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The Minimo (Mini Mozilla) project is focused on code-size and runtime footprint reduction, and porting to small consumer devices.

Mozilla has released the first "alpha" release of version 1.7.

Both the Hyperion Performance Suite and Essbase 7 now run on Linux.

Paul Staretz discovered a flaw in return value checking in the mremap() function in the Linux kernel, versions 2.4.24 and previous that could allow a local user to obtain root privileges.

This week's Gentoo newsletter is available.

Lycoris Desktop/LX Update 3, released last September, is a Linux distro aimed primarily at home user desktops. Lycoris has been widely heralded for its user-friendliness. If newbies can handle some manual configuration, they may be happy with Lycoris, but it won't satisfy more experienced users.

More good news from Australia. The Australian Tax Office has announced that it is adopting an open source software policy. The policy now will be that GNU/Linux should be considered and used where appropriate...

Ulf Härnhammar discovered two format string bugs (CAN-2004-0104) and two buffer overflow bugs (CAN-2004-0105) in metamail, an implementation of MIME. An attacker could create a carefully-crafted mail message which will execute arbitrary code as the victim when it is opened and parsed through metamail.

Lineox, a Finnish Linux company that emerged from the book publishing industry, Monday released Lineox Enterprise Linux 3.001, the first revision of Lineox Enterprise Linux 3.0 in the company's Always Current series.

IBM on Tuesday is expected to announce an expansion of its sales of Linux on server hardware.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has released its Zope-based Workforce Connections software as Open Source.

IBM will install a second Blue Gene/L supercomputer as part of a radio telescope project in the Netherlands, the company announced Monday.

The Web site debuted quietly last week. It enables companies that use Linux to purchase a license that covers SCO's Unix System V, portions of which SCO claims were illegally incorporated into the source code of Linux.

Embedded Linux author and trainer Karim Yaghmour, and his company Opersys, have released an embedded Linux "Quick Reference Guide" (QRG) designed to help designers build embedded systems from open source GNU/Linux sources. The QRG is distributed as a two-page PDF file intended for printing on both sides of a standard-sized sheet of paper, and is meant to remind embedded developers of the syntax for frequently used commands.

LinuxQuestions.org has added a new site to its network. The LQ Wiki is a WikiWiki that allows users to collaboratively build a free, complete and up-to-date Linux knowledgebase. The LQ Wiki aims to become the largest general Linux Wiki on the web. It's free to join and use the LQ Wiki and any user can add or edit content. All content is licensed under a Creative Commons license, ensuring that it will remain freely redistributable.

Read more at LinuxQuestions.org

These are just the latest in a series of serious or critical security vulnerabilities discovered in Linux over the past few months. The board room at Microsoft is probably getting some amusement, or at least feeling some relief, from the irony that open source is supposed to be more secure and yet these critical flaws continue to be found.

Wind River Systems Inc., once a staunch opponent of open-source software, is expected today to detail plans for weaving Linux into its product lineup. During an earnings call for the last fiscal year, scheduled for Monday, the struggling embedded giant is also expected to unveil a new business model that gives customers the option of eliminating royalties.

Several buffer overflows were found in the fontfile code that handles a user-supplied "fonts.alias" file. The file is processed with root privileges and therefore a successful exploitation of these bugs leads to local root access. There is no known workaround.

During the next two to three years, I quite like the prospects for appreciation in NOVL’s stock price, but I'd be inclined to stay on the sidelines for the next few months before thinking about starting a position. While I expect Red Hat to remain the sector leader, its dominant position will be eroded as strong competitors such as Novell/SuSE enter and consolidate in the space. It's still early days, and Novell’s transition will take time as management reconciles its various challenges and opportunities.

Email technology provider Sendmail has worked with Microsoft to launch a sender authentication plug-in which is hoped will combat email fraud and spam.