"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"

Contents: News in General Software Announcements

December Linux Journal

The December issue of Linux Journal will be hitting the newsstands November 6. The focus of this issue is System Administration. We have an interview with Linus Torvalds and an article about the 2.2 kernel. We also have articles on X administration and performance monitoring tools. Check out the Table of Contents at http://www.linuxjournal.com/issue56/index.html. To subscribe to Linux Journal, go to http://www.linuxjournal.com/ljsubsorder.html.

TIME Talks about Linux

Check out this cool article in TIME!

http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/1998/dom/981026/technology.the_mighty_f1a.html.

Design by Contract

Dr. Bertrand Meyer, designer of the Eiffel programming language, was in Seattle to give his one day seminar on "Design by Contract". The purpose of this workstation is teach software engineers this unique object-oriented development method which emphasizes building reliable sytems through well-defined specifications and communication between the different parties to the system.

Talking to Dr. Meyer by phone, I asked him how Eiffel was better than Java. He gave me three reasons:

• Eiffel supports multiple inheritance.
• Eiffel more easily builds container structures such as lists, queues, stacks and trees.
• Eiffel has built in support for "design by contract" development.

by

Debian and the NetWinder

It is now possible to boot the Corel NetWinder Computer with Debian GNU/Linux, thanks to the work of Jim Pick and the other team members of the Debian Arm port. A disk image with instructions on how to use it is available from ftp://ftp.jimpick.com/pub/debian/netwinder/bootable-image/

A kernel package of the new ELF kernel (some notes are available at http://www.netwinder.org/~rahphs/knotes.html)

This alleviates the need for the chroot environment that previous development work was being conducted in, and allows work to progress even faster than before. This will also allow more people to join in the development effort easily.

Open Letter from Corel to Debian

Corel Computer and Red Hat Software Announce Linux Operating System Partnership

SPI Web Pages Active

Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 10:33:43 -0500
Software in the Public Interest, Inc. is pleased to announce its new web pages. They can be found at http://www.spi-inc.org/. SPI is a non profit organization that was founded to help projects in developing software for the community. Several projects are currently being supported through monetary and hardware donations that have been made to SPI. As SPI is a non profit organization, all donations to it and the projects it supports are tax deductible.

Projects that are affiliated with and receive support from SPI are:

• Berlin http://www.berlin-consortium.org/
• Debian http://www.debian.org/
• GNOME http://www.gnome.org/
• Linux Standard Base http://www.linuxbase.org/
• Open Source http://www.opensource.org/
• Open Hardware http://www.openhardware.org/

For more information:
SPI Press Contact,
SPI homepage: http://www.spi-inc.org/

Amiga/LinuxInfo starts a daily news section for Amiga and Linux

The leading printed Amiga magazine in Sweden, AmigaInfo, is starting a daily news section in Swedish for Amiga and Linux news.

AmigaInfo will also start a large Linux section (about 25 pages to start with) in the upcoming issue.

http://www.xfiles.se/amigainfo/

Oppression?

A student at UCLA, and several of the Linux users there in the dorms claim they are experiencing severe discrimination. The whole story is at http://www.nerdherd.net/oppression/. Take a look!

Debian GNU/Linux 2.0 Hamm

The Debian GNU/Linux 2.0 'Hamm' distribution was recently recognized by Australian Personal Computer Magazine http://www.apcmag.com/. It received the 'Highly Commended Award' for being 'a very high-quality distribution, with an extensive selection of carefully prepared software packages.

More information including a review of the distribution can be found at http://apcmag.com/reviews/9809/linux.htm.

Check Out This New Mailing List

Check out

About this mailing list:
The purpose of this mailing list is to an open forum to discuss anything related to starting, growing and maintaining Linux User Groups. Whether you are trying to get a new LUG started and need some practical advice, or have built one already and are willing to help other groups, this is the mailing list for you, whether you have 5 members or 500!

How to subscribe to this list:
Send a message to [email protected] with the following text in the message body:
subscribe lug_support YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS

Free Software Award Event Kicks off "One World, One Net" Conference

Larry Wall received the First Annual Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free Software at the MIT Media Lab on Friday evening. At a reception and presentation attended by CPSR Conference registrants, computer hackers and members of the press, FSF Founder Richard Stallman presented the award, a quilted GNU (GNU's Not Unix) wall hanging.

Larry Wall won the Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free Software for his programming, most notably Perl, a robust scripting language for sophisticated text manipulation and system management. His other widely-used programs include rn (news reader), patch (development and distribution tool), metaconfig (a program that writes Configure scripts), and the Warp space-war game.

Eureka!

On Tuesday, September 15th, 1998 in Paris, France at our user event named "Eureka", and again on October 5th at DECUS in Los Angeles, Compaq Computer Corporation announced intent to extend their support to the Linux operating system to include Intel as well as the Alpha platforms. In addition to extending this support to another architecture, Compaq is in the process of putting together a comprehensive program of Linux support.

This support includes, but is not limited to:

• working with the Linux community to port Linux to new platforms
• qualification of Linux on both Intel and Alpha platforms
• providing selected platforms with no license, specifically for Linux and other freely available operating systems
• working with the Linux community and distributions to provide world-wide telephone and hardware support
• porting selected Compaq software products to both Intel and Alpha platforms

In continuing the concept of working with the Linux community, Compaq intends to extend its Linux support through its extensive channels partner programs. Compaq feels that this will give the broadest possible selection of products and solutions to our end customers, with our VARs, OEMs, Distributors and Resellers working with the customer to match the distribution, the layered products and third party offerings to that customer's needs.

IBM Enhances its Websphere Application Server

IBM announced that it has extended the HTTP services in IBM WebSphere* Application Servers in the areas of performance, security and platform support by adding new functionality to the HTTP services that are packaged with WebSphere and are based on the Apache HTTP Server.

Today's announcements include technology developed by IBM Research that boosts the performance of HTTP services in the IBM WebSphere Application Server and Secure Socket Layer (SSL) support that provides customers with the security necessary to operate a web site that can handle sensitive information, such as financial transactions. In addition, IBM announced a port of the Apache HTTP Server to the AS/400* operating system. The AS/400 port will be offered to the Apache Group through the Open Source model. The Fast Response Cache Accelerator (FRCA) technology, developed by IBM Research, doubles the performance of HTTP services in WebSphere on Windows NT, according to lab tests done by SPEC (The Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation).

Both the FRCA and SSL technologies from IBM will be available at no additional charge as part of all editions of the IBM WebSphere Application Servers. The technologies will be released in the next version of WebSphere Application Server before the end of the year. The FRCA technology will also be used to boost the performance of the HTTP Server for OS/390*, and will be available as part of OS/390 Version 2 Release 7 in March of 1999.

CommProc

A new OpenSource project, a general distributed-computing toolkit for quick assembly of distributed applications called CommProc, was presented at the October ApacheCon98 conference. CommProc is an advocacy effort for Linux and Apache and includes an interface module for the Apache HTTP server. Documentation and source code for the project is available at: http://www.commproc.com

Launch of LinuxWorld Magazine

IDGs Web Publishing Inc. announced the launch of LinuxWorld magazine (http://www.linuxworld.com). A Web-only magazine supplying technical information to professional Linux users who are implementing Linux and related open source technologies in their computing environments.

Inside the first issue are stories such as an interview with Linus Torvalds, the first installment of the Linux 101 column titled "A distribution by any other name," and a look at the new Windows NT domain security features found in Samba 2.0 titled "Doing the NIS/NT Samba."

Linux Expo 1999 Call for Papers

May 18 - 22, 1999
Raleigh, North Carolina
Dates for Refereed paper submissions

• Extended abstracts and/or full papers due: December 1, 1998
• Notification to authors: January 15, 1999
• Full papers due for final review: February 15, 1999
• Camera-ready full papers due: March 1, 1999

Program Committee

• Marc Ewing, Red Hat Advanced Laboratories
• Richard Henderson, Cygnus Solutions
• Dirk Hohndel, S.u.S.E. GmbH
• Larry McVoy, BitMover (Chair)
• Carl Staelin, Hewlett-Packard Labs
• Theodore Ts'o, MIT
• Stephen Tweedie, Red Hat Software
• Victor Yodaiken, New Mexico Institute of Technology

Overview

The goal of the technical track of Linux Expo is to bring together engineers and researchers doing innovative work associated with Linux.

See you at LinuxExpo '99!

USENIX 1999 Events

Upcoming Events for 1999

SmartWare DevCon99

Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 20:28:52 -0600
DevCon99 is scheduled for November 14 and 15, 1998. 49 hours of training shoehorned into two days including "How to Use the Graphic Database Frontend", Developing a RAD application, the introduction of the SmartERP program, marketing, advertising and free videotapes for all attendees. SmartWare2000, offers solutions for the small to medium company and is the only product capable of running on everything from old 286 ATs up to Sun or SiliconGraphics systems and use the same data at the same time.

When: November 13 (Dinner at Clubhouse Inn), 14 & 15
Where: Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas
What: 2 Full Days of training on SmartWare2000, The Graphic Database Front End, RAD, Free SmartWare2000, Food, Room, Videos and more.

For more information:
Greg Palmer,

Linux Links

Linux FAQ: http://www.terracom.net/~kiesling/

QtEZ, a GUI builder for the Qt library: http://qtez.zax.net/qtez/

Blackmail 0.29: http://www.jsm-net.demon.co.uk/blackmail/source/blackmail-0.29.tar.gz

SGMLtools homepage: http://www.sgmltools.org/

Distribution Answers: http://www.angband.org/~joseph/linux/ Mini-howto on setting up Samba on Red Hat Linux: http://www.sfu.ca/~yzhang/linux/

PostgreSQL Database HOWTO: http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/PostgreSQL-HOWTO.html

DragonLinux: IronWing: http://members.tripod.com/~dragonlinux/

Cygnus Solutions Announces Low Cost Verions of GNUPRO Toolkit for Linux

Cygnus(R) Solutions announced the availability of GNUPro(TM) Toolkit, a new product line of fully tested, low-cost development tools releases for native and embedded software developers. Addressing the needs of the growing Linux community, the first release of Cygnus GNUPro Toolkit is targeted at software engineers developing commercial applications on the Linux operating system (OS). Today's announcement marks the first in a series of GNUPro Toolkit releases planned for a range of platforms. "Cygnus has extended its commitment to the Linux community and users of Red Hat Linux by providing a fully-certified official release of GNU development tools," said Bob Young, president and CEO of Red Hat Software. "Given the increasing popularity of both Red Hat Linux and Cygnus GNUPro, Red Hat is pleased to continue its partnership with Cygnus to provide software developers the highest quality Linux operating system and development tools."

Key Features and Benefits

• Cygnus GNUPro C Compiler - The latest advances in compiler optimization extend the programmer's ability to optimize code for speed and size, resulting in faster execution.
• Cygnus GNUPro C++ Compiler - The industry-leading C++ compiler provides enhanced exception handling and more extensive template functionality. Cygnus offers the most comprehensive support for C++ and continues to track the standard, leading to greater C++ coding flexibility.
• Cygnus GNUPro Visual Debugger - A source- and assembly-level debugger, it includes Cygnus' high-performance graphical user interface that enables users to quickly visualize, locate, and debug code.
• Highly Tested Tool - Includes 47,000 unit tests (30,000 for the standard compiler test suite, 10,000 for the native debugger test suite, and 7,000 for C++ features); regression testing (both reported bugs and those uncovered by Cygnus); conformance testing (tests from Perennial and Plum Hall); and tests for building popular applications.

Pricing and Availability

Cygnus GNUPro Toolkit for Linux is priced at $149 and is immediately available for Red Hat Linux 4.2 and 5.1 on x86 platforms by ordering online at http://www.cygnus.com/gnupro/.

Panorama

Panorama is part of the GNU project. For more information about it, visit the URL 'http://www.gnu.org'. It is released under the GPL license, that you can read in the file 'LICENSE' in this directory.

Panorama is a framework for 3D graphics production. This will include modeling, rendering, animating, post-processing, etc. Currently, there is no support for animation, but this will be added soon.

Functionally, it is structured as an API, composed by two dynamic libraries, and several plugins, that you can optionally load in runtime. A simple console mode front-end for this API is included in the package, that can load a scene description in one of the supported scene languages, and then outputs a single image file in any of the supported graphic formats.

Panorama can be easily extended with plugins. Plugins are simply dynamically linked C++ classes. You can add plugins without recompilation, and even in runtime, when this option is added to the graphic interface.

You can find more information about Panorama, or download latest distribution at: http://www.gnu.org/software/panorama/panorama.html

Netscape Wrapper v2.0.0

What is it:
The Netscape Wrapper is a bourne shell script used to invoke Netscape on a Unix platform. It performs copying initial default files, a postscript bug work around, security check, and setting up the environment. The new version also provides enhanced functionality.

What is new in this version:

• Rewritten. Faster and cleaner execution.
• Fully sh. No longer relies on bash features.
• Root security check bypass.
• New options subset. (+news, +mail, ...)
• Defaults to opening a new window.

The most significant change is that the script will attempt to open a new browser before executing Netscape. IE if no Netscape process is present, Netscape will be executed, otherwise a new browser window is created. Likewise when using the new option subset, if Netscape is not running, it will be execute with that option as the default window, or if Netscape is running, that option will be opened using the current process.

ftp://ftp.psychosis.com/linux/netscape-wrapper_2.0.0

plotutils

Version 2.1.6 of the GNU plotting utilities (plotutils) package is now available. This release includes a significantly enhanced version of the free C/C++ GNU libplot library for vector graphics, as well as seven command-line utilities oriented toward data plotting (graph, plot, tek2plot, plotfont, spline, ode, and double). A 130-page manual in texinfo format is included.

As of this release, GNU libplot can produce graphics files in Adobe Illustrator format. So you may now write C or C++ programs to draw vector graphics that Illustrator can edit. Also, the support for the free `idraw' and `xfig' drawing editors has been enhanced. For example, the file format used by xfig 3.2 is now supported.

RPM's for the plotutils package are available at ftp://ftp.redhat.com

For more details on the package, see its official Web page.

PROCMETER V3.0

This is a new version of ProcMeter that has been re-written almost completely since the previous version.

It is now designed to be more user-friendly and customisable, the textual as well as graphical outputs and the extra mouse options avilable are part of this. It is perhaps now less of a system status monitor and more of a user information display. It can be configured to show the date and/or time instead of having a clock and it can also monitor your e-mail inbox and act like biff.

The ProcMeter program itself is a framework on which a number of modules (plugins) are loaded. More modules can be written as required to perform more monitoring and informational functions. Available at ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/unix/linux/X11/xutils/procmeter3-3.0.tgz

Take a look at the ProcMeter web page

ypserv 1.3.6

Version 1.3.6 of an YP (NIS version 2) Server for Linux is released. It also runs under SunOS 4.1.x, Solaris 2.4 - 2.6, AIX, HP-UX, IRIX, Ultrix and OSF1 (alpha).

The programs are needed to turn your workstation in a NIS server. It contains ypserv, ypxfr, rpc.ypxfrd, rpc.yppasswdd, yppush, ypinit, revnetgroup, makedbm and /var/yp/Makefile.

ypserv 1.3.6 is available under the GNU General Public License.

You can get the latest version from: http://www-vt.uni-paderborn.de/~kukuk/linux/nis.html

MAM/VRS

MAM/VRS is a library for animated, interactive 3D graphics, written in C++. It works on Unix (tested on Linux, Solaris and Irix) and Windows 95/98/NT. MAM/VRS can produce output for many rendering systems: OpenGL (or Mesa), POVRay, RenderMan and VRML are supported yet. It provides bindings to many GUIs: Xt (Motif/Lesstif/Athena), Qt, Tcl/Tk, MFC and soon GTk. It is covered by the terms of the GNU LGPL. Visit our homepage for more information and to download it: http://wwwmath.uni-muenster.de/~mam

KIM - interactive process manager 1.1-1

Description:
The Kim is interactive (ncurses) user friendly process manager for OS Linux. It reads the /proc(5) directory. The '/proc' is a pseudo-filesystem which is used as an interface to kernel data structures.

Features:

• process list
• process tree
• select more process
• send all existing signals (to one or more process)
• reload
• process sort
• display /proc/#/maps
• display 45 information about all process
• and more...

Download:

* source, rpm, deb

URL: http://home/zf.jcu/cz/~zakkr/kim/

Version & Dependency:
The Kim is independent on other program, but all version depend on libproc >= 1.2.6 and ncurses.

Lincense:
Copyright (c) 1998 Zak Karel "Zakkr"

PIKT

PIKT is a set of programs, scripts, data and configuration files for administering networked workstations. PIKT's primary purpose is to monitor systems, report problems (usually by way of e-mail "alerts"), and fix those problems when possible. PIKT is not an end-user tool; it is (for now) to be used by systems administrators only.

PIKT includes an embedded scripting language, approaching in sophistication several of the other scripting languages, and introducing some new features perhaps never seen before.

PIKT also employs a sophisticated, centrally managed, per-machine/OS version control mechanism. You can, setting aside the PIKT language, even use it to version control your Perl, AWK, and shell scripts. Or, use it as a replacement for cron.

PIKT is freeware, distributed under the GNU copyleft.

Check out the Web Page for more info!

Yard 4.04.03

YARD-SQL version 4.04.03 has been released. Until now, it is available for Linux and SCO-UNIX and contains the following new features:

• YARD-ESQLC now contains libsql and sqlnets as shared libraries. The product YARD-ESQLC now contains libsql.a and sqlnets.a as shared objects too. The names are libsql.so and sqlnets.so
• The base address of dynamic SHM is choosen based on existing segments. Until know the base address of dynamic SHM segments was determined by the kernel (Parameter 0 in shmat()). Know this address is calculated from the existing SHM segments, so that the complete SHM will have no gaps. This behaviour can be switched off by setting the environment variable YARD_NOCONSECSHM.
• The socket flag TCP_NODELAY is set for socket connections. On some OS (eg. FreeBSD), setting TCP_NODELAY on the socket connection between client and server dramatically improves performance. There should be no negative effect by setting this flag. So it will now always be set. It can be disabled by setting the environment variable YARD_NOTCPNODELAY to 1.
• The disk configuration of a DBS is stored in the DBS in addition to the cfgfile
• yardinit offers a new option -l for reducing logfiles. If option -l is used when a DBS is switched from offline mode to main- tenance mode, all logical logs are released instead of performing a logical recovery. Though this jeopardizes logical consistency it is an easy way for starting a DBS when all logical logs are filled up. The correct way for starting such a DBS is to start yardinit -m on one terminal and then start yardarch -l on another terminal for backing up the logical logs while yardinit is waiting.
• Clients can use strings for inserting data into BLOBs Until now, a BLOB structure (eg. in ESQLC) or an object type (in Java) had to be used for inserting data into a BLOB/TEXT column. Now, Clients can use simple strings for that purpose. When the server runs in batch mode, a string will still be used as file name.
• and more....

Check out http://www.yard.de for more information about YARD

RealSecure 3.0

ISS today announced RealSecure 3.0, a new, integrated system that combines intrusion detection with state-of-the-art response and management capabilities to form the industry's first threat management solution. Formerly known as "Project Lookout", RealSecure 3.0 is the integrates network- and system-based intrusion detection and response capabilities into a single enterprise threat management framework providing around-the-clock, end-to-end information protection.

Visit the ISS web site.

Applix Released Applixware 4.4.1 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows Platforms

Applix, Inc. the release of Applixware 4.4.1 for the Linux platform as well as all major UNIX operating systems, Windows NT and Windows 95. This latest release delivers a new filtering framework that has been optimized for document interchange between Microsoft's Office 97 product, as well as Y2K compliance.

Applixware includes Applix Words, Spreadsheets, Graphics, Presents, and HTML Author. This Linux version also includes Applix Data and Applix Builder as standard modules. Applixware for Linux is available directly from Applix, as well as from its partners, including Red Hat and S.U.S.E.

Linux version beta test users also attest to the results. "Export of Applix Words documents to Word 97 works great, even with Swedish letters," said Klaus Neumann, a university cognitive scientist. He continued, "I think Applixware is the most promising office solution for Linux. I've tried StarOffice, WordPerfect, Lyx. Nothing comes even close to Applixware--there are none of the memory, uptime, printing, or spell-checking problems I experience with the other suites."

Applixware 4.4.1 for Linux includes for the first time Applix Data, a new module offering point and click access to information stored in relational databases. No SQL knowledge is required to access the information. Once accessed, the data can be linked directly into Applix Words, Spreadsheets, Graphics, Presents, and HTML Author.

Visit the company's web site for more information.

iServer

Servertec announced the release of iServer, a small, fast, scalable and easy to administer platform independent web server written entirely in JavaTM.

iServer is a web server for serving static web pages and a powerful application server for generating dynamic, data driving web pages using Java Servlets, iScript, Common Gateway Interface (CGI) and Server Side Includes (SSI).

iServer provides a robust, scalable platform for individuals, work groups and corporations to establish a web presense.

Visit the Servertec Web site for more information.

TkApache v1.0

TkApache v1.0 was released unto the unexpecting world Thursday, October 16th. In it's first few hours, more than a 1,000 downloads were logged!

Anyway, it's a fully GUI front-end to managing and configuring an Apache web server and it's written in PerlTk - released under the GPL, developed COMPLETELY under Linux, Website, graphics, code, etc.

The TkApache home page could tell you a lot more...

Crack dot Com is closing its doors

WHY: Ran out of cash.

REALLY WHY: Lot of reasons, but then again, there are a lot of reasons that we got as far as we did. I think the killer reason, though, was that Golgotha was compared by publishers primarily to Battlezone and Uprising, and those titles sold really poorly.

WHAT NOW?: Now we file articles of dissolution w/ the secretary of state, and we file bankruptcy.

IS THAT IT?!: No.

WHAT ELSE?: We're releasing the Golgotha source code, and data to the public domain.

WHERE'S THE SOURCE CODE?: I want to personally thank everyone who supported & rooted for us. That was really nice of you.

BLAH BLAH, WHERE'S THE SOURCE?: I want to apologize to the fans and business partners we've let down.

BOO HOO! WE CARE. OUT WITH IT!: Thanks for your patience. The source & data can be found at http://www.crack.com/golgotha_release. And of course, the ex-Crack developers are up to new & interesting things which you can follow at the web site.

Sincerely, Dave Taylor

This page written and maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette,
Copyright © 1998 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.