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MEPIS has announced the release of beta 04 of ProMEPIS Linux, based on Linux kernel 2.6.10. The new kernel adds "many hardware and performance improvements, yet it comes at a price," according to MEPIS developer Warren Woodford. What price?

Following Jon Biddell's praise for Libranet, two more people immediately came forward to champion their distro of choice, both carrying the Slackware banner and both for somewhat different reasons. Let's start with Lew Pitcher's answer to the call.

8th Jan, 2005 (Gurgaon, India): Daffodil Software, a leading database technology company, today cracked the Compiere challenge by formally announcing the launch of its version of Daffodil DB compatible with Compiere.

This may be the year when enterprise apps go fully mainstream, even if small fees are attached. As I begin to execute InfoWorld’s initiatives for 2005, I’m finding that open source is still central to my overall IT strategy. My view of open source in the enterprise, however, is changing as open source matures.

ZeD features original live music, dance and spoken word performances by groundbreaking artists; frontline indie-culture reportage by a crew of cross-Canada video correspondents; chats with culture creators who are making a stir; and innovative short film, video, animation, music, words, performance, ideas and, visual art pieces from around the world. And on January 6, the code base that powers zed.cbc.ca became available as open source under Apache License 2.0.

HP plans to ship a Linux-based HDTV media hub later this year, according to an article at PC Magazine. CEO Carly Fiorina demonstrated a non-working prototype of the Linux media hub at the Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas.

This new technology offers developers an efficient means for http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/webextractor?open&S_TACT=... metadata from Web sites that use a common template design and is compliant with Linux and Windows based UIMA SDK. Web Metadata Extractor converts scattered, unstructured information into a structured format written with a pure Java-based user interface which users can quickly generate the required templates by simple interactions. Demo is available.

what new issues or surprises are waiting for us in 2005 with respect to Open Source? Here are a few predictions.

Jake Moilanen provided a series of four patches against the 2.6.9 Linux kernel that introduce a simple genetic algorithm used for automatic tuning. The patches update the anticipatory IO scheduler and the zaphod CPU scheduler to both use the new in-kernel library, theoretically allowing them to automatically tune themselves for the best possible performance for any given workload. Jake says, "using these patches, there are small gains (1-3%) in Unixbench & SpecJBB. I am hoping a scheduler guru will able to rework them to give higher gains."

This brief article outlines the history and story behind Linux Netwosix, a security-focused distribution that is still in early stages of development. Vincenzo Ciaglia, its Italian founder, gives the Linux community an update on how the project has progressed after 11 months.

The open source project, which was created when Borland open sourced Interbase in 2000, is due to release a version of its database with full SMP support allowing enterprises greater scalability.

Locally exploitable flaws have been found in the Linux binary format loaders' uselib() functions that allow local users to gain root privileges.

Open Source start-up firm TechWhale Inc. is offering for download the first Open Source CRM solution optimized for Microsoft's .NET Framework.

A vulnerability in Firefox could expose users of the open-source browser to the risk of phishing scams, security experts have warned.

What do we do when we have a substandard free software product that we could use, but would be more productive with a proprietary competitor? What sacrifices should we make in order to use a free software program? Originally the GNU Project was intended to provide a free (as in rights) replacement for proprietary Unix -- the dominant industrial operating system at the time. This project was initiated with the understanding that proprietary software would have to be used until free alternatives were made available. Today we have many free replacements for proprietary programs, but are they truly equivalents?

TalkBack: Our article reporting the discovery of a security hole in Firefox had elicited a wide range of opinions - both from fans of the open source browser, and those who are less enamoured with it.

Thibaut Varene didn't mean to start a discussion about free software projects and community standards. But that's what he did when he posted an Intent to Package notice to the Debian-devel list for a novelty program called Hot Babe. The notice resulted in half a dozen threads and hundreds of emails, and an ongoing debate about whether a free software project like Debian should accept packages that are sexist, pornographic, or otherwise potentially offensive -- and who and who would be held to account in any resulting legal action.

Long-time Linux users know that the kernel and most of the programs are the same across distributions, but different implementations vary in their hardware detection, default choices of basic software, package management system, availability of extra packages, third-party software, and bundled management tools. I was looking for a single distribution I could rely on as both a server and a desktop OS, and one that I could install and support remotely for clients and use at home for work and play. What I found was the powerful SUSE Professional.

After an evening of research, I determined I needed the following software to make the most of my camera...

This chapter is a simple but realistic case study of using Open Source tools in everyday development. In particular, this chapter uses ASpell, a commercial-caliber spell checking component that supports twenty-some different language dictionaries, as an example.