Kernel release: 2.6.6, May 10, 2004

2.6.6 has been released today.
See changelog for full details.

Files added: 292
Files changed: 2642
Files removed: 75

2.4.27-pre2 has been released today.
See changelog for full details.

Files added: 34
Files changed: 216
Files removed: 3

Buried in recently published financial documents is the news that Lindows, Inc., has been engaged in a lawsuit with rival and one-time partner Xandros, Inc. since the middle of December 2002. Lindows claims that Xandros failed to repay a $750,000 loan, and that the company and other defendants engaged in fraud and criminal misrepresentation during the negotiations leading up to Lindows' investment in Xandros.

The information came to light when, on April 20, Lindows, Inc. filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering (IPO) of common stock.

The investment firm has snapped up two-thirds of a Canadian bank's holding in SCO, giving it more leverage to force changes at the company

The Royal Bank of Canada has sold two-thirds of its investment in the SCO Group to co-investor BayStar Capital, giving the hedge fund more power in its search for major changes at the Unix company.

Last Thursday OSNews had the opportunity to meet Miguel de Icaza, founder of Gnome, Ximian and among other things leader of the much discussed, Mono project. Miguel is a talented and versatile developer but he is also a very intelligent businessman able to understand the industry on many different levels. Talking to Miguel guarantees that you are very quickly taken away by his enthusiasm and optimism and his thoughtful strategies and vision on how OSS will take over the world.

Microsoft's .NET Framework has won many converts since it was first released with even the open source community now appearing to embrace it. There are currently at least two open source projects that are developing implementations of the .NET Framework, the Novell Ximian-led Mono and the DotGNU project.

Mono has been making the rounds with Novell at Brainshare and at Real World Linux, among countless other shows. Mono released its 1.0 version Beta 1 this week. Mono's creator and leader Miguel de Icaza told internetnews.com that the response to the beta version has been strong, noting that in the first few hours of its release it had tallied over 40,000 downloads.

If Matthew Szulik is to be believed, the first thing we will see when we start up our computers in the morning will no longer be Micro- soft's familiar green, red, blue and yellow logo. Instead it will be a battered red fedora.

The software company run by Szulik, Red Hat, launched its desktop version of the Linux operating system in London last week. Linux is the best-known product of the "open source" software movement, which aims to provide a lower-cost alternative to commercial computer programs and operating systems.

Linux is going to be handling a third of all travel bookings in the world now that IBM has persuaded Cendant Corporation to switch its Galileo 360 eFares engine to Linux-based xServers. Cendant is supposed to save a massive 90% over three years. The Cendant system processes 300-400 transactions a second from 500 airlines to deliver fare information to both consumers and travel/airline agents. The new system, which links with mainframes, saves hours of pre-processing to post new fares quicker.

Hacker, open-source advocate, venture capitalist, company man, pundit: Bruce Perens has worn a lot of hats over the last few years, building up a unique combination of hacker credibility and business know-how. These days, when he's not fielding press queries about the ongoing dispute between The SCO Group Inc. and the Linux community, Perens spends his time speaking about Linux and open source software and providing consulting services for technology companies.

On May 1, Perens was appointed to the board of directors of Open Source Risk Management LLC, (OSRM) a 15-person start-up based in New York that offers professional services, and even indemnification against lawsuits, for users and developers of open source software. Perens, one of the founders of the Open Source Initiative, talked with IDG News Service Thursday on the topics of OSRM, Linux indemnification, and how the SCO lawsuits may eventually change the world of proprietary software. Following is an edited transcript of the conversation:

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