Kernel release: 2.6.8-rc3, Aug 03, 2004

2.6.8-rc3 has been released today.
See changelog for full details.

Files added: 524
Files changed: 4285
Files removed: 233

2.4.27-rc5 has been released today.
See changelog for full details.

Files added: 86
Files changed: 767
Files removed: 45

As The SCO Group Inc.'s reseller and developer community gathers for its annual SCO Forum convention in Las Vegas this week, one question on many attendees' minds will be whether the company's future will be as a software vendor or as a litigator. Though SCO's lawsuits against IBM Corp., Novell Inc., DaimlerChrysler AG and AutoZone Inc. have attracted a great deal of attention in the last year, they have not helped SCO's bottom line. The company is facing mounting financial losses, which have been spurred by millions of dollars in legal fees, a flagging Unix business, and anemic sales of its SCOsource Linux licensing program, which brought in just $11,000 in revenue during the company's most recent financial quarter.

It used to be that enemies of Linux were the ones spreading "fear, uncertainty and doubt" about the free operating system. Now the F.U.D. comes from Linux zealots themselves, who believe they have found a way to make money on it.

A report to be released today says Linux may violate nearly 300 patents, including 27 held by Microsoft, and warns that companies using Linux could become targets of multi-million-dollar lawsuits.

Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief operating officer of Sun Microsystems, went on a one-man offensive this weekend against the company's main rival, IBM. But he may have gone a little too far out on his own by suggesting that Sun would acquire Novell in an effort to undermine IBM's Linux strategy.

"It's totally crazy for him to be making a comment like that," said Anne Thomas Manes, vice president and research director for the Burton Group and a former Sun software executive. "I'm sure he's going to get his hand slapped by the board for this," she said.

Sun Microsystems Inc. is considering making an attempt to acquire Novell Inc., a move that would have enormous repercussions for competitor IBM.

In an interview with eWEEK, Sun President and Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Schwartz acknowledged that the Santa Clara, Calif., company is considering making a move to buy Novell, saying that such a move could ultimately force Big Blue to depend on Sun for its Linux operating system.

Although iTunes and Linux have been pursuing solo careers, one small software maker hopes to get them to make music together.

CodeWeavers, which specializes in software that lets Windows programs run on Linux, said on Monday that it has a new version of its software that adds support for Apple Computer's iTunes.

Hewlett-Packard is including the Linux operating system in its fastest servers for the first time, to court large companies that are trying to cut computing costs.

Hewlett-Packard began running Linux, which is gaining as a cheaper alternative to Microsoft's Windows, on its full line of servers a year earlier than planned, said Martin Fink, vice president of Linux at Hewlett-Packard. Servers run Web sites and data networks.

Oracle executive vice president Mike Rocha will have a lot to brag about when he gets up to give his LinuxWorld keynote Tuesday in San Francisco. First, the database giant saw its Linux market share blossom in 2003, growing at a rate of 361 percent.

The Redwood Shores, Calif., company now controls about 69 percent of the market. On top of that, its Linux kernel team has been hard at work contributing enhancements geared toward making the 2.6 kernel the most enterprise-database-friendly yet.

The biggest proportion of attacks on Linux systems come from authorized users, and most were enabled by security misconfigurations, according to a new survey of Linux developers from Evans Data Corp.

Linux developers said they had few problems with attacks and viruses overall, with 92 percent saying their Linux systems have never been infected with a virus, and 78 percent saying their systems have never been hacked. Less than seven percent claimed to have been hacked three or more times.

Australia's largest telco is reported to have achieved big savings from Microsoft, after looking into open-source alternatives

Australian telecoms operator Telstra has signed a deal with Microsoft that appears to add further credibility to the theory that the best way to negotiate with the software giant is to explore moving to Linux.

Linux thin client vendor Wyse has joined the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL). Wyse, which plans to participate in OSDL's Desktop Linux and Data Center Linux working groups, claims to be the only OSDL vendor focused on advancing Linux desktops on thin clients.

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