This Q just in from pvjr: "I work for a non-profit Christian radio station, but this question could apply to anyone in radio broadcasting of any format. We are using Window as our platform, essentially due to the fact that all of the broadcasting software is Windows based. I was wondering (hoping actually) if there were any Unix based broadcasting software out there? This should not be confused with Realplayer or other streaming software as the software needs to be able to generate logs with a variety of different catagories, allow for fillers, logos, and jingles, along with editing. If there isn't, this would be a wonderful place to start an open-source presence, where one could take advantage of the stability, reliability, and security of Unix for mission-critical machines."

Lysol asks: "Many years ago I wrote a POS (Point of Sale System) in a language (that's amazingly still around) called PowerBasic. One thing I really liked about it was the ability to do inline assembly and compile to machine code, which was a very big deal for DOS-based Basic code. For my POS app I used many text graphic libraries that gave me a poor-mans GUI for DOS. Now I'm going back to school and I need to brush up on my C, and that got me thinking about developing it in Linux. When I deployed this system it ran on old 386 machines. A lot of newer systems run on expensive hardware and it would be cool to provide a free GPL POS on Linux that can function as aterminal/text based solution. If you've ever used a cash register, sometimes GUI stuff with a mouse is not the best...especially for end users." One only has to look at FreshMeat to find examples of text UI libraries (and I'm sure that list isn't a complete one), but which ones have you used that you found enjoyable to develop in? How easy would it be to develop a text-mode application that has a UI that is just as capable as any GUI?

flsquirrel asks: "As I spent 5 hours of my Sunday afternoon trying to get some form of Linux to load on my Sparcstation 5, I started to wonder where the support for all these Sun boxes is headed. Redhat has dropped Sparc altogether as a supported platform. Some others like Mandrake have recently picked it up but seem dismally unprepared to tackle the platform. Most distributions ignore the platform completely. So I thought I'd throw this out to the Slashdot community for discussion. Is there any hope of saving Linux on the Sparc? What options do SPARCstation owners have for a reletively up to date distro that isn't in beta or otherwise have bizzar issues stemming from someone just trying to recompile an Intel distro for the Sparc architecture?" One of the great things about Linux is its ability to run on many different architectures. So why is SPARC support beginning to lag? Lack of interest? Lack of resources? Would anyone be interested in contributing the missing necessary resources?

Scott McNeil e-mailed me regarding Linux Standard Base releasing .9 - check out the full release of information below.

Mosix is a scalable clustering system for Linux, released under the GPL. Version 1.0 for the 2.4 kernels is now available.

GroundBounce writes "Here's an article at NewsForge detailing how Red Hat is taking the initiative to broker deals with state legislatures to change parts of UCITA ^[?] which are damaging to open source software, such as mandatory warranties and reverse engineering. They are also working with the uniform law commission to try to change the prototype for the law." Good work by Red Hat - that's a necessary change.

Thanks to Dan Gillmor for pointing out Linus' reply to the comments that Mundie from Microsoft made this week. The response is vintage Linus - but the points he raises regarding openness vis a vis science & learning and open source is very cogent.

CarrotLord asks: "Looking at the recent release of IBM's Small Business Suite for Linux got me wondering about distribution compatibility and standards. Personally, I run Debian, and am considering a move to Progeny. However, I am concerned by the fact that many products (particularly commercial ones) are available for only a particular subset of distributions (usually RedHat, Mandrake, SuSE, TurboLinux and Caldera, but rarely Debian-based distributions or the BSDs). What is the current state of play, particularly in regards to tools for developers to enable them to create and test installation packages for various distributions?" Such a tool would go a long way in removing the force behind the "Linux fragmentation" argument that most of Linux's detractors often refer to.

Gnight asks: "After reading a recent article at ABC News stating that U.S. citizens work more than any other industrialized country, I have started to wonder more about the subject. So my question is, how much does the average slashdot reader work in a week? Where do you live? and What do you do?" Slashdot did an informal poll on this a long time ago, but it was more from the workday standpoint, though it looked like the majority of us were working 9-10 hour days. Is it still the same today as it was almost 2 years ago?

There's a pretty cool article running on Linux.com about the how-to for writing kernel drivers - in this case, the PC speaker. Interesting case and it's interesting to see what's going on in there.

A reader submitted: "Just got a call from a friend who used to work for Linuxcare until about an hour ago. The merger with Turbolinux has been called off and there are heavy casualties at both companies. According to my friend, Linuxcare is now down to about 30 people." That's just hearsay - but LinuxGram has a confirmation story as well.

JoeT-Bone writes "Found this at LinuxToday, It's a UnixReviw.com review of the of the IBM Small Business Suite for Linux. " Part of Big Blue's continuing move to porting to programs to Linux - anyone had experience with this? Good, Bad? Post below!

An Anonymous Coward writes: "I saw this article today in Linuxgram. It talks about how Linux Global Partners apparently has left Metro Link, one of its investments, high and dry. Wonder if this will affect Ximian or Gnucash." Metro Link, it turns out, has been doing pretty well in the meantime, but hasn't seen much of the $5 million dollars it expected from LGP, and as a result has been investigating other partners. The LGP portfolio lists Metro Link, but looks like it hasn't been updated in a while.

Patrick Darden asks: "Alacritech has a series of high performance FastEther NICs that offload the IP stack onto ASICs. They call it Session Layer Interface Card technology (SLIC) and claim that it increases TCP performance tremendously. PC Magazine has reviewed this card twice (the latest here) and shows 16-400% speed boosts over other NICs. They have a single port, dual port, and quad port. These are for NT only right now, but Linux drivers are in the pipe. Intel has a NIC geared towards servers that they claim decreases CPU usage tremendously. But only for NT. 3Com has a similar NIC, also only for NT (afaik). What is the best FastEther NIC for Linux? Are there any performance roundups? Any studies based on real criteria? Any real performance figures?" What about FastEther drivers for the other Unicies out there? There was a similar Ask Slashdot about this about two months ago. Is this a substantially different technology, or just more of the same under a different name?

Marek Kupsta writes: "Linux 2.4.4 is out! Go get it! =)" Check the Changelog. As I write this, the bandwidth meter on kernel.org says 34.4 MBit/s.

Mark Bainter writes: "ESR has released CML2 the new config tool for the linux kernel. I'm sure the softies amoung us will love it, but frankly I think it sucks. Half the things listed as features I'd list as bug reports. A few "highlights": In CML2 it will automatically select and deselect required features related to the option you are manipulating. Options don't appear at all when not needed instead of being greyed out, and the language has been changed to declaritive instead of imperitive. And last but certainly not least, it runs on Python." Interesting discussion on the current kernel traffic about the new tool, too -- but it sounds mostly positive. Thank you, Eric, for bringing arcane kernel issues closer to earthlings.

Oliver writes "Sony officially announced their port of Linux to the PlayStaion2 game console. In the press release they mention that they were moved by demand the community petition (see this story) demonstrated with over 6000 signers. The PS2 Linux Kit page is currently only in Japanese and there's not much info thre yet other than some pictures. But according to it, a Beta version is going to be sold to 1000 members of the community in June for about $200. The Kit is going to consist of an external HDD/Ethernet unit connected to the PCMCIA slot, found on early Japanese PS2 models, a VGA adapterplus USB Mouse and Keyboard. Kits for oversee models are supposedly in planning. The kit will include a complete Linux/X11 environment with all sources, technical hardware manuals for the EE, GS and vectorunits plus a low-level API and Mesa drivers for graphics. " Won't work for us unfortunate american PS2 junkies. But its a sweet step.

An Anonymous Coward points to a review listed on osfaq.com, summarizing: "Red Hat's latest release is here with the much improved 2.4 kernel. Its new features make it a compelling upgrade for both server and workstation installation. In addition, there has been more of an emphasis on security in this release than in previous Red Hat releases." Similarly, another nameless reader writes: " The Duke of URL has given Libranet a favourable review. It looks like Libranet may be heading toward becoming one of the big players in the Linux distributions game." I'm still looking for a good review of Mandrake 8.0, which seems to have generated few reviews so far. (Or distro reviews willing to be a little harsher in general.)

A reader writes "This is Rick Lehrbaum's "traditional" report on "all things Linux" at the Embedded Systems Conference which took place during the week of April 9, 2001 in San Francisco, California. Lehrbaum briefly describes many of the Embedded Linux oriented exhibits, takes us on a photo tour of some cool Embedded Linux based devices that were being shown off, and offers his assessment of the current state of the Embedded Linux industry. There's even a "best of show award" for the "geekiest demo" at ESC! Full report is on Linuxdevices.com"

avidwriter@excite.com writes: "Linux Today is reporting that the phone lines to Stormix have been disconnected, and the Web site isn't accepting orders. Looks like another Linux vendor is down for the count." So, I think we'll officially pronounce Stormix dead. Some of the FTP sites are still carrying Stormix ISO's, so if you're looking for an easy way to install Debian on a machine, better get them while you can.