Ubuntu 7.10 Beta Released

The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the beta release of Ubuntu 7.10 and its
variants, Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu.  Codenamed "Gutsy Gibbon", 7.10
continues Ubuntu's proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest
open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux
distribution.

Ubuntu 7.10 on the desktop features a cutting-edge graphical experience with
composited desktop effects, fully automated printer installation, and
superior support for Firefox browser plugins.

Ubuntu 7.10 server edition brings enhanced security-in-depth with AppArmor
and easy install-time options for multiple common server configurations.

Desktop highlights
------------------

Compiz Fusion: This innovative compositing window manager enables 3-D
desktop effects that let users work with, and see, their desktops in
completely new ways.

Printer installation: In GNOME, printers are automatically configured for
use as soon as they are connected.

Free Flash support with Gnash: Ubuntu 7.10 leads the pack with a preview of
this Flash browser plugin.  Although still actively in development and not
yet fully supported by Ubuntu, Gnash gives a glimpse into the future of free
Flash, bringing partial Flash support to 64-bit desktop systems.

Automated Firefox plugin installation: Beyond the addition of Gnash, Firefox
in Ubuntu now supports automatic installation of popular plugins through the
standard Ubuntu package repositories, for a richer web-browsing experience
with the integrated security support of the rest of the Ubuntu system.

Please see http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/gutsybeta for details.

Server highlights
-----------------

AppArmor: This easy-to-deploy kernel technology limits the resources an
application is allowed to access and can be used to provide an added layer
of protection against undiscovered security vulnerabilities in applications.

Pre-configured installation options: Mail Server, Print Server, Database
Server, and File Server options join existing LAMP and DNS options for
pre-configured installations, easing the deployment of common server
configurations.

Edubuntu highlights
-------------------

Faster thin clients: Thin clients have been sped up significantly through
the use of compressed images.

Kubuntu highlights
------------------

As well as the above desktop highlights, the following new features are
specific to KDE users:

Dolphin file manager: This updated file manager gives Ubuntu users a glimpse
of the upcoming KDE 4.

Strigi desktop search: Another pillar of KDE 4 available now in Kubuntu.

Restricted-manager: Kubuntu 7.10 includes a KDE front-end for easy
installation of proprietary drivers, complementing the existing GNOME
front-end.

Please see https://wiki.kubuntu.org/GutsyGibbon/Beta/Kubuntu for details.

Other
-----

* On the Desktop: KDE 3.5.7, GNOME 2.20, OpenOffice.org 2.3.0rc1, X.org 7.2

* On the Server: Apache 2.2, PostgreSQL 8.2, PHP 5.2.3, LTSP 5.0

* "Under the hood": GCC 4.1.2, glibc 2.6, Linux 2.6.22, Python 2.5

The full release notes can be found at
http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/gutsybeta

About Ubuntu
------------

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution for your desktop, laptop, thin client and
server, with a fast and easy install.  Ubuntu comes in several variants,
including Ubuntu Desktop, Server, Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu.  The Ubuntu
project makes no separation between our free edition and our enterprise
edition - this is our best work and it is freely available.

Used by businesses, home users, schools and governments around the world,
Ubuntu offers regular releases, a tight selection of excellent packages
installed by default and professional commercial technical support from
Canonical Ltd and hundreds of other companies.

To Get Ubuntu 7.10 Beta
-----------------------

Download Ubuntu 7.10 Beta here (choose the mirror closest to you):

 Europe:

   http://se.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (Sweden)
   http://nl.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (The Netherlands)
   http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/linux/ubuntu-releases/7.10 (The Netherlands)
   http://ie.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (Ireland)
   http://it.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (Italy)
   http://gb.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (Great Britain)
   http://de.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (Germany)
   http://fr.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (France)

 Asia:

   http://tw.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (Taiwan)

 Africa:

   http://za.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (South Africa)

 North America:

   http://ca.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (Canada)
   http://us.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (United States)

 Rest of the world:

   http://releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (Great Britain)

Please download using Bittorrent if possible.

To upgrade from Ubuntu 7.04 to Ubuntu 7.10 Beta, follow these
instructions:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GutsyUpgrades

The final version of Ubuntu 7.10 is expected to be released in October 2007.

Feedback and Helping
--------------------

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you
can participate at

 http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate/

Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help turn this Beta
into the best release of Ubuntu ever.  Please report bugs through the
Launchpad bug tracker:

 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/gutsy/+bugs

If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but are not
sure, first try asking on the #ubuntu IRC channel on FreeNode, on the Ubuntu
Users mailing list, or on the Ubuntu forums:

 http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
 http://www.ubuntuforums.org/

More Information
----------------

You can find out more about Ubuntu and about this preview release on our
website, IRC channel and wiki. If you are new to Ubuntu, please visit:

 http://www.ubuntu.com/

To sign up for future Ubuntu announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu's
very low volume announcement list at:

 http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce 

Vista Aiding Linux Desktop, Strategist Says...

Windows Vista has probably created the single biggest opportunity for the Linux desktop to take market share, Cole Crawford, an IT strategist at Dell, said in an address titled, "The Linux Desktop—Fact, FUD or Fantasy?".

For example, a number of companies have moved back to Windows XP after deploying Vista, Crawford said, before quoting Scott Granneman, an author, entrepreneur and adjunct professor at Washington University in St. Louis, as saying, "To mess up a Linux box, you need to work at it; to mess up your Windows box, you just have to work on it."

Microsoft has also owned the desktop for more than 15 years, Crawford said, "and so the only way for them to go is down. But Linux can only go up, and its growth potential is enormous. While Linux only has 1 percent of share on the desktop versus Microsoft's more than 90 percent, that is changing, and the Linux desktop is expected to gain some share over the next two years," he said.

The number of developers targeting Windows decreased by 12 percent in the last year, while their targeting of Linux has increased by 34 percent over the same period, recently released information from Evans Data shows, Crawford said.

The interoperability agreements that Microsoft has signed with Linux vendors, from Novell to Xandros and Linspire, have also had largely positive results so far, he said, adding that another plus was the fact that Linux development has shifted to a model in which a significant portion of the kernel is being developed by corporate entities.

On the downside, Crawford said, was the fact that no one actually owns the kernel and this makes SLAs (service-level agreements) more challenging. Microsoft also has a 15-year head start in the client market and most companies are still comfortable with Windows as an operating system, while the ISV/IHV ecosystem also still has a long way to go, he said.

But the days of vendor lock-in are over, Crawford said, and the fact that Microsoft is reaching out to the open-source community underscores its awareness of that. While the Linux desktop is not yet appropriate for everyone, its numbers are growing, he said

Crawford said a corporate desktop needs to be focused on the business user, compliant with company standards, interoperable, secure, and able to be shipped with an enterprise kernel and managed remotely, and to have standard applications installed.

"The Linux desktop can do all of that. It can be interoperable with earlier versions of the operating system, is generally interoperable with Windows, can ship with an enterprise kernel and can be remotely managed by existing management solutions," he said.

The driving forces behind the Linux desktop were innovation, freedom and the frustration with Windows, he said. Unlike with Windows, the community also has the ability to influence and drive the technology, which also works well on thin clients, Crawford said.

But a software packaging standard needs to be established, even though it would take a lot of work, while getting the drivers necessary for printers, audio and other things to work on Linux is extremely important, he said. "We also need to get the different distributions to work on a common release cycle," he said.

He said Linux is a lot more secure than Windows as it has no registry, since everything is a file, which needs permissions to execute. There is also no such thing as a DLL, which Crawford described as the second most evil thing in Windows behind ActiveX.

Linux is good enough today to run as a corporate desktop and, like any technology, does not have to be perfect, just good enough, he said, adding that even in a Microsoft environment it was possible to use a Linux distribution as a corporate operating system.

"This is the year of the interoperable Linux desktop. Standards are helping to drive adoption, while driver support will be the key to the success of desktop Linux. The opportunity to standardize and drive interoperability is paramount," Crawford said.

But the industry is also at a crossroads, and could follow the path of Unix or unify and drive adoption, he said. "If you want to differentiate, do so after we have started to win. We absolutely need to unify, we really do," he concluded.

- Peter Galli @ Ziff-Davis

Real-Time Linux: More Than You Ever Wanted to Know

If you're interested in Linux -- and particularly Real-Time Linux -- then keep your eye on the Open Source department where we continue to post papers from the the Eighth Real-Time Linux Workshop held at the at the School for Information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, in Lanzhou, China.

Many of the papers are fascinating, and all of them interesting. Yesterday's post, for instance, Embedded RTLinux: A New Stand-Alone RTLinux Approach by Miguel Masmano, Apolinar Gonzalez, Ismael Ripoll, and Alfons Crespo. (If those names don't sound Chinese, remember that the Workshop was a "worldwide" conference, with papers from Real-time Linux experts around the world.)

Other papers range in topics from A Real-Time P2P Interactive Game Playing Application to A Linux-based System to Monitor Train Speed and Doors for a Light-Rail System.

And we will continue to post installments over the coming weeks.

-- Jonathan Erickson @ Dr. Dobb's

Holy flying penguins microsoft-man....

Via wins big Singapore Air Linux deal..

According to Network World, the system consists of a central Linux server that connects to a network of PCs installed under every seat on the aircraft.

Each economy-class seat will be fitted with a 10.6-inch LCD screen that offers resolution of 1,280 pixels by 768 pixels. Of course the screen is much larger in business, 15.4-inch, and first class which will have a 23-inch screen.

Passengers can choose to watch a movie or listen to a CD, which is streamed from the central server to the seat's computer.

Each seat has 40G bytes of hard-drive and will use a Via processor.

It means that each passenger will have access to 100 movies, 150 television shows, 700 music CDs, 22 radio stations, and 65 games on a flight.

It will also run Star Office and passengers can connect to the PC using a USB to take the novel they write on those long flights to New Zealand with them.

By Nick Farrell

Going door-to-door for Goolge

Posted by Elinor Mills

So, you want to work for Google but you don't have a graduate degree in computer science from an Ivy League school. How about being a Google local search ads sales rep contractor? As such you can earn up to $10 for each business listing that is approved by Google and verified by the business.

According to the FAQ on Google's Web site:

Google offers to pay $10 per listing for contractors who sign up business to advertise on Google Maps

(Credit: Google)

"As a Google Business Referral Representative, you'll visit local businesses to collect information (such as hours of operation, types of payment accepted, etc.) for Google Maps, and tell them about Google Maps and Google AdWords. You'll also take a few digital photos of the business that will appear on the Google Maps listing along with the business information.

Asked for more information on the program and whether it is supplementing or replacing a traditional ad sales force, a Google spokeswoman offered a statement that included this comment:

"This program will help people find local information using Google and Google Maps and help businesses take advantage of the Internet even if they don't have a website or online store. This is currently a pilot program intended to help local businesses in the U.S."

Back on the Google Web site the motivational speak is poured on thick:

"All you need to be a successful Business Referral Representative is a passion for helping local businesses succeed, a love for the Internet (some knowledge of Google is great, too), and access to a computer and a digital camera." Oh, and some good walking shoes, possibly a car and plenty of free time.

But don't expect to get any of the benefits or perks that Google employees get, like free food, paid vacation and health insurance.

Now, get out there and sell some ads!

Microsoft Meets the GPLv3

Now that Microsoft has declared itself untouched by any GPLv3 terms, everyone is trying to figure out if they have a leg to stand on. There is a whole lot of analysis going on, with some wondering if Microsoft is a distributor of software under GPLv3 by means of the voucher distribution and others wondering just what those vouchers included.

First, "distribution" isn't the issue with GPLv3. That is a GPLv2 question, as I'll show you. GPLv3 talks about "propagating" and "conveying", not just distribution. Propagation includes anything, including distribution but not limited to it, that would make you directly *or secondarily* liable for infringement if you lack permission. Convey means "any kind of propagation" that enables another party to make or receive copies of a work. Like selling them the vouchers, perchance? It's a much broader category of activities than just distribution, and I'll explain the terms that I think would have made Microsoft fit neatly into the "convey" category, had they not backed out. I think you'll be able to see how much more protection GPLv3 provides to your code than GPLv2.

And somehow I missed this earlier, but I now discover that if you read the marketing agreement between Novell and Microsoft more carefully than I did before, it turns out we can know what one got with the vouchers, and what they offered included software, upgrades, and support. No wonder Microsoft decided to pull the plug before any GPLv3 software began to be made available. I just don't know if that is enough to save them, since the vouchers they already sold have no expiration date.

by Groklaw

Workaround puts Skype on the iPhone

A complex remote-control work around has achieved what every geek wants: running Skype on an iPhone.

While some are working to unlock the iPhone, to use on other networks, others are working to give its users cheap calls using the popular Skype VoIP software.

The breakthrough comes from Tom Keating of TMC Labs, and is likely to be more of a proof of concept, as it uses a complex remote control application, and doesn't actually deliver free calls, though they may be cheaper.

Skype Mobile can be used on Windows Mobile phones to make free or cheap calls from Wi-Fi hot spots, but it has not yet been ported to the iPhone. Such a port is probably not a priority with AT&T, the phone operator providing the iPhone, or with Apple, although reviews have found the phone has good Wi-Fi performance.

The Skype-on-iPhone solution is described as a "workaround-around" using a remote control application, SoonR, to remotely use the Skype application running on the user's desktop computer, and make the calls from there.

It's a bit more complicated than that, however.

SoonR Talk is an AJAX application running on the Opera browser (which has to be installed on the iPhone). It connects to the desktop via the SoonR server, and then SoonR Talk sets up the call.

It dials out from Skype and makes a SkypeOut call to the mobile, conferencing the two calls together. This uses at least one and possibly two paid SkypeOut calls, which in many cases may still be substantially cheaper than dialling direct from the iPhone. For instance, unlimited SkypeOut credits for U.S. dialling can be bought for $30 per year.

By Peter Judge
work-around-puts-skype-on-the iPhone

Take Linux for a test drive -- it's free, after all

I really want you folks to try the free (free free free) Linux OS at some point in your life.

It has become a very credible operating system, even for typical PC users . . . though the whole concept is still alien and intimidating. Herewith is a list of Everything You Ought To Know Before Your First Linux Install:

1. Linux and its free software are a perfect choice for a "spare" computer, like the PC your kids use or the notebook that migrates throughout the house. For meat-and-potatoes Web browsing, e-mail, word processing, and media playing, spending $400 for legit copies of Windows and commercial apps can be overkill.

2. There's no "one" Linux. The Linux OS is a lot like English: It's all the same, technically, but the variants will prevent you from successfully ordering a submarine sandwich with fries and a Coke when you're 400 miles away from where you grew up.

3. Even with one specific kind of Linux, there are several distributions. A "distro" is a specific combination of the OS and various packages of drivers, installers, utilities, and user apps that make installing and using it either as smooth as silk or a nightmare from which you fear you shall never awaken. Visit distrowatch.com for a field guide.

My personal favorite distro is Ubuntu Linux (ubuntu.com). It has a huge, active support forum (ubuntuforums.org).

4. Your distro will arrive in the form of a "Live CD," which you can either purchase online for the cost of two X-Men comics or download as a 500 megabyte disc image and then burn. Boot your PC from this disc, and presto, you're using Linux, complete with a full suite of useful apps such as the Firefox browser and the OpenOffice suite of productivity apps. If you like what you see, you can install Linux directly onto your hard drive. If you don't, just shut down and eject. Your PC will be left untouched.

5. It's not necessary to choose between Linux and Windows. Your installer can create a "dual boot" system that can run both. Either way, use your PC's built-in utility to burn a "recovery disc" so you can re-install Windows.

6. The biggest stumbling block you'll encounter with Linux is getting it to recognize all of your PC's hardware. I mean you might have no WiFi. And your gorgeous 1600x1200 screen is downgraded to 800x600 resolution.

Sure, I've had Linux installations go smoothly. But that only happens when the distro you've chosen is exceptionally right for your PC, and includes all of the drivers you'll need. Google for the make and model of your PC plus "Linux" and "distro," and you'll quickly find a good candidate.

7. Don't be frightened off by some of the mega-complicated solutions you'll find in the help forums. Locating and installing the extra drivers you need is a job for Linux's built-in package manager.

So with Ubuntu, for example, getting your display running at full resolution merely requires that from the menu bar, you click on System >Administration >Synaptic Package Manager. Then search for the name of your video card, and then click a button to download and install the right drivers. Even better, package managers help you locate virtually any free software you might ever need.

8. Just creating a bootable, useful system is 80 percent of the install, and will take only 5 percent of your time. The next 10 percent of the project will take up to 50 percent. Getting the final 5 percent of your hardware working (like your notebook's headphone jack) might not be worth the investment.

9. Your existing peripherals will probably work fine. There are drivers for most popular printers, and if your digital camera or music player appears on your PC as an external storage device, it'll work with Linux media managers.

10. Remember that the world is a good and happy place, and that Linux's many creators and supporters wish you no harm.

By Andy Ihnatko
Andy writes on technical and computer issues for the Chicago Sun-Times.
(http://www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnatko/437301,CST-FIN-Andy21.article)

Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded Edition

The "Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded Edition", The first full release of the software, which will permit video, sound and full-featured Internet browsing, is due in October.

The software is geared for use on Intel's Mobile Internet Device platform and Mini-Tablet PCs using low-power processors and tiny keyboards. The "Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded Edition" will have a fast boot and resume times, and reside in a small memory and disk footprint. These new devices, small, handheld, graphical tablets which are Internet-enabled are going to change the way we communicate and collaborate .

Banks Want to Swim With the Penguins

The Bulls and the Bears may soon be standing on the unemployment line.

Tux the penguin, Linux's beloved mascot, is rapidly becoming the financial services industry's totem animal of choice. In fact, it seems that the only steadily rising statistic on Wall Street these days is the number of companies moving to open-source systems.

"Linux is probably the only good news that we've had in the financial industry over the past couple of years," said Keith Codell, a systems administrator for a Wall Street firm. "Linux is reliable -- it never crashes, it's secure. Wouldn't it be sweet if the market was more like Linux?"

Linux's influence on the banking and investment industry is expected to broaden this week, with the introduction of a Linux-based system that will provide some of the world's biggest banks and investment firms with the data and news they use to make trading decisions.

Reuters announced on Monday that its popular Reuters Market Data System, or RMDS, has been ported to Linux, in response to what Reuters spokespeople described as "intense customer demand."

"The call for RMDS for Linux has been astounding," said Peter Lankford, head of real-time content-management systems for Reuters. "And the response from our beta testers, even those who initially dismissed Linux as 'experimental technology,' has been overwhelmingly positive.

"They saw performance improvements and cost savings. These folks are bankers, and they know you almost never get more for less -- but this time they did."

Reuters began beta testing RMDS for Linux in October. Lankford wouldn't reveal names, but said the RMDS beta was tested in six of the world's largest financial institutions.

"I have to admit I was shocked at the complete lack of negative feedback," Casey Merkey, global program manager for RMDS on Linux. "You always get negative feedback in beta tests."

Merkey said that even the customers who were not convinced they wanted to use a Linux system converted quickly once they started using it.

"Some of our more challenging customers suddenly became my very best friends," he said.

Financial industry heavyweights such as Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs Group and E-Trade have all announced major Linux deployments in recent months.

Anyone who attended this year's LinuxWorld tradeshow in New York noticed that many attendees appeared to have been bussed in directly from Wall Street.

Lankford said banks and investment houses are turning to Linux as a way to save money and improve performance and reliability.

"Financial institutions are sending their vendors a very clear message," Lankford said. "They need to reduce costs. To survive in the current economic climate they want open systems that lower total cost of ownership without comprising flexibility or increasing risk.

"Or, as the saying goes, 'It's the economy, stupid,'" Lankford said. "They spend less, and they get more. What could be better than that?"

"Better is exactly the point," said Mike Evans, vice president of business development with Red Hat. "You've got thousands of the best programmers in the world poring over Linux code, incorporating everything that we've all learned about how to build a better operating system.

"Yes, Linux is more cost-effective. It's highly efficient and rock solid too. It's a modern operating system."

Reuters worked with Hewlett-Packard, Red Hat and Intel to create a Linux-compliant version of RMDS that runs on Intel-based servers.

"Somehow, people don't seem to realize HP is so deeply involved with open source," said Judy Chavis, HP's worldwide director of Linux. "When we first began talking with Reuters, I think their people were surprised that we even knew how to spell Linux."

by Michelle Delio
Article Here

Sun pledges patents to defend Linux

In a surprise move Sun Microsystems CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, said the company was ready to use the company's extensive patent portfolio to help defend Red Hat and Ubuntu Linux against Microsoft's patent threat.

In a post on his blog, Schwartz compared the changing world of software to that of the printed media.

"There are all kinds of interesting parallels between the newspaper industry and the software industry. Both are undergoing tremendous change, creating havoc for some and opportunity for others. The industries have much in common - minimally, they're both rooted in creative writers (journalists and developers)."

The new challenge for the printed media, he writes, comes as the industry moves from strict editorial control to a range of user-generated content.

The one option, he says, is that the printed media can embrace these new changes. Alternatively, "they could sue the new technology media companies, claim they're stealing readers by violating patents held by traditional media. Imagine, 'We patented text in columns! Classified ads in boxes! Captions on pictures! Headlines in large type!' But they'd be suing the community - the moral equivalent of suing subscribers - stepping over the line of editor, into the role of censor. And censoring free media is a particularly awkward plea for those that believe in freedom of the press. Few have sued. Most, but not all, have evolved, through competition, acquisition, reorganization or rebirth. Those that failed to adapt have deservedly perished."

The software industry is going through exactly the same transition, says Schwartz:

"Our biggest competitor became, in the late 1990s, a product built by a company that aggregated and organised software from the open source community. They built little of their own, they relied on the software equivalent of community content, or free and open source software.

"Could we have sued them? Sure. Sun has what I'd argue to be the single most valuable and focused patent portfolio on the web (and yes, we'd use it to defend Red Hat and Ubuntu, both). But suing the open source community would've been tantamount to a newspaper suing the authors of their letters to the editor. We would've been attempting to censor rather than embrace a free press. It might have felt good at the time, but it wouldn't have addressed the broader challenge - community content was becoming more interesting to our customers than our professional content."

Here's the Open Invention Networks (OIN) statement about Microsoft's so-called patent infringements against Linux:

A recent article in Fortune Magazine raises - or more precisely, re-raises - tired, old allegations about the Linux operating system for the sole purpose of perpetuating unwarranted fear, uncertainty and doubt among current and potential Linux users and distributors.

This is not the first time that unsubstantiated claims of patent infringement have been leveled at Linux. Moreover, just as in the past, these claims are made without disclosing any evidence. It's time to stop the accusations and show the evidence. What's happening with these accusers is the equivalent of declaring four aces while being unwilling to show even a pair of deuces.

It's clear that these accusations are actually an admission of the rapid uptake of Linux in the marketplace, Linux' success in displacing legacy products of competitors and that Linux provides superior software in performance, security and stability.

Here are some facts to provide clarity around Linux and patents:

* There never has been a patent lawsuit against Linux. Never.
* Linux has excellent intellectual property vetting.
* Linux has thousands of high-quality, dedicated programmers.
* Linux creates a robust, secure computer operating environment.

In less than a year, OIN has accumulated more than 100 strategic, worldwide patents and patent applications that span Web / Internet, e-commerce, mobile and communications technologies. These patents are available to all as part of the free Linux ecosystem that OIN is creating around, and in support of Linux. We stand ready to leverage our IP portfolio to maintain the open patent environment OIN has helped create."

Emphasis added. In short, they will respond to any legal threat. It's part of what OIN was set up to do. It's not like the bad old days, when Microsoft could just walk onto the playground and everyone ran away in fear or burst into tears. Linux folks have been expecting this for a long time and have used the time to prepare. Nobody is crying or running away.

Balmer's Patent War

The Linux Foundation is preparing to defend any Linux user who is charged with violating Microsoft's patents. Microsoft's strong-arm, racketeering statements to Fortune Magazine yesterday stated that 235 of its patents are violated by various forms of open source code. There have been hundreds of cases against Microsoft that range from patent violations to anti-trust issues, why there is even a racketeering charge against the Redmond Mafia now. Three months ago a jury awarded a $1.52 billion patent judgment in favor of Alcatel-Lucent against Microsoft over the use of MP3 codices.

In another case, Microsoft was also found guilty in a $521 million patent infringement ruling over how Internet Explorer handled embedded content. It is Microsoft's software that is full of patent infringements and not Linux. In the past three years, Microsoft paid out more than $4 billion dollars in settlements and court awards for infringing on other peoples patents.

Microsoft is afraid of identifying any of these so called 235 patents because if they did, the Linux community would be able to show that their claims are invalid and unenforceable. Their claims are nothing more then an attempt to keep there anti-consumer monopolies going. After all, Microsoft Office is there greatest cash pig (cow). Microsoft is just trying to protect their crap-ware, because it yields $30 plus million a day. Just look at SCO, we all know what happened there.

Microsoft's words to live by...











Way to go Microsoft.

No Win32 API for you

There's something of a buzz going on within the world of IT concerning MS Windows Vista, which apparently restricts GNU GCC executables to 32MB. Is this by design or a bug? But, knowing Balmer's hatred for all users of Free Open Source Software. Well you know....

Executables created for the Wintel environment, using the GNU GCC compilers and language standards (but not linking to the Win32 API), are subject to failure (or performance degradation) when executed in Microsoft Windows Vista, because Vista arbitrarily restricts the memory space for the GCC executable to 32 MB (33,554,432 bytes).

Attempts to allocate more memory than this using the malloc(...) function (or related functions, such as calloc(...)) will fail. This limitation applies whether the application is executed with the Run command, within a Command Prompt box (DOS box), or with the Start command. This limitation does not appear in Windows XP, Windows 98SE, or standalone DOS; the exact same executable, running under Windows XP SP2 or Win98SE, is capable of allocating several hundred megabytes of physical memory (if present on the machine). The limitation appears to apply to any compiler and linker not employing Microsoft's proprietary Win32 API.

Zero Touch Linux Server Packages
(every-thing's included, even the kitchen sink)

Linux users wanting a quickly-configurable Linux server image that could handle a number of enterprise computing tasks, might want to get the latest version of Zero Touch Linux in the test lab.

The free software package, produced by online security services firm Comodo, includes an array of open source software stacks, Web, e-mail, DNS, database, file/print and firewall. Comodo installs all the packages onto Linux operating system image, and offers the whole thing up for free. Past versions of the system used the Trustix Linux distribution — a highly-secure version of Linux often used on machines running Linux-based firewalls, IDS/IPS, or other critical systems. The latest iteration of Zero Touch Linux now includes pre-installed CentOS and Red Hat-based images.

Zero Touch Linux includes a GUI-based administration tool to configure and tune all settings across all the applications packaged on the server, with Apache Web server, MySQL and PostgreSQL databases, IPtables firewalls and BIND DNS, among the services. A setup tool with the software also allows users to strip out packages unnecessary to the server's deployment task.

The software provides three levels of system access: Admin Level: for server management, Web site/domain creation and package installation; Domain Level: which allows for basic administration of services, such as Web, mail or database; and End User: which provides a simple Web interface, e-mail access (SquirrelMail is the Web-based mail server), and file uploading and downloading.

Get the latest software download for Zero Touch Linux here.

Don't be afraid, Linux isn't just for geeks

It came out earlier this week that Dell will soon offer computers running Linux instead of Windows. Not all of its machines, obviously — the company wants to stay in business — but Linux will be an option on at least two desktops and one laptop models.

It's going to be an interesting experiment. Linux is an incredibly powerful operating system, but it's a tinkerers' OS designed to let you get under the hood. There is also a huge base of developers who are coming up with new features, new software, and better ways to do things.

Older versions of Linux were strictly the province of geeks who wanted to play. But for the past several years there's been a large and growing movement to make it accessible to the non-geek — to make it as user-friendly as Windows, but with the power of the Linux community behind it.

The version of Linux Dell will be offering, Ubuntu (it's pronounced "oo-boon-too"), is one of the most popular, user-friendly, and well-designed versions — or distros —available. It's got all of Linux's power and stability, it's completely free (as is most of the software available for it), it's tweakable, and it's — mostly — easy to use.

But "mostly" is the key.

For me, part of determining whether Linux is ready for prime-time is whether it would pass the Minandeli test. That refers to my parents, Min and Eli, who are no longer novice Windows users, but far from experts. Could they use Linux?

That in mind, a few weeks ago I set out to play with the latest versions of some Linux distros. The four at the top of my list were Ubuntu and its sister, Kubuntu, as well as OpenSUSE and PCLinuxOS, all of which were reportedly well designed and easy to use.

Alas, the PCLinuxOS download sites were offline and OpenSUSE didn't like my monitor, so I spent my time with Ubuntu and Kubuntu. (They're based on the same underlying code, but have different desktops, analogous to hatchback and sedan versions of the same car.)

Conveniently, Dell played right into my hands by choosing to offer a Linux distro that I had an opportunity to use.

Smooth operators

Let no one say that Linux — specifically Ubuntu and Kubuntu — isn't a beautiful, mature operating system. It installs quickly and easily.

A Windows or Mac user would feel quickly at home, and would enjoy some of Linux's nicer features, such as my favorite: multiple desktops you can switch among.

And Windows has nothing on Adept, Linux's add and remove programs feature. It doesn't just help you remove unwanted programs. It also gives you access to hundreds of pieces of software — from simple games to powerful office applications — stored in online libraries called repositories. It's like having a huge software store at your fingertips, where everything is free.

And that's where you get the first inkling of Linux's weak spots. There are two facts about Linux that deeply affect the user experience. First, there is a huge and dedicated Linux development community. This is good and bad.

If you thought the amount of software that's preinstalled on a new Windows computer was bad, Ubuntu will knock you over. Sure, it's nice having all those free programs at your disposal (unlike what's on a lot of Windows systems, this stuff isn't trialware). But for someone just getting his feet wet on a new operating system it's what psychology professor Barry Schwartz famously termed " a tyranny of choice."

Want to play music? There are 11 music players to choose from, including Audacious, JuK, and Quark. Need a text editor? Would you prefer GTKedit, Kate, KEdit, KWrite, Leafpad, Mousepad, or xae? All are available with a click or two from the gigantic repository.

If you want to install something that's not in the repositories, though, you might run into another non-Windows-like aspect of Linux. It's much more modular than Windows, so many programs need other software in place in order to work — something called "dependencies."

Thus when I tried to install the Cinelerra video editor, I had to first install some other things, and some of those needed things as well. Had my geek gene not been expressing itself, it would have been impossible.

Linux users are comfortable with this, judging by a comment in an article written earlier this year about Cinelerra: "...installation is simple: I add the correct Cinelerra repository for my CPU, along with the Debian Multimedia repository, to my /etc/apt/sources.list file, then update and install Cinelerra."

Linux folks are some of the best tinkerers on the planet, so this kind of stuff is second nature to them. My parents, not so much.

And while Linux itself — especially the version Dell will offer — is slick, much of the software available for it is not. It lacks the polish of many of the applications you'll find for Windows and the Mac.

The GIMP, the Linux image editor on par with Photoshop, really isn't on par at all. Yes, you can do most of the same things, but if you're coming over from the Adobe product you'll find The GIMP rough around the edges, to say the least.

And if you want to do video editing, forget it. There are a handful of programs available, notably Kino and Cinelerra, but neither works as smoothly as, say, Sony Vegas or even Adobe Premiere.

The best office suite for Linux is OpenOffice.org, which is very, very good ... but, again, a step below Microsoft Office when it comes to smoothness and polish.

Is Linux a viable desktop option if you're buying a Dell computer? Absolutely, as long as you're not interested in video editing (and you image-editing needs are limited), and as long as you're willing to put up with rough edges in exchange for a free operating system, freedom from just about any virus, and the potential to tinker to your heart's content.

By Andrew Kantor
Read more of his work at kantor.com

The Apple iPhone Presentation Part 1




The Apple iPhone Presentation Part 2

The Green Party: Vista means more dead PCs

The Green Party has claimed that Microsoft's latest operating system, Vista, could lead to a mass upgrade of PCs that will result in old machines being dumped in landfill sites.

The Green Party warns that migrating to the operating system would result in many consumers and businesses having to buy new hardware, Vista requires more expensive and energy-hungry hardware, passing the cost on to consumers and the environment, this will also further exclude the poor from the latest technology, and impose burdensome costs on small and medium businesses who will be forced to enter another expensive upgrade cycle.

Some early adopters of Vista have already reported that the new operating system has forced them to upgrade their hardware. Microsoft has published the minimum specifications required to run Vista. Windows Vista-Capable PCs will be able to run at least the core experiences of Windows Vista...

Rather than opting for another proprietary OS, the Green Party argues that businesses should look into free software alternatives — such as Linux — as they don't require high-specification hardware. Free software can run on existing hardware, reduces licensing costs for small businesses and affords important freedoms to consumers.

The Green Party's warning about the environmental impact of Vista follows a similar statement from the British Computer Society (BCS) in December last year. Nigel Shadbolt, BCS president, said the release of Vista could eventually see large numbers of PCs being upgraded and many old PCs discarded. "PCs contain many toxic components, so if they end up in a landfill we are creating a real problem for the future. It can be really easy to pass on the old machine to be reused, and if it's beyond use, to recycle it,".

Intel's Ultra-Mobile PC & Internet Device Future.

Intel will be dropping Microsoft's Windows in favor of Linux (embedded Linux) for its next generation (iPod - iPhone like) future device. This new technology is based on the up and coming WiMAX, SaaS and PC push technology format. I cant wait...

Linux gaming improves with Cedega 6.0

TRANSGAMING has released a new version of its Windows emulator the Cedega 6.0 which allows gamers to play proper games on their Linux machines.

Cedega is based on Wine and is available on a subscription basis, and it is designed to solve the huge problem that Linux has in getting into the home market, namely that it can't play popular games. Cedega is the main way that Linux geeks get to play World of WarCraft or Doom online. I cant wait for Cedega to build support for "LeftBehind" I'm not a big fan of Window.

This version of Cedega uses new technology and improvements to the existing engine. According to a company press release, Shader Model 2.0 support enables recent games to be played at the highest detail settings. There is also a better FBO implementation provides better overall graphics performance and compatibility with DirectX 9.

There are also improvements to the ALSA support to provide better audio and allow users to listen to their own music while in-game. There is also better memory allocator, coupled with other enhancements, to improve the performance of games.

here's the link: www.transgaming.com

Happy Gaming :-)

Sourcefire releases Daemonlogger open source tool

Sourcefire, the security firm that oversees the open source intrusion-detection system software, Snort, is making available another open source tool for network traffic logging.

The tool, called Daemonlogger (http://www.snort.org), is a packet sniffer that can passively capture network traffic logs and write them to disk in PCAP format. Sourcefire said Daemonlogger is being licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 2, under which anyone may access, modify and redistribute the Daemonlogger source code so that users can share enhancements and new features with other network professionals.

Martin Roesch, CTO of Sourcefire and the originator of Snort IDS, said open source Daemonlogger is intended to be a “handy and easy-to-use tool.” Sourcefire indicated Daemonlogger is offered as an alternative to proprietary products for logging and storing network traffic that are needed to meet with a growing number of regulatory requirements.

By Ellen Messmer

Software that lets you create a CyberTwin

If spending too much time online turns you into your evil twin, then it might be time for a "CyberTwin."

An Australian upstart on Monday introduced MyCyberTwin, an early version of software that lets people create and customize a virtual personality that can chat with others while they're offline. Liesl Capper, co-founder of RelevanceNow, which built MyCyberTwin, said the so-called chat bot technology can be used on blogs, dating sites or in social networks like MySpace by cutting and pasting code from the site onto the third-party page.

Capper describes the software as an extension of your personality online. "It can talk to friends when you're sleeping or tell people where the party is Saturday night," she said.

Virtual personalities are not new, but MyCyberTwin could take the trend of instant-messaging avatars like Yahoo's and Second Life personas in a new direction.

The MyCyberTwin service lets people pick one of five basic personalities, such as "warm-hearted, intellectual" or "cheeky, down to earth," and then have that choice act as a chat proxy to friends or strangers. But a subscriber can also tailor their persona further by answering a set of psychological questions, like "Is success a motivator for you?" giving the chat bot more complexity.

RelevanceNow has built tools to evaluate a person's psychographics, which classify attitudes and values, likes and dislikes. The more information the software has, the more "personality" the chat bot will have.

People also can write out answers to commonly asked questions so that their chat bot will respond in that manner, or they can prompt a cybertwin to ask specific questions of others, such as "What is the most important thing in your life?" People can review their friend's answers by looking in the log that MyCyberTwin keeps of all conversations. Capper said the service can also handle FAQs for bloggers, company brands or other well-known people who maintain a Web site.

"Sites and bloggers will want them so that people can learn about them when they're away. And companies can learn about customers without having direct conversations," Capper said.

Linux Kernel to Add VMI

The next stable update to the Linux kernel, Version 2.6.21, is slated to include a new feature submitted by VMware called VMI.

Virtualized operating system instances can enjoy performance and management benefits if their kernels are modified to communicate with the hypervisor under which they run. This arrangement is called paravirtualization.

The initial promise of Virtual Machine Interface was that it would provide a common protocol across which multiple hypervisors could communicate with the Linux kernel instances they paravirtualize, as opposed to having different sets of hooks built into Linux for different hypervisors.

The idea is similar to the Linux Security Module framework, on which both the SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux) and AppArmor rights-hardening technologies are built.

However, VMware's approach has faced some pushback among kernel developers, and VMware ended up modifying VMI to plug into a separate kernel paravirtualization interface, called paravirt_ops, which made its way into the stable Linux kernel with the last update (2.6.20).

Dialed-back ambitions or no, VMI is set to enter active service soon, as VMware's forthcoming Workstation 6.0 will make use of VMI-enabled kernels, including those that drive Linux distributions such as the soon-to-ship Ubuntu 7.04.

Mac vs. PC vs. Linux

Is a Linux desktop avalanche coming?

Slowly, ever so slowly, the Linux desktop has been picking up momentum. It keeps getting better and better, but Microsoft's monopoly has kept many PC users from realizing that there really is a viable alternative to Windows. However, that's about to change.

Just like a few more snowflakes can turn a quiet snowy mountainside into an avalanche, Linux is teetering on the edge of becoming a real force in the desktop computing world.

First, the Portland Project started getting Linux desktop developers to work together. No, neither KDE nor GNOME are going to go away. Rather, Portland has got the developers working on a common foundation. With that solid footing, ISVs (independent software vendors) will be able to write one application that will run on both of those popular desktop environments.

Another major step forward is Ubuntu and Linspire partnering on the use of CNR for software installation. I think a lot of people have missed just what an important step this is for desktop Linux.

Ubuntu is, without question, the most popular of the community Linuxes these days. While not nearly as popular, Linspire, with its newly opened CNR, is creating the easiest way, by far, to install software on a Linux desktop. When you put them together, you get a desktop Linux -- with broad support -- that anyone can install new programs on.

Software installation, even on some of the best Linux distributions, has long been a Linux problem child. RPMs, Debs, YaST, Synaptic, APT, yum, alien, klik... the alphabet soup of installation formats and programs goes on forever. Heck, I can't keep track of them all, and I follow Linux for a living. The Portland crew recently started working on standardizing installation routines, but I don't expect to see any big results from that until 2008.

In the meantime, Linspire will be offering -- first for its own distributions, Freespire and Linspire, and then Ubuntu -- an end-user experience that hides all the existing complexity. Soon after that is done, the company will begin extending the service to many other Linux distributions.

Today, when you want to install software, you not only need to know the ins and outs of your particular installation program, you also need to have a good idea of exactly what program you're looking for in the first place. For example, if I do a search by name and summary in SUSE's YaST software installer for "word processor," I'm not going to find anything. Everyone knows that OpenOffice is an office suite and that Firefox is a Web browser, but even old Linux hands might stop, for a moment, when thinking about alternatives. CNR will make a great more of the vast Linux software library available for all users.

It's not simply that CNR will make installing any software -- free or proprietary, application or driver -- a one-click operation. It's that the newly wikied CNR will make it possible for users who don't know Jokosher from Traverso to pick out the right software. Both programs are multi-track audio recording and editing programs, but unless you already knew what they were, would you ever find them? Would you know how to install them? Would you have any clue as to which might be better than the other?

You could pull together all that information and get your program installed, but let's face it; it's not going to be straightforward or easy. To me, it looks like CNR is not only going to make installing software on Linux simple; it's going to make software installation better than it is on either Windows or Mac OS X.

And, that, I'm quite sure, is going to make desktop Linux a whole lot more interesting to all users. Get ready for the avalanche!

By: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Original Post w/Links

Note to new Linux users: No antivirus needed

One of the most common questions I hear new Linux users ask is "What program should I use for virus protection?" Many of them lose faith in me as a source of security information when I reply, "None." But you really don't need to fear malware on your new platform, thanks to the way Linux is built.

Savvy Windows users have to watch their virus checkers as closely as the head nurse in the ICU keeps an eye on patient monitors. Often, the buzz in the Windows security world is about which protection-for-profit firm was the first to discover and offer protection for the malware du jour -- or should I say malware de l'heure? The only thing better than having backed the winning Super Bowl team come Monday morning at the office coffeepot is having the virus checker you use be the one winning the malware sweepstakes that weekend.

If a rogue program finds a crack in your Windows armor, paying $200 per infection to have your machine scrubbed and sanitized by the local goon^H^H^H^H geek squad not only helps to reinforce the notion that you have to have malware protection, but that it has to be the right protection, too. The malware firms are aware of this, and all of their advertising plays upon the insecurity fears of Windows users and the paranoia that results. Chronic exposure and vulnerability to malware has conditioned Windows users to accept this security tax.

It's no wonder, then, that when Windows users are finally able to break their chains and experience freedom on a Linux desktop, they stare at me in disbelief when I tell them to lay that burden down. They are reluctant to stop totin' that load. They have come to expect to pay a toll for a modicum of security.

I try to explain that permissions on Linux make such tribute unnecessary. Without quibbling over the definitions of viruses and trojans, I tell them that neither can execute on your machine unless you explicitly give them permission to do so.

Permissions on Linux are universal. They cover three things you can do with files: read, write, and execute. Not only that, they come in three levels: for the root user, for the individual user who is signed in, and for the rest of the world. Typically, software that can impact the system as a whole requires root privileges to run.

Microsoft designed Windows to enable outsiders to execute software on your system. The company justifies that design by saying it enriches the user experience if a Web site can do "cool" things on your desktop. It should be clear by now that the only people being enriched by that design decision are those who make a buck providing additional security or repairing the damage to systems caused by it.

Malware in Windows Land is usually spread by email clients, browser bits, or IM clients, which graciously accept the poisoned fruit from others, then neatly deposit it on their masters' systems, where malware authors know it will likely be executed and do their bidding -- without ever asking permission.

Some malware programs require that you open an attachment. Others don't even require that user error. By hook or by crook, malware on Windows often gets executed, infecting the local system first, then spreading itself to others. What a terrible neighborhood. I'm glad I don't live there.

On Linux, there is built-in protection against such craft. Newly deposited files from your email client or Web browser are not given execute privileges. Cleverly renaming executable files as something else doesn't matter, because Linux and its applications don't depend on file extensions to identify the properties of a file, so they won't mistakenly execute malware as they interact with it.

Whether newcomers grok permissions or not, I try to explain the bottom line to them: that because they have chosen Linux, they are now free of having to pay either a security tax up front to protect themselves from malware, or one after the fact to have their systems sterilized after having been infected.

So Linux is bulletproof? No. Bulletproof is one of the last stages of drunkenness, not a state of security. Linux users, like users on every operating system, must always be aware of security issues. They must act intelligently to keep their systems safe and secure. They should not run programs with root privileges when they are not required, and they should apply security patches regularly.

Misleading claims and false advertising by virus protection rackets to the contrary, you simply don't need antivirus products to keep your Linux box free of malware.

By: Joe Barr
http://joebarr.org

Convert DRM Protected Audio Into a Plain MP3

If you've ever bought music on iTunes, Walmart.com, or another legal music-downloading system, it'll be protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM). Protected from you, the consumer. For example, you can probably only play your songs in the program you used to buy them. What if you want to transfer it to an unsupported MP3 player or transfer it to another of your computers? These are legal activities (provided you do not distribute the results to others, which is a violation of copyright), but the music companies want you to listen to music on their terms. Here's how to break the locks off your tunes.

Beginner's Method

1. Burn an audio CD with the protected audio tracks.
2. Rip that new audio CD to MP3's.

Direct Way with Virtual CD-RW Software

There is a software named "NoteBurner" from http://www.noteburner.com which can process the above two steps directly and straight forward.

The most important thing you need to do is selecting the default cd burner to "NoteBurn CD-RW", and the software will do the rest works for you automatically. Compared the medthod described below, it does all the work automatically within one software. Refer to http://www.noteburner.com/howto.html on how to use it..

Image Burning Method

This method doesn't need a CD-R to burn on and might be a little faster. Another advantage is that you can probably burn more than 80 minutes of music at once (I never tested it, but I think it'll work). Many CD recording programs allow you to burn on a "virtual recorder", creating a CD Image file on your hard disk.

1. In Nero, do this by clicking "Recorder" > "Choose Recorder..." > "Image Recorder" and then creating a new CD as usual.

2. After clicking on "burn", you're asked where you want the file to be saved. Select a drive that has enough free space to save all the contents of the CD.

3. When Nero has finished, you need a virtual drive like CloneCD's "VirtualCloneDrive" or the virtual drive in "Alcohol 120%". You can get a 21-day trial version of VirtualCloneDrive at http://www.slysoft.com/en/download.html . A free alternative is Daemon Tools 3.47 or 4.00, both of which can be downloaded at http://www.daemon-tools.cc . However, be carefull, as the latest version of Daemon tools will install spyware unless you are careful to uncheck this "option" . Microsoft also provides a free Virtual CD-ROM driver for Windows 2000 & XP at Microsoft.com

4. A (simpler) alternative to a virtual drive is to use a good unzipping program such as Izarc (free download from http://www.izarc.org) which will "unzip" the "ISO" or image file into regular audio files.

5. Right-click on your virtual drive and select "open image file..." or something similar - depending on which software you use. Then open the image file you created.

6. After loading your image file, rip the CD in the virtual drive as you would do with a normal CD.

Advanced Method Using Audacity for All Protected Audio

1. Open your recording program. It should be one that can save as an MP3. If you don't have a recording program you can download Audacity, which is cool and free, but if you already have another good recording program you can use that instead. (If you download Audacity, don't forget to grab the LAME encoder.)

2. Switch your sound-recording mode. Go to your system tray (in the lower-right corner of your screen, next to the clock) and double-click on Volume Control. Pull down the Options menu and click Properties. In the "Adjust volume for" box, press Recording, check all the boxes, and click OK. Your computer is probably set to record from the microphone; check the box under "Stereo Mix". You should only need to do this once.

3. Set up your recorder. Switch back to your music-recording program and create a new file. Make sure it's in the format you want; Audacity defaults to Mono mode, so if you're using that you'll need to go to Edit -> Preferences and change the Channels drop-down box to "2 (Stereo)".

4. Do it. Once your recorder is ready, press Record. Then switch to your audio source (whether it be iTunes, Windows Media Player, or another program) and press Play. Listen to the rapturous sound of your music being freed from DRM . When the song ends, press Stop, then switch back to your recording program and press Stop there.

5. Clean up. If you're going to be using a microphone with your computer, go back to Recording Control and switch the recording mode back to Microphone. Delete any unwanted sound or silence on either end of the waveform. Amplify if necessary. Save the project (in Audacity you'll want File -> Export as MP3) and close. You're done!

Very Advanced Digital-Only Lossless Method

1. Purchase and install Virtual Audio Cable (the demo adds "trial" clips to your sounds, so you'll need to purchase).

2. Set the playback device in your player software to the Virtual Audio Cable driver's input, and the recording device in your recording software to the Virtual Audio Cable driver's output.

3. Record using the Advanced Method above. The audio you play back and record through the Virtual Audio Cable will be a perfect digital signal, since it will never be converted to and from analog on your sound card.

4. If you have a Mac you can use Audiohijack (it's fully functional demo but before purchase, noise is overlaid on all hijackings longer than 10 minutes) to record any audio going through your computer. You would follow the using the Advanced Method above.

Method Using Hymn for Songs Bought on iTunes

1. Use Hymn an open source application for converting protected iTunes songs to unprotected MP3 files under fair use. Download and run it according to the directions provided on the site.

Tips

* If you don't need MP3 specifically (say you have a player that won't take anything else), consider ripping to OGG instead, as it gives better sound at the same filesize and is completely free of any patents. Most rippers as well as the Audacity tip above can handle this, and many players work with it too nowadays.

* This technique works for ripping music from any source. Music and dialogue from DVDs, streaming radio, game sound effects--absolutely anything your computer can play, you can record. If you've got a favorite song from one of your DVDs, try turning its audio into an MP3 and dropping it in your playlist!

* This technique can only be used to transcode songs in real-time. The alternative is to simply burn all your protected songs to a CD and then rip them back onto the computer in the format of your choice. That only works if you have extra CD-R's, though. Of course if you use a CD-RW you can keep it specifically to convert protected audio and rip to MP3.

* You'll need to make sure that your computer is silent during the transcoding process except for the music playing. If an IM or email notification pops up, for example, and makes a noise, that will go into the recording. If you're good, you can go back in afterwards and clean that sort of thing out, but it's simpler just to turn off all your noisemakers before you start transcoding.

* Obviously you need to be able to play the file for this to work. If someone sends you a DRM-protected file that you can't open, this process won't help you. You can send the link for this page to your friend, though, and have him or her de-DRM it for you!

* If you are using iTunes version 6 or later, Hymn will not be able to remove the DRM on purchased songs. The development team is currently trying to find a way around the DRM, but Hymn will only run on iTunes verions 5 or earlier. In addition, you cannot switch to an earlier version of iTunes, because once you authorize your account with iTunes 6, you can't use anything but iTunes 6.

Warnings

* Circumventing DRM may be illegal in and of itself within the United States -- regardless of ownership of the IP or intent after disabling the DRM method. Read up on the DMCA and then contact your congressman.

* Please don't use this technique for piracy. Transcoding a song for your own collection is fine. Making your entire collection available for the whole Internet to download is illegal.

Linux and Vista users share driver pain

(Linux kernel developers offer free support to struggling hardware manufacturers)

Customers are getting annoyed. They spent good money on the latest and greatest PC peripherals, only to find out that the hardware is only partially supported on their operating system of choice. Without the kernel drivers necessary to power them, some of the best features of the new toys are going unused.

Oh, and just to be clear: The OS we're talking about is Microsoft Windows.

Hardware vendors seem to be having a tough time getting up to speed with Windows Vista, the latest iteration of Microsoft's client OS. Drivers have yet to emerge for many products that have worked for years under XP, and those drivers that do exist are buggy or missing features.

Nvidia is just one example. For months, it has been selling high-end graphics cards with a label on the box that reads, "Windows Vista Ready." And yet, although a rudimentary graphics driver ships with the Vista install disc, many of the advanced features supplied by Nvidia's ForceWare software have yet to be implemented for the new OS. The downloadable drivers Nvidia makes available on its Web site add some functionality but are still beta software.

The situation is frustrating enough for some customers that they're ready to take action. A Web site suggesting a class action lawsuit against Nvidia has over 1,300 registered users as I write this, and its forums are filling up with tales of woe from customers who aren't getting the capabilities they were promised when they bought their video cards. A sister site is collecting user accounts of bugs in Nvidia's drivers.

Given how many other companies are similarly under-delivering on hardware drivers for Vista, it's enough to make you wonder why more vendors don't do more to support Linux. If writing drivers for Vista is really this much of a chore, getting open source drivers for Linux will seem trivial by comparison.

In January, the Linux kernel developers offered hardware manufacturers a straightforward proposition: Free driver development. All a vendor has to do is supply specifications to its products, and the community will do the work.

Of course, this is what has been going on in the Linux world all along, with or without the support of the vendors. Under this new program, however, the kernel maintainers are explicitly reaching out to manufacturers to encourage them to use the community as a resource.

The benefits for manufacturers are compelling. Not only do they not need to spend a dime on actual driver development, but any drivers produced will eventually be distributed with the stock Linux kernel and supported by the community. That includes the so-called enterprise Linux vendors, such as Novell and Red Hat.

What's more, a little hardware support under Linux goes a long way. For example, anyone who's impressed with Vista's "Aero Glass" user interface should check out the amazing eye candy that's possible with Beryl, a new UI layer under development for Linux. And Beryl's hardware requirements don't even approach what Vista demands. Why wouldn't vendors want to support an OS that gives users the most bang for their hardware buck?

Unfortunately, still far too few vendors choose to make their hardware specs available to open source developers. Instead of relying on the help and support of the Linux community, they offer up closed, binary-only drivers, developed in-house. Often, these drivers are only of beta quality or don't offer the full functionality that's available under Windows XP.

In other words, Vista users: The Linux community feels your pain. Maybe you'd care to check out the progress we've been making on this side of the fence?

By Neil McAllister

Simon says: let me hack your Vista PC

Microsoft is playing down the possibility that the speech recognition system in Windows Vista could be hijacked to delete files or perform other unauthorised actions.

Vista contains improved speech recognition technology, a factor which prompted security researchers to see if it was possible to create MP3 files on hacker websites or audio tracks distributed on P2P networks to issue spoken commands which takes control of PCs running Vista.

Microsoft said the exploit is technically possible but unlikely to be much of a threat in practice. The attack scenario relies on activation of the speech recognition feature (with a user's microphone and speakers switched on to receive commands) and for a user to be away from his desk, so that the mischief takes place without anyone intervening. Many PCs are left on all the time, so hitting unattended PCs on, for example, the trading floor of a bank simply by targeting them at night might be possible.

A number of security researchers and Vista geeks have already tested the approach and were able to delete files and visit, albeit with considerable difficulty, arbitrary websites. But Microsoft says a number of additional factors make attacks based on the approach implausible, if not impossible.

"It is not possible through the use of voice commands to get the system to perform privileged functions such as creating a user without being prompted by UAC for Administrator credentials. The UAC prompt cannot be manipulated by voice commands by default. There are also additional barriers that would make an attack difficult including speaker and microphone placement, microphone feedback, and the clarity of the dictation," Adrian, a Microsoft security researcher wrote on Redmond's security response blog.

"While we are taking the reports seriously and investigating them accordingly I am confident in saying that there is little if any need to worry about the effects of this issue on your new Windows Vista installation," he added.

The SANS Institute's Internet Storm Centre (ISC), disputes Microsoft's assessment of the potential danger posed by the feature. "Downloading and executing a local privilege escalation is still eminently possible, you just need a suitable 0-day local privilege escalation for Vista. Indeed, any way to download and run arbitrary code as a valid user is never good news, this one just happens to be from the 'neat trick' pile," ISC duty staffer Arrigo Triulzi writes.

By John Leyden

Linspire's CNR to go multi-Linux, remain free

Linspire announced that it plans to expand its CNR ("Click 'N Run") digital download and software management service to support multiple desktop Linux distributions beyond Linspire and Freespire, initially adding Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, and Ubuntu, using both .deb and .rpm packages. And, the standard CNR service will remain free.

CNR was developed by Linspire in 2002 to allow desktop Linux users to find, install, uninstall, manage, and update thousands of software programs on their Linspire-based Linux computers.

Previously available only for Linspire and Freespire desktop Linux users, the CNR Service will begin providing users of other desktop Linux distributions a free and easy way to access more than 20,000 desktop Linux products, packages and libraries, a Linspire spokesperson said.

Support for different Linux distributions will begin in the second quarter of 2007 via a new website, CNR.com. Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, and Ubuntu will be the first supported, with others planned to follow.

Even as the Linux desktop has made strong advances in usability and capabilities, the difficulties of finding, installing, and updating software -- with each distribution requiring its own installation process -- has remained one of the most commonly cited complaints among desktop Linux users. With more than five years of development behind it, Linspire CEO Kevin Carmony hopes that CNR will now normalize these tasks for the most popular Debian- and RPM package-based distributions.

You can read more of the article and view screenshots of Linspire's CNR here

European Commission vouches for open source

The European Commission has issued an endorsement of open-source software, offering a boost of confidence for businesses considering the use of Linux and related software.

In a report on business deployments of open source software, published in full late last week, the Commission said that in "almost all cases" savings would be made by switching from proprietary to open-source software.

The findings come in stark contrast to assertions from Microsoft that Linux savings are a myth.

The Commission's work is based on detailed analysis of open-source projects in six European Union countries.

"Our findings show that, in almost all cases, a transition toward open source (produces) savings in the long-term cost of ownership," said the report, which was written by academics at the United Nations University in Maastricht, Netherlands.

Microsoft has attempted to persuade IT professionals and businesses that Windows can be cheaper than Linux, though its Get the Facts campaign. Get The Facts cited examples where Microsoft's software had offered a cost advantage over open source software.

The EC report also issued encouragement for organizations considering the Open Office applications suite. "Open Office has all the functionalities that public offices need to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations," the report said. "Open Office is free and extremely stable." It added that people were as productive with Open Office as they were with proprietary software.

The report did list two notes of caution. First, it said, short term costs will be higher for organizations migrating, even partially, to open source, largely because of the initial cost of training. Second, some workers may feel undervalued if they are required to work with free software.

The EC, the executive arm of the European Union, has taken several strides towards encouraging the development of open-source software.

In October, it granted $3.88 million (3 million euros) toward a project, called SQO-OSS, to test the quality of open-source software. And just before that, the Commission extended its open-source Web portal, the Open Source Observatory and Repository, to develop interoperability between applications.

By Richard Thurston

Windows screwup forces Ubuntu shift

You never quite wrap your head around how anti-consumer Microsoft's policies are until they bite you in the bum. Add in the customer antagonistic policies of its patsies, HP in this case, and vendors like Promise, and you have quite a recipe for pain. Guess what I did today?

It started out quite simply, a client needed to set up a small branch office, something I do almost every week. Four workstation and a repository for files, occasional backups, and a shared printer is all they would need, nothing special. Five HP 5100s, a printer, a Promise TX2300 with mirrored drives and a DVD-R was all I needed. That was the easy part.

Out came the anaemic 40GB drive from one HP, and in when the Promise controller and two WD 200GB SATA drives. The TX2300 was a snap to set up, the hardest part was rebooting 10 times until I caught that CTRL-F is the key to get into the card BIOS. A minute later, the RAID was built and it was time to restore the OS from the CDs. Two thumbs up to Promise here, it really could not be easier.

This is where the pain began. Microsoft has a policy where the vendors can't ship you a Windows CD so instead they have to send you a series of restore CDs. These option-free exercises in rookie programming mistakes are a shining example of what is wrong with the industry. HP, like the weak willed jellyfishes that they are, went along with this plan rather than stand up for the people paying them.

The problem? The #*&$ers at HP made it so the brain dead restore scripts would not see any hardware other than the parts they shipped, and it would not recognise the Promise controller. Fair enough, it isn't HP's duty to recognise everything, that would be well beyond anything I expected. You just press F6 and install the drivers manually, it gives you the standard Windows prompt there.

Looking past the problem of the machine not having a floppy, you can easily add one for the initial install, things got ugly quick. The problem? Those weasels at Captain Junior Spy Central disabled the F6 driver install on their restore CD! There is no Windows CD so you can do it manually, you either use theirs or have your own copy.

If you have a copy of XP to use, guess what? The key that comes with the HP box is restricted to the version of Windows on the restore CD. Vanilla XP will not work, nor will any of the copies I have lying around. Your choice, use only HP hardware or buy a copy of XP. A big FU to MS and HP for this little ray of sunshine.

Money grubbing and brain dead tactics aside, I figured I could boot from the Promise CD and possibly manually format the drives and dump the install CDs to the HD. That trick will often work to get you by initial unrecognised drives. That is when I learned half of the problems with Promise, the CD it provides is not bootable and contains nothing resembling a tool. Sparse would be a step up from what it offers.

Biting back my fervent desire to throw this mess out of a window, get a gun, and go to Redmond, I put in the original HD and booted into it to see if there were any interesting tools to help my plight. I tried to install the drivers and noticed the second problem, the #$&#ing Promise CD doesn't have drivers on it! No, I am not kidding, they ship the card with a CD, but that CD has no drivers on it! Honestly.

If you click the install drivers option, it prompts you to put a disk in the (nonexistent) A: drive to make a driver disk. There is no option to unpack, no option to put it in any other location, you are just screwed. Manually browsing the CD comes up with the same programs the moronic installer offers you. A: drive or the highway. In this day and age, there is no excuse for not shipping a driver with hardware, Promise really screwed this up.

So, unable to transfer the install easily, unable to legally use a different CD of Windows with my legally purchased key, and unable to install the drivers with the one I had, I was left with only one option. The machine was put in place Saturday running Ubuntu. The owner of the chain was informed of it, why it was done, and what the ramifications, mainly stability and security, were.

Luckily, he is a smart man, and from this point on, Linux will be the OS of choice on all his servers, it is cheaper to buy, cheaper to install, and much more secure. Desktops are under evaluation, but Microsoft lost this chain for sure on the server side. If it doesn't think their brain dead policies are costing them money, I am proof positive that they are, and I am willing to bet I am far from alone.

By Charlie Demerjian

Letting Go of Windows NT and 2000
Linux Migration Made Simple

Running a Microsoft Windows NT server these days is a brave (or, perhaps, stupid) thing to do: Support for the product has finished, and as far as Microsoft is concerned, the product should be put in a rest home for retired software. Windows Server 2000 is also getting long in the tooth, and in a few years it too will reach the end of its support lifecycle and be looking for its rocking chair and slippers.

So if you work for one of the many organizations around the world still running NT and 2000, like it or not, you are soon going to have to migrate to another operating system.

There are many reasons to consider migrating some or all of your data center servers to Linux, and we won't go into them here. But if you do decide to go open source, some ways of going about it are better than others.

It may sound boring and trite, but the one thing which may dictate the success or failure of a whole migration project is the initial planning stage. Before you can embark on a migration (any migration), you must decide the scope of the project. Are you planning to migrate only the Windows NT file and print servers and domain controllers to Linux, for example, or do you plan in the longer term to move your entire IT infrastructure (including Web and application servers and user desktops) to Linux?

For the initial phase, it's vital to build up a clear picture of what servers you will be replacing, what tasks they currently perform, and how they will accomplish those tasks using Linux.

The answers to these questions, together with the skill sets of the current IT staff, will help determine which Linux distribution to adopt. If staff members already have an extensive knowledge of a particular server-focused Linux distribution, it will likely influence your choice. If not, you'll want to choose a distribution with appropriate vendor support.

The next step is to estimate an approximate cost and time scale for the planned migration. The best way to do this is to break down the migration into as many manageable tasks as you can, and estimate a time and cost for each of these. The more detail you go into when describing these tasks, the more accurate your estimates are likely to be.

Later, in the pilot phase, the estimates can be checked and updated with the generated data.

Migrating an NT file/print server to Samba on Linux, should be fairly straightforward, and the potential to save money on Client Access Licenses (CALs) is high. "A properly configured Samba server is typically faster than a Windows NT or 2000 server, and clients will not be able to tell the difference," says Nick Lassonde, chief software architect at California-based Linux migration consultant Versora.

There are, however, a few pitfalls of which to be wary.

"The most common one comes from mapping security, as by default most Linux distributions only support POSIX security and not complete ACLs (access control lists). However, most modern file systems support ACLs, so this problem can be solved," he warns.

You'll probably also want to configure your file sever to authenticate against a domain controller, and there are plugins to achieve this. "Familiarize yourself with Samba's Vampire command," advises Lassonde. "This allows for automated migration of users from an NT domain controller to Samba."

In other words, it sucks the brains out of an NT server--hence the name. "Samba works flawlessly as an NT4 Domain Controller, but while Samba 4 has come a long way as an Active Directory Domain Controller, it is still not quite stable enough for production."

For Active Directory domains, it is possible to build Linux-based alternatives: IBM Software Group suggests a stack containing XAD (from PADL), LDAP, and Kerberos 5.0 running on Linux can serve as a viable alternative for Active Directory based Windows 200x domains, for example.

If your project involves migrating more of the data center to Linux, the next stage will probably be moving e-mail and messaging services from Microsoft Exchange to something like OpenXchange, which traditional Microsoft desktop clients can access, or IBM's Lotus Domino, which Outlook clients can also access.

Web and application server migration is much less straightforward. A number of questions must be asked:

* What server-side languages (e.g., ASP, ASP.NET, and PHP) are used on the server, and can these be used under Linux? If not, you will need to find a third-party solution or port the applications to Linux.

* What other machines do the servers connect to, and which be migrated first? For example, do you migrate a database to Linux first, or leave it on Windows?

* What sort of security options are required? Will you need to set up SSL connections on the new server? Will user authentication be local, or do you authenticate intranet users against a domain?

The obvious choice is to move from Microsoft's IIS Web server to an Apache Web server (which claims 65 percent of the Web server market according to Netcraft) and Linux-based databases including DB2, Ingres, MySQL, Oracle, and PostreSGL.

The hardest part of a Linux migration is migrating applications. If application migration is part of your project, it may be possible to use third-party solutions. Two examples of this are running ASP pages via Sun Java System Active Server Pages, or ASP.Net pages using Visual Mainwin, which provides a Windows library to which applications bind and run on Linux.

Tools that port applications from one environment to another are rarely worth adopting, says Lassonde. "Frequently the price of porting an application from one language to another will almost be the same as simply rewriting the application." He recommends leaving those applications on an ISS server, and then rewriting or porting them later in a more neutral language (such as Java) so future changes can be carried out more easily.

Whatever the scope of the migration project, before you start (especially if this is the first one you're attempting) bear in mind that however simple the project may seem, and however well prepared you think are, it's almost guaranteed problems will crop up.

Chances are, someone else will has had the same problems before. So at the very least, be sure to take full advantage of public support forums, and consider hiring an experienced migration consultant who--assuming he or she is any good--will have come across most of your problems before and will be able to suggest solutions to technical difficulties in minutes or hours that would otherwise take days or weeks to overcome.

By Paul Rubens