Linux firms look to plug Samba hole, Mar 17, 2003

The open-source community is pushing customers to patch their systems to close a hole in a software component that allows Windows programs to store and retrieve files on Linux and Unix servers.

The Neo Project, a group of computing hobbyists using distributed computing techniques to crack security challenges, has released a Linux version of its Xbox cracking software.

There are dozens of reasons why people have underestimated how quickly Linux has been grabbing Windows' market share, but the Evans data confirms one of my pet theories. Windows market share is usually estimated by the units of Windows Microsoft claims to have shipped. This figure is already skewed, because it includes every unsold box of Windows XP sitting on shelves at Best Buy or Circuit City. More significant, however, is the fact that it includes every PC with a pre-installed version of Windows.

Linux market share, on the other hand, is usually estimated based on surveys, number of commercial boxes sold and the number of downloads.

[the] Mobile phone manufacturer has demonstrated its A760 smart phone - the world's first Linux-based handset with full Java support.

Open-source software evangelist Bruce Perens is looking for work, but corporate America isn't biting. It's not that companies aren't interested in his ideas for revolutionizing computing and saving money by embracing nonproprietary software with shared code. Rather, his reputation as a gadfly at hacker conferences and as an outspoken critic of Microsoft tends to overshadow his résumé. Unwilling to toe company lines, Perens rarely misses a chance to bellow against the injustices he believes proprietary software encourages. His last job ended in August, when Hewlett-Packard fired him.

Mono is a work in progress. The C# compiler and runtime engine have been available for some time. As that work continues, the class libraries are being fleshed out in parallel. They're still incomplete, but if you search the Net for C# examples there's a pretty good chance that Mono can compile and run them. Although many were skeptical that open-source developers would want to implement what is, after all, a Microsoft specification, the Mono project (http://www.go-mono.com) appears healthy. The pace of releases has quickened, and de Icaza -- whose leadership of the Gnome effort made h

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