Michael Hudson posts the weekly summary of traffic on the python-dev mailing list. This report covers traffic between April 12 and April 25. Read the summary at Linux Weekly News.

Menlo Park, CA., April 25, 2001 – X.Org, the global consortium empowered to develop, stabilize, maintain,
and promote the X Window System technology and standard, announces today the release of X11R6.6. This
release includes 86 code fixes and new features, including: integration of Compaq Computer Corporation’s
AccessX client and server-side code, the first installment of Sun Microsystems’ internationalization (xi18n)
code, critical fixes to Xprint, and correction of “free” license and copyright statements to ensure “permission
to distribute” for all files. This release uses X.Org’s “FastTrack” process, making released software immediately
available to the entire community. It is available for public download April 25, 2001, at http://www.X.Org.

This release is dedicated to our community of users–who prove the growing relevance and awareness of this
fundamental technology in today’s network age.

About The X Window System

The X Window System is judged worldwide to be one of the most successful open source, collaborative
technologies developed to date. It is the de facto standard graphical engine for the UNIX and Linux operating
systems and provides the only common windowing environment bridging the heterogeneous platforms in
today’s enterprise computing. The inherent independence of the X Window System from operating system and
hardware, its network-transparency, and its support for a wide range of popular desktops are responsible for its
continuing and growing popularity. All major hardware vendors support the X Window System. Many third
parties provide technologies for integrating X Window System applications into network or personal computer
environments under DOS, Windows, Windows 9x, and Windows NT, while thousands of independent software
developers provide X Window System applications. The world-wide community of users of the X Window
System currently exceeds 30 million.

About X.Org

X.Org’s mission is to provide stewardship of the X Window System standards and technology for its global
community of distributors, developers, and users. X.Org policy is defined and executed exclusively by its
members. X.Org membership is fee-based. X.Org activities are focused in Task Forces whose membership is
open to all interested participants. Task Force information is available at http://www.X.Org. All X.Org
activities are supported by contributed effort and funded by membership fees.Members include some of the
leading computing companies in the world–including Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: “CPQ”),
Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: “HWP”), Hummingbird Ltd. (NASDAQ: “HUMC”), International
Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: “IBM”), SGI (NYSE: “SGI”), Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ 100:
“SUNW”), as well as the XFree86 Project. A complete list of members is also available at http://www.X.Org.
X.Org’s operations are facilitated by The Open Group.

The current X.Org release of the X Window System is available for download at http://www.X.Org.

Note to editors: UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the US and other countries. LINUX is a
registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. “XFree86″ is a trademark of The XFree86 Project, Inc. All company
names are trademarks of the registered owners.”

TechWeb: “IBM on Monday is expected to unveil new versions
of its iSeries servers that allow partitioning at the
sub-CPU level and offer increased networking
capabilities with the company’s xSeries servers.”

Slashdotter chromatic reviews Data Munging with Perl by David Cross. Chromatic: “The book plots a natural course through topics ordered by complexity. It opens with a theoretical
overview of data processing. This introduces terminology and outlines the general types of data one
might encounger. Additionally, the author writes with the authority of experience when exploring the
basic approaches and best practices. While other books aimed at novice users shy away from
programs-as-filters and data structures, Cross prefers to instill good habits from the start.”

Wired.com reports on the SEC probe of Credit
Suisse First Boston and the possible connection with the placing of bankers John Schmidt and Mike Grunwald on administrative leave. “CSFB is being investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan as well as the
Securities and Exchange Commission, and there have been reports that the two men’s
paid administrative leaves are related to the probes. The two agencies are said to be
looking at the possibility that CSFB traders demanded higher-than-usual commissions
from hedge funds and others hoping to get allocations of initial public offerings.

CSFB underwrote some of the hottest stock offerings during the Internet tech boom
including VA Linux, Razorfish, Handspring and MP3.com.” (VA Linux owns NewsForge.)

From ZDNet UK: “Officials at Sony’s UK offices confirmed on Thursday that the
company is to release an official version of Linux to run on the
PlayStation2. However, it will only be compatible with Japanese
versions of the console at this stage.

According to Sony, the move is in response to consumer pressure,
which has included online petitions. Users will receive a hard drive
with built-in 10Mbit Ethernet socket that will plug into the console’s
PCMCIA slot, a mouse and a keyboard, as well as a PS2-compatible
version of the popularopen source operating system.”

rom InternetWire: Based on
developer demand, IBM developerWorks, (www.ibm.com/developerWorks),
IBM’s free, online resource for developers, announced today it has made
several additions to its website content, including a new Web services zone
and a collection of code and components.

To reinforce IBM’s commitment to developers considering emerging open standards based technology, IBM
developerWorks has strengthened its focus on Web services by advancing its Web services special topic
area into a full-fledged zone. This change will mean that the newest zone appearing on developerWorks will
feature five monthly columns, with most content written by authors outside IBM, and will offer development
tools for complex code writing tasks. The Web services zone will offer the same level of detailed content as
the other zones which appear on developerWorks, including XML, Java Technology, Linux, Open
Source Projects and Components.

A ZDNet column addresses Linux’s battle for the desktop. A major complaint: The many font formats in Linux, and the fact that “every applications implements fonts in its own way.”

The Register reports on the fake review in which Bill Gates gives Red Hat 7.0 five stars out of five. A joke Linus Torvalds’ review, however, suggests users switch to Windows. The reviews are jokes but Amazon.com’s UK division has really refused to pull them.

CNet has a short item following up on the EFF’s proposal to create an Open Source music license.