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Chuck Ebbert raised an issue with the stability of Andrew Morton [interview]'s 2.6 -mm kernel development tree, "most -mm kernels have small but critical bugs that are found shortly after release. Patches for these are posted on linux-kernel but they aren't made available on kernel.org until the next -mm release." Andrew releases a complete copy of his -mm kernel with varying frequency, not making the in between tree-states available from source control due to his development methods [story].

As a solution, Check suggested the creation of a hotfix directory for each -mm release, in which critical fixes could be placed as they are discovered, "I'm talking about patches for problems that keep you from even testing
-mm, or that fix really annoying things you hit while testing.". Andrew agreed to the idea, "OK, I'll create a hot-fixes directory there and will try to remember to put stuff into it." The release of the 2.6.16-rc1-mm5 kernel quickly followed and includeda directory for critical hot-fixes.

Esther Dyson has had a ringside seat for the development of the Internet. She was Interim Chairperson of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) when it was a fledging organization whose goal was to help move the burgeoning Internet's administration out of the US Department of Commerce. Dyson is credited with trying to make ICANN an open and transparent body, but she concedes that she was not completely successful. Today, Dyson is still involved with IT development around the world. She is also editor of Release 1.0, a quarterly report that outlines the opportunities and issues produced by the converging worlds of technology, communications, and the Internet, as well as organizer of the 25-year-old PC Forum conference. We asked Dyson for her perspective on today's IT world.

Even though Microsoft's Internet Explorer still owns some 85 percent of the browser market, Mozilla's Firefox "already has the technological lead in the browser market, and the momentum has just started to build," an Lxer.com column suggests. "So, how can Internet Explorer catch up?"

Last week's newsletter on Linux moving to a cable/digital set top box near you drew more reader response than I expected.

The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg has positive comments about two services, PubSub and Rollyo, two services that we've posted about several times.

Version 2005-04 of the increasingly more popular KANOTIX Linux distribution was recently released. LinClips has a nice demo of this release in their KANOTIX 2005-04 Foresight Linux 0.9.3 screencast.

Mainstream acceptance of open source will expand in 2006, according to research firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

Disclosure and diversity are the key to trust for tomorrow's computers, says technology critic Bill Thompson.

One of the most under-used programming techniques -- Metaprogramming -- programming with code generators or writing programs that themselves write code, has many uses in large-scale computer programming. This article shows you some tools needed to do Metaprogramming in Scheme.

  LXer Feature: 02-Feb-06

Microsoft is preparing a publicity campaign to address their image as a 'big' company. In this, the first of a series of four articles, LXer's Don Parris points to the pervasive nature of the Microsoft brand, and how keeping that separate from the corporate reputation keeps regular consumers in the dark.

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I've been working as a Linux admin for more than six years, and using Linux for a little longer. Like a lot of Linux administrators, I started with Red Hat, but now I use Debian stable at work and Gentoo at home. Recently, NewsForge asked readers to "let us know about your most valuable utilities." Here are mine.

Advisories were released this week for LibAST, MyDNS, Mail::Audit, PHP, and several other packages. Vendors that released advisories this week are Debian, FreeBSD, Gentoo, Mandriva, and Red Hat. No advisories were issued for SUSE or Ubuntu this week. The Mozilla foundation has also released an update to Firefox 1.5 this week.

Amazon is trying to sneak through another absurd patent. But, they have been caught out.

Applied computer technology can help reduce dependency on oil. MozillaQuest Magazine (mozillaquest.com) reports: "Telecommuting is a great way to conserve oil/petroleum fuel consumption. The technologies for telecommuting are here now . . . Alternative energy sources such as solar, water, and wind power can be employed to eliminate the need for oil/petroleum to generate electricity. Moreover there is no need to build additional nuclear power plants."

Nigeria's Leapsoft has released a Linux distribution designed to cater for the Nigerian languages Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa. Wazobia Linux is a commercial distribution aimed at corporate desktops, and includes the usual office suite, web and email applications, and media players.

Imagine Technologies has published "certified" 3D benchmark results for a Texas Instruments (TI) SoC (system-on-chip) that incorporates its 2D/3D accelerated graphics coprocessor IP (intellectual property). Imagine claims it is the first company to announce "official and certified performance results" using FutureMark's 3DMarkMobile06 benchmark suite.

At LinuxAsia 2006, meet the guy who developed Knoppix, a well-known live CD Linux distribution, which can boot practically any PC into Linux.

Foreword: Open source project founder Cecil Watson provides some background on KnoppMyth in this brief project history. The project aims to create an easy-to-install-and-use Linux distribution for set-top boxes. Enjoy .

The most remarkable thing about Apple Computer's (AAPL) newest iMac is that, even after using it for a while, it's hard to tell just how different it is from the identical-looking iMac G5 introduced last fall. Don't be deceived by the similarities. Hidden in the new iMac is a processor that will let this line of Macs grow and meet the increasing performance demands of software.

[ed: A good platform for Linux? -tadelste]

The United States-based body responsible for protecting the "Linux" name appears to be making a renewed push to register it as a trademark in Australia.