Wired: “American Indians have, over the centuries, been forced onto lands that often can’t sustain a good economy. Now, a $5 million grant from Hewlett-Packard will help build a technology-based infrastructure for tribes in Southern California.”

url ” “The next
release of Microsoft’s operating system comes out with enough features so that for most
people they don’t need anything else. The range of the market that is addressed by the others’
products (Adobe, AOL, etc.) is diminished dramatically.”

MSNBC: “I first got wind of my own Napsterish problem a few
months back when I stumbled on a message posted in an
Internet discussion group that mentioned my 1984 book
“Hackers.” Some helpful soul informed the group that one could
get the whole tome free, simply by going to a certain Web site.
Huh?”

MSNBC: “The jerseys, which cover the 15-inch tall penguins
from neck to ankle, stop oil-coated penguins from preening
themselves and swallowing toxic oil.
And for the fashion-conscious penguin, there is a wide
choice of colors and designs, even a black and white tuxedo
number – complete with bow tie.”

CNET: “In each of the past five years, hard drive capacities have doubled, keeping storage costs low
and allowing technophiles and PC users to sock away more data. However, storage buffs
believed the rate of growth could continue for only so long, and many asserted that the
storage industry was about to hit the physical limit for higher capacities. But according to IBM,
a new innovation will push back that limit.”

BBC: “A trapped climber has been saved after receiving a text message on
his mobile phone from RAF rescuers asking him to let them know his
location.”

LinuxSecurity: “This week, perhaps the most interesting articles include, “Setting up a proxy server on Linux,” “Bandwidth Limiting HOWTO,”
“Leading security expert on the end of DDoS attacks,” and the second part of “How to Set Up a Linux-Based Firewall for a
SOHO.”

Reuters reports (via The Globe and Mail) that Vivendi Universal will buy MP3.com for an estimated $372 million, saying the acquisition gives them a total of 40,000,000 registered users.

– By Grant Gross
–

The bad news this week: Eazel, the company that was supposed to make the Linux desktop as easy to use as a Macintosh, shut down operations. The good news: Nokia, the giant communications company, launched an Open Source project to create open standards for home entertainment software.

Eazel’s Apple and America Online veterans couldn’t save the company in these tough times for tech startups. Rumors had been circulating that the company was shutting down, and news reports this week confirmed it. Eazel posted the announcement, but went out with heads held high about the company’s achievements. But some news reports quoted people who weren’t even that shaken up by Eazel’s financial difficulties.

Nokia jumps in

On the other hand, Nokia launched OSTdev.net with CollabNet in an effort to promote the Open Standards Terminal software platform, based on Linux, XFree86, and Mozilla, for home entertainment devices such as the multipurpose Nokia Media Terminal the company plans to start selling in Europe this summer. That news generated a lot of media attention; later in the week, Nokia announced a deal Loki Software to distribute games on the Media Terminal.

Microsoft vs. Open Source, Round VXIV?

Nearly two weeks after Microsoft v.p. Craig Mundie slagged the GPL and Open Source business plans in a speech, 10 Open Source and Free Software leaders responded by saying, “Free Software is a great way to build a common foundation of software that encourages innovation and fair
competition. Microsoft, it’s time for you to join us.” Mundie responded to the response by saying this was the kind of, dare we say it, open dialog he was hoping for when he announced Microsoft’s so-called “shared source” initiative.

When the Open Source community and Microsoft aren’t competing in a war of words, their products are competing in database benchmark tests. It was widely reported that IBM’s upcoming DB2 7.2 release running on Linux 2.4.3 outperforms SQL Server 2000 running on Windows 2000. The humor site, Segfault noted that IBM’s hardware costs may have been a bit higher.

A worm that fixes things?

A computer worm aimed at Linux computers apparently sought to fix damage that the earlier Lion worm did. Security experts weren’t so impressed with the Good Samaritan, however.

New in NewsForge

Stories unique to NewsForge this week:

Editor in chief Robin Miller says a good public relations effort is all that’s needed for Linux to gain ground in the desktop. That’s where the Open Source community comes in.

News editor Tina Gasperson continues her review of Open Source Web sites with a look at MandrakeForum. She says the discussions there are worth the price of admission.

Business columnist Jack Bryar finds what’s missing at the Wireless Agenda 2001 conference, namely most Open Source companies.

LinuxPR: “SuSE Linux, the international technology leader and solutions provider in Open Source operating system, announced that SuSE Linux 7.1 for Compaq’s AlphaServer systems will be available by the end of May. By porting the latest SuSE distribution to Compaq’s 64-bit technology, SuSE proves itself again as a leading provider of Linux server solutions. Apart from the Alpha platform, SuSE Linux also supports Intel and PowerPC CPUs as well as the SPARC and S/390 architectures.
“