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#### "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"

| ### Contents: News in General Software Announcements

### News in General

### Atlanta Linux Showcase

The Atlanta Linux Showcase is being presented by the Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts and Linux International on June 7 and 8 in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information, write to Atlanta Linux Showcase, P.O. Box 78491, Atlanta, GA 30357-2491 or see the web site at:

http://www.ale.org/showcase.

### GLUE Announcement

#### Every GLUE User Group To Receive Free Copy of BRU 2000 Backup And Restore Utility

Linux Expo, Research Triangle Park, NC (April 4, 1997) - Enhanced Software Technologies, Inc. announced today that Groups of Linux Users Everywhere (GLUE) will provide a free copy of the new BRU 2000 backup and restore utility to GLUE user groups.

Enhanced Software Technologies, Inc. has joined Linux International as a corporate member and is also offering members of GLUE user groups a 10-percent discount on purchases of BRU 2000.

Enhanced Software Technologies, Inc., a privately held corporation based in Tempe, Arizona, is a leading provider of high-reliability systems

Additional information on BRU Giveaway.

GLUE is a project of SSC publishers of Linux Journal. GLUE was implemented to provide a world-wide member group for Linux User Groups. GLUE member groups receive a subscription, materials for promoting and developing their group, a way of advertising their group in a global setting, list-serv and Linux Group location services, and discounts and samples from SSC and Linux Journal. Other vendors may also offer special services or discounts to GLUE member groups.

Additional information on Glue.

### SOLID desktop for Linux offered free of charge to developers

Solid Information Technology Ltd today announced a campaign targeted at the community of Linux developers. Between March and September 1997 Linux enthusiasts will be presented with a free personal version of the robust SQL database engine SOLID Server.

SOLID Server is a unique product by Solid Information Technology Ltd, a privately held innovator of database technologies.

To download your own copy of SOLID Desktop for Linux, access http://www.solidtech.com/linuxfre.htm to find a site near you.

Additional Information:
Solid Information Technology Ltd, http://www.solidtech.com.

### The Elsop Webmaster Resource Center

The Elsop Webmaster Resource Center
http:www.elsop.com/wrc/

Contains links and comprehensive coverage of computer industry trade publications, website development, HTML, servers, validators, link checkers, and software for webmasters.

Major sections include:

- Computer Industry Publications
- Electronic Commerce Solutions
- High Technology Trade Shows & Conferences
- History of the Technology
- Internet, Cyberspace and Computer Law
- Internet Trade Associations and Societies
- Link Validators & Site Mappers
- Reference Room of Outstanding Resources for Webmasters
- Systems and Software Sources on the Web
- Website Development Services

Produced and Sponsored by the Electronic Software Publishing Corporation http://www.elsop.com/linkscan

### Linux Jokes Wanted

Do you consider yourself witty? Do you want to show your fabulous sense of humor to the world? NOW IS YOUR CHANCE!

For several years now Linux Journal has been considering adding a monthly cartoon to our magazine. We know who we could have "draw" the cartoons, but we really don't have any idea what the jokes should be.

Please contribute any ideas you have for "Linux related" cartoons. The type of cartoon we are imagining are one panel cartoons akin to what they have in magazines like the New Yorker.

So send us your favorite Linux jokes (one liners are best), and we will turn them into cartoons.

### Too Good Not To Print

For a good time, check out this website! http://www.lightlink.com/fors/press/net-history.txt

### New User's Group in Knoxville

There is a new user's group for Linux in Knoxvill, TN They are called the Knoxville's Linux Users Base. Check out the web page at http://klub.ml.org

### AfterStep Themes Page

Take a look at the AfterStep Themes page! Trae Mc Combs has been devoting some time to creating themes for http://www.mindspring.com/~xwindow/as.html
or http://www.mindspring.com/~xwindow

### Version 7 of Corel's WordPerfect for Linux

Software Development Corporation http://www.sdcorp.com is working on releasing version 7 of Corel's WordPerfect for Linux. It's expected to ship sometime in April, with beta testing currently taking place.

Their webpages seem to warn that only beta testers have access to the software, but following the links takes you to the download area where they're freely available.

### Computer Comparison

Here is a URL that has some interesting data: http://fampm201.tu-graz.ac.at/karl/timings30.html
This web site is maintained by Karl Unterkofler, and has comparisons of various computers running the latest versions of Mathemetica. Karl and others run a series of tests on the machines, that involve timing mathematical problems.

8 of the 10 fastest machines are running the Mac OS! the first windows machine doesn't make a showing until 11th place( a pentium pro 200Mhz running Windows NT 4.0) Incidently this ppro 200 is beat by a Mac 7500 150 Mhz!

You might wonder how this can be when the SPECint95 for Pentium Pros and for Power PC 604's are so close? Its the operating system dummy!

What do I mean?

The Intel machines and the Macs are pretty equal, its Windows that slows things down. If you check out the URL you'll see that although 8 of the top ten are Macs or Mac clones, 2 of them are Intel pentium Pro 200Mhz machines. Sadly for the Mac, the number one spot is a Pentium Pro 200 with 64 Meg RAM and a 256kb L2 cache running LINUX 2.0.27.

This barely beats the number 2 machine, a 225Mhz Power Tower Pro from Power Computing with 256 Meg RAM and a 1Meg L2 cache. The other Intel in the top 10 is a Pentium Pro 200Mhz with 128Meg Ram and 256Kb L2 cache, running NeXT STEP 3.3.

I don't think that Mac owners should be ashamed of losing to a LINUX machine. LINUX is the result of an amazing effort put forth by many dedicated programmers to produce a state of the art 32bit operating system that utilizes hardware to the fullest. Mac users should be happy that they can go head to head with such an OS, and still maintain the great human interface of the Mac!

The only other contender is a NeXT machine! Wait'll your windows friends see redbox! Oh, BTW the first Win '95 machine doesn't make a showing until 15th place. its a Pentium pro 200, 64 MB, 256kb, OS: Win95 and is just below a PowerMac 7600/120, 48MB, 256kb, MacOS!

So if a windows user tells you their machine is faster, tell them that you know...if they switch to LINUX.

### Word Processor for the Linux Environment

The development of 'wp', a word processor for the Linux environment has recently been started. Although it's primary goal is a Linux-based word processor, wp will eventually be available for many other platforms.

WP is an open system, object orientated, and object driven; written mainly using C++, although little code has of yet been written. The current objective is a full design specification/mission statement and determining the current products that can be used to help the development of the product further.

Because of this openness, it is proposed to have the user interface seperate from the main program; the reason for this meaning that the user can choose whichever interface suits them best, from a ncurses driven text interface to an X-Windows display using different widget sets.

The web site for Wp is at http://sunsite.unc.edu/paulc/wp

If you wish to obtain the design specification notes for wp, they are also available at the above site.

A FAQ is currently being prepared, if you have any questions or suggestions, please send them to wp@squiznet.demon.co.uk

If you wish to contribute to the project in any form, please contact paulc@sunsite.unc.edu and introduce yourself, a copy of which will be sent to the wp-developers mailing list unless you specifically state that you do not wish for this to happen.

### Software Announcements

### Xcoral 3.0

Xcoral-3.0 has been released and now available on the Net.

- EUROPE: X/contrib-R5/clients
- USA: contrib/editors

Xcoral is a multiwindow mouse-based text editor for the X Window System. It contains a built-in browser that enables you to navigate through C functions, C++ classes, Java classes, methods and files. It also contains a SMall Ansi C Interpreter (Smac) which is also built-in to extend the editor's possibilities (user functions, key bindings, modes etc). Xcoral provides variable width fonts, menus, toolbar, scrollbars, buttons, search, regions, kill-buffers, macros and undo. An on-line manual box, with a table of contents and an index, helps you to use and customize the editor. Xcoral also offers facilities to write Latex documents and Html pages. Xcoral is a direct Xlib client and runs on color/bw X Display.

OS: SunOS 4.1.x, Solaris 2.[45], LINUX, AIX, HPUX, IRIX and OSF-1.

Changes from xcoral-2.5:

- New browser for C/C++ and Java.
- Standard X selection mecanism.
- Toolbar
- Some bugs fixed...

### Beta Version of EM86

The Linux/Alpha team at Digital Equipment Corporation today is releasing a developers' beta version of EM86, a Linux/x86 emulator for Linux/Alpha. Using components of the DIGITAL FX!32 technology, EM86 is a software emulator that enables Linux/Alpha systems to run Linux/x86 software without modification.

EM86 currently supports statically linked and dynamically linked x86 ELF32 binaries under Linux/Alpha. Future enhancements will include support for iBCS-2 compliant executables, improved emulator performance, and interoperation with native Alpha code. A release incorporating these features is anticipated in July, 1997.

They are releasing a beta version of EM86 at this time to provide Linux developers early access to the software, to aid in the verification of software packages, and to provide feedback and bug reports to the Linux/Alpha team.

The following Linux/x86 software packages run successfully on this beta version of EM86, with some qualifications as described in the README file included in the distribution:

- Netscape Navigator Gold 3.01
- Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0
- Red Baron web browser 3.00
- Applixware 4.2

EM86 may be obtained via anonymous ftp from: ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/Linux-Alpha/em86

### XForms V0.86

XForms V0.86 is now available from:

- http://brigg.phys.uwm.edu/xforms
- ftp://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/pub/xforms

for Linux/i386, Linux/alpha, Linux/sparc, and Linux/m68k.

XForms is a graphical user interface toolkit and builder based on Xlib for X Window Systems. XForms is a portable and efficient C library that can be used in both C and C++ programs. The library works in all visuals and all depths (1-24) and comes with a rich set of objects such as buttons (of many flavors, including color XPMs as labels) , browsers, sliders, and menus integrated into an elegant event/object callback execution model that allows fast and easy construction of X-applications. It also has OpenGL (on SGI) and Mesa support.

XForms comes bundled with

- Precompiled library (static and shared) and header files.
- Source code for 50+ demonstration programs;
- Precompiled fdesign, an interactive GUI builder that can be used to design dialogues in a WYSIWYG way and to output the corresponding UI code for you.
- 250+ pages of indexed documentation (tutorial and reference) in both PostScript and html

perl, ada95, python and fortran bindings to xforms are in alpha/beta. Please visit the xforms' home page for more info.

### Debian 1.3 Available for Beta Test

Debian 1.3 is now in beta test. We are performing a month-long test with an organized quality control team. If you'd like to be an official beta tester, please contact Dale Scheetz dwarf@polaris.net .

The Debian 1.3 files are under the "frozen" directory on most of the Debian mirror sites. There are now 73 Debian mirrors worldwide! You can find the mirror list at ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/README.mirrors or ftp://debian.crosslink.net/pub/debian/README.mirrors. Please consider that this is beta-quality software and there will be bugs. If you have any problem, please see the information on our bug-tracking system at http://www.debian.org/support.html, or write to Dale at the above address.

### Freedom Desktop Lite Announced (1.01)

Announcing the public availability of the Freedom Desktop Lite. Freedom Desktop Lite is a desktop environment/GUI integrated to the Unix environment. It helps users interact with Unix quickly and efficiently. Freedom Desktop runs transparently in a variety of Unix environments, from Desktop computers (i.e. Linux) to enterprise workstations.

The Freedom Desktop Lite environment bundles the following applications:

- File Manager
- Program Manager
- Print Tool
- Find Tool
- Editor
- Terminal emulator
- Pixmap/Icon Editor
- Screen grabber
- Screen saver
- Rolodex

For more information and the ftp site feel free to visit http://freedom.lm.com/desktop.html

Published in Linux Gazette Issue 17, May 1997

##### This page written and maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette, gazette@ssc.com
Copyright © 1997 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.