Barak Pearlmutter asks: "I'm teaching computer architecture this spring. The course involved a lot of assembly programming, and in the past has used a SPARC simulator. I'd like to get a bunch of PDAs with RISC processors (ARM or MIPS) instead. This requires a development environment that runs under Linux and supports assembler...and some PDAs. The less memory and the slower the CPU the better! Also no virtual memory or real OS to get in the way - best to have direct access to the display and buttons."

Guylhem writes "After the problems the LDP had with Debian rules, it seems clear we need an organization which would for example sort documentation between free (as "libre" or "freedom") and non free. After some discussions with people from the GNU project and the FSF, we came to the conclusion no such project already existed. I am please to announce that I am now starting the GNU Writing Movement with help from the GNU project. We will provide links to existing free documents, with a possibility to rate the documentation quality. The project is not competing with existing documentation project such as the LDP or GDP. It will complement them, both by serving somewhat as a meta-project for free software documentation, to provide help to authors willing to replace their FAQ or HOWTO will a full Guide on a specific topic, and to develop brand-new book-length material on many topics. "

Now that Linux kernel 2.5 is under development by Linus and others, the all-important job of maintaining and updating the "old" kernel series (the one that people rely on in day-to-day use) has fallen to 2.4 maintainer Marcelo. You asked Marcelo about everything from the influence of politics (age and otherwise) to his working enviroment and approach to maintainership; his answers are below.

One of the most-heard complains from people who use distributions like Red Hat, Mandrake or SuSE is the "dependency hell" problem. You want to install an RPM and bang -- you have a dependency problem. There have been a few attempts to overcome dependency problems: SuSE with their YOU (Your Online Update), Mandrake with URPMI, and Redhat with their UP2date program. There is also a solution from Aduva called Aduvizor, but it's not supporting the latest distributions yet. Read on to learn about another interesting solution ...

Slashback brings you tonight updates and amplifications on the Treo portable drive, recent Higgs Boson findings, finding LDP documentation authors, and more.

Guylhem writes: "The former LDP license was the first license used for our documentation. While we are now recommending the GNU FDL and the OPL 1 without options A or B, many documents are still licensed under the LDPL. David Merril, our Collection Coordinator, noticed that the LDPL is "not free" according to the Debian Free Software Guidelines. We have to get in touch with the authors as soon as possible or 2/3 of the LDP document collection will be removed from the base Debian distribution because the code freeze is happening in 2 days. Maybe some of the LDP unreachable authors are reading slashdot and could take 1 minute to submit an updated document licensed under the FDL or OPL v1 -A -B ? Another solution is to find volunteers to rewrite from scratch the concerned documents."

HNFO writes: "HP is unveiling their new 'blade' servers that fit onto a single card. Their press release is here. They are currently available with your choice of RedHat, Debian and SuSE. A picture of the card can be found here and a picture of the chassis can be found here." If you're looking for high-density slot-based computers, earlier postings about RLX's Transmeta blades and OmniCluster's x86 variety might interest you as well.

mike_sucks writes: "The first step to porting Debian to the Win32 platform has been made - dpkg is compiling under Cygwin. Check out the post on debian-devel and the Debian GNU/w32 port's site." Some of the posters on the debian-devel list aren't too pleased with the idea.

robstah writes: "The installer is the heart of any Operating System, Debian is no different. The mature but ageing boot-floppies installer will rear its head for the last time in woody. In this interview with Adam Di Carlo, one of the lead developers of this system we investigate the past, present and future of the Debian installation system ready for the upcoming release of woody: The next generation of Debian."

Mark Shuttleworth asks: "I'm hoping to launch an African Space Program by flying to space with the Russians. There have been some ups and downs along the road ;-) There is still no certainty, but the battle is half the fun. The program includes science, education and media. We have some great science experiments submitted by South African scientists, in physiology, genetics, proteomics and stem cell work. I wonder what ideas the Slashdot community has for world class space science or education, or other suggestions to make this project a huge success for Africa? If someone has a great idea, and it requires only safe, light, COTS equipment, I will try to get it onto the flight when/if I ever get up there. Any ideas are welcome. I'm looking for science experiments that are of interest to Africa, that are cutting edge, and that can only be done from space. Or educational things that demonstrate fun science that is uniquely possible in space. And yes, Debian, Python, Mozilla, POV, LAME, TTR and other friends will ride along too."

snotty6969 writes: "Freeze Update. Anthony Towns sent in an updated report about the Woody freeze process. We're almost into the last week for uploads of base packages. If there are outstanding bugs you'd like to see fixed, provide patches or upload now. We are also getting into the last days for ensuring that standard and task packages get included in the Woody release. At the moment it looks like a lot of packages will be removed from Woody. Among these are a whole bunch of commonly used programs like gpm, Mutt, CVS, Procmail, Apache and Mozilla. People who can fix bugs in these packages and care about them are encouraged to send in patches or upload fixed packages using Anthony's unofficial NMU guidelines."

Cathal asks: "Okay. I am a senior in a large Irish university, which is a mostly Microsoft house. As a member of the college computer society, I have heard that the college bean-counters want to reduce the cost of the IT dept. The IT dept are 'thinking' of turning to Linux as a method of cutting costs and improving the service to the staff and the students. I am looking for suggestions and feedback on previous experience in similar situations, (large changeovers, support)."

FlashBoltzmann asks: "I'm a physics student in the US working with a group of physicists, mostly from Africa, who are interested in helping their colleagues on the continent obtain free software for scientific and educational use. Often, many science departments in Africa have little or almost nonexistent funding to purchase new software packages, especially for scientific research or education. Some know of the free software available but say it takes up large amounts of time over often slow internet connections to find and obtain it. I am asking for any recommendations on freeware or open source software, for any operating system, that anyone knows about. We are looking at the Debian version of Linux for a lot of the great software that comes with it but resources for MS Windows would be helpful as well."

Eugenia writes: "Last month Progeny Linux Systems ceased development on their own distribution in order to focus on selling professional services. In their announcement, the company cited the prohibitive cost of developing and publishing a distro. This move marked another firm in the wave of tech companies, Linux and otherwise, making significant changes to adjust to the market slump. Progeny's distribution was based on Debian GNU/Linux, and many in the Linux community were closely watching the company because it was founded by Debian creator Ian Murdock. OSNews spoke to the President of Progeny Linux Systems, Michael Schafer, once the dust had settled on his company's announcement."

Colonel Bleep asks: "My company is finally on the road to getting serious about Unix server security. Though there's a lot more to do, the current push is to replace telnet, ftp, rcp and the like with ssh. Problem is, the security team in charge of the transition is composed mostly of Microsoft-trained techicians that hold varying opinions of open source software. Non team members, such as myself, are kept abreast of developments via email. Input is encouraged. OpenSSH came up during a recent email exchange with the coordinator. It didn't take long for the "isn't proprietary is better?" mantra to rear its ugly head. Though I use OpenSSH at home I found myself at a loss to explain why the corp might want to consider using it over commercial SSH. That's aside from the obvious open source peer review argument, of course. I haven't been able to uncover any direct side-by-side reviews of the two products but I would very much like to pass such a comparison along. What say ye?" Update: 11/14 2:40p EDT by C : Users of SSHv1 may want to take a look at this security bulletin on a potential SSHv1 exploit that is rumored to be in the wild.

aht asks: "OK!, here is my problem: I'm about to install a LAN of about 20 computers. Each computer must have a soundcard and a videocamera to videoconference with each other and to the outside (Internet). As Netmeeting compatibility is required, we're trying GNOMEmeeting with a USB Logitech QuickCam, but results have not been satisfactory at all. We're not sure if that bad results come from Logitech's USB driver, GNOMEmeeting or both."

Patrick Mullen writes: "The Duke of URL has posted their review of Conectiva Linux 7.0. Conectiva Linux was the first distribution to support APT-RPM, which cures most of the ails of typical RPMs. Their latest release even bundles a graphical front-end to APT, and brings the worlds of Debian and Red Hat together."

The first slashback of normal time (not Daylight Savings) in a while, tonight with news of 3Dwm's continuing progress, ways brave OS X pioneers can bravely reclaim their lost MP3 files, and a word of caution on HP's upcoming digital-audio playbox.

codazzo writes "Debian 2.2r4 is out. As their website states, "The fourth revision of Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 (codename `potato') has been released. This point release, revision 2.2r4, mostly includes security updates, along with a few corrections of serious bugs in the stable distribution." " You can see the press release - or get it from the FTP list.

jwest writes "LCS now has Debian GNU/Linux 'woody' on DVD-R We were just tired of shucking around the 6 CD/ROM's it takes to do a new installation with woody. One DVD that can be read on a common place DVD reader seemed like its time had come. More info." Debian unstable, for the adventurous with a DVD-drive. Update: 10/25 23:14 GMT by T : Sorry, that's "testing." Just ... testing.