the coolgeek writes: “I noticed that it isn’t all that easy to get started in linux kernel programming (aside from the v2.0.x-something docs floating around), so I started a forum for (hopefully) willing kernel braves, amateur and expert, to bounce information around and give the info to those who seek it. http://www.coolgeek.net/kernel_hacking.”

From Linuxgram: “The Linux gods have spoken.

The operating system is about to get a new kernel-configuration system, one that’s supposed to make it easier to
build a Linux kernel.

Free software demigod Eric Raymond has written the new system, CML2, with the blessings of co-god Linus
Torvalds who’s promised to put it into the Linux 2.5 development kernel when it gets to the 2.5.1-2.5.2 stage. Work
on that kernel, which will eventually be released as Linux 2.6, began a little more than week ago (CSN No 395).”

A LinuxPlanet columnist takes Progeny Debian 1.0 for a test drive: “Progeny’s taken Woody, pleasantly current enough for most of us, and added some QA and testing plus some
configuration tools and a new installer to build a business-friendly version of Debian designed to do for the distro much
what past Debian derivatives like Storm and Corel have done: give users an already excellent distribution with some
usability enhancements that flatten out a little of the learning curve.”

Linuxgram follows up on Wind River’s acquisition of BSDi. Here’s how the story starts: “Start-up NetBSD house Wasabi Systems Inc, which claims to be having a lot of luck emulating the old Cygnus
business model — it reckons buying Cygnus was the smartest thing Red Hat ever did and calculates that Cygnus is
now bringing in half of Red Hat’s revenues — is one of the many companies left scratching its head over Wind
River’s intended acquisition of BSDi’s operating systems assets.”

The GNUbies and LXNY, with NYLUG in support, are throwing a big
Install Fest on Thursday, 19 April, 2001, on the Island of Manhattan. This Install Fest is free and open to all.

This Install Fest is made possible through the work and kind generosity
of
the organizers and all the volunteers. We especially thank Matt
Lederman
and XADAX.

All free software welcome! We do not discriminate among free kernels
based
upon the first letter of their names. We shall install as many free
systems on as many machines and on as many different kinds of machines
as
possible. We shall install both Linux kerneled and free *BSD kerneled
systems. Any person who installs or helps install the Hurd or Squeak
or
any Lisp OS or any ML OS will be treated to gin.

All experienced installers are invited to come and help. All students of economics, of the history of engineering, and of the
art
of propaganda are invited.

Details:

Date: Thursday, 19 April, 2001.

Time: 4:00 pm to midnight.
Late comers are just as welcome as those who arrive at 4:00 pm.

Location: XADAX
161 W. 22nd Street, near Seventh Avenue
on the Second Floor
above The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre
on the Island of Manhattan.

Hardware: Bring the boxes on which you wish to run a Free OS.
Though it is safest to bring your monitor, keyboard, and
mouse,
you need not. We will have such available onsite.
Internet connections via ethernet will be provided.
Telephone lines will be provided, so we can help with PPP.

Software: Bring whatever distribution CDs, boot and rescue disks, boot
managers, tiny distributions, manuals, and anything else you
want. Again, you need not bring any of these things, since
they will be available onsite.

Slashdot readers discuss a story at Technology Review that details the battle between Open Source products and Microsoft for the embedded market.

Linuxgram notes the milestone for the distro “that’s supposed to make Linux easy enough for the casual home user … This isn’t one of your massive development efforts. The Redmond Linux team consists primarily of ex-Microserf
Joseph Creek, who worked for Microsoft as a network and systems tester before doing a consulting stint with
Linuxcare. Redmond Linux is hosted at SourceForge, and only two developers besides Creek have signed up to
work on the project.”

South Korea’s leading Linux OS developer Mizi Research Incorporated (Young-Jin SEO/CEO) introduced
today a specialized Linux OS called “LINUETTE V1.0” with a strengthened multimedia capability
tailor made for High-end PDA and Palm PC.

The introduction of LINUETTE V1.O is a perfect example that embedded Linux has developed into a
full-fledged PDA operating system. It supports both the Linux and the Window platform as well as
well power-managed Linux Kernel, Internet Application, a Professional multimedia player and to top
it off, a second to none Personal Information Management(PIMs) application.

Key features of the LINUETTE

Information appliance will develop into a full-fledged multi-media device includes capable of
Internet surfing and personal schedule management platform. LINUETTE V1.0 supports FM Radio tuner,
MPEG and MP3 players, and capabilities like e-Album, graphic image viewer, CCD camera and diverse
games are added, all which your everyday portable normal audio devices cannot support.

LINUETTE V1.0 is a perfect Wireless Internet Appliance with a built-in web browser and E-mail
client that supports fully functional web browsing. The built-in E-mail client supports POP3 and
IMAP4 protocol.

Mizi has been upgraded the wireless communication capability for diverse information appliance.
Starting off with Palm PC phone, PDA ?s with strengthened wireless communication capability will
be introduced to the market hereafter, and in order to meet this demand, it is designed to support
various wireless communications.

LINUETTE V1.0 supports a PIM system which includes applications like Today, Address book,
Scheduler, To-do, Memo justifying its billing as an ideal private secretary. In addition to this,
focus was also put on user convenience, linking data entity with relevant application for
execution. For instance, if the E-mail address of the address book was clicked then the E-mail
client will be executed.

LINUETTE V1.0 supports both Linux and MS windows platforms which is a world first. LINUETTE V1.0
supports the capability of PDA?s Flash memory being recognized as PC?s additional hard disk drive,
and further supports MS Outlook and Data Synchronization based on SyncML whereby eliminating the
need for Linux users to use Windows for data synchronization of Palm PC and Desktop computer.

References

LINUETTE V1.0 was introduced to the public as the built-in OS for Exilien 101 Palm PC and Exilien
102 PDA developed by HNT, a Korean company (HNT Co., Ltd., www.hntek.com ). Exilien 101 has a
built-in PCMCIA Wireless communication capability.

Mizi Research has previously showcased its superior technology by successfully applying LINUETTE
V1.0 to smart phones manufactured by Samsung Electronics in 2000.

Industry opinion

“It will be an important product which will be testament to the unlimited possibility of growth
for Embedded Linux and we will concentrate our efforts on acquiring diverse applications like Palm
OS by supporting a third-party developers of the LINUETTE,” said Young-Jin SEO, the CEO of Mizi
Research.

“We admire the work that Mizi has done with LINUETTE,” said Haavard Nord, Trolltech CEO.
“LINUETTE offers developers a solid and stable platform, and we are pleased that Qt/Embedded
programmers can create applications for this platform with ease.”

Related web sites and contacts are as following:

Company web site : http://www.mizi.com

Product web site : http://www.mizi.com/en/prod/embed/embed-2.htm (contains screenshots)

E-mail : info@mizi.com

A trio of security announcements from SecurityFocus: “The shared library ‘ndwfn4.so’ that ships with Oracle Application Server is vulnerable to a buffer overflow (details)” … “Certain Alcatel ADSL-Ethernet bridge products feature an embedded TFTP server which can be used by remote users to make changes to configuration and firmware (details)” … For nph-maillist, “A hostile user can enter commands embedded in an email address via the subscription form, and then force a mailing which will execute the commands (details).”

Friday fun from Segfault: “You realize this didn’t happen when he was running Windows NT, don’t you? Up to a year between service packs! It was great.”