Kernel release: 2.4.26-pre1, Feb 25, 2004

2.4.26-pre1 has been released today.
See changelog for full details.

Files added: 4
Files changed: 189
Files removed: 0

As general manager for platform strategies at Microsoft, Martin Taylor leads the software company's charge to contain and eventually eliminate open-source technology. Needless to say, that means Taylor does not shy away from controversy. In an interview with CRN Editor In Chief Michael Vizard, Taylor discusses the lessons Microsoft is learning from customer interest in open source and how the company may ultimately respond with more modular, component-based server offerings that would allow it create a more competitive solution in any given market.

Most stories about government deployments of Linux involve a distributor helping various federal and municipal agencies install the open source operating system. But in this case, a federal agency is helping Linux.

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), also known as the codemakers and codebreakers cryptologic division within the Department of Defense, has helped to harden Linux with newly-released Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) kernel modifications.

The latest release, which updates the base kernel to 2.6.3 and 2.4.24, contains numerous significant improvements to security in the open source operating system. The SELinux improvements mark a major breakthrough for Linux. Because of the NSA's contributions to the kernel, the new security features will now show up in mainstream distributions of Linux.

Computer experts will tell you that Linux software is unbeatable at tasks like scientific supercomputing or corporate number-crunching. But offer to take them on in a rousing round of Empire Earth or some other popular computer game, and watch their faces fall.

Linux is operating system software, code that controls a computer's most basic functions. Microsoft's Windows is the best-known operating system, and there's also Apple's Macintosh OS X. But Linux is something special. Created by volunteers scattered around the world, Linux is available free over the Internet. Yet Linux has been polished to the point where it's become a favorite with corporate and academic users worldwide.

But Linux software is so complex and unfamiliar that few casual users will give it a try. That means there's only a tiny market for Linux computer games. Of course, that means game companies rarely offer Linux versions of their top titles, which means even more consumers avoid Linux computers, and so on.

Information technology industry watcher MAIT has predicted that within five years, nearly 50 per cent of the software infrastructure could be taken up by open source software.

According to MAIT, the open source software position will grow the fastest among small servers and its penetration will grow from its near-zero position in large servers and corporate desktops to become a viable option within 2-3 years.

Montreal-based Linuxant last week released DriverLoader 1.6, a compatibility-wrapper allowing Linux users to use the wireless capabilities of Intel's Centrino chip.

"People were deploying Linux on their Centrino notebooks and then they would notice their wireless LAN (WLAN) would not work. DriverLoader 1.6 allows them to activate the WLAN interface on their notebook," said Marc Boucher, president and founder of Linuxant.

SCO also faces another critical disadvantage vis-à-vis the RIAA: Despite the music industry's lawsuits, people are still buying music and Apple's iTunes is going gangbusters. But if SCO's legal strategy is shot down in the courts, do you really think companies will rush to buy its products? I think not.

It's the year of living dangerously for SCO, and its decision to borrow the RIAA's tactics and sue users -- before its case is proven in court -- could be the company's undoing.

Network management giant Novell on Monday reported revenue of $267 million for its 2004 first quarter ended Jan. 31. This figure represented net income of $10 million, or 3 cents per share.

The numbers compare with net earnings of $260 million and a net loss of $12 million, or 3 cents, for the first quarter of 2003.

Jack Messman, chairman and CEO of the Waltham, Mass.-based company said the figures mark a step in the right direction in a hostile economic climate.

European antitrust regulators are considering a requirement that Microsoft sell two versions of Windows in Europe — one with the music- and video-playing software stripped out — should they find the company to be an abusive monopoly, people close to the case said Tuesday.

Regulators may also demand that Microsoft itself propose "within a few months of a ruling" what computer code for Windows it should disclose to make the operating system fully compatible with programs and servers manufactured by rivals, these people said. Servers drive networks of personal computers.

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