Posted at LWN.net: Updated gnupg packages are now available for Red Hat Linux 6.2, 7, and 7.1.
These updates address a potential vulnerability which could allow an
attacker to compute a user’s secret key.

LWN,net has a report from a LUG meeting where Shane O’Donnell, project manager for the OpenNMS project, explained his project.

Anonymous Reader writes, “Yep, if you want to keep the tunes you download from these services you have to repay for them every month. After 30 days if you don’t renew the license the files expire.” The

story’s at MP3newswire.net.

Anonymous Reader writes, “Steven Johnson responds to Craig Mundie’s Microsoft ‘shared source’ speech in an new piece up on FEED. He strongly disagrees with Mundie’s stance, stating that ‘If creative destruction is a hallmark of the new new economy, if we’re fated to live through increasingly turbulent economic times, then open source software isn’t one of the causes behind that volatility. It’s an antidote.’

Here is a link, if you want to check it out: http://www.feedmag.com/templates/default.php3?a_id =1711&page_num=1.”

Posted at LWN.net: Updated Kerberos 5 packages are now available for Red Hat Linux 6.2, 7,
and 7.1. These updates close a potential vulnerability present in the
gssapi-aware ftpd included in the krb5-workstation package.

CNet reports that Sharp is planning to release a laptop with a Transmeta processor
in Japan next month. Sharp’s Mebius PC-SX1-H1 notebook will use Transmeta’s 600MHz Crusoe
processor. More from Wired.com.

ZDNet has commentary from Microsoft’s Craig Mundie about reactions to his anti-Open Source speech May 3. ”
In my speech, I did not question the right of the open-source software model to compete in the
marketplace. The issue at hand is choice; companies and individuals should be able to choose
either model, and we support this right. I did call out what I believe is a real problem in the licensing
model that many open-source software products employ: the General Public License.”

We’re not sure if this belongs here or is flamebait, but what the heck? Manny writes, “Could it be that the idealistic (but quixotic) posse that is riding out against Craig Mundie are actually witless ground troops for IBM? Are they nothing more than human fodder in the rhetorical screedwar, taking the bullets while IBM is nowhere to be seen? Where is Oliver Stone when you really NEED him? Microsoft now has a “shared source” page to counterbalance IBM’s open source page.”

http://www.camelot-com.com/ — Camelot Communications and the Apache Software Foundation today announced ApacheCon Europe will be held in Dublin, Ireland, 15 through 17 October. Coming off another successful ApacheCon in Santa Clara, during which the Apache Web Server beta 2.0 was launched, the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) signed on Camelot Communications to produce the official Apache conference for the next three years.
“ApacheCon combines the energy and enthusiasm of hundreds of open source software developers, the humor and spirit of great minds like David Brin and John “maddog” Hall, and the organizational and marketing talents of Camelot Communications. We are proud to move forward with such a highly respected conference producer. In October 2001, Dublin, Ireland, a burgeoning software development center, will be ground-zero for Apache,” said Ken Coar, ASF Board Member.

“Camelot Communications greatly appreciates the endorsement and continued support of the Apache Software Foundation. The open source movement and many of the great ideas that spawn the future of software development stem from the ApacheCon sessions and hackathons,” said Terry DeGiuli, President of Camelot Communications. “This Fall, vendors, expert speakers, and developers seeking an edge will convene in Dublin and spread the Apache way.”

Event: ApacheCon Europe
Date: 15 through 17 October 2001
Place: Doyle Burlington Hotel, Dublin, Ireland
URL: http://ApacheCon.com/

ApacheCon Europe 2001 will provide a look at the future of Apache technologies — with insights from key developers within the open source community and previews of the latest technology. Open source software followers and observers from all over the world join to push the frontier of the evolving Apache software solutions and learn from fellow Apache software developers.

A complete list of session speakers and online registration will be announced soon at: http://ApacheCon.com/

For exhibitor and sponsorship opportunities, contact Jeff Wainhause at +1.212.251.0006, ext. 11, or by email at jeff@camelot-com.com.

For updates on the event and online registration please visit: http://ApacheCon.com/ or contact Allison Semple at +1.212.251.0006, ext. 13 or by email at allison@camelot-com.com.

For press registration, contact Roddy Young at +1.617.877.1043 or by email at press@camelot-com.com.

About the Apache Software Foundation
The Apache Software Foundation provides organizational, legal and financial support for the Apache open source software projects. The Foundation was established as a nonprofit corporation in order to ensure continuation of the Apache projects beyond the participation of individual volunteers, to enable contributions of intellectual property and financial support, and to provide a vehicle for limiting legal exposure while participating in open source software projects. For more information on the Apache Software Foundation, please see http://www.apache.org/

About Camelot Communications Corp.
Camelot Communications Corp. produces IT conferences focusing on emerging technologies including open-source, XML, Java, and Wireless. Strategic partnerships with leading IT and software organizations such as the Apache Software Foundation, OASIS, and the Object Management Group (OMG), as well as alliances with industry media and analyst groups have allowed us to embrace the IT community in the United States and Europe. For a list of upcoming projects, visit http://www.camelot-com.com/

– by Robin “Roblimo” Miller –
I’ve heard lots less buzz lately about Linux for desktop users than I did a year or two ago. At the same time, Linux has gotten easier to use than ever. It’s time for a new advocacy push, especially with Windows XP right around the corner.
According to Microsoft, Windows XP requires a minimum of 128 MB RAM to be fully functional. Most home and small office computers sold in the last three or four years have only 32 or 64 MB, which is plenty for Linux — unless you install StarOffice, which barely works with less than 128 MB. But the one time I saw Windows 2000 and Microsoft Office running on a PC with 128 MB RAM, it was even more painful; it seems that big office suites need a minimum of 192 MB RAM to operate decently in either Windows or Linux, and that’s that.

But most home users don’t need the big suites; Windows people can use Microsoft Works and Linux people can use KOffice and be perfectly happy. Except, of course, that Windows users who want to upgrade to XP are going to need 128 MB RAM and a *lot* of hard disk space, while Linux users running KOffice will be happy with as little as 32 MB, which will save them the trouble of a hardware upgrade.

The old bugaboo about Linux being hard to install and use is just about buried. I recently got a new laptop that came with Windows ME pre-installed. Naturally, I immediately installed and configured Linux-Mandrake on it. Then I went back and tried to configure Windows ME. It took longer to configure ME than to install and configure Mandrake!

I’ve tested the latest Red Hat, Progeny, SuSE, Mandrake, and Caldera Linux distributions on both desktop and laptop machines. Except for Caldera, which had trouble auto-detecting the video card in my new laptop (a Hewlett-Packard model so cutting-edge it doesn’t even show on HP’s own Web site yet), they all installed with point/click ease in well under an hour. “Boxed set” commercial Linux distributions have gotten so easy to install that the local Linux Users Group that originally helped me get going with Linux three years ago has almost disbanded except for maintaining an email list and IRC channel. The leadership felt, rightly, that the club’s original mission — helping new users get Linux installed and running — was obsolete, and that advice could be given more efficiently online than by holding physical meetings.

But despite recent Linux usability advances, I hear less and less about Linux on the desktop. This is sad, especially now that Microsoft is coming out with a version of Windows so different from the product’s “traditional” look and feel that it will be at least as hard for many users to learn as it would be for them to become familiar with a KDE or Gnome desktop.

I have worried for several years now that as volunteer-based Gnu/Linux became corporatized just-plain-Linux, the community would get in the habit of letting the companies trying to earn money from Linux do all the evangelizing. This seems to be happening. The only problem is that most of the “pure” Linux companies are broke or close to it, and IBM got busted for spraying pro-Linux graffiti on city sidewalks and seems to have stopped promoting Linux for the time being.

So guess what? It’s right back to the good ‘ol Linux community (remember us?) when it comes to spreading The Word. We need to make copies of Red Hat, Mandrake or [your favorite distro here] complete CD sets, with all the goodie-type software they contain, and help our Windows-using friends install them on their computers. We must help them learn that GnuCash is a nice “checkbook” program, that Gimp is the graphics program they’ll probably use most, and generally show them all the little tricks anyone needs to learn when they first use an unfamiliar computer operating system, even one as simple as Linux has become these days.

We run around reminding ourselves that “Linux” is a community of developer and users, not a corporate buzzword. Fine. Now let’s prove it. Microsoft is giving us a perfect opportunity to dust off our old “Gnu/Linux Evangelist” uniforms* and march down the street, arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder, hup, hup, hup, to show the world that Linux is a movement at least as much as an operating system.

*Okay, for most of us the “uniform” is a T-shirt and some old pants, and the chance of any group of Gnu/Linux advocates marching in step is somewhere between slim and none, but you get the idea….