“The first hint that all was not well came at about 2 a.m. on Saturday, US eastern time, in the form of slow-loading
pages. By 7 a.m. it was obvious that this was not a typical, easily-fixed, reboot-the-database problem. The network
operations people were paged, but did not respond. Uh-oh.” More at Slashdot.

– by Tina Gasperson –
Jacques Le Marois, MandrakeSoft co-founder and CEO, has confirmed the authenticity of an IPO memorandum leaked to European Linux site LinuxFrench.net. The memo was originally distributed to MandrakeSoft’s employees and shareholders and was not intended for public consumption.The letter begins by explaining the reasons behind the French Linux distribution’s decision to go public:

"1. Why are we conducting an IPO?

“MandrakeSoft has three choices to choose from for the future: be profitable right now; be
profitable in the short term; be profitable in the long term. The first option wouldn’t require any
additional external investments, but would reduce the potential of Mandrakesoft in the Linux and
operating systems arena. The second option would require a small amount of fund raising, yet
maintain our capability to grow. The last option would require a large amount of money be
raised, but the financial markets are no longer interested in companies that only have long-term
profitability plans.

“So we have decided to pursue the middle-solution, which is to be profitable in the short term.
We feel this is the best approach as it is more realistic and involves the least amount of risk. We
will reach profitability in the near future while keeping alive our great growth potential. We
already have all the tools needed to succeed — a strong user base, a well-known product,
and a team already in place. This solution also fits best with our recent refocus around Linux
businesses.”

MandrakeSoft will make a special stock offering of 10% of the IPO release available to project contributors, stating, “MandrakeSoft’s success is largely due to our community of users and contributors; therefore, we will present our main contributors a special offer … These people will be offered the option to purchase stock as privileged investors.”

According to the memorandum, the special 10% for contributors will not be available to U.S. residents and others outside of the European Union because of “regulatory issues” and the inability to “solicit foreign individual investors without filing multiple papers.” However, U.S. residents and others are welcome to participate in the open market portion of the IPO.

MandrakeSoft is planning a rapid timetable to the IPO date, which is expected sometime in the second half of July. The full text of the leaked memo is available here at LinuxFrench.net.

Alan’s given us a long list of fixes for this release.

Linux 2.4.5-ac19
From: Alan Cox 
To: editors@newsforge.com
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 14:35:54 +0100 (BST)


ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/alan/2.4/

                 Intermediate diffs are available from
                         http://www.bzimage.org

2.4.5-ac19
o        Update Gareth Hughes contact info               (Gareth Hughes)
o        Make sure NFS atime is handled by server        (Trond Myklebust)
o        Fix Configure.help glitch                       (Geert Uytterhoeven)
o        Fix nfs readdir EIO and duplicates bug          (Trond Myklebust)
o        Fix netlink removal of proc directory           (Herbert Rosmanith)
o        Use skb_purge_queue in net stacks       (Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo)
         | lapb, netrom, econet, rose, ax25, atm, sched,
         | socket core, unix

o        Fix reference after free in eql driver  (Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo)
o        Fix reference after free in shaper      (Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo)
o        Gameport fixes for Alpha                        (Jeff Garzik)
o        Configure.help updates                          (Eric Raymond)
o        JFFS copyright banner update                    (David Woodhouse)
o        Update docs on binfmt_misc java                 (Kurt Huwig)
o        Fix tty release_mem oops                        (Tachino Nobuhiro)
o        Pull nfs data out of inode struct               (Al Viro)
o        Assorted UML fixes                              (Jeff Dike)
o        Improve missed tick handling on UML             (Jeff Dike)
o        Fix hdc/hdd reporting on disks in /proc/stat    (Martin Wilck)
o        Fix sign extension of dirent's in readdir       (Trond Myklebust)
o        Ensure LVM dropped snapshot is not reactivated  (Joe Thornber)
o        Change kiovec handling in LVM                   (Joe Thornber)

PCWorld: “Juno wants to sell your computer’s idle time. Microsoft wanted the rights to all content passing through its Passport Web services.
Some vendors want no liability for their products–even if they know about product defects in advance. And chances are, you’ve
legally agreed to let vendors have what they want.

All it takes is clicking an “I Accept” button or ripping the shrink-wrap off a new box of software. Both software and Web services
come with End User License Agreements (EULAs) or Terms of Service (TOSs), and few people read them. Until recently, buyers
didn’t need to. Historically, EULAs were confusing and rarely invoked–but EULA and TOS contracts have always been legally
binding.”

BusinessWeek: “Pink slips have always engendered bad feelings and, on occasion,
irrational acts. What’s different now is the Internet and the increasing ubiquity of computer
networks. During the last economic downturn, in the early 1990s, a far smaller percentage of
employees used corporate computer networks. Furthermore, companies employed fewer
workers who had the technological knowhow to do any real damage to an enterprise beyond
trashing their own desktop machine or sending out angry e-mail.

But these days, “many companies are reliant on their employees having access to their
networks,” points out Black. In 1990, a company might have had a few system administrators
and a handful of other technically savvy personnel, whereas now they employ firewall
engineers, database engineers, router operators, Java programmers, and many other
technically proficient specialists. Any one of them might possess sufficient knowledge to do
serious damage.”

PCWorld: “Windows XP won’t make its formal bow until October 25, but its 64-bit big brother is quietly launching on
a small group of high-end computers. Windows for Itanium (Intel’s first 64-bit CPU, introduced
simultaneously with the OS in late spring) is Microsoft’s first venture into 64-bit computing, a market long
dominated by companies like Sun Microsystems and Silicon Graphics. Itanium and 64-bit Windows
represent the next generation of Wintel computing–but it’s a future that most people won’t see for a
while.”

Zoe Knipe writes: “Idaya, (www.idaya.com) the UK-based provider of virtual server solutions, has announced the launch of VSDControl and VSDClient, two Windows-based remote server administration tools developed to support freeVSD, the GPL virtual server solution for Linux. VSDControl and VSDClient have been designed to increase administration productivity and reduce technical personnel costs for ISPs and their customers.

VSDControl provides ISP support staff with a secure, efficient and easy method of administering Virtual Servers. VSD Control employs a Windows Graphical User Interface (GUI), making the tool simple to use and reducing the need for administration staff with technical Linux knowledge. It offers unmatched speed thanks to the freeVSD protocol, enabling ISPs to break free from inefficient web browser-based admin interfaces. It is a highly secure application utilising certificate-based SSL authentication and encryption for all server administration requests.

VSDControl is compatible with any server running freeVSD and has all the features required to automate day-to-day ISP operations:

Creation and deletion of freeVSD virtual servers
Management of freeVSD PKI system
freeVSD Virtual Server Administration: –
Configure virtually-hosted websites
Configure Email addresses and autoresponders
Configure DNS zone files and resource records
Manage users, quotas and privileges
Reboot virtual servers

VSDClient provides Virtual Server owners (the ISP?s customers) with the ability to manage all core hosting services from the comfort of their own desktops using the familiar Windows GUI interface. Like VSDControl, VSDClient is designed to significantly speed up the process of virtual server administration. Indeed, Idaya estimates that using VSDClient rather than a web-based admin system can reduce administration time by up to 75% since a user does not have to wait for web pages to load. VSDClient uses SSL authentication and encryption for all remote communication, making it extremely secure.

VSDClient is compatible with any freeVSD virtual server and makes light work of everyday administration tasks including:

Importing of SSL Certificates and Keys

freeVSD Virtual Server Administration –

Configure virtually-hosted websites
Configure Email addresses and autoresponders
Configure DNS zone files and resource records
Manage users, quotas and privileges
Reboot virtual servers

Notes for Editors

About freeVSD
FreeVSD is an advanced web-hosting platform for ISP?s, educational institutions and other large organisations. It allows multiple Virtual Servers to be created on a single hosting server, each with a truly separate and secure web-hosting environment. This reduces an ISP?s hardware outlay and also lowers the cost of support due to delegated administration.

Freely distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL), freeVSD comes complete with a documented administration protocol and an open source web-based administration system.

About Idaya Ltd.
Based in Brighton, UK, Idaya Ltd. develop innovative software solutions for the ISP, ASP and web hosting marketplaces. The company?s mission is to provide the cutting-edge solutions, support and consultancy that enables Service Providers to increase market share and enhance their services.

Idaya is also the primary sponsor of the freeVSD project, an open source ‘virtual environment’ platform for Service Providers. Visit the project website at http://www.freevsd.org.

“

BusinessWeek: “Techies aren’t renowned for communication skills, which can be a real
problem when software clients want to meet the person behind the code. The old joke goes: How can you tell an extroverted geek from
an introverted one?

The extroverted geek looks at your shoes, rather than his,
when he talks to you.”

pkej writes: “Steven A. Shaw has written yet another tutorial for budding web masters using eZ publish and PHP. Visit developer.ez.no for more info about eZ publish and other tutorials.”

OReilly.net: “In this short series of articles, I’m going
to delve deeper into Linux security and
discuss protective measures such as VPN
systems and tripwire. Even though I’m aware
of the many different security analysis tools out
there, I’m not experienced in every one of
them. I will be, however, covering the tools that
have been successful for me. And I’m adding
new tools all the time.”in this short series of articles, I’m going
to delve deeper into Linux security and
discuss protective measures such as VPN
systems and tripwire. Even though I’m aware
of the many different security analysis tools out
there, I’m not experienced in every one of
them. I will be, however, covering the tools that
have been successful for me. And I’m adding
new tools all the time.”