Linus Torvalds in the Linux kernel mailing list: "2.4.11 had a fix for a symlink DoS attack, but sadly that fix broke the creation of files through a dangling symlink rather badly (it caused the inode to be created in the very same inode as the symlink, with unhappy end results). Happily nobody uses that particular horror - or _almost_ nobody does. It looks like at least the SuSE installer (yast2) does, which causes a nasty unkillable inode as /dev/mouse if you use yast2 on 2.4.11." So, 2.4.12 was born, changelog here.

Editorial at BusinessWeek: "The new OS X operating system is a triumph, but Jobs & Co. need to keep its predecessor on life support until Mac heads get the message Has the Mac's classic operating system become like Ole Betsy, a beloved but aging workhorse that must now be put out to pasture? If you ask me, this Ole Betsy has stayed around way past her prime. Still, she ain't a-going out to graze on the lower 40 acres any time soon."

ZDNews reports that ATI Technology has slashed the price and increased the core clock speed just before it releases the high-end Radeon 8500 graphics board. When ATI introduced the board in mid-August, it announced the price as $399 and the core clock speed as 250MHz. But this week, the company dropped the price to $299 and increased the speed to 275MHz. The graphics board, which will be released Oct. 25, is used to enhance visual effects and 3D images, particularly for video games. The graphics board is also optimized to take advantage of WindowsXP. The card competes head to head with the new nVidia GeForce3 model, Ti 500.

Today we have a special guest in the series of interviews we conducting here at OSNews. Linus Torvalds, the well known Linux founder, is with us to discuss everything about the kernel, Microsoft, the naming of GNU/Linux and the future. Read on!

BeGroovy is running an article claiming that the BeOS source code was distributed via the BeOS-only chatting and file exchange application, BeShare, resulting in the shut down of the main BeShare server. Several people (and BeShare users) have replied to the article stating that there was indeed a leak some weeks ago, but there are two important makefiles missing in order to build successfully the whole system. They also claim that new features like an updated Media Kit and new versions of Interface Kit and App_server can be found there as well as many new drivers. Our Take: If all these new features are true, it is such a shame that Be was sold out to Palm before they could make a new BeOS release out of it. Leaks are never good of course, but the OpenBeOS guys may kill for pieces of that code!

Kurt Skauen, the AtheOS developer, writes: "The main focus have still been bug fixing and optimization but I have also added a few new features to the various API's as well as a new tool for managing installation of command-line applications and a tool for adding, listing, and extracting resources to/from executable images. There is also a new set of classes and functions that help the applications to locate and load resources embedded in executable's and DLL's. Various other classes have also been added to the API and many of the existing classes has been extended. The TCP/IP stack have got an overhaul and are now performing much better than in previous versions. Especially on high-latency links. Take a look at the changes list for a more detailed list of changes since V0.3.6. Go and download the new version of AtheOS and if you have questions make sure you post them in the mailing list provided. Recently, we held an interview with Kurt where he explains a lot about the AtheOS goals and its future.

"GTK+ is emerging as a standard for both open-source and commercial software on Linux. Soon to be released GTK+ version 2.0 provides advantages for the user and programmer as well as for people deploying the resulting applications. Users will appreciate the enhanced functionality of existing and new widgets as well as the improvements to the look and feel of the user interface. Programmers will find the powerful new widgets easier to use and more functional. Markets will grow with the ports to additional windowing systems and the enhanced internationalization." Owen Taylor writes. Read the rest of this very interesting tech article on the upcoming release of GTK 2.0. The article is available in Postscript and PDF format.

MandrakeSoft on Monday released a third beta version of its Itanium edition of Linux, the French company said. Itanium is the first 64-bit processor from Intel, but the high-end product still has only early operating system support from Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Red Hat, SuSE and others. A better version of the CPU is scheduled for next year. The new Mandrake version comes with support for XFS, ReiserFS and ext3. It also uses version 2.4.8 of the Linux kernel, the latest 2.2.1 version of the KDE desktop user interface and 2.2.1a of the Samba software for joining Windows networks.

Matt Dillon, not the famous actor but the kernel/VM FreeBSD hacker also well known for writting the Dice C compiler for the Amiga, is here with us today for an in-depth interview about everything regarding FreeBSD 5.0. This is the OS that all the techie people are waiting for and presenting it as the most advanced, technically-speaking, free OS of today. Additionally, we also include two mini interviews with Theo de Raadt, the OpenBSD founder, and Jun-ichiro "itojun" Hagino from the NetBSD Core Team.

The second version of a new operating system, VinuxOS, is published By SoftMed Inc, a mix between DOS and Unix. Currently the web site's OS is in portoquese only. The OS is written in C and assembler for the x86. It currently only works in Real mode and without multitasking.

John Everitt writes: "This is an opinion page, it is riddled with minor inconsistencies and represents nobody's opinion other than my own. Some of it is not based on hard evidence, but observation and wit. If you don't like that stop reading here. Freenet is a realisation of many concepts that have been floated in the charged ether of the Internet. It is a distributed, survivable, efficient, secure publishing and storage system. In practice this has proven largely true, with minor caveats (documented in the FAQ), and I believe that Freenet should be a discussion point for everyone."

Qube 2p by InteractiveStudio was released on September 19th, and it is the same as Qube but by supporting two platforms this time. There is Qube for Windows and Qube for MS-DOS. Qube for Windows runs under DirectX and all applications or libraries are compatible with DOS version. Michal Stencl, the Qube developer, says that "It took some time for the Windows port, because of some incompatibility of Microsoft Visual C++ with GNUC. But now, Qube for Windows supports Windows2000/NT/98/ME without problems. You need to have already installed DirectX to run Qube for Windows." The SDK for Qube will be released imidiately after the release of the Linux version. Michal has to be sure first of clear out any compatibility problems with all versions so the developers will be free to copy their applications from System to System and run unmodified. Qube 3p will be available for three platforms soon - Linux, Windows and DOS with LAN support, not just modem. You can also refer to our exclusive interivew we held with Michal a month ago regarding this Qube project.

The KDE Project today announced the release of KDE 3.0 Alpha1. This is a developer-only release and it is making full use of Trolltech's QT 3 API. The release brings an impressive array of new features to KDE developers, including new database classes, new data-aware widgets, improved RAD development with a much-enhanced Qt Designer, a new powerful regular expression class (with full Unicode support), improved internationalization support (including the ability to mix different character sets in the same text), bi-directional language support (for languages such as Arabic and Hebrew), multi-monitor (Xinerama and multi-screen) support, better integration of pure Qt applications into KDE, and hardware-accelerated alpha blending. With the QT3 port out of the way, the KDE developers can now focus on the new KDE improvements.

From BSDToday: "Back in March, 2000, BSDI merged with Walnut Creek CDROM, the main distributor for FreeBSD. And BSDI had goals to "form a united front for the BSD operating systems. The company will deliver, support and enhance both BSD/OS and FreeBSD. Then in April, 2001, Wind River bought the BSD properties from BSDi (and BSDi became the hardware company, iXsystems)." The article explains where WindRiver stands today regarding FreeBSD and BSD/OS and clears up that FreeBSD is now without a publisher, solid financial support and 12 FreeBSD full time engineers who were laid off as we have already noted on OSNews in a previous news article. WindRiver even said for FreeBSD that "We see it as a great alternative to Linux". Our Take: If WindRiver was seeing FreeBSD just as a "great alternative to Linux", no wonder they leave it now in its own fate. I sincerely hope that FreeBSD will find a way to boost itself in light of FreeBSD 5.0, find a new publisher and sponsor as it is truely a worthy system.