LISNews: Librarian News

...from the Malden Observer. Yes, the world has noticed our very own Kristin Shoemaker, a reference/systems librarian (the Linux Librarian), and author of Aurora Borealis (a tale of two sisters, murder, and a Fed Ex Man), a POD novel the author self-effacingly calls "a beach read." Later this summer, Shoe will be taking a bit of time off from the Malden Library to do an autographing tour.

Shoes comments, "The biggest joy for me in this? I know that my library is preserving me for(nearly)ever in microfilm!"

News comes from CRN regarding a new distribution of Linux, named "Puppy".

"I think one of the key advantages of Puppy is the simplicity," said Barry Kauler, the developer of Puppy Linux, in an e-mail interview. "When other distributions start up, you see all these servers loading, but in Puppy it's really basic and bootup is remarkably fast.

Puppy Linux can be downloaded for free from Kauler's Web site . Future updates to the distribution will be forthcoming every four to six weeks, Kauler said. Also in the works is a multisession version of Puppy, which saves everything back to CD.

Backed by Linux cheerleader Brazilian President Lula, the Brazilian government is urging its agencies and offices to dump software with expensive licensing agreements in favor of Linux. Another of Lula's goals is to extend Internet access to low- and middle-income Brazilians, which might be made more feasible with open source software. More here from this Yahoo/Reuters story.

Here's A Neat Wired Story on Linus Torvalds.
"On one level, Torvalds' life really is filled with quotidian routine. He works from home as a fellow for the Open Source Development Lab, a corporate-funded consortium created to foster improvements to Linux. His commute is a walk down a flight of stairs to an office he shares with Tove, his wife of nine years. It's jammed with Linux-related books, few of which he's read, and looks out onto the narrow walkway between his home and the neighbor's. The early July day he invites me to visit is his first official one as an OSDL employee, but it isn't long after my arrival that he excuses himself to take out the garbage because Tove nags him about the smell. Later, he takes a break to feed a lunch of milk splashed over Cheerios to his three daughters, all younger than 8, while Tove runs errands."