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Free for All How Linux and the Free Software Move- ment Undercut the High-Tech Titans by Peter Wayner Disappearing Cryptography, 2nd Edition Information Hiding: Steganography & Watermarking by Peter Wayner ISBN 1-55860-769-2 $44.95 To order, visit: http://www.wayner.org/books/discrypt2/ Disappearing Cryptography, Second Edition describes how to take words, sounds, or images and hide them in digital data so they look like other words, sounds, or images. When used properly, this powerful technique makes it almost impossible to trace the author and the recipient of a message. Conversations can be sub- merged in the ow of information through the Internet so that no one can know if a conversation exists at all. This full revision of the best-selling rst edition describes a number of different techniques to hide information. These include encryption, making data incomprehensible; steganography, embedding infor- mation into video, audio, or graphics les; watermark- ing, hiding data in the noise of image or sound les; mimicry, “dressing up” data and making it appear to be other data, and more. The second edition also includes an expanded dis- cussion on hiding information with spread-spectrum algorithms, shufing tricks, and synthetic worlds. Each chapter is divided into sections, rst providing an intro- duction and high-level summary for those who want to understand the concepts without wading through technical explanations, and then presenting greater detail for those who want to write their own pro- grams. To encourage exploration, the author’s Web site www.wayner.org/books/discrypt2/ contains implemen- tations for hiding information in lists, sentences, and images. “Disappearing Cryptography is a witty and enter- taining look at the world of information hiding. Peter Wayner provides an intuitive perspective of the many techniques, applications, and research direc- tions in the area of steganography. The sheer breadth of topics is outstanding and makes this book truly unique. A must read for those who would like to begin learning about information hiding.” Deepa Kundur, University of Toronto “An excellent introduction for private individuals, businesses, and governments who need to under- stand the complex technologies and their effects on protecting privacy, intellectual property and other interests.” - David Banisar, Research Fellow, Harvard Infor- mation Infrastructure Project, & Deputy Director, Privacy International. • Do you have personal infor- mation in your database? • Do you keep les on your customers, your employees, or anyone else? • Do you need to worry abou European laws restricting the information you keep? • Do you keep copies of credit card numbers, social security numbers, or other informa- tion that might be useful to identity thieves or insurance fraudsters? • Do you deal with medical records or personal secrets? Most database administrators spend some of each day worrying about the information they keep. Some spend all of their time. Caring for information can be a dangerous responsibility. This new book, Translucent Databases, describes a different attitude toward pro- tecting the information. Most databases pro- vide elaborate control mechanisms for letting the right people in to see the right records. These tools are well-designed and thoroughly tested, but they can only provide so much support. If someone breaks into the operat- ing system itself, all of the data on the hard disk is unveiled. If a clerk, a supervisor, or a system administrator decides to turn traitor, there’s nothing anyone can do. Translucent databases provide better, deeper protection by scrambling the data with encryption algorithms. The solutions use the minimal amount of encryption to ensure that the database is still functional. In the best applications, the personal and sensitive infor- mation is protected but the database still delivers the information. Translucent Databases, a new book by Peter Wayner, comes with more than two dozen examples in Java and SQL code. The book comes with a royalty- free license to use the code for your own projects in any way you wish. Order today at http://www.wayner.org/books/td/ FREE FOR ALL FreeForAll/i-viii/repro 4/21/00 11:43 AM Page i FreeForAll/i-viii/repro 4/21/00 11:43 AM Page ii FREE FOR ALL … How Linux and the Free Software Movement Undercut the High-Tech Titans PETER WAYNER FreeForAll/i-viii/repro 4/21/00 11:43 AM Page iii FREE FOR ALL. Copyright © 2000 by Peter Wayner. Some Rights Reserved.See front cover. FIRST PDF EDITION Page layout for this and the original paper edition designed by William Ruoto Not printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wayner, Peter, 1964– Free for all : how Linux and the free software movement undercut the high-tech titans / Peter Wayner. p. cm. ISBN 0-06-662050-3 1. Linux. 2. Operating systems (Computers) 3. Free computer software. I. Title. QA76.76.063 W394 2000 005.4'469—dc21 00-023919 00 01 02 03 04 ❖/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 FreeForAll/i-viii/repro 4/21/00 11:43 AM Page iv CONTENTS Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii 1. Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2. Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 3. Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 4. College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 5. Quicksand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 6. Outsider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 7. Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 8. Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 9. Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 10. People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 11. Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 12. Charity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 13. Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 14. Corporations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 15. Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 16. Fork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 17. Core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 18. T-Shirts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 19. New . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 20. Nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 FreeForAll/i-viii/repro 4/21/00 11:43 AM Page v 21. Wealth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 22. Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 vi … CONTENTS FreeForAll/i-viii/repro 4/21/00 11:43 AM Page vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This is just a book about the free software movement. It wouldn’t be possible without the hard work and the dedication of the thousands if not millions of people who like to spend their free time hacking code. I salute you. Thank you. Many people spoke to me during the process of assembling this book, and it would be impossible to cite them all. The list should begin with the millions of people who write and contribute to the various free software lists. The letters, notes, and postings to these lists are a won- derful history of the evolution of free software and an invaluable resource. The list should also include the dozens of journalists at places like Slashdot.org, LinuxWorld, Linux magazine, Linux Weekly News, Kernel Traffic, Salon, and the New York Times. I should specifically mention the work of Joe Barr, Jeff Bates, Janelle Brown, Zack Brown, Jonathan Corbet, Elizabeth Coolbaugh, Amy Harmon, Andrew Leonard, Rob Malda, John Markoff, Mark Nielsen, Nicholas Petreley, Harald Radke, and Dave Whitinger. They wrote wonderful pieces that will make a great first draft of the history of the open source movement. Only a few of the pieces are cited directly in the footnotes, largely for practical rea- sons. The entire body of websites like Slashdot, Linux Journal, Linux World, Kernel Notes, or Linux Weekly News should be required reading for anyone interested in the free software movement. There are hundreds of folks at Linux trade shows who took the time to show me their products, T-shirts, or, in one case, cooler filled with beer. Almost everyone I met at the conferences was happy to speak FreeForAll/i-viii/repro 4/21/00 11:43 AM Page vii [...]... that ranks the usability of the software so the programmers working on WINE can tweak it This is just the first step in the free software experience Someone has to notice the problem and fix it In this case, someone needs to hook up their Diamond RIO MP3 player to a Linux box and try to move MP3 files with the software written for Windows Ideally, the software will work perfectly, and now all Linux users... programmers also don’t need to sit in the corner when their computer crashes and complain about the idiot who wrote the software Anyone can read the source code and fix the glitches The folks in the free source software world are, in other words, grooving on freedom They’re high on the original American dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness The founders of the United States of America didn’t... (Mexican), Linux Pro Plus, Linux Router Project, LOAF, LSD, Mandrake, Mastodon, MicroLinux, MkLinux, muLinux, nanoLinux II, NoMad Linux, OpenClassroom, Peanut Linux, Plamo Linux, PLD, Project Ballantain, PROSA, QuadLinux, Red Hat, Rock Linux, RunOnCD, ShareTheNet, Skygate, Slackware, Small Linux, Stampede, Stataboware, Storm Linux, SuSE, Tomsrtbt, Trinux, TurboLinux, uClinux, Vine Linux, WinLinux 2000,... Linux, FreeBSD, and thousands of other projects as hobbies, but now they’re waking up to find IBM, HewlettPackard, Apple, and all the other big boys pounding on their door If the kids could create something as nice as Linux, everyone began to wonder whether these kids really had enough good stuff to go the distance and last nine innings against the greatest power hitters around FreeForAll/1-138/repro... that forwarded the message to many other FreeBSD users The problem was that the software simply appended the two characters “19” to the front of the year When the new millennium came about a year later, the software would start writing the new date as “19100.” Oops The problem was largely cosmetic because it only occurred in some of the support software used by the system FreeBSD is a close cousin to the. .. Valley, and the others around the globe They post notes to the list and discuss ideas Sometimes verbal fights break out, and sometimes everyone agrees Sometimes people light a candle by actually writing new code to make the kernel better, and other times they just curse the darkness Cox is now one of several people responsible for coordinating the addition of new code He tests it for compatibility and. .. look at the insides of their computers and rearrange them to hook up to coffee machines or networks They want to fidget with the guts of their machines If they weld some spaghetti to the insides, so be it Normally, these battles between the suits and the geeks don’t threaten the established order There are university students around the world building solar-powered cars, but they don’t actually pose... eXecutive Linux, floppyfw, Floppix, Green Frog Linux, hal91, Hard Hat Linux, Immunix, Independence, Jurix, Kha0s Linux, KRUD, KSI1 FreeForAll/1-138/repro 4/21/00 11:44 AM Page 11 B AT T L E … 11 ability to run software on a completely free system The free software would need to interact with something from Microsoft, Apple, or IBM Of course, if it weren’t for all of the other free software from Berkeley, the. .. project, and thousands of other garages around the world, there would be little for the Linux kernel to do Officially, Linus Torvalds is the final arbiter for the kernel and the one who makes the final decisions about new features In practice, the group runs like a loosely knit “ad-hocracy.” Some people might care about a particular feature like the ability to interface with Macintoshes, and they write... on the Linux mailing list to make a change Many of the free software projects may generate great code, but they have to beg for computers The programmers might even surprise him and come up with an even better solution They’ve done it in the past But no money means that no one has to do what anyone says In the past, the free software movement was like the movies in which Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland . 11:43 AM Page ii FREE FOR ALL … How Linux and the Free Software Movement Undercut the High-Tech Titans PETER WAYNER FreeForAll/i-viii/repro 4/21/00 11:43 AM Page iii FREE FOR ALL. Copyright ©. questions or suggestions. Free for All How Linux and the Free Software Move- ment Undercut the High-Tech Titans by Peter Wayner Disappearing Cryptography, 2nd Edition Information Hiding: Steganography. pitchman, no 4 … FREE FOR ALL FreeForAll/1-138/repro 4/21/00 11:44 AM Page 4 Linux jingle, and no Linux 30-second spot in major media. At the time, only the best-funded projects in the Linux community