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 December 1999 Linux Journal

The December issue of Linux Journal is already on the newsstands. This issue focuses on system administration.

Linux Journal has articles that appear "Strictly On-Line". Check out the Table of Contents at http://www.linuxjournal.com/issue68/index.html for articles in this issue as well as links to the on-line articles. To subscribe to Linux Journal, go to http://www.linuxjournal.com/subscribe/index.html.

For Subcribers Only: Linux Journal archives are available on-line at http://interactive.linuxjournal.com/


 Linux Journal/Linux Gazette Millenium Edition Archive CD-ROM

Can't find that April 1996 Linux Journal? Someone borrowed the September 1998 copy?

Now you can have it all! All of Linux Journal (issues 1-56; 1994-1998) and all of Linux Gazette (issues 1-45; 1995-1998) on one archive CD.

Click here for more information.


Distro News


 Caldera

Antarctica IT and Caldera Team Up

Framingham, MA, November 11, 1999 - Antarctica IT, Inc. and Caldera Systems, Inc. will work together to provide Linux services in Boston and New England.


 Corel

Corel Signs Linux OEM Agreement With PC Chips


 Libra

NORTH VANCOUVER, BC, November 2, 1999 - Libra Computer Systemstoday announced the release of 'Linux by Libranet', based on Debian. The CD, includes one year of support via email and fax, Linux HOWTO documentation and the Debian-Guide, a concise, easy to follow guide to the use of the Debian Linux Distribution. The CD may be purchased for $27.00 at www.libranet.com. Libra Computer Systems is a privately held company based in North Vancouver, BC, Canada.


 Red Hat

Red Hat acquires Cygnus, promotes Matthew Szulik to CEO

See press releases at the Red Hat home page, and the commentary Red Hat acquires Cygnus.

Red Hat to Support Leading Open Source Application

Durham, N.C.--November 3, 1999--Red Hat, Inc., today announced an expansion of its services program that will provide the consulting and support enterprise organizations need for nearly all of the popular, powerful, open source software applications used by enterprises worldwide.

As the first step in the program, Red Hat's worldwide services group will immediately offer expanded Service Programs for popular open source software solutions, including top Internet software like the Apache Web Server, Sendmail and Postfix. Apache is the number one Web server and runs more than 55 percent of the Internet's Web sites. Sendmail is a messaging solution that powers 80 percent of Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

The sweeping initiative will expand in the coming months, embracing more open source solutions. This broad support program delivers enterprise users a single, trusted source for their open source computing needs.

Center for Open Source

DURHAM, N.C.--November 1, 1999--Red Hat, Inc. announced the formation of a new non-profit organization, the Red Hat Center for Open Source (RHCOS), that will sponsor, support, promote and engage in a wide range of scientific and educational projects intended to advance the social principles of open source for the greater good of the general public.

eSoft

eSoft Inc., a company that develops and markets the TEAM Internet Linux software suite for small businesses, has joined Red Hat Inc.'s Development Partner Program.

Pact With RSA To Enhance Security

Red Hat, Inc. has entered into a new strategic agreement with RSA Security, Inc. to enhance security for professional users of the Red Hat Linux OS package...


 SuSE

Photodex and SuSE Give Linux an Imaging Boost

Austin, Texas -- November 8, 1999 -- Photodex Corporation, a leading supplier of digital content management, imaging and multimedia software, and SuSE Inc., announced today their partnership to provide CompuPic Digital Content Manager software for the SuSE Linux operating system.

"CompuPic brings powerful, yet user-friendly imaging capabilities to the SuSE Linux desktop, enabling SuSE Linux to compete head-on with other platforms. These tools should not be taken for granted," said Paul Schmidt, CEO, Photodex. "Professional web developers need powerful tools to more easily develop and maintain web sites. Even novice users find it easier to use the Linux desktop when familiar applications are available. CompuPic solves these problems and more."

E-Commerce on SuSE's Portal

Linux vendor SuSE announced this week that it has tapped outsource solutions provider Digital River, Inc. (Nasdaq: DRIV) to turn its online information portal into an e-commerce site.


 Storm

Storm Linux 2000 to Ship with VMware

Vancouver, Canada - November 17, 1999 - Stormix Technologies, Inc., announces that Storm Linux 2000 will ship with the VMware evaluation binaries, a software technology that allows the running of other operating systems, including Windows, from within Linux.

Stormix also announced Storm Linux will ship with a full version of StarOffice, and a demo copy of Enhanced Software Technologies' BRU (Backup and Restore Utility).


News in General


 C.O.L.A news

TheStuff.net is a new, online source for information and tools encompassing all free Unix operating systems.

Spanish translation of the Linux Administrator's Security Guide

Dual chrooted Bind/DNS servers Mini-HOWTO


 News from The Linux Bits

LG got a nice little mention in TLB issue 23 (http://www.linuxdot.org/tlb/24.html):

The latest edition of the "New York Times of Linux e-zines" - Linux Gazette - was released today, featuring the usual crop of interesting reading -- and plenty of it. Once again we get a few mentions. "Gee ma, we're famous." :)

Other news in issue 23:

From issue 22 ( http://www.linuxdot.org/tlb/24.html):

TLB's Laurence Hunter wrote to the LG Editor:

If there's ever an article that you particulary like in any issue (even back issues) feel free to use it, change the formatting to your liking, and edit it to your heart's content. You don't need to ask our permission either. Like you we put together The Linux Bits purely for fun so no copyrights etc exists on them and we ask nothing in return. Anything to help out the Linux community is plenty payment for us.
[Thanks! I'll remember that. -Ed.]


 Upcoming conferences & events

The Bazaar: "Where free and open-source software meet the real world". Presented by EarthWeb. December 14-16, 1999. New York, NY. http://www.thebazaar.org/

SANS 1999 Workshop On Securing Linux. The SANS Institute is a cooperative education and research organization. December 15-16, 1999. San Francisco, CA. http://www.sans.org

IDG Communications France, organisateur de LinuxWorld, et Sky Events, organisateur de LinuxExpo, unissent leurs efforts pour cr�er une manifestation unique, LinuxWorld/LinuxExpo. Cet �v�nement Linux ouvrira ses portes du 1er au 3 f�vrier 2000, au Palais des Congr�s de Paris (Porte Maillot).


 Linux File, Print & CD Thin Server in Flash-ROM

KYZO has today released the commercial version of its hugely popular PizzaBox Linux distribution, so called because a prototype server was built in a Pizza Hut Takeout box - take a look - www.kyzo.com

In the first month the site took over 500,000 hits has recently registered 75,000 in one day. Registered users that have downloaded and run the free PizzaBox Server include both the Goddard Space Flight Centre and the Jet Propulsion Laboratories at NASA.

The commercial version is the same basic software as the free version, which will still be available, but differs in one significant respect. It is shipped pre-installed in a bootable Flash-ROM and comes with the the circuit board you need to make it boot in any 486 (or above) PC. With 10 times the life span of a hard disk, the package is aimed at system builders who are fed up with having to send skilled engineers to sites for days on end to re-install a File Server every time a hard drive goes down.

The system includes File, Print & CD sharing, remote access (for full remote administration), UPS monitoring, Tape backup, Hardware monitoring, APM. It will automatically accept both SCSI & IDE hard drives and comes with a sophisticated, JavaScript enabled, web management interface. It is aimed squarely at the SME market where current offerings from the big players are overcomplicated for the SME sector.


 Cobalt Networks Selected by Allegiance Telecom

Cobalt Networks has announced that its RaQ 2 server appliance will be the dedicated web hosting platform for Allegiance Telecom customers. The RaQ 2 provides a way for ISPs like Allegiance to offer top quality dedicated web hosting with a low TCO and a quick ROI.

This news comes on the heals of last week's introduction of the RaQ 3i, Cobalt's third-generation server appliance. The RaQ 3i rounds out Cobalt's product family by offering ISPs a high-end server appliance that can handle high-traffic Web portals, e-commerce, and application hosting at a price that the small to mid-sized business market can afford.

www.cobaltnet.com


 E-Commerce Minute

EBIZ Re-Launches TheLinuxStore


 E-Exams announces a Linux System Adminstration exam

E-Exams announces a Linux System Adminstration exam. With E-Exams you can create customized technical exams to assess potential employees. Among the many exams E-Exams is offers, is an exam for Linux System Administrators. Companies who have signed-up for the service, can have potential employees take a web based exam. Questions range from beginner, to intermediate to expert. The results can be used to determine whether the candidate should take the next step in the hiring process. The Linux System Administration exam is distribution neutral. It also among the first exams which the company is offering. The company is planning to create many more exams, including some distribution specific nes, starting with a Red Hat Linux exam. Specific topics such as networking with Samba are also in the works.

You can learn more about E-Exams at: www.eexams.com


 National Semiconductor announces Linux support for its geode webpad reference design

November 15, 1999 - National Semiconductor Corporation today announced that Infomatec AG will port its custom Linux-based basic platform Java Network Technology (JNT) operating system to the National Geode WebPAD platform - a complete hardware and software reference design for a wireless Internet personal access device (PAD). This collaboration is the first result of an agreement signed earlier this year by National and Infomatec to partner on the development of information appliances such as set-top boxes, thin clients and PADs.


 Is Linux available on my platform?

The Current ports of the Linux OS web page lists a wide variety of architectures and platforms Linux is available on.

The main ports are :

- Special PCs and Near-PCs SGI-Linux (intel-SGI), MCA Linux (MicroChannel), Linux/98 (NEC PC-98), LinuxIA64 (new 64bits-merced- intel chip)

- Motorola processors Linux/m68k (Motorola 68000), LinuxPPC (PowerPC)

- SPARC chips S/Linux (Sun SPARCstations), UltraLinux (Sun UltraSPARC)

- Compaq (former Digital) chips and equipments VAXlinux (VAX computers), Linux/Alpha (Alpha processors)

- Other RISC chips ARM Linux (ARM/StrongARM), Linux PA-RISC (HP's PA-RISC), Linux/MIPS (MIPS chips)

- Handhelds, Microcontrollers, embedded and other small systems LinuxSH3 (Hitachi SH3), Linux/Microcontrollers (Palm,Motorola ColdFire), ELKS (8086-80286), VMELinux (VMEbus embedded systems), LinuxCE (to substitute WindowsCE), PDAs in general

- Microkernels and real-time MkLinux (Linux on Mach =B5-Kernel for Apple PowerMacintosh, HP PA-RISC and x86), DROPS (Linux on the L4 =B5-Kernel and Fiasco =B5-kernel), Real Time Linux (RTLinux and KURT)

- Multimedia Computing, QLinux

- SMP and clustering MOSIX for Linux (a bridge between SMP and MPP), Beowulf Project (parallel clusters), Linux SMP(multiprocesor)

- Misc ports Linux on IBM 370/390, Linux/AP+(Fujitsu AP1000+), Linux-AS/400(IBM AS/400)

- Cool things running Linux Not ports, but who cares?


 "Linux Administration Made Easy" (LAME) guide

The "Linux Administration Made Easy" (LAME) guide, recently updated for Red Hat 6.1, attempts to describe day-to-day administration and maintenance issues commonly faced by Linux system administrators.

This 130+ page guide is geared to an audience of both corporate as well as home users, and attempts to summarize the installation and configuration, as well as the day-to-day administrative and maintenance procedures that should be followed to keep a Linux-based server or desktop system up and running.

LAME can be found at www.LinuxNinja.com/linux-admin/ in a variety of document formats.


 Linux Links

The legal findings in the antitrust case against Microsoft

An article that alleges Microsoft is operating a pyramid scheme to artificially boost its stock price.

Parodies of Linux and its friends and enemies: mages, webpage sendups, poetry, songs, articles, etc. Stars a Microsoft Myths spoof page.

Linux Fool.com is a new web site offering Linux users an unbiased forum for discussions and information sharing. LinuxFool.com is an official mirror of the Linux Documentation Project.

/www.QuestionExchange.com allows users or system administrators to name their price for high-end tech support in open systems -- Linux, Apache server, Sendmail, etc.

How the University of Georgia English Department is using Linux.

A Linux-Windows comparision, and other Linux-related stuff.

Transmeta's Crusoe

LinuxMall Re-Launches With New Look


Software Announcements


 C.O.L.A software news

Kmahjongg 0.5 (beta)

Warbird is "a new silly 3D game" using VRML.

HTMLDOC v1.8 HTML document conversion to PDF, Postscript and indexed HTML.


 Calerga SysQuake Viewer

Lausanne, Switzerland, November 2, 1999 - Calerga announces today SysQuake Viewer for Linux, a port to the Linux operating system of the software for understanding systems by interactive manipulation of graphics.

SysQuake is a ground-breaking application for understanding and designing complex systems by the use of interactive graphics. Interactivity lets the user manipulate graphics, observe how phenomena are related, and change parameters to improve the design of a technical device. Understanding how initial conditions affect a simulation or how the parameters of a feedback controller determine the behavior of a dynamic system is made much easier than with the static graphics created by existing software.

www.calerga.com/SQViewer/index.html


 EasyCopy screen capture utility

SAN JOSE, Calif., October 19, 1999 - AutoGraph International (AGI) is demonstrating its commitment to the Linux community through our EasyCopy suite of products. The Linux operating system has always played an immense role in AGI and some of our developers are active in the Danish Linux community. In fact, Linux engenders a decidedly emotional response from our normally cool, analytical development staff.

Enhanced X Capture offers full screen, selected window or an arbitrary rectangular area capture. All original colors of the windows are preserved with any combination of windows. Even when a window appears in false colors on the screen due to color table overrun, it is captured in its original colors by EasyCopy and printed correctly.

www.augrin.dk


 DataKeeper

DataKeeper by PowerQuest (maker's of PartitionMagic) ensures backup protection by continuously monitoring file activity in the background, and supporting compressed backups on the fly. The user configures the programme and specifies backup methods to backup drives, folders and files, and DataKeeper then follows these commands automatically, and unobtrusively.

Because DataKeeper creates a backup each time a file is modified, scheduling is unnecessary.

Any removable disk drive, network drive, hard disk or floppy drive is supported by DataKeeper. And because it uses a high compression rate, DataKeeper saves disk space.


 News from Loki Entertainment Software

TUSTIN, CA -- November 1, 1999 -- Loki announces the Linux demo version of Railroad Tycoon II: Gold Edition.

Loki released the full version of Railroad Tycoon II, along with The Second Century Expansion Pack, last month to strong reviews. This real-time strategy simulation game places gamers in a world of big business, expansion and engineering in which all aspects of the railroad industry can be controlled. It features a simulated stock market and sophisticated economic system, and as the years progress, gamers must solve modern problems such as the increasing demand for mass transportation in major cities.

The demo allows users to exercise their tycoon tendencies in five different scenarios, and is now freely available for download.

TUSTIN, CA, November 3, 1999 -- Loki is now developing the Linux version of Heroes of Might and Magic(tm) III.

Heroes of Might and Magic III is the latest installment in the series of top-selling, critically-acclaimed strategy games. This turn-based, strategy war game set in the popular Might and Magic(r) fantasy world has already captivated legions of PC gamers. It was awarded 5 out of 5 stars from both Computer Games Magazine and the CNET Gamecenter, as well as an Editor's Choice Award from Computer Gaming World Magazine.

Heroes III will be available for the Linux operating system wherever software is sold by mid-December.

The Loki Hack hacks on the Linux version of Activision's Civilization: Call to Power are now available for public consumption.

TUSTIN, CA -- November 4, 1999 -- Loki Entertainment announces today the creation of a CVS server to facilitate public access to its Open-Source projects.

"One reason we've been successful is that we create Open Source tools to replace proprietary code in our games," said Scott Draeker, president of Loki. "We give these tools back to the community in the form of Open Source projects. We hope other developers will evaluate our tools for projects and choose to use them rather than the proprietary alternatives."

The Loki CVS server allows the public to access the latest development source code for Loki's several Open-Source projects, including SMJPEG, a motion JPEG library, SMPEG, a MPEG-1 playback library, and Setup, a GUI Installer. Other modules available for viewing include SDL, a cross-platform multimedia development API, and Mixer, an enhanced version of the sample SDL audio mixer.

Loki's Open-Source projects are freely available for download from www.lokigames.com, and are offered under the GNU Library Public License (LGPL). A web interface for the CVS server is available at cvs.lokigames.com.


 Other software

Anti-virus software from Central Command, Inc. and Kaspersky Lab.

Max for Linux is a new product for compiling and running Xbase code on Linux-based computers, and is available for dowload.

Photogenics is an award-winning graphics package, first released on the Amiga five years ago. It will soon be available on Linux.

Cycas is a new 2D + 3D CAD software, based on GTK. In addition to typical CAD functions, it offers special elements and techniques for architectural design.

The CRiSP visual text editor from Vital.

txt2pdf from Sanface converts text reports to PDF format. Can colorize words using Perl regular expressions, add border to every page, print in 2-column format, and more.


This page written and maintained by the Editor of the Linux Gazette.
Copyright © 1999, [email protected]
Published in Issue 48 of Linux Gazette, December 1999
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