In a press release at Internet Wire, IBM recaps its range of Linux services and products for telecommunications providers. Services include “The latest releaset of z/VM, enabling customers to better exploit the S/390 or eServer z900 servers running Linux at a substantially lower cost.” and “Enabling the z900 server running Linux with hipersockets and cryptographic hardware support.”

June 3, 2001 (The INTERNET) – The Bochs IA-32 Emulator Project unveiled a new
version of the popular Bochs emulator to the public today, coming on the heels
of Bochs 1.1.2 released May 17, 2001.
Bochs 1.2 includes many usability improvements such as improved control
over error handling, binaries for RPM-based Linux(R) distributions and
Windows(R), and improved error output messages. Other new features include an
easy to use interactive disk image creator, multiple processor emulation
(SMP), vastly improved documentation (including man pages), VNC remote viewer
support using Bochs-RFB, dual virtual hard drive support, and a text mode
interface. You can find Bochs binaries for Windows and Linux (along with the
source code for UNIX, Linux, Windows, and Mac OS) at
http://bochs.sourceforge.net.

ABOUT BOCHS

Bochs is one of the oldest and most popular x86 emulators available. Bochs
compiles on a number of platforms including UNIX(R) and UNIX-like systems,
Windows, and MacOS.
Bochs can be used for many purposes such as running Windows on other
platforms, trying a new operating system without repartitioning your system,
and operating system debugging. You can learn more about Bochs at
http://bochs.sourceforge.net.

—
PRESS CONTACT:
Timothy R. Butler
tbutler@uninetsolutions.com

—-
Trademarks Notices: Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corp. Linux is a
registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. UNIX is a registered trademark of The
Open Group. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to in this
announcement are the property of their respective owners.

Sebastopol, CA–Microsoft Senior Vice President Craig Mundie set off a
far-reaching debate recently when he introduced Microsoft’s Shared
Source program, which blends access to source code with the
preservation of strong intellectual property rights by software
developers, and contrasted Shared Source to Open Source and the GNU
Public License.There’s been a strong response from the open source and free software
communities, accusing Microsoft of trying to co-opt the momentum of
open source with a program that offers superficial similarities, but
few of the real benefits. Microsoft counters that they are trying to
find a balance between the needs of commercial developers and the
lessons learned from the open source movement.

“We think that this is a debate worth having,” says Tim O’Reilly.
“Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein’s book ‘Republic.com’ makes the
case that when people talk only to those who already agree with them,
their views become more extreme, but when they engage with those of
opposite views, both sides move towards the middle. The best way for
the open source community to change Microsoft’s business practices is
to engage them in serious conversation, not just criticize them from a
distance.”

At the O’Reilly Open Source Convention on July 26th, Craig Mundie will
discuss ways in which Shared Source differs from Open Source, and why
Microsoft believes that the Shared Source Philosophy supports a strong
software business case for commercial software developers and their
customers.

Red Hat CTO Michael Tiemann will then make the case for open source.
His speech will be followed by a panel discussion with Tiemann, Mundie,
and other experts on intellectual property and the software industry.
The panel will be moderated by Tim O’Reilly.

About the O’Reilly Open Source Convention:
The 3rd annual O’Reilly Open Source Convention will be held July 23-27,
2001, at the Waterfront Sheraton Hotel and Marina in San Diego,
California. This year’s expanded convention includes over 250 sessions
in 14 tracks on key open source technologies such as Perl, Apache, XML,
Python, PHP, MySQL, Linux, and many more. The convention will attract
over 2000 hardcore system administrators, programmers, and Web
developers, who join the leaders of the critical open source
technologies to learn how to understand, code, and manage these
powerful tools. Held in conjunction with the Open Source Convention,
the O’Reilly Summit on Open Source Strategies, organized by O’Reilly
Research, brings together technology leaders from open source companies
along with executives (CTOs, CIOs, CEOs) from leading companies that
use open source software for strategic advantage. For more information
see: http://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon/

For more details on Craig Mundie’s speech, please see:
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2001/view/e_sess/1834

O’Reilly Open Source Convention and Perl Conference 5 Early Bird
Registration through June 22, 2001:
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2001/pub/10/register.html

To obtain your press pass for the O’Reilly Open Source Convention
and Perl Conference 5, see:
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2001/create/e_press

# # #

O’Reilly is a registered trademark of O’Reilly & Associates, Inc. All
other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Richard Keene writes “While developing databse JDBC code I found that I had a file for each database table that had the JDBC code for
read/write/create/search. I was creating the files by copying a previous
file and changing column names and such. Very tedious and error prone. Thus I created CodeCrank. It takes a template file and an XML file
that describes tags, and generates a source code file. It has saved me a lot of time. CodeCrank is suitable for any templated file generation, not just source code. Would someone like to do a database-table-to-JSP-template? The source is available from iCentris.com.
It is available in WinZip or
in Unix tar gzip formats.
The README is here.”

ORBS (Open Relay Behavior Modification System), the anti-spam relay blocking system, seems to have vanished from the Internet in the wake of a New Zealand court’s order that ORBS remove a company’s netblocks from its blacklist. The controversial system last went offline in 1998, when its service provider pulled the plug on the site for running nonconsensual mailserver relay checks. It’s all speculation; to find out what really happened “We can only wait for New Zealand to wake up and people to get back to us.” From The Register.

AMD is reportedly working on extensions to its x86 instruction set, an Nvidia staffer told The Register’s Tony Smith. “When asked whether Nvidia’s nForce chipset drivers utilised AMD’s 3D Now!
extensions, said staffer admitted they did and later drivers will use “future AMD
extensions.”” What, exactly, this means remains to be seen.

Six major data-storage companies announced an alliance to work together to overcome obstacles that have hindered the widespread adoption of storage devices. EMC, IBM, Compaq, Hitachi, and Brocade say they will provide customers with storage devices that can work across networks, and with one another’s competing devices. Full story at CNET News.com.

After at least two delays, the Agenda VR3 Linux-powered handheld device finally shipped, last week. ZDNet eWEEK’s reviewer says: “The unit’s interface elements are too rough and its performance is too slow for consideration an an everyday PDA…” but adds that the device “serves well as a handheld Linux development target,” giving companies a “valuable first look at things to come.”

ZDNet Sm@rt Partner columnist Steven J. Vaughan-Nicols says that Linux will never make it as a big-time desktop operating system. The reason isn’t a lack of [insert favorite reason here], it is, according to Vaughan-Nicols a matter perception: end-users just don’t see the apps they want: “In particular, Linux on the desktop needs Microsoft office before it can become mainstream… I’m not talking about technical excellence here, I’m talking about what users want. And, like it or lump it, they want Office.”

Network Wold Fusion carries news of a bug that reportedly “causes a total collapse of Windows Terminal Services running on Windows 2000 at specific processor speeds.” The bug was discovered by researchers at Competitive Systems Analyis. Microsoft says the bug may be specific to CSA’s computers.