After releasing Linux 2.4, Linus and Company spent most of 2002 stuffing the development kernel with gobs of new features. Here's a look behind the scenes of everyone's favorite Open Source project, and what to expect in 2003, the year of Linux 2.6.
PCs that incorporate Palladium, Microsoft's design for a trusted computer, would provide a wide variety of desireable security features. But the consequences of realizing Palladium, whether intentional or not, threaten the viability and future of Open Source software.
MySQL powers countless databases and data-driven Web sites. MySQL 4, the latest release of the Open Source database, includes features that put it on par with products from database stalwarts Oracle and Microsoft. Unbelievable? Believe it.
If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area long enough, your view of the world gets a little warped. "Hot weather" is anything above 75 degrees, "rain" is a four-letter word, and the East Coast might as well be a part of the European Union.
The popularity and prevalence of always-on home network service (via DSL or cable modem) has changed the notion of what an Internet Service Provider (ISP) needs to provide. In the old days, an ISP hosted your Web site and email on their servers. You used their network to browse the Web, read newsgroups, and POP your email. Since your connection was temporary, there wasn't a way to get email delivered directly and reliably to your computer.
The Linux Samba server supports the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol (also known as the Common Internet File System, or CIFS, protocol). Microsoft Windows uses SMB natively to share files and printers. Thus, Samba is most commonly used to turn a Linux box into a file and print server for Windows clients. Indeed, Samba is so effective that Samba enables Linux to sneak into otherwise Windows-domainated shops, with management none the wiser. However, Samba can be employed as much more than a file and print server. Samba supports many configuration options and it can perform a variety of complex tasks.
After a development cycle that seemed like an eternity -- during which Internet Explorer supposedly "won" the "browser war" -- Mozilla, the open source application suite that's also the basis for Netscape, has become a stable and capable package with a new codebase. With Mozilla, you can browse the Web, read email and newsgroups, chat, and more. If you use multiple platforms, Mozilla is an ideal client: you can have the same, familiar Mozilla features and user interface on every machine you use (including Macintosh, Windows, Linux, Unix, just to name a few).
Designing, building, installing, and configuring a Beowulf-style cluster presents a number of challenges, even for very capable system designers and system administrators. Once decisions about topology, layout, hardware, and interconnect technologies have been made (based primarily on the needs of the software and models you intend to run), a considerable amount of work must still be done to forge a working cluster.
In last month's LAMP Post column (available online at http://www.linux-mag.com/2002-12/lamp_01.html), we looked at TWiki, a popular web collaboration tool. This month, let's dig a bit deeper into TWiki, and consider TWiki alternatives.
Over the years, there have been numerous attempts to create a standard protocol for remote procedure calls (RPC). While the techniques and technology for remote procedure calls have differed, the intent of RPC was and is the same to this day: enable an application running on one machine to call a procedure in a separate process running on another machine. Ideally, a well-designed RPC protocol can connect any two machines interconnected via the Internet or some other network, even if the machines have different hardware or run different operating systems.
As I type this month's column, we're just pulling away from Ocho Rios, Jamaica, on the latest Geek Cruise (http://www.geekcruises.com) called "Linux Lunacy 2." Earlier today, some of the speakers on this conference/cruise, including Linus Torvalds and Eric Raymond, held a meeting with the Jamaican Linux Users Group. Now, we're out at sea (en-route to Holland America's private island, "Half Moon Cay"), so I'm using the satellite link to upload this column (for a mere 30 cents a minute).
Some days, I just want to reach out on Slashdot and just shake people. Recently, I've wanted to do that even more thanks to all the "fear, uncertainty, and doubt" (FUD) surrounding UnitedLinux and Red Hat. First things first. Both UnitedLinux and Red Hat are here to make money from Linux. And there's nothing wrong with that.
