[Globus] Globus Toolkit 4.0 Now Available for Download

[Lisa C Childers]

Dear Folks,

On behalf of the Globus Alliance, I am pleased to announce that version
4.0 of the Globus Toolkit (GT4) is now available for download.  4.0 is the
newest stable release of GT and, due to an extended testing cycle,
represents a major advance in toolkit quality.

Relevant links for GT4 include:
	- Release notes: http://www-unix.globus.org/toolkit/releasenotes/4.0.0/
	- Download: http://www-unix.globus.org/toolkit/downloads/4.0.0/
	- Documentation: http://www-unix.globus.org/toolkit/docs/4.0/

GT4 includes numerous enhancements since 3.2:
	- Full-featured, state-of-the-art Web service hosting environments
for Java, Python and C
	- Enables the development of WSRF and WS compliant client and
server applications
	- An improved WSS-compliant security infrastructure with an
extensible authorization framework
	- A new GRAM implementation optimized for flexibility, stability
and scalability
	- A new and improved GridFTP server
	- Significant stability and scalability improvements in RFT, RLS
and GRAM
	- An updated version of OGSA-DAI that allows access to data via
WSRF mechanisms
	- Improved Information Services infrastructure
	- Improved and extended documentation
	- Several usability improvements, including better error reporting
and installer enhancements
	- Enhanced cross-platform support, thanks in part to our use of
the NMI GRIDS Center build/test system

Other important details:
	- GT4 includes a mechanism to collect usage statistics:
http://www-unix.globus.org/toolkit/docs/4.0/Usage_Stats.html
	- This release is covered by an Apache-derived open source
license:  http://www-unix.globus.org/toolkit/license.html
	- The GT website has also been updated with a new look & feel:
http://www-unix.globus.org/toolkit/
	- Interesting GT4-based projects are already forming, such as
http://hdl.handle.net/4263537/5018

We wish to offer our thanks to:
	- Our talented and dedicated developers!
	- Our contributors: http://www-unix.globus.org/toolkit/contributors.html
	- Our GT4 Friends and other early adopters of GT4 pre-releases
	- All of you who submitted bugs in bugzilla!
	- Those who are working to GT4-enable their software: http://www-unix.globus.org/toolkit/tools/
	- The institutions that have funded this work, including the
National Science Foundation, the Office of Science of the US Department of
Energy, IBM Corporation, Oracle, the UK e-Science Core Programme, the UK
Department of Trade and Industry, and the UK Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council