“The Midgard Project Association has released a new version of Midgard Content Management and Application Serving Suite. The new release contains Midgard core libraries, scripting language bindings for PHP4 and PHP3, Web application server for the Apache platform and Asgard, the Web-based administration interface.” Read the press release.

“The Centre for Advanced Telematics at the University of Birmingham has organised a one day seminar, Linux and Open Source for Business, which will be held at the Conference Park at the University of Birmingham on April 24th. Sponsored by IBM, the seminar features speakers from IBM, RedHat, SUSE, and Fujitsu.” More information.

Open Source: it isn’t just for software anymore. CNET News.com reports on the hardware side of Open Source, highlighting the chip design work of the OpenCores group. While hardware might never be free, its Open Source alternatives could become an inexpensive alternative. “We hope for some cheaper and better-quality hardware,” said one OpenCores participant. “Just look at the unit price of an Intel Pentium chip.”

From Linux.com. a network services basics tutorial: “Now that you have Linux installed you may have the urge to configure some of your services. For instance, you may not need to have an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server running if you don’t plan on letting people download files from your computer over the Internet, or you may want to make sure your Web server is running.”

“Microsoft’s holier-than-thou standards pitch for .Net could be undermined by its insistence on using its own, non-standard version of Kerberos. And that, reckons Bloor Research in an overview of HailStorm published today here,could prove controversial.” From The Register.

VANCOUVER, BC March 27, 2001 – ActiveState, the leader in open source
programming tools, announces the appointment of many of the top minds in
open source to its Technical
Advisory Board. Joining the team is: Larry Wall, Brendan Eich, Guido
van Rossum, Rasmus Lerdorf, and Jon Udell.

“I enjoy working with ActiveState on Perl development. They really believe
in the Perl
philosophy ‘there’s more than one way to do it.’ They’re in the business of
enabling everyone to get the job done,†said Larry Wall, creator of Perl.

“Python has benefited from ActiveState’s contributions to the community
such as ActivePython and Komodo, and their participation in the Python Software Foundation. I look forward to working with
them,†said Guido van Rossum, the creator of Python.

“ActiveState has the vision and understanding of the Mozilla project. It’s great to see an
organization with a language/tools focus developing with the Mozilla
framework,†stated Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and Architect for
Mozilla.

“ActiveState’s efforts with Perl and Python make them well-suited to provide
similar products and services for PHP. I’m pleased to assist them in their
future development,†commented Rasmus Lerdorf, creator of PHP.

“I’ve been using and writing about scripting languages for years and am
thrilled to see a critical mass of language inventors at ActiveState. The
knowledge transfer and synergies that will develop will be a great benefit
to the community. I’m excited to be a part of this,†stated Jon Udell,
former executive editor Byte.

“ActiveState has demonstrated insightfulness and leadership by integrating
and enhancing many open source technologies to create new products and new
programming environments, such as Komodo.
ActiveState’s ability to recruit these thought leaders to its advisory board
clearly establishes the company as one of the most important players in high
level programming languages,†noted Michael Tiemann, CTO of Red Hat.

“These language innovators have changed the face of technology with tens of
millions of people using their software. They will have a profound
collective influence on our emerging technologies and on our goal of making
open source languages more accessible to both casual programmers and the
business community,†said Dick Hardt, Founder & CEO of ActiveState.

About ActiveState
ActiveState is the leading provider of open source based programming
products and services for cross-platform development. ActiveState’s key
technologies are Perl, the Internet’s most popular programming language;
Python and Tcl, user-friendly scripting languages; PHP, the dynamic Web
programming language; and XSLT, the XML transformation language.
ActiveState’s easy to use solutions improve programmer productivity and
offer seamless integration with other technologies.

Media & Analysts Contact:Lori Pike, ActiveState Corporation

© ActiveState Corp 2001.
ActiveState and Komodo are trademarks of ActiveState Corporation. All other
company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

When RIAA sleeps, does it dream of China? According to a CNET News.com report, “China plans to levy fees of 10 percent of total revenue to companies that allow people to download copyrighted music, or $2.42 (20 yuan) per year for each item.”

CNET News.com interviews Dan Frye, director of IBM’s Linux Technology Center. “Our job really is to help make Linux better,” says Frye. “The way to do that is not by telling the Linux community to “Do X.” You say, “We’re going to do X.” Then you deliver it and wait for the community to accept it.”

From a ZDNet eWEEK review: “As a desktop operating system, SuSE 7.1 Professional would be a good fit only for Microsoft haters and cash-strapped companies installing systems for the first time. Even with Windows 2000 Professional selling at close to $300 per user and Microsoft Office 2000 Standard at close to $500, we see no compelling reason for companies to shift from Windows on the desktop.”

In this latest edition of the Linux kernel: “Fix es1370 build bug” … “Fix vmalloc mismerge” … “New xircom_cb driver” … “Revert previous wrong bootmem change.” Full details at LWN.net.