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What a Week!



Wow!  What a week!

It looks as everybody has waited till late March '98, to announce
his software and/or new release and/or candidate release. I don't
remember a month (and maybe even a year) with so many news and
updates (regarding to Linux, open source, etc.) like this week
(and next week; some of the announcements refer to next week, or
another soon date):

KERNEL:
======
In paraller to the stable path (pre-2.0.34 was announced today), the
betas enhance quickly: pre-2.1.92 was announced today (28.3.98), and
the final (2.2) is nearer than ever. The folks of GGI set an
ultimatum ("if GGI will not be included in 2.2, we will move to
another UNIX"), and if Linus will not surrender (Linus, don't be
afraid, we are all behind you!), a candidate revision is expected
soon!

Distributions:
=============
RedHat: According to rumors, RedHat is expected to announce 5.1 very
        soon.
Debian: Current version is 1.3.1, but codefreeze of 2.0 is available
        since this week (25.3.98), and final 2.0 is expected soon.
        Note: this version will include libc6.
S.u.S.E:5.2 was announced this week, and can be ordered now. To be
        available in a few days. This version is capable of running
        Java Workshop!

Open Source Software for Linux and Others:
=========================================
Apache: In parallel to the stable versions (1.2.6 was announced this
        week on 24.3.98), 1.3b6 is expected in the next week, and
        as it looks, 1.3b7 will be the last before the final release
        will be ready (probably on April).
GTK+:   0.99.9 was announced yesterday (27.3.98), the final version
        (1.0) to be ready in a few days!
GiMP:   0.99.23 was announced yesterday (27.3.98), the final version
        (1.0) to be ready in a few days.
Mesa:   (an OpenGL clone) 3.0beta3 was announced this week (24.3.98)
        The final 3.0 to be ready soon.
PHP3:   Finally, after 4 alphas and 6 betas, Release Candidate was
        announced this week (23.3.98), and the official 3.0 is
        expected in a few days.
Mozilla:The full source code of Netscape 5.0 beta, to be available
        in 3 days !!!

Free Databases:
==============
PostgreSQL: After many months without any news or change, 2 (!) new
versions were announced this week (6.3, 6.3.1). Although the major
number (6) was not changed, there is a real reason to celebrate.

MySQL: 2.21.27 Gamma was announced today; It is still not the final
version, but after many alphas, betas, and even 4 gammas, the final
version looks nearer than ever (next week?)

Samba: After a long wait, 1.9.18p4 was announced yesterday (27.3.98)
and according to the development team, the next major version is
expected soon.

Java Stuff:
==========
JDK 1.2: The 3rd beta was announced this week (23.3.98), and
according to Sun, it is going to be the last beta before the Release
Candidate (but not soon  :-(  ).

Java Activator: Yes! The tool that will allow us to be free of the
bundled JVM of the browsers, and use Sun's JVM instead of Microsoft
or Netscape's JVMs. Current version is Early Access 3, but according
to Sun, the final release is expected in a few days!

JServ: Well, the news is only that it is going to leave its alpha
stage and entering its beta phase, by the near 0.9.11 release, but
since it is already usable, it is important news (JServ allows
Apache developers to use server-side Java serlets, which are the
future replacement of CGI and other scripts).

Summary:
=======
The revolution didn't begin this week; Since the beginning of '98,
a bunch of new software and versions was announced, some of them to
have strong impact in the future (for example, FreeType 1.0 which
was announced 2 months ago, is a core technology, and we will feel
its revolutionary impact only in the following months, when various
tools which will be based on it, will be ready). But it looks that
everybody wants to be ready before the launching of Windows 98.
Even non-UNIX operating systems for x86, are doing their best to
be ready before Microsoft, such as BeOS 3.0 for x86 (the first BeOS
to run on x86 processors, announced this week) and Novell's NetWare
5.0 (no date was specified). If this rate of announcements will
continue, then we are going to have a hot spring!

-- 
Eli Marmor