Red Hat is releasing the source for their Neomagic chipset XF86 server. This was part of their XBF project, which releases binaries of X-Servers that you would otherwise not be able to get an server for. (note to video manufacturers:release specs! this is dumb!) Anyway, Neomagic has given Red Hat permission to release the source. Very cool. I've attached the official press release after this.

Pilchie writes "Hey, I live in a house with seven other students, we have an extra phone line for connectivity, and we are running a 10baseT network. I am configured as a proxy server for the network in Win98 (shudder!!), but would like to set something similiar up in Linux. We need: ftp, http, telnet, pop3, smtp mapping, nntp mapping, and socks 5 support. Is this possible? It also needs to be fairly simple, as I am not a Linux guru. I am running RedHat 5.0, with Kernel 2.1.122 "

Continuing his voyage, Jason Bennett has submitted his review of Peopleware. This is a book about how to run an office in the age of the "information worker". Not about coding, but about creating environments in which the work we are all used can be done. So, if you are interested (or have a manager who should read this), click below.

A number of you wrote in to talk about the fact that Applix has apparently decided that since the Linux market has continued to mature that they will be selling and marketing Applixware on their own, and no longer working thru Redhat. Let's hope this goes well for them.

Slashdot reader Brice Ruth has this question:

Since installing RedHat 5.1, I've been trying to find any kind of help in running iBCS. I realize that a package for iBCS is preinstalled with RedHat 5.1 (kernel-ibcs...), however, all attempts at running SCO binaries have failed. I HAVE been able to figure out that the reason it is failing is because I don't have libraries for the binaries. Let me rephrase -- I DO have the libraries, since I have access to a perfectly legal copy of SCO OpenServer, however, I have no idea where to place them and what directory structure is necessary so that they are found, etc. Two things would be quite helpful in my quest:

1. a good page that tells me all these things that I need to do
   
2. someone who has successfully used iBCS and is relatively familiar with the process in both SCO and Solaris.

If you have a question you would like posted to Ask Slashdot, then please send them to me. I would like to start posting more questions on a regular basis since Ask Slashdot is now its own section.

TrippD writes "I bought a Digital AlphaStation 200 through onsale.com a few weeks ago. After much strugle I have finally got it to boot into the installation of Redhat 5.0. I have gotten to the point where it starts for format the root partiontion, but it freezes every time, about half way through. I have tryed 2 different SCSI-2 drives (it didn't include a harddrive or cdrom). The kernel always reports 29XXX bytes of memory, even though it shiped with 16, and I have added 32 (Any combo, it still says 29 megs). HELP! "

Red Hat Software has won another award. This time RedHat Linux 5.1 receives the Editor's Choice award from the Australian Computer Magazine. Check out the press release for further details.

Mike Hicks writes "Raster has put up some more screenshots of GTK/GNOME themes at this page for those of us who like to look at great desktops... " All I can say is yummy.

Usman Latif has written a feature for us on Be, and why he believes that it makes sense for them to take their OS and release it as open source.

Aron Hsiao sent us a link to a Mining Co article on the LSA. ZDNet also has another story on the same topic. This one talksd about the division in the Linux community over the issue. Personally, I think the world has spoken and the LSA will be passed up in favor of Linux Compatibility Standards Project, and open collaberation between Red Hat and Debian. Update Michael McLagan of the LSA wrote back in to make this statement. Click on to read it.

I know a lot of you still had trouble compiling v0.27 of GNOME, so it's probably worth noting that GNOME is now available in binary format. You can download the latest RPM's from the FTP-site.

Melissa London of Red Hat wrote in to alert us that Raw Hide has been announced, and is up for testing. It's rough stuff, but it shows promise. The system will very possibly get all of us stabler systems, faster. No arguments here.

You knew it was coming, but not you know what it is. Raster has taken all his experience from Enlightenment, and hacked GTK to themable. Once the bugs are ironed out, all Gnome applications will be able to be customized to whatever bizarre extremes the user desires. The RHAD Themes Page has been updated with a gigantic screenshot showing what this really means. You will be impressed. Oh, and somebody probably ought to mirror that screenshot somewhere.

So many people submitted this story that I wonder if any readers might not know about it yet, but here it is. Debian and Red Hat are now collaberating to produce Linux Compatibility Standards (LCS) Erik Troan (Red Hat) and Dale Scheetz (Debian) are managing the project. I've attached the press release, so click on if you want more.

Yoav Cohen-Sivan wrote in to tell us that Marc Ewing has posted his take on the Qt License. The final result is that Qt will not be included with future versions of Red Hat's distro.

Peter D. Junger writes "I am sending this message, at the suggestion of Eric Raymond, to both the slashdot news service at www.slashdot.org and comp.os.linux.announce." Click below to read the whole message.

C'T, the best European Computing Magazine in my opinion, has published an interview with the divinity Linus. For those of you that do not read Teutonic, here are a few key points: Oracle's database port to Linux is important in that it shows how important Linux has become. Linux is squarely targeted at the desktop since that market is harder to penetrate than the server market: you have to get more things right than just the network-code. Linus uses neither KDE nor GNOME, staying with fvwm. He liked what he saw of KDE, but the constant flame wars have made him develop a certain aversion towards both of them. While Linus feels that Qt is a technically excellent product from a good company, he worries that the Linux community cannot accept KDE's political implications, which is a shame. But he understands Redhat's concern that it cannot do everything it deems necessary with KDE, for instance that it cannot repair a security flaw if it finds one in Qt because of Qt's license. Finally, while Linus himself does not want to sign any NDAs with Intel over Merced, he knows other Linux developers who have and is therefore sure that a Merced port will not be a problem.

I was tickled to see the Tool of Objective Truth at the UK branch of ZDNet showing... Linux crashing less than NT. This nonsense is accompanied by a positive Redhat 5.1 review

Redhat's president Bob Young argues in an Internet World article that Java has not taken off, because it is not Open Source. Apparently the remedy for Redhat Linux will be including the latest version of Kaffe. With Kaffe and Jikes the ground would be covered. Let's just help and hope.

Elliot Lee wrote in to tell us that Linus is the cover story in the next issue of Forbes. It proclaims "Peace, Love and Sofware". I find it strangely appealing that the Free Software Movement is so often thought of in hippy terms. Peace man. Anyway, uber cool for Linus and big PR for open source. Always enjoyable to see that sorta stuff.