“The ABM (Anything But Microsoft) market is vibrant and growing, but its mainstay operating system, Linux, has been falling behind the times. For all its vaunted performance and efficiency in small, single-processor servers, it’s had to take a back seat to Windows 2000 and commercial versions of Unix when it came to big, multiprocessor servers with gigabytes of memory.” Read more at PC Magazine.

“The Open Group today announced the public availability of its open source implementation of a Manageability Services Broker. As part of its Enterprise Management program, Members of The Open Group have developed an open source implementation of a Manageability Services Broker. The code implements a Common Information Model (CIM) Object Manager based on the CIM standard defined by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF).” Read the press release at LinuxPR.

From InternetWeek: “A licensing disagreement with Microsoft forced Alaska Airlines to scrap a plan to give pilots browser access to a mainframe work-scheduling application, said CIO Robert Reeder. The initial plan was to run terminal emulation software on Windows NT, letting pilots access the app from their home PCs and airport kiosks. When Microsoft heard about the application, it demanded that the airline pay for a full-time license for every computer that would access the app, Reeder said. “I told them that was ridiculous,” he said. “I can’t license every computer in the world.””

Anonymous Reader writes “Zelerate (formerly OpenSales) fired their remaining staff and closed its doors at 4pm PST on Wednesday, March 29th. Zelerate had previously laid off most of its employees in two waves; in January and just last week. Zelerate is funded by idealab!(sm), which has shut down many of its other companies in the past few months due to a lack of funding and poor management.”

From MSNBC: “Sprint PCS Group, the fourth-largest U.S. wireless telecommunications service provider, said Thursday it is introducing the first full-color screen mobile phone in the United States. The new model by Japan’s Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. is a compact mobile phone that folds in half like a clamshell and has a two-inch full color display.”

Xauth and magic cookies and secure RPC authentication methods, oh my! At Inside Solaris, Boris Loza highlights security issues with X and how to correct them.

Salon.com reports: “Most Web sites geared for children don’t follow federal requirements for privacy, independent researchers said Wednesday. Almost half of the 162 sites checked don’t have prominent links to their privacy policy, and one in 10 had no link at all on their home page — contrary to the 1998 regulations designed to protect kids the Web.”

From a press release at LinuxPR: “In response to customer demand, Guru Labs adds a new system administration course to its highly acclaimed curriculum. The course delivers an in-depth understanding of the skills required to plan, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot Linux servers. Taught by seasoned expert Guru Labs instructors, the course places heavy emphasis on actual implementation and troubleshooting.”

ZDNet UK reports on Cray’s plans to use Sun Microsystems servers for a design the company will sell later this year. However, Cray still plans to connect hundreds of Linux machines for its next-generation supercomputer.

It’s posted at LWN.net. Among the items: “Bug-fixing for 2.1 remained a priority for python-dev this fortnight
which saw the release of 2.1b2 last Friday.”