Andy Oram on "European Union Researches the Benefits of Open Source Software"

by Tara McGoldrick Walsh
Linux Newsletter for 09/16/2002

Dear Reader,

This week O'Reilly's Linux and open source editor Andy Oram looks at the possible implications of a recent study, called the "Free/Libre and Open Source Software: Survey and Study," sponsored by the European Union. The study explored the reasons behind the widespread use of, and support for, free and open source software.

One of the most interesting findings is that quality issues trump cost issues when it comes to using free or open software, which according to Andy, is "powerful ammunition for activists fighting the old misconception ... that free software is a poor man's consolation for the lack of funds to buy really good software." Andy provides some excellent analysis of the study--find out more here:
European Union Researches the Benefits of Open Source Software

We also have a look this week at one viable solution to spam-- SpamShield 1.40--a Perl-based spam filter for sendmail. Learn how it works and how to install and configure it on your server.
SpamShield: A Perl-Based Spam Filter for sendmail

Also, in this week's Big Scary Daemon's column, Michael Lucas says the hardest part to using sudo is configuring sudoers--its permissions file. Learn how to simplify sudo maintenance and clean up your sudo configuration using aliases.
Sudo Aliases and Exclusions

And if you're interested in advanced PHP references, John Coggeshall discusses the concept of returning a reference from a function, as well as using references within objects.
Advanced PHP References

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Finally, Noel Davis looks at an injection attack against PHP; several problems in KDE and Konqueror; buffer overflows in gain, kadmin, multiple applications in Tru64, and Ethereal; and much more.
PHP Injection Attack

Thanks for reading,

Tara A. McGoldrick
tara@oreilly.com
Web Editor
O'Reilly Network

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