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Discussion on the new Linux kernel development model continued on the lkml, and likely will continue for some time. Adrian Bunk began an email pointing out, "there's much worth in having a very stable kernel. Many people use for different reasons self-compiled http://ftp.kernel.org kernels." 2.6 maintainer Andrew Morton replied, "Well. We'll see. 2.6 is becoming stabler, despite the fact that we're adding features."

"Now, you'll start to see enterprises running Linux on big SMP boxes," predicted Wim Coekaerts, principal member of the technical staff, Corporate Architecture, at Oracle. In recent months, Oracle has been continuing its Linux push by setting a world record benchmark for symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) machines, teaming up with Red Hat on a development center in Singapore, pitching in on the Linux 2.6 kernel, and moving its own internal development environment from Solaris to Linux.

Linux may be an operating system synonymous with a flightless bird, but if some Sydney research students have their way, it could be orbiting the earth controlling a space satellite within two years. The Bluesat microsatellite is a joint project of the Mechanical, Electrical, Telecommunications, and Computer Systems engineering departments at the University of New South Wales. The students have spent several years designing a 10-kilogram microsatellite, including its structure and flight computer.

Just weeks after stating that it would most likely drop the name SuSE from its newly acquired SuSE Certified Linux Professional designation, Novell has announced that it will be dropping the underlying exam, as well. According to Novell's Web site, the SuSE Certified Linux Professional (SCLP) exam -- which was developed by SuSE before Novell acquired it -- will be retired at the end of this year.

Based on Gentoo Linux, the Vidalinux Desktop OS has been announced on the project's website, and the first beta of the software is expected to be available on Gentoo mirrors soon. The goal of the Vidalinux Desktop OS is to make Linux easier to use and administer for daily work for home or office users.

Day 2 of the four-day Linux symposium here was a highly technical one. It began with Rik van Riel of kernelnewbies.org and Red Hat and a host of other members of the CKRM kernel resource management project explaining how it works.

Exploring the differences between popular and enterprise Linux distributions.

Toshiba today launched a laptop that is widely rumored to offer the choice of booting Windows Media Center Edition 2004, for full PC capabilities, or a quick-starting embedded Linux environment, for instant-on, appliance-like TV tuner, DVD player, CD player, and remote control capabilities. Toshiba is selling the Qosmio laptop direct in the US, priced at $2,699.

Internet scanning for servers running Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) has spiked in the past week, raising suspicions that hackers may be profiling targets for future attacks. SSL encrypts sensitive information for e-commerce transactions, and its presence can indicate a high-value target for crackers seeking to steal financial data. Scans of port 443, which is used by SSL, have surged since July 15.

Red Hat, the top seller of the Linux operating system, has adopted an e-mail enhancement that its rival Novell recently released as open-source software.

IceWM is a lightweight window manager for UNIX-like systems. Although widely used, it is often underrated - there is hardly any IceWM-related content on the Internet. This article is my attempt to share my experiences as a longtime IceWM user. It contains tips and tricks, usage scenarios, and makes use of examples whenever possible to better demonstrate IceWM's features and capabilities. Finally, the article is meant for those with some familiarity with UNIX, but who are new to IceWM.

MySQL started in 1995 but it was really only three years ago that we started to target businesses. Before that nobody was even cashing the cheques coming in; everyone was writing code. There was no venture capital. It started from when the founders were out there consulting. They needed a highly reliable, high-performance offering that was less complicated than the commercial databases. There was a 15-minute rule - the database had to be up and running inside 15 minutes.

Users are advised to update their systems against multiple denial-of-service and permission vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel that could be exploited by an attacker. Gentoo said the flaws are "high impact." "The Linux kernel allows a local attacker to mount a remote file system on a vulnerable Linux host and modify files' group IDs," Gentoo said in an advisory. "Also, a flaw in the handling of /proc attributes has been found in 2.6 series kernels, allowing the unauthorized modification of /proc entries, especially those which rely solely on file permissions for security to vital kernel parameters."

I'd like to propose a new term be added to the vernacular of geeks and techies alike ... "Tacking" - a combination of "Technology" and "Hacking". What's most interesting is the similarities between my proposed usage of tacking in IT circles, and how it's currently used in the sport of sailing - manipulating your sail and zig-zagging up-wind to get to your destination.