Free Republic

If I tell you that I'll have to kill you: Red Hat fights the DMCA By John Lettice Posted: 10/16/2002 at 04:33 EST Red Hat has struck a small blow against the DMCA, by publishing a security patch which can only be explained fully to people who are not within US jurisdiction. The company's position here seems to be not altogether voluntary - according to a spokesman "it is bizarre, and unfortunately something Red Hat cannot easily do much about," but like it or not Red Hat has been recruited to the campaign to make the DMCA look ridiculous....

Microprocessor Forum IBM's Peter Sandon disclosed technical details for IBM's PowerPC 970 processor in San Jose this morning and confirmed that the processor supports the AltiVec instruction set. In addition to providing a competitive workstation and edge server chip for IBM - which deploys POWER3 in these space and power sensitive designs, the processor is tailor made for high end Apple machines. It's expected to sample in the first half of next year, and appear in production volumes in the second half. 970 is a single 64bit core - as opposed to today's POWER4 - with IBM predicting 937...

For years, Bill Gates and other top executives at Microsoft railed against the economic philosophy of open-source software with Orwellian fervor, denouncing its communal licensing as a "cancer" that stifled technological innovation. Today, Microsoft claims to "love" the open-source concept, by which software code is made public to encourage improvement and development by outside programmers. Gates himself says Microsoft will gladly disclose its crown jewels--the coveted code behind the Windows operating system--to select customers. "We can be open source. We love the concept of shared source," said Bill Veghte, vice president of the Windows Server Group. "That's a super-important shift...

ARMONK, N.Y., Oct 14 (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) on Monday announced a microchip for personal computers that will crunch data in chunks twice as big as the current standard and is expected by industry watchers to be used by Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) Apple was not available to comment, and IBM declined to comment on which PC makers would use the chip, but its plans would mark a change for the industry, which has emphasized the importance of the speed of a chip rather than its ability to handle heavy workloads.IBM said its new PowerPC chip...

SAN MATEO, Calif. — IBM Corp. may give a peek into Apple Computer Inc.'s 64-bit future when it details a new version of its Power4 microprocessor next week. Aimed for use in desktops and low-end servers, the 64-bit Power4 could be IBM's first PowerPC-compatible chip to support the Altivec multimedia instruction extensions defined by Apple and Motorola Inc. The IBM device is one of about 18 new processors that will be described at the Microprocessor Forum 2002, to be held Oct. 14-17. "I expect there will be a fair amount of discussion about this part," said Peter Glaskowsky, editor-in-chief...

This paper provides quantitative data that, in many cases, using open source software / free software is a reasonable or even superior approach to using their proprietary competition according to various measures. This paper examines market share, reliability, performance, scalability, security, and total cost of ownership. It also has sections on non-quantitative issues, unnecessary fears, usage reports, other sites providing related information, and ends with some conclusions. You can view this paper at http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html (HTML format). Palm PDA users can view it in Plucker format(you will also need Plucker to read it). Old archived copies are also available. 1. Introduction...

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. won't cut the price on its Windows operating system to compete with a $199 personal computer that runs rival operating software, the No. 1 software company's CEO said Wednesday. Walmart.com, the online shopping site of the nation's largest retailer Wal-Mart Inc., has been selling a $199 personal computer -- monitor and modem not included -- that runs the Lindows operating system. LindowsOS, from San Diego, California-based Lindows.com, is based on the Linux operating system, which is a free, open-source operating system that is increasingly being used by large corporations for back-end systems....

The cost of running Linux is roughly 40% that of Microsoft Windows, and only 14% that of Sun Microsystem's Solaris, according to a new study which examined the actual costs of running various operating systems over three years. The study, by the Robert Frances Group, in Westport, Conn., looked at production deployments of Web servers running on the three operating systems at 14 Global 2000 enterprises. Linux cost $74,475 over three years, while a Windows deployment cost $190,662 and one on Solaris $561,520. Most of the savings with Linux come from software licensing fees. Companies will typically purchase commercial versions...

Linus Torvalds has revealed he is happy to be the poster boy for the anti-Microsoft campaign but would not know what to say if he met Bill Gates. Talking to BBC World ClickOnline at his home in Silicon Valley, the inventor of the Linux operating system admitted that he has never been in the same room with his arch-rival. "We have been at the same conferences but never in the same room. I wouldn't know what to say to him," he told ClickOnline. Mr Torvalds enjoys the notoriety he has achieved as the man that challenged the Microsoft empire with...

I'm trying to find a website where I can download Linux without some kind of wierd commitment and a deluge of junk-mail. I've heard its free but I'm really no seeing it...There's a website for this sort of thing right?

Virus writers get Slapper happy Internet vandals have continued to modify the recent Slapper worm and have sent at least four new variants of the hostile Linux program into the electronic wilds. The newest variant, dubbed "Mighty," exploits the same Linux Web server flaw that other versions of the Slapper worm have used to slice through the security on vulnerable servers. Russian antivirus company Kaspersky Labs said in a release Friday that more than 1,600 servers had been infected by this latest variant as of Friday morning and are now controlled by the worm via special channels on the Internet...

Can a frustrated Windows user dump Microsoft? Even with lots of improvements, Linux is still no cakewalk. Scott Spanbauer From the November 2002 issue of PC World magazinePosted Tuesday, October 01, 2002 You might be pretty happy with Windows XP. But Windows continues to suffer from more than its share of drawbacks: From the newer operating system's incompatibility with older software to Microsoft's well-known security problems, Windows still engenders a fair amount of user aggravation. Windows XP also subjects its users to the indignity of the Microsoft Product Activation service: You might have to ask Microsoft for a new key...

Regular readers of this column already know there is no lost love between me and GUIs. In fact, I rarely use them; I do most of my work from the regular console, using a variety of tools to do all the things I'd ever need from a GUI: Multiple terminal sessions (screen, Linux virtual terminals, Emacs, vim) and a good e-mail client (nothing beats pine). Yes, I know. Nowadays you can really get productive with a Linux box and KDE or Gnome. StarOffice; or better yet OpenOffice; works as well or better than the Windows classic suites. However, for the...

Linux Gains Traction Outside of PC, Server Market ReutersWednesday, September 25, 2002; 4:41 PM By Reed StevensonSEATTLE (Reuters) - Having established a firm foothold in the server market and a cult-like following among programmers, the Linux open-source operating system has set its sights on a new target: the cash register.Linux is not after the money inside the cash register, but the machine itself, which these days is an increasingly complex computer that not only records transactions but offers inventory information, advertisements and customer services.Steve Solazzo, General Manager for Linux at International Business Machines Corp. , said the retail sector is...

Microsoft's taking a leaf out of Linux's book to fight off its open-source rival--it's calling its dedicated band of supporters to arms. Although the software company cannot compete against Linux on price, the company will use its community of professionals to outsmart the open-source movement, CEO Steve Ballmer told an audience of Microsoft Most Valued Professionals (MVPs) in London on Monday. "Linux is a serious competitor," said Ballmer. "We have to compete with free software on value, but in a smart way. We cannot price at zero, so we need to justify our posture and pricing. Linux isn't going...

Microsoft server share jumps in 2001 Microsoft's share in the server operating system market jumped in 2001, according to a new report, yet analysts question whether the software giant will be able to offer a repeat performance for 2002. The Redmond, Wash.-based company's market share for shipments of new server operating system licenses jumped to 49 percent in 2001 from 42 percent in 2000, according to a research report released by IDC on Monday. Over the same time period, rivals either held steady or lost market share, the report showed. The IDC numbers represent sales of new licenses, not market...

<p>The unthinkable has happened: an informal partnership between a Microsoft project called .Net and an ordinarily Microsoft-bashing camp of programmers who have set out to produce a free twin of the .Net framework, a set of programming tools.</p> <p>The effort, called Mono, is a rare bridging of the chasm between the commercial world and free software -- more commonly referred to as open-source software -- a movement in which the Linux operating system is at the forefront.</p>

Do Windows users have a choice? Sure. They can continue to run the older version of Windows with the original license, but if they do they are begging for someone to crack them. Bruce Sterling had it right when he said at the recent O'Reilly OSCON, "Microsoft Windows is slowly but surely becoming an armed terrorspace. It's like an airport. You go into an airport nowadays, it's really kind of amazing that the people who run them still expect you to spend money in there. They still pretend to you that you are this pampered jet-set consumer, instead of a...

<p>Apple Computer is looking toward a 64-bit future for the Mac -- courtesy of PowerPC partner IBM.</p> <p>According to sources, IBM Microelectronics, a division of IBM, is working with Apple on a 64-bit PowerPC processor for use in the latter's high-end desktops and servers.</p>

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. SUNW.O will announce on Wednesday plans for inexpensive desktop computers based on the free Linux operating system in a bid to undermine archrival Microsoft Corp.MSFT.O . Marking a second plunge into world of Linux, a free, collaboratively developed operating system, the Sun machines will be based on cheap commodity parts and ship in a few quarters, Vice President John Loiacono said in an interview. Sun's announcement came at the start of a user conference, SunNetwork, beginning Wednesday in San Francisco. Sun is known for its million-dollar machines that manage networks and...