ru.linux

 
 - RU.LINUX ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 From : Sergey Lentsov                       2:4615/71.10   28 Jan 2002  20:54:15
 To : All
 Subject : URL: http://www.lwn.net/2002/0124/
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 

    [1][LWN Logo] [No ads right now]
    [LWN.net]
    
              Bringing you the latest news from the Linux World.
    Dedicated to keeping Linux users up-to-date, with concise news for all
                                  interests
    
    Sections:
     Main page
     [2]Security
     [3]Kernel
     [4]Distributions
     [5]Development
     [6]Commerce
     [7]Linux in the news
     [8]Announcements
     [9]Linux History
     [10]Letters
    [11]All in one big page
    
    Other LWN stuff:
     [12]Daily Updates
     [13]Calendar
     [14]Linux Stocks Page
     [15]Book reviews
     [16]Penguin Gallery
    
     [17]Archives/search
     [18]Use LWN headlines
     [19]Contact us
    
    TUCOWS.com:
     [20]linux.tucows.com
     [21]Themes
    
    Recent features:
    - [22]2001 Timeline
    - [23]O'Reilly Open Source Conference
    - [24]OLS 2001
    - [25]Gael Duval
    - [26]Kernel Summit
    - [27]Singapore Linux Conference
    - [28]djbdns
    
    Here is the [29]permanent site for this page.
    
    See also: [30]last week's LWN.
    
 Leading items and editorials
 
    Do you miss the bubble days? Only two years ago, Linux was still
    riding high in the stock market, and money seemed to be everywhere.
    Exciting new companies were popping up, IPOs were in the works, and
    jobs were easy to come by. It was an exciting time, and, in some ways,
    more fun than the harder times we are experiencing now.
    
    It is hard to welcome recession, but the dotcom bubble (and Linux's
    small part in it) are something we are better off without. A reminder
    of that came in this week, in the form of [31]this press release from
    NASD Regulation on its finding against Credit Suisse for, among other
    things, its handling of the VA Linux Systems IPO. Here's what was
    going on back then:
    
      For example, after a CSFB customer obtained an allocation of 13,500
      shares in the VA Linux IPO, the customer sold two million shares of
      Compaq and paid CSFB $.50 a share -- or $1 million -- as a
      purported brokerage commission. The customer immediately
      repurchased the shares through other firms at normal commission
      rates of $.06 per share at a loss of $1.2 million on the Compaq
      sale and repurchase because of the $1 million paid to CSFB. On that
      same day, however, the customer sold the VA Linux IPO shares,
      making a one-day profit of $3.3 million.
      
    The Linux community had become the plaything of some fairly sleazy
    people with their own agendas. The amateurs (i.e. LinuxOne) didn't get
    very far, but the pros made out quite well. For a while, anyway. The
    bubble had little to do with Linux, and it distorted many of the
    community's priorities in unfortunate ways. With its end, we have been
    able to get back to the things that really matter.
    
    And we are doing well. The software keeps getting better, and adoption
    continues to rise. Those who expected Linux to disappear with the
    dotcoms have been surprised, and many are taking another look. Linux
    companies have certainly not seen the end of their hard times;
    nonetheless, the optimistic among us can begin to see signs of better
    times ahead. The next big surge in interest in Linux (and free
    software in general) may be about to happen; with luck, it may come
    about in a more rational way this time. In the end, it's about the
    software, and sustainable ways to ensure its continued development.
    
    On Lindows. We occasionally receive mail asking why we do not give
    more attention to [32]Lindows and its upcoming distribution. For the
    most part, we have been waiting to see what actually comes out of the
    company. The Lindows distribution remains vaporware, and proprietary
    vaporware at that. There has been very little to write about, so far.
    
    The great promise of Lindows, of course, is its ability to run Windows
    applications. There is little word on how that will be accomplished;
    it appears that a set of proprietary add-ons to Wine will be employed.
    The goal of supporting Windows applications is a good one; such a
    system can help those who are interested in migrating toward Linux,
    but who have applications that they are unwilling to leave behind. And
    one assumes that people needing to run proprietary Windows application
    will not have too much trouble paying for a proprietary Linux system
    to run them on.
    
    This plan might just work. That assumes, however, that Lindows manages
    to release a system that works well enough for Windows users. That may
    eventually happen. Meanwhile what has come out of Lindows has not been
    all that encouraging.
    
    There is, for example, the little trouble of getting sued by
    Microsoft. Whether or not you believe that Microsoft's claim of
    trademark infringement is justified, getting into that sort of fight
    is not going to be good for a startup company. And it's not just
    Lindows that suffers; consider this bit of joy from a [33]Lindows
    "Michael's Minutes" column:
    
      Also, we feel obligated to disclose to you that we were compelled
      to disclose your email address to Microsoft during the discovery
      process as well as the content of many of your messages sent to us.
      
    This suit, in other words, has turned Lindows into a source of
    information for Microsoft on Linux users and what they are saying.
    Cool.
    
    Lindows is trying to present itself as part of the free software
    community. So, for example, we now have the "[34]LindowsBuzz" site:
    
      LindowsBuzz was developed to promote the evolution and adoption of
      the Lindows Operating System (LindowsOS) through community
      involvement, evangelism, and cooperation.
      
    As if that weren't enough, there's [35]LindowsHelp, [36]LindowsDEV,
    and even [37]eLugs. It all looks like cool community stuff, but
    there's just one problem: there's no community. There is no software
    to run, no view of or participation in the development process,
    nothing but marketing materials.
    
    That's not quite true, actually; there is the [38]Lindows Insiders
    program. All you have to do is send them $99 and:
    
      Agree to a non-disclosure agreement, keeping the program itself and
      those things you learn as a Lindows.com Insider confidential, just
      as any Lindows.com employee would.
      
    Lest you set your expectations too high, the Insiders program page
    also warns: "Although certain Insiders may be called upon to review
    and/or test the OS as it develops, joining the Lindows.com Insiders
    program does not guarantee this..." Red Hat users who want to know
    where the system is going can look at Rawhide, Mandrake users have
    Cooker, and Debian users can look at sid. Lindows users get to pay $99
    and, if they are lucky, they get a beta of the operating system under
    a nondisclosure agreement.
    
    Lindows may yet succeed in building a Linux-based business - that
    remains to be seen. With luck, the company will thrive and bring in
    millions of new desktop Linux users. But Lindows is seemingly unaware
    of how the Linux community works; it would like to wear the trappings
    of the community without actually being a part of it. It's not
    surprising that the Linux community has generally reacted to Lindows
    with yawns.
    
    (Update: we've been told that the Lindows "Sneak Preview" was released
    to some "insiders" just as this article was published. LindowsOS is
    perhaps beginning to become less of a vapor product).
    
    Microsoft remedy comment period ending soon. It is a commonly (though
    not universally) held opinion in the Linux community that the proposed
    remedy for Microsoft's anti-competitive behavior is inadequate. In
    fact, the remedy seems unlikely to change much. For the most part, it
    will leave Microsoft free to carry on pretty much in the usual ways.
    
    American antitrust law mandates a comment period before remedies are
    imposed. Comments received must be published by the government, with
    responses. In this case, that period is coming to a close: comments
    have to be in by January 28 to be considered. If you have something to
    say with regard to the settlement, time is running out.
    
    [39]Dan Kegel's remedy page seems to be the definitive resource for
    information on the proposed remedy and the comment process.
    
    LWN turns four. The very first LWN weekly edition came out on
    [40]January 22, 1998. That means we've now been doing this for over
    four years. It has certainly been an interesting time, and it shows no
    signs of getting less so in the future. We're looking forward to
    seeing what happens next.
    
    Meanwhile, we would like to say "thank you" to all of our readers who
    have kept us going for so long. Writing for this audience is a great
    pleasure.
    
    Inside this LWN.net weekly edition:
      * [41]Security: Seeking the RST.b virus; a Mozilla Cookie Exploit
      * [42]Kernel: Reverse mapping VM; the Athlon bug; needing ACPI.
      * [43]Distributions: Distributions Lost and Found.
      * [44]Development: XFree86 4.2.0, heartbeat 0.4.9a, DigiTemp 2.3,
        Audacity 0.98, GNOME 2.0 alpha, Xfce 3.8.14, Gnumeric 1.0.3, SBCL
        0.7.0, Apocalypse 4, glibc 2.2.5.
      * [45]Commerce: Lineo's embedded application migration tools;
        MontaVista announcements; LinuxWorld announcements.
      * [46]History: New Alpha and Sparc versions of Linux and glibc 2.0;
        the birth of Mozilla; the long-awaited 2.2.0 kernel release.
      * [47]Letters: Loadable modules and security; why a Red Hat
        acquisition would matter.
        
    ...plus the usual array of reports, updates, and announcements.
    
    This Week's LWN was brought to you by:
      * [48]Jonathan Corbet, Executive Editor
        
    January 24, 2002
    
    
    
                                                        [49]Next: Security
    
    [50]Eklektix, Inc. Linux powered! Copyright Л 2002 [51]Eklektix, Inc.,
    all rights reserved
    Linux (R) is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds
 
 References
 
    1. http://lwn.net/
    2. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/security.php3
    3. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/kernel.php3
    4. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/dists.php3
    5. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/devel.php3
    6. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/commerce.php3
    7. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/press.php3
    8. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/announce.php3
    9. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/history.php3
   10. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/letters.php3
   11. http://lwn.net//2002/0124/bigpage.php3
   12. http://lwn.net/daily/
   13. http://linuxcalendar.com/
   14. http://lwn.net/stocks/
   15. http://lwn.net/Reviews/
   16. http://lwn.net/Gallery/
   17. http://lwn.net/archives/
   18. http://lwn.net/op/headlines.phtml
   19. http://lwn.net/op/Contact.html
   20. http://linux.tucows.com/
   21. http://unixthemes.tucows.com/
   22. http://lwn.net/2001/features/Timeline/
   23. http://lwn.net/2001/features/oreilly2001/
   24. http://lwn.net/2001/features/OLS/
   25. http://lwn.net/2001/features/MandrakeSoft.php3
   26. http://lwn.net/2001/features/KernelSummit/
   27. http://lwn.net/2001/features/Singapore
   28. http://lwn.net/2001/features/djbdns.php3
   29. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/
   30. http://lwn.net/2002/0117/
   31.
 http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-22-200
 2/0001652669&EDATE=
   32. http://www.lindows.com/
   33. http://www.lindows.com/lindows_michaelsminutes_archives.php?id=3
   34. http://otherwww.edgereport.com/lindowsbuzz/
   35. http://www.lindowshelp.com/
   36. http://www.lindowsdev.com/
   37. http://www.elugs.com/
   38. http://www.lindows.com/lindows_home_insiders.php
   39. http://www.kegel.com/remedy/
   40. http://lwn.net/1998/0122/
   41. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/security.php3
   42. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/kernel.php3
   43. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/dists.php3
   44. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/devel.php3
   45. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/commerce.php3
   46. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/history.php3
   47. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/letters.php3
   48. mailto:lwn@lwn.net
   49. http://lwn.net/2002/0124/security.php3
   50. http://www.eklektix.com/
   51. http://www.eklektix.com/
 
 --- ifmail v.2.14.os7-aks1
  * Origin: Unknown (2:4615/71.10@fidonet)
 
 

Вернуться к списку тем, сортированных по: возрастание даты  уменьшение даты  тема  автор