A press release at Linux PR reports that SuSE Linux inc. has “announced that the latest version of its advanced enterprise operating system, the 64-bit SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7 for IBM eServer zSeries, will be available by the beginning of May.”

– By Grant Gross –
DotGNU, a Free Software Web services project that’s a response to Microsoft’s .NET, is hosting a 36-hour marathon IRC meet-a-thon this weekend aimed at interested developers and experienced contributors to hash over some issues.

DotGNU could be known as the Free Software .NET-like Project That Isn’t Mono, but developers there say the less publicized project is making good progress, with a heavy-traffic email list as part of the evidence.

The IRC meeting runs from 10 a.m. GMT Saturday to 10 p.m. GMT Sunday and is organized into sessions starting every four hours, with the first 12 hours being “the tourist session of the meeting” to introduce new people to the project, according to Gopal.V, one of the event organizers. Among the topics will be .NET, general Web services and “their implications on freedom.” The meeting will be at irc.openprojects.net#dotgnu.

Organizers say the long hours of the meet-a-thon should insure that developers and interested people from across the globe will have a convenient time to chat. But the DotGNU team is unsure of how many people to expect for this kind of event. Gopal.V says the project has 20 to 30 core developers who are working on a variety of proposed Web services projects.

“Also more people (non developers) are expected. I think this will bring more developers, users and testers. (we need all of ’em),” Gopal.V writes in an email. “The GNU project has always been a community project — DotGNU is still unborn as a community, and its all going to change now.”

Adds Barry Fitzgerald, another DotGNU developer: “Basically, it’s open floor for a 36 hour developer meet/hack-a-thon. Anyone is invited — whether you have an idea, need clarification on something that’s being done, or just want to chat about future
possibilities. The goal is to get as much done as possible. The more
documentation and code we get out of it, the better — of course.”

After the first 12 hours, the talk will turn to specific sessions for developers and those interested, including information about the current status of the project. Gopal.V says the group will talk about some features being worked on, including:

• A C# compiler/runtime that runs purely off GNU programs like Linux and Hurd
• A groupware suit that supports XMLRPC and SOAP
• A set of authorization/authentication platforms.

The group will also talk about some new ideas like Web services over Jabber, a distributed execution environment, a P2P virtual remote server and XML standards.

“lowell writes ‘The shareholders and directors of NaN Holding BV, owners of Blender, have decided to terminate all activities of NaN Technologies BV and apply for its bankruptcy at the Amsterdam court. It means that effective today, all technology development and website activities around Blender will be frozen. ‘ Nice app. Too bad really.” Read the Slashdot article and discussion here.

Xdrive Technologies, Inc., (http://www.xdrive.com) a leading provider of Internet Information and Content Management solutions and services, today announced its online storage and file sharing service support for Unix and Linux platforms.

Xdrive’s service enables Unix and Linux users to access, store and share files though their Xdrive accounts via a web browser-based application. “Our technology extended to support the Unix and Linux platform reinforces our leadership and commitment to provide a broad scope of information management services to every audience,” said Karl Klessig. “The Unix and Linux addendum accompanied by our support for Macintosh and the Compaq iPaq, opens our capabilities to enable usage by almost every user who has Web access on their systems.”

The service enables Unix and Linux users to store files, collaborate, back up and share files though their Xdrive accounts. Members can access, store and share their files through an established Xdrive account via any Web browser that is Java enabled, including, Mozilla, Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator, among others.

The announcement falls on the heels of Xdrive recent acquisition of the businesses of FreeDrive, Inc. expanding Xdrive’s reach into key vertical markets, augmenting its business categories. The acquisition brings together FreeDrive’s consumer and commercial web-based storage applications with Xdrive’s software and services that provide secure access, storage, backup, sharing, synchronization and transactional management of information distributed via the Internet.

About Xdrive Technologies:

Xdrive Technologies, Inc., a privately held company headquartered in Marina del Rey, Calif., the Internet Information Management Company, provides software products and services for access, storage, sharing, and transactional management of information distributed via the Internet. Strategic investors include SOFTBANK CORP., VERITAS Software, VeriSign, Inc., StorageNetworks, Inc., EMC Corporation, Network Appliance, Aether Systems, Mitsubishi Corporation, NEC Corporation, CNET Networks, Inc. and AOL/Time Warner. Financial investors include Goldman Sachs Group, Wit SoundView Ventures, Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, Centre Partners, eCompanies-Evercore Venture Management (E2VM), Pacific Capital Group, David Bohnett’s Baroda Ventures, Davis Companies, Amos Hostetter’s Pilot House Associates and J. & W. Seligman & Co. Inc.

It’s at Red Hat and answers questions like, “* How does the Red Hat/ArsDigita deal complement Red Hat’s business?”

Posted at Net-security.org: “PHProjekt is a modular application for the coordination of group activities and to share informations and document via intranet and internet … Of course – open source – PHProjekt is free software. Actual version: 3.1a (02.02.2002).

This script is a content management system for websites, much like slashcode or phpnuke.

There problem is in the module filemanager, where you can directly access the module and then define values which would have been defined with the script’s global configuration file had the module not be accessed directly.”

Posted on LinuxSecurity.com: “When session caching is enabled, mod_ssl will serialize SSL session
variables to store them for later use. Unpatched versions of mod_ssl prior
to version 2.8.7 using the ‘shm’ or ‘dbm’ session caches would do so using
a buffer with a fixed size, making it vulnerable to overflow.

To exploit the overflow, the server must be configured to require client
certificates, and an attacker must obtain a carefully crafted client
certificate that has been signed by a Certificate Authority which is
trusted by the server. If these conditions are met, it is possible for
an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the server.”

The New York Times (free registration needed) has a story about the copyright wars between technology groups and Hollywood. “Leaders of two of the nation’s most prominent industries, entertainment and technology, have begun publicly sniping at each other over how to stop consumers from illegally copying digital movies, music and television programs.”

Salon.com reports that “the loser in the browser wars has filed a private antitrust suit against Microsoft. But the company doesn’t deserve to win.”

From PRNewswire: SurfControl, the number
one Internet filtering company in the global security market, today announced
SuperScout(R) Web Filter VS(TM) 2.1, the new version of its high-velocity
filtering software for managing Internet access in the enterprise. Version 2.1
offers advanced bandwidth management options for large corporations, providing
scalable filtering and flexible configuration on Linux and Solaris platforms.
SuperScout Web Filter VS 2.1 was unveiled today at the CeBIT Exhibition being
held March 13th – 20th in Hanover, Germany. SuperScout Web Filter VS 2.1 runs on the Linux and Solaris operating
systems. Including a one-year subscription to the SurfControl URL Category
List, the product is priced at approximately $8 per user, based on an
installation of 3000 users. Pricing is also available for enterprise
environments up to 500,000 users.