Security: Taking Some Responsibility

Editorial 26 Comments
We all know about the recent virus that is floating around, the W32.Blaster.Worm. Obviously, this worm was major threat--Symantec raised it from a level 3 to a level 4. You can't help but read about it on sites like osnews.com or Slashdot.com. But I noticed that one thing that seems to be missing a lot of times, at least with this latest worm. People don't want to take the responsibility for updating their computers when the update was available a month ago.
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Deploy Linux Desktops to Boost Security, Urges Sun’s Schwartz

  Submitted by Nicholas James Privacy, Security 32 Comments
Sun's EVP of Software Jonathan Schwartz uses the popular metaphor of the natural ecosystem to describe the IT world. Most corporate IT departments are what ecologists call a "monoculture." As various blights and famines have proven, when there is too much of the same plant growing in one place, it's suceptable to being wiped out by a disease. Stressing the need for "genetic diversity on the desktop" to combat security threats, Schwartz points to a non-Microsoft desktop as a viable solution. The difficulty in implementing the new OS? Says Schwartz, "you might have to train the user that a home directory named 'My Computer' on Windows has been renamed 'This Computer' . . . "
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Damn Small Linux

  Submitted by ladislav Linux 59 Comments
Damn Small Linux is a Linux distribution based on the Knoppix live CD, but reduced enough to fit on a 50MB business-card shape CD. Damn Small Linux is a general purpose distribution to carry around in one's wallet; it comes with XFree86 and the Fluxbox window manager, while other light-weight applications for email, web browsing, word processing, instant messaging and playing music are also included. Read an interview with the author of Damn Small Linux - John Andrews.
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SCO Reveals Disputed Code at SCO Forum

  Submitted by dmc SCO 87 Comments
SCO showed the disputed code at their SCO Forum conferece in Las Vegas to their partners and customers. SCO's CEO Darl McBride said tat they have hired pattern-recognition experts to find infringing code in linux, and that they have found "a mountain of code" and that "The DNA of Linux is coming from Unix" and thus Linux is more competitive because of it. They have also announced new version of their OpenServer code-named "Legend". More at news.com article. Heise News shows the code. The code seems to come from arch/ia64/sn/io/ate_utils.c, copyright by SGI. Possibly from here or here?
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SkyOS 4.0a Released

SkyOS 44 Comments
SkyOS 4.0a has now been released. This release supports USB. USB mice/keyboard, HUB's, card readers, harddisks and digital cameras should all work once they are plugged in. SkyOS 4.0a also includes a lot of kernel and application bugfixes. For more infomation, go to the SkyOS website.
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G5 Will Ship with OS X 10.2.7

macOS 189 Comments
It's been known for a while that the new Apple G5 machines would come out before the next major release of OS X, Panther, would be ready. It's confirmed today, though, that Apple will be releasing a new version of OS X with the G5, a version that has been "optimized to take advantage of the 64-bit technology in the Power Mac G5." "The kernel has been updated to take advantage of memory expansion and the vector libraries and math libraries have been optimized," said an Apple executive. "Any application that does dynamic linking to those libraries will get an automatic benefit without having to recompile."
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Syllable 0.4.5 is Released

  Submitted by Rick Caudill Syllable, AtheOS 30 Comments
Syllable 0.4.5 is out! You can see the changelog here. This release is the last of the Syllable 0.4 releases, and comes after over a year of development. Development will now begin on Syllable 0.5, which we hope will bring great improvements and increased stability to Syllable.
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Linux will Have 20% Desktop Marketshare by 2008?

  Submitted by anonymous Linux 53 Comments
One of the world's largest IT companies is declaring that the Linux desktop will capture 20% of the market for desktop computers in large enterprises within 5 years. Siemens Business Systems has done some extensive real-world testing with the Ximian desktop and application suite, running on either SuSE or Red Hat Linux and found that it's ready enough to start taking some real share away from Microsoft Windows and Office.
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XFree86 forked into Xouvert

  Submitted by Bascule Wayland 42 Comments
Xouvert is the open, innovative X server that brings tomorrow's technology to your desktop today It looks like they intend to keep everything public and out in the open. They will also be using some advanced development software as well. See the web site to learn more.
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OpenOffice.org 1.1 RC3 for Mac OS X

  Submitted by Beavis macOS 43 Comments
FYI, I came across this message today:All, OpenOffice.org 1.1 RC3 is ready for download. It incorporates some bugfixes and significantly advances the development of the Mac OS X port. OpenOffice.org 1.1 RC3 is the first version to support building out of the box on Mac OS X.OpenOffice.org 1.1 RC3 is functionally equivalent to the final version, which is coming soon. What we want you to do is download this and try to find the bugs. That is important. We need people to run this under all sorts of circumstances.Download from here
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