– by Tina Gasperson –
Our review site this week is very commercial. But that’s almost a welcome thing. It’s like, Linux hit the big time. I know some people don’t want that to happen ever, and I don’t mean Microsofties so much as some of the real hardcore old time Linux fogies who want to keep it all to themselves. But that’s another story.I’m talking about linuxberg.com, which is actually the Linux section of Tucows.com. It’s just an aggregation of Linux software, kind of like our own linux.davecentral.com, but flashier. Tucows actually makes Linux software look cooler, somehow. Maybe it’s all those colorful animated ads.

I already have all the Linux software I need to conduct business. After all, just about any distribution out there already comes with a plethora of applications — more than you’ll ever need, regardless of who you are and how much you rely on your computer. But if you’re a software aficianado like me, you like to keep up with what’s new out there.

And certainly, freshmeat.net is the place where all the really down-with-it people go to look for … well, fresh meat. But there’s a lot of crud floating around that pond. The stuff at Tucows is rated, so you can get an idea, if not a rock solid guarantee, of how useful it’s going to be for you.

Also, if you’re like me and never have the patience to download the second CD of your latest favorite distribution, you get short-changed on the games. Games are a must-have if there’s a 5-year-old boy in the house. Come to think of it, even if the boys are 25 and you’re one of them, the games are still very important. Fortunately, Tucows.com has a long list of games, many of which are tempting even to me, a relatively game-neutral being. Again, they’re all rated, so start with the “five cows” selections and work your way down.

There’s a nifty little page that gives you a comparison of several Linux distributions, which are also available for download at the site. One application is chosen each day for a detailed review, and you can look at all the newest additions each day, as well as the most popular downloads.

Skim the interesting glossary with its satisfyingly hefty list of entries before you leave. The help desk page is nice, also, with a big FAQ, howto’s, man pages, and other links.

Tucows isn’t the be all and end all of Linux software aggregation sites, but it is a worthwhile addition to your bookmarks file.

Kelly McNeill writes “The concept of copyright is an artificial right created by the U.S. Constitution that does not exist in nature, although the legal concept exists in many laws and principles that predate the Constitution. Under U.S. copyright theory, to make something expressive is an act of craftsmanship and that craftmanship is rewarded with exclusive rights to the property that results. However, under the same theory, source code arguably should not be protected by copyright. There is a fallacy in the software business because what the creator creates and what the distributor distributes are two different things.”

The Register reports that AMD, Intel, Transmeta, and VIA are expected to go into a launch frenzy on the 15th of October at the Autumn Microprocessor Forum.

From BSD Today: “The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce that release 1.5.2 of the NetBSD operating system is now available. NetBSD 1.5.2 is a patch release mostly intended to address recently discovered security vulnerabilities as well as platform-specific problems.”

CNet reports that Trolltech, a Norwegian software company, has released version 1.4 of its Open Source Qt
Palmtop Environment, a software for handheld computers.

CNet reports that among the 51 employees who lost their jobs in the latest round of layoffs at Caldera International
is programmer Juergen G. Kienhoefer, who helped write the Linux Kernel Personality software, which lets Linux
programs run unmodified on Caldera’s higher-end Open Unix software.

IBM widened its lead in a drastically shrinking server market during the second quarter,
gaining against once-feared Sun Microsystems and the possible duo of Hewlett-Packard
and Compaq Computer. Story at ZDNet News.

The 51 employees who lost their jobs in the latest round of layoffs at Caldera International
include a programmer who helped lead a key part of the company’s strategy of making its
Linux and Unix operating systems work in the same way. Full story at CNET News.com.

Announced at Trolltech: “Trolltech is releasing version 1.4 of Qt Palmtop, a complete mobile
computing platform for advanced embedded Linux devices. This release provides numerous improvements to the
existing Qt Palmtop, including bug fixes, enhanced functionality, and a new user interface.

Qt Palmtop provides device manufacturers and hobbyists a stunning set of productivity applications, games,
multimedia software, and a Personal Information Management (PIM) suite for cutting-edge mobile computing
devices. Qt Palmtop is built with Trolltech’s Qt/Embedded, the embedded Linux port of the popular
cross-platform application framework, Qt.”

ZDNet (via Yahoo): “Worms and viruses often target specific vulnerabilities in common software. But what if the terms were
reversed? Rather than attacking the vulnerability of software for malicious purposes, what if the worm or virus
actually attempted to secure the software by applying a patch? Like it or not, it is already happening.”