MailBITS/13-Nov-95

OpenDoc 1.0 & SDK Available! Apple intends to include OpenDoc as part of the Mac OS with hardware bundles and as additional system software components throughout 1996 - but you can get it sooner than that, if you want. Apple last week announced the availability of the OpenDoc Software Development Kit for the Mac, which includes the complete OpenDoc 1.0 release as well as sample code and tools for OpenDoc developers. Supposedly, a free developer CD can be obtained by mailing <opendoc@apple.com>, but some messages have been bounced from that address, so I can't guarantee it.

http://www.opendoc.apple.com/

Before downloading OpenDoc, you need to know two things. First, most people have no reason to install OpenDoc, since only a few components are available and no applications support it. Three hundred developers have committed to shipping OpenDoc-compliant programs in 1996, but that's still a ways off. Second, OpenDoc is big, with the basic installation and a few sample components coming in around 4 MB, and the development tools are hefty 20+ MB in addition to that. (Apple thoughtfully provides separate, smaller files for people using modems.) So unless you're a developer or terminally curious, there's no driving reason to install OpenDoc yet. I applaud Apple for releasing OpenDoc and - better still - making it freely available. This release follows hot on the heels of the announcement that IBM will be taking over development of OpenDoc for Windows from Novell, although Novell remains publicly committed to the technology. [GD]

$10,000 Internet Security Challenge -- I wrote about the WebMaster Macintosh security challenge back in TidBITS-295 and, as expected, no one was able to break WebSTAR's security and claim the prize of free passes to the WebEdge conference. Now the stakes have increased. Seven companies - StarNine, EveryWare, Maxum, ComVista Internet Solutions, WebEdge, Digital Forest, and Westwind Computing - have joined forces to offer a more lucrative prize of $10,000. The new challenge is similar: you must break WebSTAR's security to find information that's isn't available to the public and report it by midnight on 30-Nov-95. Check out the rest of the details online if you are interested. [ACE]

http://challenge.comvista.com/

High-end DOS Cards at COMDEX -- Among the many things Apple will demonstrate at COMDEX in Las Vegas this week will be prototype "PC Compatibility Cards" based on both the Pentium and Cyrix 586 chips. Long rumored, these PCI-based cards will succeed Apple's current 486-based DOS Compatibility Cards. No pricing or availability information has been divulged, although they're not likely to be cheap. [GD]

Linux Clarification -- A MailBIT in TidBITS-302 regarding Novell's intention to sell WordPerfect and Quattro Pro implied Ray Noorda, former CEO of Novell, controlled commercial rights to Linux, Linus Torvald's popular Unix clone distributed under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL). The language was from Novell's and Noorda's public statements on the issue, and was misleading in stating Linux is shareware and implying Mr. Noorda controls all commercial rights to Linux.

First, Linux is distributed under the GPL and is not shareware. Second, Caldera, Inc., a company founded by Bryan Sparks with money from the Noorda Family Trust, distributes Linux under the terms of the GPL as part of its Caldera Network Desktop (now in "preview" release), along with additional proprietary components. This is by no means an exclusive arrangement; it would have been more accurate to say Noorda is involved with Caldera, which is preparing a Linux-based product line for corporate users. Caldera is also of interest to the Mac community since Caldera plans to support OpenDoc in the Caldera Network Desktop. [GD]

ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/GPL
http://www.caldera.com/

IKEA -- Sorry for not having tracked down a phone number for IKEA before for those of you who wanted to get a catalog and check out the Jerker desks I mentioned recently. It turns out IKEA's 800 numbers are geographically limited, so people on the East coast of the U.S. should try the first one, people on the West coast should try the second one, and the non-800 number and fax number (for ordering a catalog - fax them your snail mail address) should work anywhere, although the last two are local Seattle numbers so the telephone people may refer you to a different number for your area or country. The 800 numbers weren't accessible from my phone for some reason, so if all else fails, try the non-800 number. [ACE]

IKEA -- 800/434-4532 -- 800/570-4532 --
206/656-2980 -- 206/656-8104 (fax)