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Linux Pipeline Newsletter www.LinuxPipeline.com Tuesday, April 19, 2005 In This Issue: - Firefox, Mozilla Bugs Patched; Brief Site Outage Fixed - Supreme-Court Transcript Shows Legal Reasoning In Grokster Case - MySQL Turns To Ingram Micro For Enterprise Support - More News... - Five Linux Security Myths You Can Live Without - Ethereal Sniffs Out Network Security Threats - Open-Source CRM A Sweet Deal For Budget-Minded Firms - More Picks... Join InformationWeek for a FREE, on-demand TechWebCast on Intelligent Management of the Linux Datacenter: Putting Utility Computing to Work. Hear experts examine the business needs and challenges that are driving companies towards utility computing and how datacenters can overcome obstacles. Register and view now: http://www.techweb.com/today/linux011305 ----------------------------------------- Editor's Note: Life During Wartime The mean streets of Linuxland can be a tough beat to cover these days. There are two sides to every story--and they're ready to beat one another to a pulp at the drop of a hat. Gangs of thugs roam the back alleys, kicking in doors, rifling through hard drives in the dead of night, making humiliated Windows users do the Monkey Boy dance in front of the neighbors. It's gotten to the point where I vary my route to and from the office every morning after I write an open-source opinion piece. And i work at home. Better safe than sorry. The anecdotes continue to roll in about open-source oafs who were too busy picking their noses to notice when the good manners got handed out. Ross Greenberg, while writing one of the features you'll find farther down the page, wandered into a Linux newsgroup to ask a few questions and wandered back out wishing he had worn asbestos underpants. If you know anything about Ross' background, you know that anyone willing to flame him for asking questions about Linux security is lucky they haven't choked on their own drool--yet. And then, of course, there are more distant but still disturbing stories about Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio. She has long been accused of straying too close to the Dark Lord in Redmond to maintain much credibility--accusations I won't touch, since what looks like an open-and-shut case from one angle is considerably more complex from another. No matter: The Weekly World News could produce seedy spy-camera footage of Gates and DiDio in ritual garb, sacrificing a chicken over a boxed copy of Windows XP, and it still wouldn't justify some sociopath calling her at home to harass her about it. This idiocy falls squarely into the realm of soccer-mom knife fights, Little League fathers who send one another to the emergency room over an iffy strike zone, and whatever Darl McBride was thinking when he decided it would be a good idea to spend his company's cash reserves to file a crackpot lawsuit against the 16th largest company on earth. Don't be like Darl, OK? One of that is enough. What may be even more alarming are the signs that even the people who should know this is a bad time for soap operas just can't help themselves. Once you learn more about the story behind the disagreement which involves Linus Torvalds, Samba co-developer Andrew Tridgell, and Bitkeeper CEO Larry McVoy, it's clear there are real principles at stake on all sides, along with enough blame to thoroughly marinate everyone involved. But instead of ensuring that cooler heads and quiet diplomacy prevail (for the kids, guys!), this little misunderstanding among friends got noisy enough to make a splash in the British tabloids. Until a few hours ago, if anyone told me The Register would run the headline, Torvalds Knifes Tridgell, I'd make sure they weren't planning to drive anywhere. Now I'm just waiting to wake up and find a severed penguin head staring back at me from beneath my bedsheets.
Matthew McKenzie
Don't let future editions of Linux Pipeline Newsletter go missing. Take a moment to add the newsletter's address to your anti-spam whitelist: linuxed@techwire.com If you're not sure how to do that, ask your administrator or ISP. Or check your anti-spam utility's documentation. Thanks. Top Linux News Firefox, Mozilla Bugs Patched; Brief Site Outage Fixed The Mozilla Foundation late last week released updates for its open-source browser duo, covering more than a half dozen security bugs, including a _Javascript flaw with known online exploits.
Supreme-Court Transcript Shows Legal Reasoning In Grokster Case
MySQL Turns To Ingram Micro For Enterprise Support
Firefox Site Keeps Packing 'Em In
Business Objects Adds MySQL To Linux-Based BI Platform
Startup In The Hunt For Success With Firefox Editor's Picks Five Linux Security Myths You Can Live Without Ignorance may be bliss, but a smoking crater where your Linux workstation once sat is not. Here are some common Linux security myths that you're better off living without.
Ethereal Sniffs Out Network Security Threats
Open-Source CRM A Sweet Deal For Budget-Minded Firms
Linus, Tridgell In Open Source Tiff
Join The Syndicate: Getting Started With RSS Cast Your Vote Now! As you can tell from the way I carried on in the editor's note above, the epidemic of bad manners that seems to be sweeping the open-source world is a source of growing concern. After all, most businesses will probably pass on software that comes with a year of free threatening phone calls in lieu of technical support. Tell us what you think: Are open-source fanatics a real threat to the community and to business, or just an annoying minority everyone knows not to take seriously.
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