2.1. What Is the Best Way to Respond to Anti-Linux FUD?
Basically, ignore it. When confronted with anti-Linux misinformation (FUD; or Fear, Uncertaintly, and Doubt), respond with information about Linux that correlates with its actual capabilities, not advertising hype and buzzwords.

This FAQ adheres to several simple guidelines for non-Linux content, which are briefly described in an article written by the FAQ Maintainer: http://www.mainmatter.com/fud.txt, reprinted from Linux Today.

2.2. What Are the Reasons to Upgrade to the Version 2.4 Kernel?
The kernel 2.4 source code, the product of countless hours of coding, testing, and re-coding, by dogged kernel hackers, is being upgraded with patches and bug fixes.

Among the new kernel's features are: support for the IBM S/390, the Logical Volume Manager, NFS Version 3 servers, PCMCIA CardBus devices, USB peripherals, the Device File System, 64 GB of RAM (yes, that's memory, not disk space), Itanium and MMX processors, drivers for many additional hardware devices, greater maximum file sizes, and vastly improved Symmetric Multiprocessing capabilities, at least for certain processors.

The changes are more significant for non-i386 platforms, although developers on i386 platforms can make use of the improvements— and stumble over the incompatibilities—of the new kernel as well.

If there's a compelling reason to upgrade, the source code is available, in the tar archive: linux-2.4.x.tar.gz. (Refer to: ``Where Is the Latest Kernel Version on the Internet?,'' below.) It will likely be several months at least before the commercial vendors upgrade their distributions to the new kernel.

2.3. What Resources Are There for Linux DeCSS and Other Open Source DVD Software?
There is a DeCSS Resource Site at http://www.pzcommunications.com/main.htm. A site with DeCSS code is at: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery/. For information about the legal action to bar distributing DeCSS code and information, refer also to 2600's Web site: http://www.2600.com/, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, http://www.eff.org/.

2.4. Where Is Information About Electronic Privacy Laws that Affect ISP's?
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has issued a report to Congress that recommends regulations to guarantee privacy for customers of Internet Service Providers. The text of the report is at http://www.ftc.gov/acoas/papers/finalreport.htm. The FTC E-commerce site is at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menu-internet.htm/

The New York Times on the Web has a page of electronic privacy information resources at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/reference/index-privacy.html Access is free but requires registration.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center maintains a Web page at http://www.epic.org/. The site also has pointers to information about international laws that affect cryptographic software.