Weekly News

Copyright for Computer Authors This must-read article popped up because it is rumored that Microsoft's Windows 2000 and Windows NT source code has been illegally released on the net.

• The lawyers are coming It seems that companies will eventually have lawsuits brought against them due to ``negligence''. In particular, you could be held responsible for negligence by not applying security patches. This has already happened in two lawsuits. One was here in New York State [3]:

  Maine Public Utilities Commission v. Verizon. Verizon rents the use of Maine Public Utilities infrastructure, but Verizon went out of action due to the Slammer worm - revealing that Verizon's patch management process was not up to snuff. Verizon asked Maine for a refund for the time it was out of action. Maine refused to pay asserting that Verizon was negligent. The argument went to court and the verdict went to Maine.

• IBM: Linux mainframe for German authority [1] Linux is making inroads at the Federal, state, and local levels in Germany.

  The German Federal Finance Office has implemented what its technology supplier, IBM Corp., is calling one of the largest Linux-based mainframe deployments in Europe.

  The Berlin-based authority has replaced more than 30 smaller servers with one mainframe computer, IBM's eServer z990, running the open-source Linux operating system, IBM said Tuesday.

  The Linux deployment is part of an agreement Big Blue struck in 2002 with the German Federal Ministry of the Interior to supply computers with Linux at a discount to federal, state, and local governments as well as other public authorities.

• World of Ends: What the Internet is and how to stop mistaking it for something else [2] This article gives 10 quick guidelines about the internet. In a distant future the 10 rules will also come to dominate the IT working world. You will be one of the ``ends'' that contributes value to the IT net.

• Linux Moves In On The Desktop [5]

  Market researcher IDC expects to announce within weeks that Linux PC market share in 2003 hit 3.2%, overtaking Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh software. And the researcher expects Linux to capter 6% of this market by 2007. That's still tiny compared with Microsoft's 94% share. But it's clear now that Linux is becoming a viable alternative to Windows on desktop and laptop PCs for companies willing to put up with the trouble of switching.

  Linux has made major strides in the past few months, In November, China declared it the operating system of choice. Starting on Jan. 1, the Israeli government plans gradually to replace desktop Windows with Linux. IBM CEO Samuel J. Palmisano last last year challenged his 319,000-employee company to move entirely to Linux PCs. And now, analysts say, dozens of major corporations in the U.S., Europe, and Japan are sizing up Linux. In a survey of corporate buyers by Merrill Lynch & Co., 43% said they would consider replacing Windows with desktops with Linux. ``I had expected governments to be interested, but now it's on the radar of corporate chief information officers.'' says analyst Steven Mulunovich of Merrill Lynch.

• The Microsoft Killers This is a discussion of the ``coming of age'' of open source effort. It talks about the benefits to the public good of open source efforts.

• EU Poised to Attack P2P File-Sharers From Slashdot on Tuesday, February 17, 2004 [41]:

  Robin Gross of IP Justice writes "The EU is about to vote on a controversial piece of legislation [42] that targets P2P file-sharing and other non-commercial infringements. The EU Intellectual Property Rights Directive creates a 'nuclear weapons' of law enforcement tools for intellectual property holders. It combines the most extreme enforcement provisions found throughout Europe and imposes them collectively onto all of Europe, for example England's Anton Pillar orders that permit recording industry executives to raid and ransack the homes of alleged users of file-sharing software or it's Mareva injunctions that freeze a defendant's bank accounts without a hearing. The vote in the EU plenary will likely be March 11, 2004 - watch the CODE [43] site for developments."