CNET News.com reports that Microsoft will once again revise the terms of service for Passport, the offering that ties together popular sites like Hotmail and MSN. This time around, the Redmond software giant will remove controversial provisions that would have given it control over all content generated by users via Passport. Microsoft officials are still puzzled as to why the public didn’t fall in love with the idea.

The Dallas Morning News says “The good news: This oft-delayed operating system – the first since 1984 – sets a
new standard for computer desktops with gorgeous, easy-to-use graphics and
navigation.

The bad: It’s not ready for daily use.”

Slashdot’s Jon Katz wonders if p2p isn’t yet another tired, pathetic attempt by self-styled Internet gurus and virtual roadside hucksters to invent yet another trendy Internet market that users don’t want, don’t need, and could care less about. You know, like push, or maybe even… well, like push.

NewsBytes has a story about Richard M. Stallman speaking in Thailand and urging the government to use free software. By using free software, Thailand can save paying currency to a few rich Americans. It is stupid to
recognize foreign copyrights,” he said.

Inter@ctive Week reports that speedier development was among the topics discussed at the end of the Linux kernel summit last weekend. Theodore Ts’o said development on the 2.5 kernel should start in about a year. TechWeb has more information a summit wrapup teleconference call.

Upside.com reports that embedded software maker Wind River Systems has bought two operating-system companies, “including one of the major strains” of BSD. Wind River bought, for the usuual
undisclosed sum, Berkeley Software Designs Inc., the
maker of the BSDi operating system. Wind River also
purchased the Virtuoso operating system from
Belgium-based Eonic Systems. Here’s the press release from BusinessWire, and BSD Today has even more information.

DeebianPlanet.org has an item asking for volunteers. ”
As you know, Debian is a community effort. I’m asking for help from
intermediate to advanced users to make Debian even better than it is.

As per Debian’s Policy, every executable file in Debian has to supply a man
page. However, many packages don’t follow this requirement yet. I have
created a listing of all executables for which no corresponding man page is
available yet. If you use any of these packages listed below, please consider writing a man page
for its executable files and submit it to the Bug Tracking System, http://bugs.debian.org.

Writing man pages is not very difficult.”

The announcement is posted at LWN.net, and 2.4.3ac3 is available at ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/alan/2.4/.

It’s at Slashdot, of course, and he answers questions like, “Can you ever see Microsoft applications like Office, Visio, and Project being ported to Linux, and
why or why not?”

IBM today announced expansions to
ASP Prime,* a program that provides education, application evaluation, technical
support and a variety of consulting services, to help developers enable their
applications for Web hosting. New features include ASP Prime Online, a web-based,
self-service offering that provides fast online assessment to
developers; Linux** support for ISV’s planning to test Linux-based applications
in a Web hosting environment; and the addition of a new competency center for
IBM NUMA* systems as part of the ASP Prime Solution Center in Hursley, UK. ASP Prime offers qualified ISVs a comprehensive way to gain a
competitive advantage and seize the opportunities in the emerging ASP marketplace.
More than 150 ISVs have successfully completed the ASP Prime Program since
its inception in late 1999 and the increasing frequency of requests have
exceeded the numbers the centers can answer. With ASP market growth estimates
going as high as $25 billion by 2004, IBM expects the number of ISVs interested
in the Web-hosted model to grow quickly. ASP Prime’s newly expanded features
will help IBM address the increased interest and provide assistance to a wider
variety of ISVs.

ASP Prime Online

In a marketplace where speed can make or break businesses, ISVs
need fast, comprehensive support to get their applications ready for the ASP
model. ASP Prime Online is a Web-based self-service offering that provides
application developers a quick and convenient way to assess business and technical
elements of deploying their ASP offerings. Developers enrolled in PartnerWorld
for Developers may go through the online questionnaire in as little as 20
minutes –with immediate feedback — while also accessing a variety of
complimentary benefits including:

• a telephone consultation with an IBM ASP Prime e-business
  architect;
• post consultation recommendations from IBM;
• marketing, sales & technical support such as discounts on software
  and
  training courses, marketing collateral templates, and toolbox and
  starter kits.

Once developers complete the questionnaire, those who qualify will
receive an invitation to participate in the ASP Prime Program at one of IBM’s
global ASP Prime Solution Centers.

“With the growing interest in the ASP business model, ISVs are
looking for many levels of support to help with assessing their application
readiness and get to market faster,” said Dave Carlquist, vice president, IBM Global
Net Generation Business. “With ASP Prime Online, we have a faster way of
helping ISVs, as they evaluate all possibilities and challenges of this
business segment. Regardless of the outcome of their assessment, each developer
will gain valuable insight as to their readiness along with a variety of
related benefits.”

The self-service offering will direct developers to an IBM
certified e-business architect for a telephone consultation. ASP Prime Online
will be vailable on April 27 and can be found at http://www.ibm.com/netgeneration/aspprime.

Extended Linux Support

As part of the extended support for the Linux platform, IBM is
expanding existing Linux competencies to ASP Prime Solution Centers worldwide.
Developers will be able to validate and document the scalability, manageability
and reliability of their Linux-based applications as well as learn how to
quickly enable them for server-based ASP hosting and Internet delivery using
IBM’s WebSphere* infrastructure software and open source technologies.

The program’s new Linux resources will also support non
Web-enabled applications by working with industry players such as Tarantella, Inc.
Through a recently announced co-marketing agreement with Tarantella, ASP Prime participants will get information on how to address challenges ISVs
face when hosting select applications running on Linux such as two-tier Java
client, X/Windows and other X.11 applications.

“Tarantella aggresively targets the ASP marketplace by providing
developers with products and services that will help them realize returns on their
Linux investments,” said Dennis Adams, vice president, marketing, Tarantella,
Inc.
“This will help service providers attain what they need and their
customers want — easy-to-deliver-and-manage solutions with very quick time-to-market.”

Competency Center for IBM NUMA Systems

IBM is complementing its ASP Prime Center in Hursley, UK with a
competency center supporting IBM NUMA based products, often the high I/O bandwidth
database servers at the heart of large mission critical applications. Their
advanced availability and scalability features provide significant high
reliability capabilities that are crucial in the ASP space.

This initiative is part of IBM’s joint efforts with Intel
Corporation to support the enablement of ISV applications running on IBM platforms
based on Intel Architecture. Intel began its participation in ASP Prime in 2000
to help increase emphasis and resources for the program, as it helps ISVs with Intel-based applications, as well as help expand existing IBM ASP Prime facilities and equipment.

:IBM’s ASP Prime program provides ISVs with the technical as well
as business support they need to successfully migrate to the ASP business
model,” says John Davies, vice president, Intel Solutions Channels Group.
“Many software vendors are ready to take their existing applications to the
Web. The strength of Intel Architecture solutions combined with IBM?s ASP Prime
program is a natural fit that will provide significant value to the ISV
community and the businesses they serve.”

Designed with Intel’s advanced microprocessors, IBM NUMA-Q systems
support a broad application portfolio, running Linux applications via the Linux Application Environment (LAE), S/390 and ptx applications. ASPs use
the eServer xSeries and IBM NUMA-Q systems to concurrently run applications from
all these diverse environments on a single platform and gain significant
operational cost savings.

The Hursley ASP Prime Center’s dedicated IBM NUMA systems and
qualified technical consultants are available at no cost to qualified
participants. A center of competency for IBM NUMA Systems is currently operating within the ASP Prime Solution Center located in Beaverton, Oregon.

About ASP Prime

Developers visiting IBM ASP Prime Solution Centers have access to
highly skilled, face-to-face, hands-on technical consulting, along with a wide
array of software, hardware, and tools to help them ready their web applications
for hosting environments. The centers also offer business consulting
before, during, and after the engagement. For more information on IBM ASP Prime, please visit http://www.ibm.com/netgeneration.

About Tarantella, Inc.

Tarantella, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Santa Cruz
Operation, Inc., provides web-enabling software that connects client devices,
server-based applications, and networks. The Tarantella product line includes
Tarantella Enterprise 3 for large companies and organizations, Tarantella
Enterprise 3, Tarantella Enterprise 3 ASP Edition for Application Service Providers,
and Tarantella Express for work group and departmental environments.
Tarantella products provide access to Windows, mainframe, AS/400, Linux and UNIX applications. For more information, go to www.tarantella.com.

* Indicates trademark or registered trademark of International Business
Machines Corporation.

**Indicates trademark or registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

***Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks
of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. Intel is a registered trademarks of Intel Corporation.