

People can purchase additional “family licenses” at the time they buy Windows XP, either the
upgrade or the full version, Cullinan said. The licenses are expected to cost $10 to $30 less than
the full product price.”

There’s a short item at CNET to report Google’s purchase of select assets from tech firm Outride, a Xerox PARC spin-off. The search engine company says it purchased some of Outride’s intellectual property, patents, and other goodies to improve its search engines.

The 9/11 attacks could result in an unforseen boon for the technology sector, say analysts. While most of the financial services companies affected by the collapse of the World Trade Center had backup data services in place for emergencies, most companies in the U.S. and around the world are not, for the most part, prepared to face such a disaster. At least one data security service has seen its business increase by over 150 percent since last Tuesday, and that includes inquiries from a few larger companies that have traditionally avoided outsourcing, which is a primary requirement of most recovery plans. Videoconferencing services might get a lift, too, as companies shy away from the new complications of air travel. Read the IDG story at CNN.

From Joshua Drake at LinuxWorld: “Nimda eats our bandwidth since other companies sharing our subnet are running infectious Windows 98, NT, and
2000 machines. These diseased, ill-maintained beasts from the land of insufficient light are now trying to infest our
stable, secure, long running, easy-to-use, well-behaved Linux machines. (Can you tell I’m a bit irritated?)

This has led me to start editing some of our firewall rules, and in the process, consider that, as we have recently
migrated to the 2.4 kernel, some people may be interested in how to create a Linux 2.4 kernel-based firewall quickly.”

ZDNet UK says that Linux will soon get a big e-commerce boost from software developer Borland. At the company’s conference in London this week, it was announced that Web services will soon be added to Borland’s Kylix rapid application development software. Various analysts said polite things that can more or less be summed up by typing “Yay!”

Commentary from Linux Journal: “If all web servers were running IIS and all desktops were running MS Windows, Nimda would likely have brought the whole Internet to its knees. Fortunately, the
majority of the web servers run Linux or some UNIX variant as an OS and an assortment of server software. Thus, to successfully attack most web servers, the
adversary would have to create either an assortment of worms for each potential OS/server combination, or one giant worm with all the features to attack all
servers.

Before you say “but Linux and/or Apache is better”, let me stop you. They very likely are better than NT/IIS, but they are not bug-free. If Linux/Apache was the
only target, someone would be out there creating a worm to attack it.”

Posted at LinuxSecurity.com: “Zen Parse discovered that an argument handling problem that exists in
the uucp package can allow a local attacker to gain access to the uucp
user or group.”

Just in case you were planning on using Microsoft’s FrontPage 2002, then you better not say anything mean about the Redmond software company. According to the new End-User License Agreement for that particular software “You may not use the Software in connection with any site that disparages Microsoft, MSN, MSNBC, Expedia, or their products or services, infringe any intellectual property or other rights of these parties, violate any state, federal or international law, or promote racism, hatred or pornography.” Slashdot has the discussion on this one.