IRIX 6.5.21 Released

As of August 6, 2003, IRIX 6.5.21 is releasing with all new systems shipping from SGI worldwide manufacturing centers. The IRIX 6.5.21 release contains both maintenance and feature updates. This release continues the focus on stability, reliability, security, and compatibility required in the IRIX 6.5.XX quarterly release process.

Sun’s Mad Hatter Screenshots Available

Here are some screenshots of Sun Microsystems' Mad Hatter Linux-based desktop. The original Mad Hatter was supposed to be based on Red Hat Linux, but these screenshots show that Sun has taken the project in its own hands. The product was created originally so that Sun had a cheap and modern workstation/desktop solution to offer to its existing costumers who were a step from leaving the more expensive Sun Solaris solutions for the overall cheaper and uber-hyped Linux.

Longhorn Evangelist Debunks Professed ‘Aero’ Shots

Robert Scoble, technology evangelist for Longhorn at Microsoft, has called into question several purported screenshots of the next-generation Longhorn interface code-named "Aero." "These look like early demonstration screens, and not how Longhorn will eventually look," Scoble wrote in his Web log. "The real "Aero" is one of Longhorn's biggest secrets -- I've seen it, but can't load it on my own machine and am locked out of the server where it's kept," says Microsoft's Scoble. "I am not even sure they'll show it off at the PDC." Indeed, the screenshots are using icons from all over the place (including a BeOS icon), which proves that these are just early concepts/mockups and not the real/finished thing.

Libranet 2.8.1 Released

Libranet today released version 2.8.1, which is an update to their earlier 2.8 release. Libranet is a Debian-based Linux distribution. The newest update contains the Linux 2.4.21 kernel, with XFree86 4.3.0, GNOME 2.2.2, and KDE 3.1.3, as well as Mozilla 1.4 and OpenOffice 1.0.3. Some improvements have also been made to the installer and Adminmenu.

Mono 0.26 released

A new version of Mono is available, the new features include: Cairo support, Remoting.Corba support, as well as a managed XSLT implementation. Existing features have been improved vastly: better Windows.Forms, runtime, faster compiler, web services, better compliance to the spec and more. On other C# news, the .NET Compact Framework 1.0 SP1 Redistributable is available.

Don’t Even Talk About Open Source

The World Intellectual Property Organization was planning on having a discussion at its next conference on open collaborative projects (such as the internet), including open source software. So many participants were interested in the open source discussion that it started quite a buzz. Now, lobbyists with pockets full of money from Microsoft and other interests are pushing to have the meeting scuttled. They say that a discussion on open source has no place in a meeting about Intellectual Property (as if non-proprietary IP isn't IP too).

Microsoft Using Linux? Netcraft Responds

In order to protect itself from DDoS attacks, Microsoft is using the Akamai service to distribute its load. Ironically, as a result, the domain www.microsoft.com is now listed in the Netcraft report as being Linux running IIS. Netcraft has received so much mail asking about that, and the irony of Linux-bashing Microsoft now depending on "enterprise-class" Linux servers has generated so much discussion, Netcraft has posted a page explaining what's happening.

LinuxWorld 2003 Report

Throngs of people flooded into the Moscone center in San Francisco to get a glimpse at what is new in the Linux world. Once again, the Linuxworld Expo came to the West Coast making a stop at the Moscone center in San Francisco August 5-7. The show floor was filled with a mix of software and hardware vendors. Somehow, I was not expecting to find so many hardware vendors at what is otherwise a show about simply an operating system. Editor's Note: Mr. Wread sumbitted this report the day after the expo, and it has been stuck in mailing list server purgatory.