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frank mazzolli | 1 Aug 2003 07:09
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A mailing campaign to Sony may be in order?

Sony has released some details about its Playstation
3, and while in very prilimary stages, this is prime
time for architecture design. This device is looking
to be the first multicore chip on a single die
targeted to general consumers. It will not be a pure
gaming system, but rather belong in a class of
products that can be described as media hubs. They
intend it to emulate the functionality of a TiVo, Home
PC, and its previous function as a game console. It is
speculated that it will be 200x faster than a 2.5 ghz
Pentium 4. Sony is spending ~300 billion yen to
develop the processor itself. Specifications are here:
(http://nkcp.zive.net/kokoro/archives/001146.html). 

Clearly they will need a larger operating system than
just a simple loader to implement the functions of a
PC into this product.

NetBSD could quite clearly improve their time to
market drastically as well as put NetBSD on the first
generation of multicore consumer products. Needless to
say once a trend like that has been started it is
difficult to stop. The money, development force, and
publicity this would bring in would be immense should
they choose to release that they are infact using
NetBSD as the operating system.

I suggest that if possible we begin a (snail) mail
campaign to discuss the benefiets of using NetBSD for
thier project. I believe it would be most effective if
(Continue reading)

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Jan Schaumann | 2 Aug 2003 00:14
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[jschauma <at> netbsd.org: CVS commit: htdocs]

Hi all,

I'm happy to announce that a new translation has made it onto our main
page.  Many thanks to Ants Aader for his work on the Estonian
translation.  If you would like to see your native language be linked to
from the main page, I'd suggest you get busy translating. :-)

The section that should be focused on, as they are the most important to
promote NetBSD, are
	- the Misc/ section
	- the Goals/ section
	- the Documentation/ section

Besides English, we now have the following translations:

> 	htdocs/de: index.html
> 	htdocs/es: index.html
> 	htdocs/et: index.html
> 	htdocs/fr: index.html
> 	htdocs/ja: index.html
> 	htdocs/ko: index.html
> 	htdocs/lt: index.html
> 	htdocs/nl: index.html
> 	htdocs/pl: index.html
> 	htdocs/pt: index.html
> 	htdocs/ru: index.html
> 	htdocs/se: index.html
> 	htdocs/zh_CN: index.html
> 	htdocs/zh_TW: index.html
(Continue reading)

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Mike Cheponis | 5 Aug 2003 12:29
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NetBSD US Government Certified?

Does NetBSD have a US Government security certification like Linux and
Windows have?

Thanks -Mike

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/05/technology/05BLUE.html?pagewanted=print&position=

2 Companies to Announce U.S. Clearance for Linux Security
By STEVE LOHR
August 5, 2003

In a step to help the Linux operating system gain popularity among government and corporate users, I.B.M.
and SuSE Linux plan to announce today that they have security certification for Linux from the United
States government, a first for the free system.

The government, under the direction of the Pentagon's defense information agency, has revamped its
certification process in the last year to improve the security of computer systems as part of the effort to
strengthen homeland security.

The program, called Common Criteria certification, posed a potential hurdle to the use of Linux in
government data centers because such certification programs are costly and time-consuming. Linux, a
variant of the Unix operating system, was created and improved by a network of programmers who freely
share the code.

I.B.M. and SuSE Linux, a German distributor of Linux, made the investment to go through the process. The
certification expected to be announced today applies only to the SuSE Linux distribution of the
operating system running on I.B.M. server computers. Analysts expect Red Hat, the leading American
distributor of Linux, to gain certification for its Linux version soon. Hardware companies like
Hewlett-Packard are expected to offer support for certification of that version.
(Continue reading)

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Hubert Feyrer | 5 Aug 2003 14:11
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(fwd) Call for Papers - 6th Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation


Someone should arrange a NetBSD booth there! :)

 - Hubert

-- forwarded message --
From: Alex Walker <alex <at> usenix.org>
Newsgroups: comp.os.research
Subject: Call for Papers - 6th Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation
Organization: USENIX
Approved: comp-os-research <at> ftp.cse.ucsc.edu
Originator: osr <at> cse.ucsc.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: ftp.cse.ucsc.edu
Message-ID: <3f2efe16$1 <at> news.ucsc.edu>
Date: 4 Aug 2003 17:45:10 -0800
X-Trace: 4 Aug 2003 17:45:10 -0800, ftp.cse.ucsc.edu
Lines: 36
Path: uni-berlin.de!fu-berlin.de!newsfeed.online.be!news-hog.berkeley.edu!ucberkeley!128.114.129.38.MISMATCH!news.ucsc.edu!osr
Xref: uni-berlin.de comp.os.research:8257

The 6th Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI 
'04) will take place December 6-8, 2004 at the Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel 
in San Francisco, California, and we would like to encourage your 
participation.

OSDI 2004 will bring together professionals from academic and industrial 
backgrounds in what has become a premier forum for discussing the 
design, implementation, and implications of systems software.

Paper submissions are due on May 14, 2004. This is a hard deadline -- no
(Continue reading)

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MLH | 5 Aug 2003 20:14

Re: NetBSD US Government Certified?

On 5 Aug 2003 08:15:01 -0500, Mike Cheponis wrote:
> Does NetBSD have a US Government security certification like Linux and
> Windows have?

Let's read between the lines here:

> 2 Companies to Announce U.S. Clearance for Linux Security
> 
> In a step to help the Linux operating system gain popularity
> among government and corporate users, I.B.M. and SuSE Linux plan
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 (among bureaucrats)
> to announce today that they have security certification for Linux
> from the United States government, a first for the free system.
>
> The government, under the direction of the Pentagon's defense
> information agency, has revamped its certification process in the
> last year to improve the security of computer systems as part of
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
           (to improve the bureaucratic organizational control of)
> the effort to strengthen homeland security.
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
            (to provide excuses for increased bureacractic spending)
>
> The program, called Common Criteria certification, posed a
> potential hurdle to the use of Linux in government data centers
> because such certification programs are costly and time-consuming.
                                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> The government's security standard, analysts say, may well also
(Continue reading)

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David Laight | 5 Aug 2003 18:17
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Re: NetBSD US Government Certified?

> Let's read between the lines here:

You missed:

To force departments to buy 'certified' software from specific
suppliers, effectively stopping and small (and especially foreign)
companies competing due to the excessive costs of certification.

Some of the EMC tests have much the same effect.

	David

--

-- 
David Laight: david <at> l8s.co.uk
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Andy Wallis | 5 Aug 2003 14:32
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Re: NetBSD US Government Certified?

> Does NetBSD have a US Government security certification like Linux and
> Windows have?
As far as I know, no company has submitted NetBSD for a Common Critera review.
In my experience, most companies that look at Operating Systems based
on that information rarely take the steps required to make the machine conform
to the system and configuration that was used in the review. My favorite was a
friend of mine who purchased Windows 2000 machines because it got an C2 rating.
When I asked if he has run the C2setup program to lock the machine down, he was
suprised because he had never heard that the ratings were based on a certain
software and hardware configuration.

In all fairness, submitting an OS or application for CC review is not for the
faint of heart. After taking the months to years for review, any changes made
to the system must have said system reviewed again. CC is only meant for a 
static system that would be in place until the machine or OS is decomsioned.

I doubt that Wasabi Systems or a group of users would or ever could submit a 
version of NetBSD for review. The review is costly, time consuming, and is only
useful if you want to bid or be used on US government contracts that require
a certain level of CC conformity.

-Andy
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Matt Prazak | 5 Aug 2003 18:51
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Re: NetBSD US Government Certified?


--- Andy Wallis <rawallis <at> comcast.net> wrote:
> ...
> 
> In all fairness, submitting an OS or application for CC review is not for the
> faint of heart. After taking the months to years for review, any changes made
> to the system must have said system reviewed again. CC is only meant for a 
> static system that would be in place until the machine or OS is decomsioned.
> 
> ...

Isn't CC self-defeating, then, if any change, such as a "service
pack", requires re-certification?  Perhaps, a logical conclusion is
that CC is completely worthless for any computer that isn't on a very
exclusive isolated military network.  Outside of that, it seems to be
a marketing tool to reel in easy money from well-intentioned--but
naive--customers.

Matt

__________________________________
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SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
http://sbc.yahoo.com
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Michael W. Lucas | 5 Aug 2003 19:37

Re: NetBSD US Government Certified?

On Tue, Aug 05, 2003 at 09:51:53AM -0700, Matt Prazak wrote:
> Isn't CC self-defeating, then, if any change, such as a "service
> pack", requires re-certification?  Perhaps, a logical conclusion is
> that CC is completely worthless for any computer that isn't on a very
> exclusive isolated military network.  Outside of that, it seems to be
> a marketing tool to reel in easy money from well-intentioned--but
> naive--customers.

Not necessarily.

Many commercial applications are not on the Internet.  For example,
several big car companies and automotive-related businesses have quite
a few isolated systems that must qualify for the CC, per company
mandate.

==ml

--

-- 
Michael Lucas		mwlucas <at> FreeBSD.org, mwlucas <at> BlackHelicopters.org
Today's chance of throwing it all away to start a goat farm: 41.8%
		http://www.BlackHelicopters.org/~mwlucas/
           Absolute OpenBSD:   http://www.AbsoluteOpenBSD.com/
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MLH | 5 Aug 2003 22:27

Re: NetBSD US Government Certified?

On 5 Aug 2003 14:10:01 -0500, David Laight wrote:
>> Let's read between the lines here:
> 
> You missed:
> 
> To force departments to buy 'certified' software from specific
> suppliers, effectively stopping and small (and especially foreign)
> companies competing due to the excessive costs of certification.
> 
> Some of the EMC tests have much the same effect.

To my knowledge *all* government licensing (scams) are simply
legalized protection rackets that accomplish three primary things:

1) increased revenue and control for the gov

2) more 'market' control for the big boys whose organizational
bureacracy is designed to comply/facilitate such

3) lowered technical bar to allow the lowest common denominator to
buy into the scam 

If Windows has actually bought into this scam, I believe you have
prima facie evidence for at least #3.

I was attempting to be gentle in the previous article. :^)
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Gmane