An InfoWorld article on CNN reports on the results of an Internet and computer security study conducted at the University of California, San Diego. According the UCSD study, nearly 4,000 Denial of Service (DoS) attacks happen every week. The vast majority of victims were attacked fewer than five times, and from that group, 65 percent experienced only one attack.

Binary Freedom: “We all know that Microsoft employs tactics that are anti-competitive in nature, but could their gradual chipping away of standards that the Internet is built upon eventually rock the foundation of its existence?”

MSNBC carries news of updated packages for Red Hat Linux 6 through 7, fixing security holes found in the Linux kernel. Editor’s note: The headline for this article was taken directly from MSNBC.

From Slashdot: “Apple has opened their Common Data Security Architecture framework,
which “contains an expandable set of cryptographic algorithms to perform code signing and
encryption operations while maintaining the security of the cryptographic keys.” Lots of good
info in addition to the code.”

Borland is back on the Mac. After a rather long hiatus from offering development tools for Apple’s Macintosh operating system, the company this week raised the curtain on a beta version of JBuilder 5 for Mac OS X. Borland says its decision was based on Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ endorsement of Java during an appearance at the JavaOne conference last summer. Full story at ZDNet eWEEK.

Here’s another item from osOpinion, regarding Linux on the desktop: “Linux is still young and growing. It started as a server OS, and given time, it will
also become the desktop OS many anticipate it to be. Rome was not built in a
day, nor was Microsoft. While Linux development is certainly fast, overnight
results can’t be expected.”

“For those who haven’t heard, Eazel, a company noted for its development of a
newly refined Linux User Interface, recently went under. The company is gone for
good. Sad as that is, we must move on.

Some are touting this event as the beginning of the end for Linux’s chances as a
desktop OS. Unfortunately, the pundits making these claims are assuming that
Linux’s way into the desktop could only have been achieved by cloning
Microsoft’s software and application-development philosophies.

Most of us within the Linux trenches see things much differently.” Read more at osOpinion.

ZDNet has an item penned by Lineo CEO Bryan Sparks, addressing the Microsoft Mundie speech and the GPL: “GPL is not
some oddity of the
software world. In fact, it
embodies the best of both
proprietary software and
open-source software by
allowing companies to
keep their own work while
using the incredibly stable
and robust features of an
open-source operating
system such as Linux. To
further clarify inaccurate
statements, the GPL never
requires a company to
give away source code to
its custom application
programs.”

From Slashdot: “In looking at the license for Open Motif, I noticed the clause that prohibits
its use on non-Free OSes. While I realize that this is for their own licensing reasons, I couldn’t
help but wonder how such a clause could help Linux and other Free OSes. Just imagine, the
large proprietary commercial empires wouldn’t be able to roll a truly Free piece of software into
their commercial apps and claim their own innovation, or worse, try to snuff out a grass-roots
open project.”

– by Tina Gasperson –
The Linux.ITToolbox looks stunningly like Yahoo! — so much so that when I left
the window and came back to it later, I actually thought I was at Yahoo until
I took a closer look.And in a way, this is a Yahoo! for Linux. No, it’s not nearly as deep, not
anywhere near as broad, not even close to being the monolithic monstrosity
that Yahoo! is. But, if you’re familiar with the frustrations of clicking on
link after dead link at that big site, you’ll probably agree with me that
being as monstrous as Yahoo! is not goal number one (unless you’re into making
lots of money … uh… nevermind).

When it comes to links to cool Linux stuff, this site has them. And they are
all sorted very nicely into interesting categories like shell scripting,
desktop environment, fonts, logs, audio, and of course, installation. I’d bookmark this site as a good all-around reference for Linux just because of the skillfully done categorization.

If you’re looking for a fully-fleshed out site, though, you may be disappointed by this one. Tempting tabs teasingly offer things like a forum, jobs, and mail lists. The forum and jobs are both empty. The mail lists tab is a link to another site, OpenITX — that’s another review, for another time. I did notice that for each major category of links on the Yahoo-ish links page, there’s a subscribe box for a related email list at OpenITX — an interesting prospect, and one I’d try if I didn’t get quite so much email already.

There’s also a tab for free email, but since free email accounts are as plentiful as reboots in a Windows user’s day, I didn’t care much.

This site has been up since November of 2000, so there’s been enough time to either build up the sagging portions of the structure or rip them out. If it was my site, I’d stick to the links and get rid of the rest. You may have a different opinion after you visit the Linux.ITToolbox.