Linux Archive

Red Hat has released an updated advisory reporting the existence of multiple vulnerabilities in the Linux 2.4 kernel. Exploitation of these issues could expose sensitive information to local attackers, permit denial of service attacks or allow malicious local users to gain elevated privileges.

"If SCO has its way, the Linux community will suffer a setback, but longer term will prevail. A good way to avoid the SCO scenario is for the open source community to take more responsibility for ensuring that its code doesn't violate established patents and copyrights. In an interview with News.com, Linux founder Linus Torvalds said it's not the responsibility of engineers to look up patent information. He's right, but someone other than the engineering crew supporting the open source community will need to provide some oversight. It's part of the maturing of Linux and open source: We have our copyright and patent lawyers, they have theirs." Read Farber's editorial at ZDNet.

LinuxInstall.org 1.4 was released today, a distribution built for Linux newbies and those who like a clean pre-configured install by default. Screenshots can be found here, read on for the release notes.

One question on everybody’s mind when they are thinking about Linux and how it will fit into the enterprise mould is that of whether the number of known distributions — believed to have reached approximately 130 — is helping or hurting Linux. This week at "CA World" in Las Vegas, a handful of the Linux world’s most influential activists gave their viewpoints on that issue. Elsewhere, CNET News.com's Charles Cooper says the refusal of Linux resellers to indemnify customers is bound to weigh on the minds of CIOs implementing open-source software. "Who's liable for Linux?" Editorial at ZDNet.

At this week's CA World 2003 show in Las Vegas, Torvalds sat down with InfoWorld to talk about the completion this past weekend of Version 2.6's first test release; what will keep him up at night worrying about that test release; his thoughts about the impending SCO-IBM suit and possible impact on Linux development; and something of a wish list of technologies to be included in upcoming versions of the open source operating system.

A Linux victory in Munich would be a stunning blow. So Ballmer visited Mayor Christian Ude to assure him Microsoft would do what it takes to keep the city's business. Documents obtained by USA TODAY show Microsoft subsequently lowered its pricing to $31.9 million and then to $23.7 million -- an overall 35% price cut. The discounts were for naught.

IBM has put more muscle behind its effort to improve Linux for its Power family of processors, adding dozens of programmers to Big Blue's Linux Technology Center with plans to hire more.

After reading yet another "why Linux is not ready for the desktop" article/discussion, I decided that, as someone who uses Linux exclusively at home, its about time I wrote my response to the attitudes expressed. I have been using Linux since January 1999 (Red Hat 5.2 off of a cover disc).

Linus Torvalds released on late Sunday the first test (-pre) kernel of the upcoming Linux Kernel 2.6. Download or get more information here and make sure you report any bugs you might find on the way.

Cosmoe 0.7rc20 is now available. During all the furious patching, "Pulse" started working and now has apparently broken again. Most other patches submitted via the mailing list have now been applied.

Until Red Hat's improvements make it into the Linux kernel, sysadmins are going to have to decide whether hyperthreading benefits their user setups. That may be a hassle, but it beats taking a performance hit from a feature that is supposed to do just the opposite. Read the article at NewsFactor.

Given Linus Torvalds's recent leave of absence from Transmeta to take a full-time position at OSDL to work on Linux kernel development, and with the approaching release of Linux 2.6, NewsForge thought now would be a good time to quiz Torvalds by email. Version 2.6 of the kernel is expected to come out late this fall. Here is a summary of new features. UPDATE: Another Torvalds interview, at C|Net.

Linus Torvalds spoke candidly with Mercury News staff writer Dean Takahashi about the lawsuit from SCO Group versus IBM, on Microsoft and open source development. He also shed light on his decision to leave chip maker Transmeta for a Linux corporate software consortium, the OSDL.

From DistroWatch: The developers of Ark Linux have reached a new milestone with the release of Ark Linux 1.0-alpha8. The ISO images are available from various FTP mirrors, which are slowly being populated. No release notes or readme files have been published at the time of writing, but the ISO images (only the first image is required for installation) can be downloaded from the mirrors. Ark Linux is a free Linux distribution designed for non-technical users and ease-of-use is its primary objective.