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An in-depth look at LILO-dupe (friday)

Author: JT Smith

FreeOS brings us very indepth info on Lilo. “Let’s take a general look at how a booting procedure really goes about. Data on our hard drives is laid out in a very precise and accurate manner and structured into “Tracks” and “Sectors.” “Tracks” and “Sectors” are the fundamental locks that define the storage of data on the storage media.

Linus Torvalds releases 2.4.1-pre11

Author: JT Smith

A short announcement by Linus Torvalds heralds the release of 2.4.0-pre11. “I just uploaded it to kernel.org, and I expect that I’ll do the final 2.4.1 tomorrow, before leaving for NY and LinuxWorld. Please test that the pre-kernel works for you..” Thanks to LWN for the info.

Category:

  • Linux

Alan Cox releases 2.4.0-ac12

Author: JT Smith

LWN has the email from Alan Cox describing the changes in his latest ac release of the 2.4.0 tree. The updates are mostly drivers.

Category:

  • Linux

Debian based Telemetry Box Distribution released

Author: JT Smith

Debianplanet announces the release of Telemetry box, a specialized distribution based on Debian ‘potato’ targetted towards network monitoring and diagnostics.

Category:

  • Linux

Weekly news wrapup: Corel dumps Linux, Microsoft dumps surfers

Author: JT Smith

By Grant Gross

Some bad news this week for Linux, but worse news for its closed-source rival Microsoft. While Microsoft-backed Corel announced it was dumping its Linux distribution, Microsoft’s Web sites were down for nearly a day because of what it first called an equipment misconfiguration.

Isn’t Microsoft the operating system most people use because they think Open Source operating systems are too tough to configure? Later in the week, the software monster was apparently hit with a denial-of-service attack.

The funniest story during Microsoft’s week of Web disasters: Microsoft.com has now, apparently, started using Linux to serve pages. Is Bill starting to see the light? Maybe after seeing AntiTrust, he’s converted.

Over at Corel, CEO Derek Burney denied that Microsoft’s millions had anything to do with the decision to dump the Corel Linux distro.

If you’re not one to delight in Microsoft misfortunes, there was some other good news in the Open Source world this week. Several professors and industry groups from journalists to cryptographers filed friend-of-the-court briefs this week in support of Web site 2600, saying last year’s ruling that prohibited it from publishing the DeCSS DVD-playing code ignores basic “fair use” and free expression rights.”

Ch-ch-ch-changes

LinuxPPC, a driving force delivering Linux to Mac users, announced this week it will be seeking non-profit status. That’s not a bad move, considering the state of for-profit Linux companies these days. See what LinuxPPC co-founder Jason Haas has to say about the decision.

Also on the move this week, the Open Source Development Lab, a non-profit Linux laboratory supported by a load of industry heavyweights, which opened for business Wednesday.

New in NewsForge this week

  • News editor Tina Gasperson reviews the LinuxGames Web site, saying what’s there is good, although the site could use updatng.

  • Editor in chief Robin Miller broke the story that Storm Linux is reorganizing and looking for a friend to bale the company out of finanical woes.
  • We also report on the OSCAR “Supercomputer on a CD” project, which will be demonstrated at LinuxWorld. The goal: to make setting up a Linux cluster easy for those of us who aren’t networking administration experts.

    NewsForge editors read and respond to comments posted on our discussion page.

  • Debian and Mandrake security updates

    Author: JT Smith

    Two Debian package updates: inn2, fixing a tempfile vulnerability and two buffer overflows; and cron, fixing a problem where any user could look at any valid crontab. Mandrake also has a package update for webmin, fixing another tempfile vulnerability (local root).

    Category:

    • Linux

    Slashdot BoF session at LinuxWorld

    Author: JT Smith

    If you’re at LinuxWorld in NYC this week, you can meet Slashdot writers and programmers in person Wednesday 6 – 7:30 p.m. more at Slashdot.

    SGI posts big loss, remains optimistic

    Author: JT Smith

    SGI lost $71 million in the 4th quarter of 2000, according to ZDNet UK, but a company spokesperson says, “This will be our comeback year.” Stock analysts are skeptical, as expected.

    Category:

    • Open Source

    Cisco to build Euro VoIP net

    Author: JT Smith

    A little blurb at ZNet UK says, “Cisco Systems has linked up with cable company United Pan-Europe
    Communications (UPC) to build a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network
    across Europe.”

    CVSSearch: A New Way to Search through Code

    Author: JT Smith

    Amir Michail writes “We have developed a new way to search through
    source code that makes use of CVS comments.

    You can try out a demo for KDE code at

    http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~amichail/cvssearch.

    Any feedback is appreciated.”