In December there were 52 news posts.
| News archive - December 2001 |
| X marks the spot |
| News.com in their 2001: Year in review feature, prompts the question, ''What is it about the letter X?'' X, OS X, and Windows XP, hmm, they have a point. |
| December 29, 2001, 9:55 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Interview: Dave Jones (kernel hacker) |
| "Dave Jones ... has gotten involved in an impressive range of kernel related projects, including Powertweak, x86info, OProfile and the Kernel Janitors Project. Additionally, he maintains a -dj patch for the 2.5 development kernel, helping to sync it with the stable 2.4 kernel as well as offering increased stability." |
| December 27, 2001, 6:57 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Gnumeric 1.0 rc2 released |
| "Documentation and translation are seeing steady improvement and the application is working smoothly. We have returned to a state with no known crashes, or data corruptions. Barring new reports this release will become 1.0.0 on Sunday Dec 30/2001." |
| December 27, 2001, 6:42 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| US vs. Microsoft: Your voice |
| Superb article on some of the comments sent to the DoJ, during the current (until 27th Jan.) US vs Microsoft comment period. Essential reading. |
| December 27, 2001, 6:25 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| The year the hype died |
| "The hype surrounding open source did not survive the year. But open source itself not only survived, it began to thrive in the business world. I can hardly wait to see what next year brings." |
| December 27, 2001, 5:02 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Kernel Traffic #147: How vmlinuz got its name |
| Kernel Traffic #147 contains an interesting post on how vmlinuz (the kernel image), got its name: "It is partly historical: Original boot on PDP-11, the kernel was kept in the file /unix (date was mid to late 1970s). When virtual memory was added it was changed to /vmunix (early 80s I think) to distinguish the difference on those systems that could do both (mid 80s I had a Motorola 68020 that still used /unix since the VM hadn't been finished yet). Then on to Linux, which added compression. Since the name UNIX (in all it's forms) was copyrighted and couldn't be used to name the system the OS became linux, and, following the progression, vmlinux hence - with compressed files having a Z or gz extension - vmlinuz." |
| December 26, 2001, 4:49 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| A year and a half... more or less |
| I thought this quirky enough to be of interest. Especially since news is slow at the moment. The less program has received an update. Nothing special you say. Of interest though, is that this is the first update in a few weeks short of a year and a half. |
| December 25, 2001, 11:58 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Megabytes (MB) or Mebibytes (MiB)? |
| Merry Christmas everyone! Here's an interesting kerneltrap article: "Bits, bytes, kilobytes, megabytes... and now, mebibytes? When one speaks about a kilobyte referring to computer memory, one refers to 1024 bytes. This is more an ''accepted innaccuracy'' than anything. Though simple enough at the kilobyte level, as memory sizes increase from kilo to mega to giga and beyond, things get more and more confusing. The recent change is an attempt to move away from this ''accepted innaccuracy'' towards an official and accurate standard." |
| December 25, 2001, 5:09 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| A simple Linux router upgrade |
| "I decided to go for a quick search on freshmeat and see what was out there. The listings are alphabetical and the first I came to that sounded like it would work was BBIagent.net. This package offers a Linux 2.4.13 kernel, fits on one floppy and includes a form on the web site that you fill out to get your own custom floppy image. To top it all of it would run in 8MB of RAM--an easy fit for my huge 16MB system." |
| December 24, 2001, 2:19 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Window Maker 0.80.0 released |
| Window Maker 0.80.0 has just been released. It's a bug-fix affair, with a few new features thrown in for good measure. |
| December 23, 2001, 8:04 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Enterprise only a fortnight away |
| The highly anticipated 'Enterprise', airs in the UK on Monday the 7th of January, 2002 at 8pm. After almost 2 months of teasing, BSkyB (UK's satellite TV provider) advertised the date and time this morning. |
| December 23, 2001, 4:59 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Quake 2 source released under GPL |
| This is very cool. Others could learn much from John Carmack. Let's hope some great projects stem from this, and soon! |
| December 22, 2001, 6:15 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Mozilla 0.9.7 released |
| Mozilla 0.9.7 has just been released with a host of new features, including favicon support, saving images, stylesheets, objects and applets with the page, and an advanced JavaScript preference panel. And get this, 1,586 bugs were fixed in this release. Crikey. Worth a download I reckon. |
| December 22, 2001, 3:39 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Microsoft issues patch for 'serious' XP hole |
| "''This is a serious vulnerability. People running Windows XP need to put the patch on right away,'' said Scott Culp, manager of Microsoft's Security Response Center. ... The flaws were discovered by Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based security company eEye Digital Security and reported to Microsoft about six weeks ago, said Marc Maiffret, eEye's chief hacking officer. Although describing the flaws as ''the worst default security vulnerability in Windows ever,'' Maiffret credited the company for working quickly and intelligently to stem possible damage." Personally, the word ''quick'' and ''about six weeks'' don't quite come together in my mind. |
| December 21, 2001, 7:58 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Mandrake Linux clear UK favourite |
| "Recently, ''Linux Magazine UK'' conducted an extensive survey with 35,000 of its readers; among the questions asked was: ''What is the Linux distributionthat you use the most?'' The results show that Mandrake Linux is now the mostwidely used Linux distribution in the UK." (Mandrake, Red Hat, and SuSE received 46%, 21.33%, and 18.67%, respectively.) |
| December 21, 2001, 7:36 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Linux 2.4.17 released |
| The latest stable Linux kernel, 2.4.17 has just been released, and with 154 entries in the changelog it clear much is being done to make 2.4, rock-solid. |
| December 21, 2001, 7:23 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| The little Linux distribution that could: tomsrtbt |
| Tom's Root Boot, the little Linux distro I've been praising for many years, gets the full thumbs-up in this NewsForge article. Aside from being a superb diagnosis and recovery tool, Tom's Root Boot is also damn cool just to play with. It's that whole, old-school, ''Here's the command-line only, with the fundamental tools at your disposal, let's see what you can do, Mr. 'Leet Gooroo wannabe.'' Childish I know, but hey, welcome to the geek psyche. ;) |
| December 20, 2001, 10:04 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Embedded XP versus embedded Linux |
| A superb, concise article on the ''Microsoft started it'' embedded XP versus embedded Linux: "The Linux approach may demand a little extra in terms of development to get exactly what is required but it starts on the right side of the fence. Windows XP may well be the best and most reliable version of the OS ever - but that isn't saying much. It is not a flat racer. In embedded terms, it is a blinkered and rather overweight old nag that will never be able to get down to the correct weight for this race." |
| December 20, 2001, 6:39 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| KDE 3.0 beta 1 released |
| "This second pre-release of KDE 3.0, which follows two months after the release of KDE 3.0alpha, ships with the core KDE libraries, the core desktop environment, and over 100 applications from the other base KDE packages (administration, multimedia, network, PIM, utilities, development, etc.). KDE 3.0 is scheduled for final release in the second quarter 2002, with one or more intervening "RC" releases preceding the final release. The KDE Project will demonstrate the latest pre-release of KDE 3 at the LinuxWorld Expo in New York (Jan. 29 - Feb. 1, 2002)." |
| December 20, 2001, 1:39 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| PlayStation 2 holds slight edge in sales over Xbox |
| "In the last few weeks, each company at separate times claimed to have the best console launch ever, using their own sales figures. Monday's report by CSFB represents the first independent evaluation of sales data. The report shows that although Xbox and GameCube have garnered the lion's share of media attention, PlayStation 2 outsold its rivals, primarily because it had the inventory to meet demand, while Xbox and GameCube were limited by production constraints that delayed both launches." |
| December 19, 2001, 7:57 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| The LWN 2001 Linux timeline |
| Discover the highlights of the year in LWN's fourth Linux timeline. |
| December 19, 2001, 7:31 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Universal to release copy-protected CD in U.S. |
| I don't like to use bad language on this site, but this, what's becoming a continuing saga of posts on this site, doesn't half work me up into wanting to don a beret, paint a sign, and join marches to protest what is criminal in my anarchic mind. Mr Greed-ridden Corporate man, ''You attack the pirate, not the customer. Comprende?'' |
| December 19, 2001, 12:20 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Red Hat revamping trademark policy in response to community questions |
| More on the story I posted eight days back. Have to say, I'm a little disappointed with the minor attention this story's been getting on other Linux news sites. Red Hat are handling things fine(ish), and do have a point, but I'd have thought this a topic warranting more discussion than it's received thus far. Thumbs up to NewsForge for following this story. |
| December 19, 2001, 12:04 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Happy birthday Perl |
| 'ere ye, twas this very day back in 1987, that the kind sir; Larry Wall, gave to us, Perl. And today, we dost celebrate, its birthday. |
| December 18, 2001, 10:33 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| KOffice 1.1.1 released |
| Those darn Linux office app releases are coming thick n' fast: "The release, out less than three months after the long-anticipated KOffice 1.1 hit the KDE ftp servers, mainly improves performance, printing (particularly in KWord), and stability." |
| December 18, 2001, 2:53 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| AbiWord 0.9.6 released |
| Another application getting dangerously close to a 1.0.0 release (albeit not as soon as Gnumeric), made interesting by the fact that AbiWord and Gnumeric are the crown jewels in the GNOME Office suite. Linux ready for the office? If not now, then soon. |
| December 17, 2001, 8:50 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Gnumeric 0.99.0 (Release Candidate 1) Released, 1.0 Expected in a Week? |
| Proof that Linux is maturing nicely on the application front is the appearance of more and more applications reaching that all important 1.x.x release: "If all goes smoothly Gnumeric 1.0.0 will appear in 1 week." |
| December 17, 2001, 8:34 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Linux 2.5.1 released |
| Finally, with the 2.5.0 kernel just being the 2.4.15 kernel, a real development kernel is out there in cyberspace with the release of 2.5.1. There's a long way to go, but I'm ''guessing'' the 2.6 kernel is going to be something pretty darn special. |
| December 17, 2001, 1:08 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Women take on male gamers |
| "Figures show that women are increasingly playing video games. Around 43% of PC gamers and 35% of console game players are women, according to the Washington-based Interactive Digital Software Association." |
| December 16, 2001, 2:44 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| GNOME 2.0 developer platform beta |
| "The GNOME 2.0 Developer Platform provides many technical advantages over GNOME 1.x, including full multi-lingual text support, high-quality anti-aliased text, accessibility support, substantial API and usability improvements to the libraries and widgets, and greater ease of development." |
| December 15, 2001, 11:15 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Step closer to Quantum Cryptography. |
| A new device from Cambridge brings us one step closer to Quantum cryptography. And in case you don't know, quantum cryptography is cool. Quantum mechanics mean that the content of the transmission is altered if it is so much as looked at by the wrong person. |
| December 14, 2001, 4:23 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Charges dropped against Dmitry Sklyarov |
| "Dmitry Sklyarov, 27, had been charged in the first criminal prosecution under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. He could have faced up to five years in prison and a $500,000 fine. ... Adobe eventually dropped its support of the case after Internet policy groups threatened to organize a boycott of the company's products." |
| December 13, 2001, 11:49 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Marconi centenary marked |
| "A radio signal has been sent across the Atlantic from Cornwall to Newfoundland to mark the 100th anniversary of Guglielmo Marconi's historic wireless transmission." |
| December 12, 2001, 6:38 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Small, ugly and first |
| "America's first site on the world wide web celebrates its 10th anniversary on Wednesday." |
| December 12, 2001, 6:35 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Google expands Usenet archive to 20 years |
| Eek, I wonder what embarassing posts I submitted when I was seven!: "Google just announced the expansion of their Usenet archive back to May 3, 1981." |
| December 11, 2001, 6:58 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Red Hat: You can distribute Red Hat Linux, just name it something else |
| An interesting story, that will no doubt create much discussion: "The change in practice came because of complaints Red Hat received about discount CDs containing Red Hat Linux that didn't include all its features or service options." |
| December 11, 2001, 6:21 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Why Microsoft Windows XP Embedded and Not Embedded Linux? |
| Microsoft does it again with more complete FUD. ''Choose embedded XP over embedded Linux because, um... just because.'' The above link will take you to a LinuxDevices.com talkback, with a link to the big on emotion, little on fact, let's ignore the developers and appeal to the CxOs, MS article. |
| December 10, 2001, 6:46 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Building a Linux-controlled walking robot |
| This may be ancient news, but it's too funky to let up on: "In this article we build a small six-legged walking robot which we then control with a Linux PC using the parallel port interface." |
| December 10, 2001, 5:49 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| World's largest prime number |
| You don't have to be big into mathematics to realise this is cool: "The largest prime number yet discovered has just been revealed to the world. ... Mersenne primes are important for the theory of numbers and they may help in developing unbreakable codes and message encryptions." The software used to find the world's largest prime number is free, available for many operating systems, and $100,000 awaits the person that discovers a ten-million digit prime number. This the world's largest prime number was found using an AMD 800. |
| December 10, 2001, 5:31 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Netscape 6.21 released |
| Netscape 6.21 has just been released, this simply being a maintenance release of the 6.2 series. |
| December 9, 2001, 6:51 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Spam out, cookies tolerated, data retention remains: EU |
| This news on spam is nothing short of a godsend (perhaps he too had ten-thousand spam filters set-up). Now if the US (and then others) could just see the light also, then the net would turn into a much nicer place: "Unsolicited email, better known as spam, has been outlawed by the European Union. Internet-fed identification programs, better known as cookies, will be tolerated if people are informed of them. And EU governments can order the retention of customer data beyond useful billing purposes." |
| December 8, 2001, 8:03 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| States get tough in Microsoft case |
| "Nine states and the District of Columbia are expected to file a remedy proposal ... Among the highlights of the states' requests ... Microsoft to ship a stripped-down version of Windows; compelling the software giant to ship Java with Windows XP ... requiring Microsoft to continue offering Office for the Macintosh beyond the August expiration of an existing deal; and requiring Microsoft to develop a version of Office for Linux." |
| December 7, 2001, 10:45 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| KDEPrint site goes live |
| KDEPrint's been a part of KDE since 2.2.0 but it's really going to take on a life of its own in KDE 3 with better integration and tons more features making it an important part of the KDE desktop environment. In recognition of its importance, it now has its own site giving you the full low-down and some great screenshots to boot. |
| December 6, 2001, 4:41 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Get your filthy hands off my CDs |
| More on the crime that is a person legitimately purchasing an audio CD only to discover it's damaged goods. |
| December 5, 2001, 8:11 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Opera 6.0 Technology Preview 2 for Linux released |
| There's a ton of fixes and changes in this release, most notably large images are now displayed. |
| December 5, 2001, 7:43 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| US Playstation 2 Linux hits the streets |
| "The U.S. version of Playstation 2 Linux is getting ready to hit the streets. Here is a review of the first public beta. It really looks sweet and comes with a lot of nice hardware." (The site linked by this Slashdot post has been knocked out, but the contents are featured in one of the comments posted on the page. For the missing screenshots, picture one with WindowMaker running The GIMP and two Kterm windows, and the other with a PS2, a black keyboard, and a black mouse.) |
| December 4, 2001, 6:12 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Ximian Evolution 1.0 links Linux to Exchange |
| Evolution 1.0 has finally been released and they've announced they're working on a proprietary client-side Microsoft Exchange plug-in at $69 per seat, allowing Linux/Evolution to replace the Windows/Outlook combo. Prior to this plug-in, there was no Linux, Exchange replacement. |
| December 3, 2001, 11:54 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Constructing a Windows-less office |
| Good detailed piece to help Windows business users see the light: "To get a firsthand look at the viability of a ''Windows-free'' solution, the CRN Test Center built a Linux network consisting of a server and five workstations running various distributions of Linux. The goal was to create a reliable network that could be used in a typical small-business environment." |
| December 1, 2001, 5:01 p.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| The Microsoft resistance |
| A superb, well-informed piece:"Redmond may have triumphed legally and financially -- but there are still little ways to strike blows against the empire." |
| December 1, 2001, 6:29 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| Linux word processors, which is best? |
| A massive ten page look at the latest word processors available for Linux, and the all important question, ''Which is best?'': "This is a near thing, mind you, but I think that even though StarOffice has a slightly more polished feel to it right this very moment, this situation will clearly not remain static. As good as StarOffice is now, it is not likely to change much after the final version of 6.0 is released. Sun, in the hopes of getting this product out to the masses, simply cannot update StarOffice as often as OpenOffice. It would drive their potential corporate customers insane, to say the least. So, StarOffice will represent a solid office suite for the corporate users who don't need a lot of version updates." |
| December 1, 2001, 5:43 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| New NVIDIA driver performance |
| This from LinuxHardware.org: "...we have benchmarked the new NVIDIA drivers ... and to say the least, the results are amazing." |
| December 1, 2001, 4:22 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
| sendmail: Introduction and configuration |
| An nice article on the basics of configuring your first e-mail server with the mighty sendmail. |
| December 1, 2001, 4:17 a.m. GMT (Posted by ) |
| |
