Info World reports that a company called New.com is beginning sales of 20 new top level domains not authorised by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The company claims to be a market-based system rather than a politics-based system.

Kelly McNeill writes: “Microsoft is essentially a distribution monopoly, since anybody has the freedom to engage in unlimited ‘production’ of software. There is a strange sort of paranoia, it seems, among the people who really understand technology — that is, the people who create technology. They think that Big Brother is closing in on them, shutting down Napster, mandating secure communications with government back-doors, and protecting the copyrights of the very companies they claim to be prosecuting (read: Microsoft). What’s all this fuss about Napster, anyway? Why does the government pay farmers to stop growing things when people are starving? Does Microsoft have a monopoly? How can I protect my privacy on the Web? What in the world do these questions have in common, asks an OS Opinion article.”

Kelly McNeill writes: “Open source is still waiting in the wings. It is huge now, and Linux is one of the most prevalent operating systems in use, short of the monolith Windows 200x. It is growing, too. Fast. Really, really fast. Why? Not because it’s free, although let’s face it, that’s huge advantage these days, according to a piece at OS Opinion.

A columnist at Linuxworld.com follows Linux from “euphoria at the San Jose LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, to real business in New
York, to the future in San Francisco.”

From LinuxPR: OnCore Systems Corporation,
developer of the OnCore Systems Software Foundation, the most powerful
embedded OS of its kind, today announced two additional embedded Linux usage
models for system builders. Following in the footsteps of OnCore’s Linux for
Real-Time announcement, OnCore introduces: Linux OnDemand and Linux
OnCall.

ZDNet reports on Zelerate’s (formerly Open Sales) efforts to sell its commerce and fulfillment packages for $25,000, even though customers can download part of the package for free.

Posted at seul.org. Among the items: “Chris Cormack from New Zealand asked:

‘What I’m looking for is something like a classroom wall, a place students can ‘pin’ up their pictures etc for other
students too look at. Something web based would be ideal. I was wondering if someone has done this before, or has
seen an app that they think could be modified to do this.’

Suggestions on how to accomplish this included using one of the numerous web photo albums listed on Freshmeat and trying
Shadow netWorkspace for it’s functionality. The SNS team seemed willing to work with Chris on implementing this.”

Alan Cox’s announcement is at LWN.net. This version includes moving the pci_enable_device for cardbus; adding Sony MSC-U01N to the unusual devices; final smc-mca fixups; and documenting kernel string/mem* functions.

Posted at LWN.net: “CUPS is an implementation of the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) and
is used as an alternative to the lpr and LPRng packages.
The CUPS package aims to be a comprehensive printing solution for
UN*X-systems. In SuSE-7.1 distribution, the cups package is not used by
any configuration utilities unless the admin has decided to configure
the package manually.
The cups package has been introduced in the SuSE-7.1 distribution;
enhanced support for future releases of the SuSE Linux distribution is
planned.”

CNet reports that Toshibahas launched a new Linux-based, special-purpose server that it hopes will
attract business customers and home networking enthusiasts.

The Magnia SG10 will cost $1,289 to $1,799, depending on the size of the hard disk.