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Takeover talks - with Microsoft taking its AOL division along with all its debt in exchange for a handsome chunk of change - are being reported today as having been under way for some time between the Redmond giant and Time Warner.

A sharped-eyed shopper on the Austin LUG mailing list pointed out an ad from Fry's Electronics in the Austin American-Statesman this morning. Not that $199 PCs are necessarily newsworthy any longer, but this one was different. In addition to being powered by an AMD Athlon XP processor with 128MB of SDRAM, plus being "Internet ready" and "multimedia," it came with the "Windows (R) Linux Operating System." Sorry, there is a limit of 1 per customer.

Java (specifically J2EE) is good at things like dealing with large number of transactions, dealing with application state, and stuff like that. But a significant majority of applications on the Web don't necessarily generate enough of a transaction load to justify the penalties you have to pay with Java - which carries a lot of baggage with it to make the bytecode compiler happy that "agile" languages like Python and Perl (especially Perl) don't worry about. If they *really* need performance, they'll write it in what Linux developers invariably resort to for such a task: C.

SSH, or secure shell, is a protocol by which users can remotely log in, administer, or transfer files between computers using an encrypted transport mechanism. Running over every major operating system, SSH provides a more secure connection method than traditional telnet or the much-maligned "r commands" (rlogin, rcp, rsh). SSH includes provisions for key-based authentication that doesn't require a password, which opens the door for some innovative remote access applications.

Novell Inc. rolled out a host of new announcements at CeBIT, including the first release of its GroupWise collaboration platform to run entirely on Linux, a new patch management offering and a new partner program.

What this means for Linux could be great -- I mean having the government of the most populous nation on earth pouring resources into the development of Linux is amazing. This should have a real impact of Linux's development -- especially in the Chinese market and other markets in Asia. On the other hand, it also means that we as Americans are at risk of facing yet another formidable, low-cost competitor in the software and services industry.

Knoppix, a Linux distribution that runs off a CD, doesn't need to be installed on a machine. When the NNSA seizes an infected hard drive or analyzes a machine that contains evidence of an attack, it uses a Knoppix CD to boot up the machine. Since Knoppix doesn't write data to the hard drive, the drive only contains the data that was on it at the time it was seized. That way, the agency can make an accurate analysis of the data.

"Virus attacks on the Windows platform has literally scared the living daylights off PC Users. This has led to the emergence of GNU/Linux as an alternate solution as it is less vulnerable to virus attacks. MicroWorld is targeting to achieve at least 25% of the total Antivirus and content security solutions market in India of GNU/Linux users in the coming financial year 2004-05"

How did we get to the point where Linux users would need to buy insurance to protect themselves while doing something as simple and natural as sharing free software? Because we just got onto the plaintiff lawyers' radar screen: big money is now involved. The Linux community needs a collective, vendor-neutral defense, says Daniel Egger.

Open source software will have to lift its security game if it is to match that of proprietary software, particularly if its use proliferates, according to representatives from global information security companies.

The University of Toronto's Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) will host a multi-disciplined conference titled "Open Source and Free Software: Concepts, Controversies, and Solutions" May 9-11. Given the recent rise in commercial interest in free and open source software, it's refreshing to see a conference that is not dominated by the question of "how do we make money off this thing?" Conference chair Dr. Ron Baecker told NewsForge about the thinking behind the event.

The functionality of the current version of Crossover Office has been significantly improved compared to previous versions. You can now run the current versions of the most important Office applications as well as other popular office software. The following list gives an overview of the officially supported Windows programs.

Printing is one of the key desktop applications today. And Linux is growing by leaps and bounds too. Sabyasachi Dey provides an overview of printing technology used on Linux-based systems

The first part of Doc's adventures with a new ThinkPad: what needs to be addressed before Linux laptops can make it in the real user world.

Linux is evolving as the predominant operating system of the new millennium, and legacy OSes such as OS/2® are being gradually phased out. This series of articles helps the developers involved in the tedious process of migrating/porting the OS/2 system drivers and applications to Linux. It provides a one-to-one mapping of various OS/2-to-Linux calls related to threads, IPC, memory management, timer handling, file handling, and so on. In addition, it captures the various preprocessor directives and compiler/linker options that can be mapped from OS/2 to Linux. This is the first in a series of three articles.

The notebooks come preinstalled with the Linux OS--a customized SuSE Desktop 1.0 distribution--and Sun Microsystems' Java Desktop System, which includes the latest version of Sun's StarOffice 7 productivity software. And they are ready for wireless.

Astaro this week is announcing Version 5.0 of its popular Astaro Security Linux product for small businesses and enterprises. Among the new features in the update are improved virus protection and intrusion detection, expanded VPN capabilities, and support for beefier hardware.

Benefits of Novell's extensive global partner ecosystem extended to SUSE LINUX partners -- Novell PartnerNet program to include solution, technology and training partners under unified umbrella -- Novell's new Linux offerings, including partner solutions, provide new sales opportunities for new and existing ISVs, IHVs and solutions provider partners

Novell ZENworks Patch Management, available March 29, provides secure, automated patch management for Windows -- Administrators can quickly determine which patches are right for their organization and automatically apply them across their enterprise

The most trusted and secure collaboration platform in the industry is now running entirely on Linux -- Novell GroupWise 6.5 for Linux available April 15