News Bytes #11

| #### "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little less scary!"
| ### Contents: News in General Software Announcements

| ### News in General ### Comdex Conference 17 Oct 1996 Please join Linux International at The Linux Technology Showcase, COMDEX FALL/96. This will be the largest presentation of Linux to date outside the Internet. The show will run November 18-22, 1996 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Linux Showcase will be promoted in the show preview, show guide, show daily and other materials on a par with the Multimedia, Windows, Internet, Networking and other showcases. The location is downstairs at the Sands Expo & Convention Center, just off the famous Las Vegas Strip. For additional information: Linux International, http://www.li.org/ li@li.org ### Free Software Union "Free Software Lovers Unite!" The FSU is a volunteer, democratic organization dedicated to the Free Software community. It provides all users, developers, and enthusiasts with full-voice, free membership in a voting decision making body. It channels resources, manpower, and community feedback for voter endorsed project implementation. The FSU gives developers guarantee of wide acceptance and support by providing guidelines and tools for development to produce consistent and inter-operable software, and volunteer man-power recruiting assistance for large endorsed projects. Some of the projects that the FSU is currently considering is the adoption of CORBA or SOM, licensed porting/re-implementation of OpenDoc, a "Free Software Map" database of all known free software projects (a superset of LSM), and much more! FSU Founder/Contact: Jan Vicherek, honza@ied.com FSU Mailing List Posts: fslu@calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca Find out more and join at: http://www.jagunet.com/~braddock/fslu/org ### Lasermoon, Linux-FT Date: Tue, 08 Oct 1996 Clarification - Linux-FT, The Road Ahead Linux-FT is a Lasermoon Ltd product which was developed with the intention of achieving POSIX.1 and XPG4 certification as part of a project Lasermoon started in January 1995. Lasermoon obtained the required licenses (POSIX.1, XPG4 etc) and X/Open membership to facilitate this fully GPL'ed effort. Unifix were involved in the development of the distribution, and components from Linux-FT were fed back into other Unifix products (hence the similarities). The technology behind Linux-FT was acquired by Caldera during 1996 and will be incorporated into the Caldera's Linux products. Caldera's involvement with Linux-FT has been the subject of many postings and press announcements over many months and details can be found on the Linux-FT WWW site at www.lasermoon.co.uk and Caldera (www.caldera.com). Unifix have no connection with, or control over Linux-FT. Whilst we are flattered that Linux-FT is receiving such attention, BOTH Unifix GmbH and the Unifix 2.0 RELEASE HAVE NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH CONTINUING Linux-FT DEVELOPMENTS. Caldera and Lasermoon are continuing the work of developing a truly Standards Certified/Branded Linux (released under the GPL). Working with the original developers, we welcome all contributors to the POSIX.1 and XPG4 standardization effort which is essential for the long term success of Linux. By working together, we can accomplish this effort in a much more effective manner and comply with the licensing requirements of The Open Group and other such organizations. For additional information: Lasermoon Ltd, The Forge, Wickham, Hants, England info@lasermoon.co.uk http://www.lasermoon.co.uk ### Linux Consultants HOWTO Reaches Hundred Entry Mark October 17, 1996 -- Only one month after its debut on September 18, 1996, the Linux Consultants HOWTO, a listing of companies and individuals providing commercial support for the freely redistributable operating system Linux, now contains over a hundred entries. The Linux Consultants HOWTO is free and can be downloaded from http://www.sypher.com/tbm/Consultants-HOWTO For additional information: Martin Michlmayr, tbm@sypher.com http://www.sypher.com/tbm ### Linux in the News News Articles about Linux: "Linux Operating System Cheap, Powerful Red Hat Linux 4.0 Has No Web- Connection Limits" Infoworld, October 14, 1996 "I'm in awe of how quickly the Linux operating system is moving forward. Last summer I predicted that Linux...would infiltrate mainstream corporate America. If Red Hat Software Inc. (and all the unsung Linux contributors) continue advancing Linux at the present rate, such widespread adoption is guaranteed." "Taking a Second Look at Linux" PC Week, 10/21/96, "Spreading the Linux Gospel", PC Magazine, 10/8/96, a review of books relating to Linux. "Building a Linux Web Server", Sys Admin: The Journal for Unix Systems Administrators, October 1996. "Linux: Microsoft's Real Competition?" PC Week, 10/7/96. "Unix Survey: Users Like Reliability, Scalability, and Performance" Byte October, 1996. Compares: IBM AIX, Digital Unix, HP-UX, SCO, SunOS/Solaris, System V, and Linux. ### Linux on PCTV The PCTV production company, http://www.pctv.com/, which produces Computer Chronicles, USER GROUP and @HOME, is producing four half-hour shows on UNIX and Linux. These shows are: History of UNIX (aired in October) Contemporary UNIX (airs first on November 4th) Linux (airs first in January) UNIX Futures (air times not yet set) These shows will be aired as part of the USER GROUP show, which is carried on ME/U, Jones Computer Network (a 24-hour cable network dedicated entirely to the subject of computers) and the NBC Super Channel and CNBC Europe, as well as by Satellite. USIA WorldNet will begin carrying the Users Group show. Please check your local cable or satellite company for viewing times of USER GROUP. For additional information: Jon "maddog" Hall, Executive Director Linux International jon.hall@li.org ### New Linux Q&A Site A new threaded Linux Q&A and discussion area has been created at The Forge Foundation web site: http://www.theforge.com/InterBoard Create your own account or use the link that lets log you in anonymously, then choose the group "Foundry - Linux Q&A". This is an unmoderated group open to everyone. For additional information: Hal Reed, hal@theforge.com The Forge Foundation, http://www.theforge.com/ ### Northcon Nov 4-6 Northcon is Nov 4-6 at the WA Convention & Trade Center (near the Kingdome) in Seattle, Washington. There will be 350 exhibits by "Leading Electronics Manufacturers". Mon. Nov 4, 10-5 Tue. Nov 5, 9-5 Wed. Nov 6, 9-4 You can register on-line (free) at http://www.northcon.org. For additional information: northcon@ieee.org or call 1-800-877-2668 ### Open Systems World/FedUnix Conference There will be a Open Systems World/FedUnix conference/trade show in Washington DC on November 4-8. It is a traditional event devoted to open computing (read: Unix), attended mostly by government and commercial Information Systems types. Since Linux has gained the attention of such circles, there is a 2-day Linux track at this conference. I am chairing a Linux-related session, scheduled for Thursday, November 7, 1996. Speakers will be people who apply Linux in real world situations, both in the government and the private sector, and will tell us about their good and bad experiences, and plans for the future. Among the speakers, there are some who use Linux as a primary OS, as well as those for whom Linux is just another environment. For additional information: http://www.mcsp.com/OSW-FedUNIX.html Przemek Klosowski, przemek@nist.gov ### QT GUI Contest Announcement On October 1 Troll Tech announced the Qt GUI programming contest (free entry). A contest for programmers, writing free GUI software using Qt (a C++ GUI toolkit, see http://www.troll.no/). Anyone can enter, there is no fee for entry, and any program can be entered as long as it is written in C++ and uses Qt. The winner will be paid US$2000 and two runners-up $500 after the contest has closed on May 1, 1997 and the jury has done its job. We wish to encourage more free GUI software for X11, and we wish more people to experience for themselves how good Qt is. For additional information: http://www.troll.no/contest.html contest@troll.no ### Vulnerabilities in Linux An October 10 CIAC (Computer Incident Advisory Capability, U.S. Department of Energy) bulletin describes a security hole in Linux when using a Bash shell as the default shell, and explains how to avoid it. Additional information can be found at the CIAC web site. On August 15, CIAC announced a security hole in the mount and umount Linux programs, and gave fixes. Additional information can be found at the CIAC web site, CIAC web site If you find code that could be potentially dangerous, you should contact the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), http://www.cert.org/, at Carnegie Mellon University. Reporting forms can be found at ftp://info.cert.org/pub/incident_reporting_form.

| ### Software Announcements ### Craftworks Linux 2.2 Intel Version Mon, 07 Oct 1996 Craftwork Solutions has released it's second generation Linux OS for the Intel platform. Craftworks 2.2 is a complete, customizable operating system for Intel based machines that empowers the desktop. It is a solid operating environment for desktop workstations and Web server solutions. The Linux environment provides improved processing performance, high reliability and built-in security, at an affordable price. For additional information: Craftwork Solutions, Inc., http://www.craftwork.com info@craftwork.com ### Java Development Kit--JDK 1.0.2 for Linux On Friday September 27th 1996, Sun Microsystems provided the Java community with the long awaited update of the binary license, subsequently making redistribution of the Linux JDK 1.0.2 (Java Development Kit) possible. For additional information: http://www.blackdown.org/java-linux/Information.html Robert Herrmann bherrman@netcom.com NETCOM On-line Communication Services ### Linux On A Disk 06 Oct 1996 A 1 or 2 GigaByte IDE Hard Disk Pre-Loaded with Linux. Positively the easiest way to get the Linux Operating System up and running on your PC. http://www.cosmoseng.com/ For additional information: Clay Claiborne, cjc@earthlink.net Cosmos Engineering Co., Los Angeles, CA ### MkLinux Release 2.0 23 Sept 1996 Apple Computer, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) announced today that it is making available Developer Release 2 of MkLinux. Based on the Open Software Foundation (OSF) Mach Kernel, MkLinux allows users to run UNIX applications and solutions on high performance Power PC-based products. The DR2 release delivers substantially improved performance and stability, and many features Linux developers and customers have been asking for. Apple is making the source code for Developer Release 2 available free of charge on the Apple MkLinux web site at http://www.mklinux.apple.com/ long with snapshots of MkLinux, updates, patches, and late-breaking news. Apple's MkLinux Developer Release 2 CD is available from Prime Time Freeware for U.S. $20. For additional information: Prime Time Freeware, info@ptf.com, http://www.ptf.com/ Apple Computer Inc., http://www.apple.com/ ### Red Hat Linux 4.0 Users's Guide Fri, 04 Oct 1996 Red Hat Linux 4.0 Users's Guide free via FTP! That's right, the 236 page Red Hat Linux 4.0 User's Guide is now available via FTP, in PostScript and HTML form. It is also available for browsing on our web site. The Users's Guide covers installation, configuration, RPM, control-panel, and basic system administration issues, and is a must have for anyone running Red Hat Linux. http://www.redhat.com/support/rhl/manual ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/redhat-4.0/Users-Guide The Red Hat 4.0 User's Guide is distributed under the same terms as the Linux Documentation Project (LDP) documents. For additional information: Red Hat Software, http://www.redhat.com/ info@redhat.com ### Video Mosaic Netscape Plugin for Linux 18 Oct 1996 Vosaic (Video Mosaic) is available as a Netscape Navigator plug-in for Linux from the Systems Research Group of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Vosaic Corp. Vosaic supports real time video over the Internet that is embedded in standard Web pages. The technology allows one to view MPEG video at 6 to 10 frames per second over telephone dial up connections at 28.8 Kbits/s. Higher bandwidths improve video quality. There is no download latency - videos are displayed as the data arrives over the network. Get the 1 BETA 12 plug-in at: http://www.vosaic.com/ Vosaic requires kernel 2.0 and above, as well as XFree86 3.1.2. For additional information: info@mosaic.com http://choices.cs.uiuc.edu/srg/stan/video.ps ### Virtual Paper--Online-Document Viewing System 04 Oct 1996 Virtual Paper is a high-quality online-document viewing system. Lectern, the Virtual Paper viewer, offers good legibility (using anti-aliasing), fast page-turning speed, a smooth user interface, and the ability to handle both PostScript and scanned "legacy" documents. It's written in Modula-3, is distributed in both source and executable format, and is free (but copyright by Digital Equipment Corporation). DEC has announced the availability of the Virtual Paper system in x86/Linux ELF executable format. For details on the overall system, including links to the executables and sources, see: http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/virtualpaper/ For additional information: Paul McJones, mcjones@pa.dec.com Andrew Birrell, birrell@pa.de.com DEC Systems Research Center (SRC), Palo Alto, California, USA ### WebThreads 1.0.1 for Linux 08 Oct 1996 WebThreads, LLC of Vienna, VA, announced the release of WebThreads 1.0.1 web site interactivity and visitor tracking solution. WebThreads allows you to create truly interactive web sites that respond and change in real time to individual visitors based on their actions while providing the webmaster with a tremendous amount of information about what the visitors are doing on your site. WebThreads is a lightweight and easy to install set of CGI scripts written entirely in C that greatly enhance the flexibility, interactivity and visitor traffic reporting accuracy of standard WWW servers. For additional information: WebThreads, http://www.webthreads.com/ info@webthreads.com ### XForms V0.81--X11 GUI Toolkit & Builder 29 Sep 1996 XForms is a graphical user interface toolkit and builder based on Xlib for X Window Systems. XForms is a portable and efficient C library that can be used in both C and C++ programs. The library works in all visuals and all depths (1-24) and comes with a rich set of objects such as buttons (of many flavors, including color XPMs as labels) , browsers, sliders, and menus integrated into an elegant event/object call back execution model that allows fast and easy construction of X-applications. It also has OpenGL (on SGI) and Mesa support. XForms V0.81 for Linux/m68k and MkLinux is available from http://bragg.phys.uwm.edu/xforms ftp://laue.phys.uwm.edu/pub/xforms In addition, XForms is already available for Linux/i386, Linux/Alpha and other Unix platforms. For additional information: T.C. Zhao, zhao@laue.phys.uwm.edu Surface Labs, Dept. of Physics, UW-Milwaukee ##### This page written and maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette, gazette@ssc.com Copyright © 1996 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.