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News in General


 February 1999 Linux Journal

The February issue of Linux Journal will be hitting the newsstands January 11. This issue focuses on Cutting Edge Linux with an article on wearable computers by Dr. Steve Mann. Also, featured are articles on COAS, Csound, VNC, KDE and GNOME. Check out the Table of Contents at http://www.linuxjournal.com/issue58/index.html. To subscribe to Linux Journal, go to http://www.linuxjournal.com/ljsubsorder.html.


 Open Source Petition

Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1998 15:20:19 -0500
A petition has recently been launched asking the General Services Administration of the US Government to evaluate Open Source software (OSS) alongside commercial software whenever it buys or upgrades computers. The goal of the petition, written by Prof. Clay Shirky and sponsored by the Open Source Iniative and O'Reilly and Associates, and hosted on www.e-thepeople.com, is to point out that OSS has reached a level of quality, reliability and support that makes it competitive with existing commercial products.

The ultimate hope is to get vendors of Open Source software included in contract bids for Federal Government work.

If you are interested in this petition, there are three things you can do:

For more information:
Clay Shirky, [email protected]


 LinuxWorld Conference & Expo - March 1999

IDG World Expo, the world's leading producer of IT-focused conferences and expositions, will produce LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, the first international exposition addressing the business and technology issues of the Linux operating environment.

Addressing the needs of both the Linux business and development communities, LinuxWorld Conference and Expo, headed by Charles Greco, President of IDG World Expo, features a high-level, technical conference program led by industry luminaries offering advice and solutions on the industry's fastest growing operating systems technology. An exhibit floor highlighting leading service providers, solutions integrators, and development organizations -- Pacific HiTech, Enchanced Software, Linux Journal, Knock Software, and Oracle among others -- will also include customized event areas such as Start-up City, Developer Central and Developer Greenhouse, which will spotlight the latest developments and emerging companies in the Linux arena.

The first LinuxWorld Conference and Expo will be held March 1-4, 1999 in San Jose, California at the San Jose Convention Center. The target audience includes Linux developers, Fortune 1000 business leaders, enterprise managers, CIOs, service providers, system administrators, software solution providers, computer consultants, and solutions integrators.

Dr. Michael Cowpland, President and CEO, Corel Corporation, Mark Jarvis, Senior Vice President of World Wide Marketing, Oracle and Linus Torvalds, Creator of Linux, the open source operating system, will be the featured keynote speakers on Tuesday, March 2. Keynotes are open to all registered attendees.

For more information:
http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/


 Debian Project Adopts a Constitution

December 14, 1998
The Debian Project adopted a constitution which can be viewed at http://www.debian.org/devel/constitution/. The highlights of the constitution include the creation of the Technical Committee, the Project Leader postion, the Project Secretary position, Leader Delegate positions and a voting proceedure. The constitution was proposed in September 1998, and after a discussion period the vote took place in December 1998. It was virtually unanimously in favor with 86 valid votes.

The discussion about the constitution began in early 1998 and was carried out on the Debian mailing lists. Most of the discussion can be found in the archives of the debian-devel mailing list at http://www.debian.org/Lists-Ar chives/. Details of the vote can be found at http://www.debian.org/vote/19 99/vote_0000.

The constitution describes the organisational structure for formal decisionmaking within the Debian Project. As Debian continues to grow, this will be a valuable document to ensure that Debian continues to evolve and grow with the input and contributions from its membership.

For more information:
http://www.debian.org/


 Linux Links

Linux is the cover story of December Network Magazine: http://www.networkmagazine.com/

Perl Web site at The Mining Co.: http://perl.miningco.com/

LinuxCAD review: http://pw2.netcom.com/~rwuest/linuxcadreview.html

Comdex and the Linux pavilion: http://marc.merlins.org/linux/comdex98/

Tea Party: http://marc.merlins.org/linux/teaparty/

The Internet an International Public Treasure: A Proposal: http://firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_10/hauben/index.html

Linux and Apple: http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19981215S0011

"The money's too good": http://www.salonmagazine.com/21st/rose/1998/10/23straight.html


Software Announcements


 Applix Adds Applixware for Linux On Compaq Alpha

Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998 18:28:28 -0500

WESTBORO, Mass.--Dec. 1, 1998--Applix, Inc. announced today the release of Applixware 4.4.1 for Linux running on COMPAQ's Alpha processor.

Applixware includes Applix Words, Spreadsheets, Graphics, Presents, HTML Author and Applix Data which provides database connectivity to Oracle, Informix, Sybase and other Linux databases. Applix Builder, a graphical, object oriented development tool with CORBA connectivity is also included in the suite. Microsoft Office 97 document interchange is provided through an Applix developed set of filters for Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

For more information:
Applix, Inc., Richard Manly, [email protected]
http://linux.applixware.com/


 NetBeans Announces Support for the Java Development Kit 1.2

New York, Java Business Expo, December 8, 1998 - NetBeans today announced that its Java(tm) IDE, NetBeans DeveloperX2, supports and runs on Sun Microsystems, Inc.'s Java Development Kit (JDK version 1.2). This latest release of the JDK provides a rich feature set of new class libraries and tools, making it easier than ever for developers to create portable, distributed, enterprise-class applications. Sun's announcement of the availability of the next version of the JDK was made today during the Java Business Expo in New York. NetBeans Developer X2 2.1 (beta) supports JDK 1.2 and uses it internally. It is available to NetBeans' Early Access Program participants.

In addition to overall performance improvements, Sun's new version of the JDK enhances the NetBeans IDE by offering features such as drag 'n drop, Beans enhancements, collections, JDBC 2.0, and Swing 1.1. Among other new features, NetBeans DeveloperX2 will utilize the new APIs for grouping and manipulating objects of different types and for extending server functionality. JDK 1.2 will also strengthen NetBeans users' ability to design more user-friendly interfaces, process images, address multilingual requirements, use stylized text, and print.

The final release of NetBeans DeveloperX2 2.1 will be available in January, 1999. NetBeans Developer will also be available in a concurrent version, which will continue to support JDK 1.1.x. NetBeans Enterprise, a multi-user edition of the IDE due in Beta version in January, 1999, will support JDK 1.2. The full release of this edition of the IDE is due in Spring, '99.

For more information:
http://www.netbeans.com/
Helena Stolka, [email protected]


 Zope Goes Open Source

Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1998 06:19:32 -0500 (EST)
Just in case you missed this in LWN, http://www.zope.org/ just went online. It's a really nice product for developing web sites. The company that created it gave a talk at the DCLUG meeting a few months back. They dropped are strong Linux supporters. It's there principal platform in house.

For more information:
http://www.zope.org/


 KDE on Corel's Netwinder

Ottawa, Canada--November 25, 1998--
Corel Computer and the KDE project today announced a technology relationship that will bring the K Desktop Environment (KDE), a sophisticated graphical user environment for Linux and UNIX, to future desktop versions of the NetWinder family of Linux-based thin-clients and thin-servers. A graphical user interface is a necessary element for Corel Computer to create a family of highly reliable, easy-to-use, easy-to-manage desktop computers. The alliance between Corel Computer and KDE, a non-commercial association of Open Source programmers, provides NetWinder users a sophisticated front-end to Linux, a stable and robust Unix-like operating system.

Corel Computer has shipped a number of NetWinder DM, or development machines, to KDE developers who are helping to port the desktop environment. Additionally, NetWinder.Org developers, Raffaele Saena and John Olson, were responsible for championing development of KDE on the NetWinder. Corel Computer plans to announce the availability of desktop versions of the NetWinder running KDE beginning in early 1999. Early demonstrations of the port, such as the one shown at the Open Systems fair in Wiesbaden, Germany, in September, have been enthusiastically received by potential customers.

Based on the Open Source model, Corel Computer is devoting internal development resources to the improvement of the KDE project including rigorous testing of the environment on the NetWinder. As a developing partner, Corel Computer will release its work back to the KDE development community.

For more information:
http://www.corelcomputer.com/
htt://www.kde.org/


 New Perl Module Enables Application Developers to Use XML

Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1998 06:36:08 -0800 (PST)
Sebastopol, CA--Perl is the language operating behind the scenes of most dynamic Web sites. XML (Extensible Markup Language) is emerging as a core standard for Web development. Now a new Perl module (or extension) known as XML::Parser allows Perl programmers building applications to use XML, and provides an efficient, easy way to parse (break down and process) XML document parts.

Perl is renowned for its superior text processing capabilities; XML is text that contains markup tags and structures. Thus Perl's support for XML offers a natural expansion of the capabilities of both.

XML::Parser is built upon a C library, expat, that is very fast and robust. Perl, expat and XML::Parser are all Unicode-aware; that is, they read encoding declarations and perform necessary conversions into Unicode, a system for "the interchange, processing, and display of the written texts of the diverse languages of the modern world" (http://www.unicode.org/). Thus a single XML document written in Perl can now contain Greek, Hebrew, Chinese and Russian in their proper scripts. Expat was authored by James Clark, a highly respected leader in the SGML/XML community.

For more information:
http://www.perl.com/
http://www.oreilly.com/
http://perl.oreilly.com/


 QLM for IT Reduces Cost & Guarantees Certainty of Application Development

Newton, Mass., December 9, 1998 - Kalman Saffran Associates, Inc. (KSA), a leading developer of state-of-the-art products and complex IT systems for data communications, telecommunications, financial, and interactive/CATV industries, today announced the availability of its new Quantum Leap Methodology (QLM(tm) ) for IT. QLM for IT is an innovative process for information technology organizations looking to decrease expense and speed application development. Using QLM for IT, KSA increases productivity and certainty by pre-empting the mistakes that have historically created barriers to IT project success. Successful application of QLM for IT allows upper management to refocus on strategic planning and IT objectives, and away from budget and schedule overruns. At the same time the methodology sharpens an organization's focus on assessment, implementation, verification, customization and quantification. This approach allows KSA to guarantee speedy results and high quality.

The QLM for IT offering is available starting at $20,000. Companies interested in QLM for IT analysis and recommendations or learning more about KSA's comprehensive training program should call 1.888.597.9284 For more information:
[email protected]


 Spectra Logic Announces Alex 4.50, Has Linux Support

BOULDER, Colo., Dec. 15, 1998 - Spectra Logic Corp. today announced the availability of Version 4.50 of its award winning Alexandria Backup and Archival Librarian software. Alexandria 4.50 adds a number of significant new features to provide users with greater functionality, reliability, and ease-of-use for backup and recovery of large distributed databases and data center applications.

Alexandria 4.50 has been ported to Red Hat and Slackware Linux OSes, and additional ports are being developed for Linux OSes from SuSE, Caldera, and TurboLinux. Alexandria Linux support is available on the Red Hat distribution CD or from Spectra Logic's website at www.spectralogic.com/linux/index.htm http://www.spectralogic.com/linux/index.htm.

For more information:
http://www.spectralogic.com/


 WebMaker

Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 21:22:25 GMT
WebMaker, an HTML Editor for UNIX, version 0.6 is out now. (Copyright - GPL)

Main features:

For more information:
http://www.services.ru/linux/webmaker/


Published in Linux Gazette Issue 36, January 1999


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