– By Robin “Roblimo” Miller –
Some of the corporate booths at this year’s San Francisco LinuxWorld were bigger than what Microsoft puts up at regional “generic” computer shows. But the orgs — the volunteer and cooperative groups that are the heart of Linux and Open Source, are still around (although hidden, as usual, behind the huge commercial displays), unfazed, unbattered and proud.
The one I found most fascinating was SHARE.org, an IBM users’ group that has been around since 1955.

Yes, that date is correct. 1955. Back when the IBM 704 was first conceived and a few forward-looking companies, universities and government agencies had ordered them, some scientists and engineers got together to figure out how to use the things when they finally shipped, which they did in 1956.

According to the people personning the SHARE.org booth, members back then routinely wrote and swapped free software. GNU/Linux, to them, is like bell-bottom pants; so old a concept that it’s new again. This was SHARE.org’s first time at a major Linux show. What can we say? “Welcome, Daddy,” I suppose.

KDE was back in the .org area too, basking in yet another show award. They were pretty blase about it. Waldo Bastian, one of the KDE folks in attendance, said they had won awards at every show they had been to in the last four years except the 2001 Comdex in Germany, where Windows 2000 beat KDE out for some sort of “best desktop” honor.

There were other orgs, large and small, all worthy of your support. Check the .org pavilion list to see them all.

We’ll be talking to some of these fine groups in the future. But right now it’s late, the show has worn me out, and I have an early flight to catch. And so, to bed.

– Robin Miller
San Francisco, California
10:53 p.m. PDT. 30 Aug 2001

Kelly mcNeill writes “Motorola scientists say they have designed a procedure for shrinking chips from today’s 157 nanometer width to less than 100 nanometers wide, enabling more circuitry to be added to conventional-size microchips. The announcement comes as chipmakers search for ways to extend the lifespan of photolithography, the technology used to create microchips, which is expected to reach its limit by the next decade.”

From Linux Insider: “One of the dirty little secrets of the publishing world is that the vast majority of Linux books are written using Word for Windows.”

From ZDNet: “Turbolinux Inc. Thursday announced new proprietary software, PowerCockpit, which makes it easier for users to automatically deploy and provision their Linux servers and enables the instant reconfiguration of computing systems.”

Kelly McNeill writes “Twice this month, Internet security consultant Jeremiah Grossman, 24, poked gaping security holes in Hotmail and Passport, Microsoft’s free Web-based e-mail and identity-authentication services. It took just three lines of code for Grossman to breach Hotmail filters and access Passport ID and credit card data. The second time it took just one line. And the former Yahoo security auditor says he could do it again given 8 hours.”

SecurityFocus: “It’s incredible that in this day and age some of the most popular security products, products that are marketed as
protecting you from the evils of computers, are so badly designed.

Case in point: The many antivirus products that failed to detect and stop the highly effective SirCam worm, even
when updated with the latest signatures and when configured correctly.”

JigSaw writes “A brand new GUI environment was released, called Qube, by Interactive Studio, which can be installed on top of DOS, Linux or any other text-based OS and it is aiming to replace QT/Embedded and even XFree for the desktop and the embedded market. First version supports DOS (can be ran under Win9x/ME as well) while a Linux version is underway and a priority for the company. The main person behind the project is Michal Stencl, who is well known in the demoscene and also for creating the SEAL GUI Environment for FreeDOS. The interview with Michal over at OSNews shades light on Qube, its design and goals while the article also features two screenshots of the (slick I must say) UI.”

Kelly McNeill writes “Linux hasn’t really moved its desktop presence much over the past six to eight months. I believe we have been going about evangelizing the transition the wrong way. Many are mistakenly highlighting the wrong aspects of Linux, and trying to sell promises that simply aren’t true yet. I think it’s time for the open source operating system to take a revised path. We all know it’s free, reliable and robust, but for greater widespread adoption, the most oft-asked question from most consumers needs to be addressed: “What can I do with it?””

The Register: “The Federal Communications Commission has decided it doesn’t like wireless
devices from Palm and Handspring after all, and officially withdrawn its approval.

Not that is has anything to do with the kit itself. Rather, both companies asked the
FCC to do so. The reason? To get details of the Palm i705, and Handspring Treo
k180 and g180 pulled from its public Web site.”

Reuters: “TiVo, which offers digital video recording service, reported on Thursday a
narrower-than-expected loss for its second quarter.

The company’s revenue also rose by 28 percent from the previous quarter, boosted by subscriber
growth.

San Jose, Calif.-based TiVo reported a loss of $34.5 million, or 82 cents a share, in the quarter,
compared with a loss of $38.9 million, or $1.09 a share, in the same period last year.

A consensus of analysts were expecting a loss of 94 cents per share, according to First Call.”