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The dispute over the future of the now freely distributed Linux operating system is a global one, but this week it focused on Utah and two warring computer companies with common roots. Novell, the one-time networking software giant seeking rejuvenation in Linux-related development, completed a $210 million acquisition of SuSE Linux, Europe's leading Linux distributor.

The publication of an article by Nicholas Carr titled "IT Doesn't Matter" raised much controversy. Carr's fundamental argument is that every widely used business technology conferred significant strategic advantage on early adopters but lost that potency as it matured. In his own context, he's absolutely right: Limit IT to Wintel, and IT doesn't matter; step outside his assumptions, however, and he's dead wrong.

Microsoft Thursday is expected to make available for free its Services for Unix software, which helps integrate Unix and Windows and supports migrations of Unix applications to the Microsoft platform. The software is seen as a key tool in Microsoft's battle against Unix and Linux.

A San Francisco court, siding with Microsoft has ordered the administrator in a $1.1 billion California class-action settlement to reject claims filed through MSfreePC.com, a Web site run by Linux vendor Lindows.com. The San Francisco Superior Court also ordered the administrator to include a statement on the official settlement Web site telling the public that claims filed through MSfreePC are invalid.

A day after technology giants IBM and Intel threw their financial weight into the fight to defend the Linux operating system from the copyright claims and legal threats of Utah-based SCO Group, Novell has announced it will indemnify users of its newly acquired SuSE Linux software systems.

Silicon Graphics has been struggling to regain its dominance in the high-performance technical-computing market. Now, with the release of SGI Altix 350, a new Intel Itanium 2 and 64-bit Linux OS-based server, SGI is trying to make a major impact on the landscape of the $2.6 billion midrange segment of this market.

Mixing two of the hottest tech trends -- notebook computers and the Linux operating system -- Taiwanese computer maker EliteGroup and San Diego, California-based Lindows have announced the deployment of more than 300,000 Linux-based laptops to the U.S. market. The $700 machines are available from the Lindows Web site and at several computer sellers across the United States.

A few years ago, the only IT system I wasn't responsible for at a multimillion-dollar company consisted of a SCO server with an ancient accounting application maintained by the remaining representative of the company that had originally sold it. At the time, I thought old Vitki (not his real name) was a fool. But an Apple-related incident over Christmas left me with more sympathy for him than I'd ever managed to feel before.

The Linux albatross just wouldn't sell. And the Linux platypus, well, who'd buy anything from him? Ah, but the Linux penguin, there's a bird that could really drive an industry. "The little guy hasn't been very active in coding the actual kernel, but he sure as hell has made for a very recognizable mascot," says Linux creator Linus Torvalds.

SCO Group planned to announce on Monday that it was stepping up its campaign to collect license fees from corporations using the Linux operating system, with warning letters to the companies. Supporters of Linux, including IBM and other companies, say that SCO's interpretation of its claim over Linux is exaggerated. The letters, dated Friday, comprise the second round that SCO has sent to corporate users of Linux.

Microsoft Monday launched a new advertising campaign designed to extend its "fact based" assault on the Linux operating system. The campaign consists of a two-page advertisement, which was featured in six computer industry trade publications this week, that cites a 2002 IDC study that found that Windows 2000 costs organizations less to operate.

Computer security researchers are again warning about a critical vulnerability in the Linux kernel that could be used by malicious hackers to take control of systems using the popular open source operating system. ISEC Security Research said Monday that it found a critical vulnerability in code that is used to manage virtual memory on Linux systems.

Sometimes you just need a simple test platform to check out Perl or PHP applications as either stand-alone apps and Web scripts. We just discovered a cool open-source system that offers exactly that: IndigoPerl from IndigoStar Software. IndigoPerl (released under the Gnu Public License, GPL) consists of the Apache Web server, Perl and PHP, along with an installer and supporting scripts

Stefan Esser discovered a problem in cvs, a concurrent versions system, which is used for many Free Software projects. The current version contais a flaw that can be used by a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the CVS server under the user id the CVS server runs as. Anonymous read-only access is sufficient to exploit this problem.

Two vulnerabilities were discoverd by Stefen Esser in the cvs program. The first is an exploitable double free() bug within the server, which can be used to execute arbitray code on the CVS server. To accomplish this, the attacker must have an anonymous read-only login to the CVS server. The second vulnerability is with the Checkin-prog and Update-prog commands. If a client has write permission, he can use these commands to execute programs outside of the scope of CVS, the output of which will be sent as output to the client.

A buffer overflow vulnerability was discovered in libpng due to a wrong calculation of some loop offset values. This buffer overflow can lead to Denial of Service or even remote compromise.

Updated cvs packages are now available for Red Hat Linux 6.2, 7, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and 8.0. These updates close a vulnerability which would permit arbitrary command execution on servers configured to allow anonymous read-only access.

Get your hands on some great new Linux products this week in New York City.

How to get and install Xft for smoother, eye-friendly fonts.

Pre-register for all-day class on what's actually involved in trusted computing technologies.