Mandrake releases fix for CD-ROM problem, Oct 31, 2003

MandrakeSoft, the maker of Mandrake Linux, has released a new kernel for the latest version of its distribution, 9.2, to fix a problem encountered by some users who, while attempting to carry out an installation, had been an error message that said "unable to install the base system", with a subsequent reboot revealing that the CD-ROM drive was physically dead.

The problem was encountered only by users who had some LG-based CD-ROMs. However, the problem does not lie in the kernel.

The cause of the problem was discovered a couple of days back: LG CD-ROM drives are not compliant with the ATAPI specification (AT Attachment Packet Interface, an extension to EIDE (also called ATA-2) that enables the interface to support CD-ROM players and tape drives).

If you sell products, measuring sales in terms of dollars during some reporting cycle -- like a quarterly or annual period -- makes perfect sense. It's dollars you're interested in, so dollars you measure. That's not true, however, for the open-source community. If you give away the product, then usage is the only measure that counts.

Unfortunately, no one provides a widely accepted measure of open-source installations or usage. As a result, the measures that do exist consistently underestimate the actual install rate.

Of course, SCO will show code in question to people willing to sign a nondisclosure agreement. You chose not to sign the agreement. Why not?

Weiss: I don't agree to the method of asking for nondisclosures. I know why they need it, or felt they needed to do it. But I really feel that if there are certain violations that, if they were unintentional, or not really deliberately malicious, or whatever it might be, there should be ways to remedy the situation if the infringer is willing to oblige.

But to call them into court and say, 'We're going to sue you for multiple billions of dollars, and we're not going to tell you what it's all about,' is already a hostile act.

The case could have been settled, probably, if it had not been conducted in that way, but SCO would have probably gotten a lot less money, so that's why it's going to be dragged out. They want more money. They absolutely want the biggest bucks. They went after IBM, with the deepest pockets, not Red Hat. They're playing for the big payoff, which is why they're getting venture capital money.

Is Linux more secure than Windows, or vice versa? Fueled by conflicting industry reports, this controversy keeps raging. To arrive at a well-informed opinion on the subject, you need to know as much as you can about what kinds of security measures are actually available for Linux. Moreover, if you're administering Linux already, some implementation tips from Linux security pros can undoubtedly come in handy.

"It's hard to talk about 'Linux' as an operating system, since there are so many different variations. A number of different OSes — such as FreeBSD, VMS, mainframe OSes like VM or VSE, or other proprietary OSes — may lay claim to the title of 'most secure OS,'" observes Pete Lindstrom, CISSP, research director for Spire Security, LLC.

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