See also: last week's Linux in the news page.

Linux in the news

As mentioned in today's leaders, a couple of writers expressed their dislike for the reactions they have gotten from Linux advocates. First is "@lex" from Sm@rt Reseller, who wrote this FUDdish piece that we mentioned last week. This week he is back with a sarcastic column saying that the nasty responses he received are a result of a corporate plot. "Here's your mission. In the name of 'advocacy,' tick off as many people as you can, and turn them away from any interest in participating in the Linux community." Surprisingly, given that last week's column did not make him seem to be a supporter of Linux, he concludes with: "Sorry guys, it won't work. I won't fall for it anymore. You can't fool me with those fake flame messages. I'll continue to believe that Linux is a viable option, along with all the alternatives (including Windows)."

The second in this series is this column in Compunotes. Compunotes, remember, was the source of this piece that we featured two weeks ago. The author mailed the column to us directly; evidently much of his hate mail was a result of the note in LWN. He has come back unrepentant and unimpressed.

The September-October issue of the Harvard Business Review includes an article entitled "The Dawn of the E-Lance Economy." The focus of the article is on how business is increasingly done by ad hoc collections of small groups which dissolve after a task is completed. Their example of how this can work is Linux. This article is available on their web site, but only to those willing to part with a credit card number. So your editor bought a copy of the magazine ($15 - ouch). Here's a few "fair use" excerpts:

The Linux Community grew steadily, soon coming to encompass thousands of people around the world, all sharing their work freely with one another. Withen three years, this loose, informal group, working without managers and connected mainly through the Internet, had turned Linux into one of the best versions of Unix ever created. [...]

The Linux community, a temporary, self-managed gathering of diverse individuals engaged in a common task, is a model for a new kind of business organization that could form the basis for a new kind of economy. [...]

Following in the footsteps of young Linus Torvalds, we will enter the age of the temporary company.

Here is a NewsBytes column based on a conversation with Caldera's Ransom Love. It offers some interesting views into where Caldera sees its future; definitely worth a look.

Jesse Berst rides again with this Guide to alternative operating systems. His prognosis on Linux: "Linux will never go mainstream. But it will have a powerful influence nonetheless." Thanks to Moshe Vainer for the tip.

The "PC Market" section of the Hong Kong Standard declares Internet rife with all kinds of free software. This is another introductory piece on the whole free software phenomenon.

This Computer Currents article is really about whether companies should go to NT 5, at some future date when it may actually be available. The conclusion at the end: "If you're running an NT 4 network today, consider NT 5, but keep an eye on Linux and NetWare. I wouldn't abandon Linux or NetWare for NT 5."

Robert Knop wrote in about two separate articles in the San Francisco Chronicle. The Penguin That Roared is an introductory article about Linux and its recent successes. Linux Is Cool, But Not Ready for Prime Time is more negative, describing the author's difficulties with the system. Some of his criticisms are more fair than others. It is not Linux's fault that the user may have to repartition a disk to make room for it. On the other hand, his disdain for fvwm95 makes some sense.

Here is a mostly positive introductory article in the New York Daily News. Thanks to Jim Gleason for pointing this one out.

The September issue of PC Quest mentioned in this week's newsletter is now online. Included therein are their "Users choice awards." In the Network Operating System category you'll find Linux, which has displaced Netware for second place. Thanks, as always, to Atul Chitnis for letting us know about this.

Here's an article in the Irish Times, another highly positive introductory piece. The author "...wonders why the whole world isn't using this operating system " This appears to be the first of a series, so expect followups in the coming weeks.

An article appeared in InfoWorld about the new Corel (Linux-based) server, and plans for an upcoming "Linux Computer."

There is a brief introductory article in the Detroit News. Nothing too exciting about it; it was clearly inspired by Oracle's announcement.

Arne Sagnes sent us a pointer to another article about the Open Source Developer Day, this one from CNN. It, too, emphasizes the differences of opinion between the various participants.

Here is a TechWeb story on the Caldera split. Quoting Ransom Love: "Linux is exploding for us and we wanted to explore more of that."

James Cownie wrote in with yet another article about Steve Ballmer's Seybold keynote, this one in Computer Reseller News. This one expands on Ballmer's passing statement that Microsoft might end up opening up some code. They go pretty far based on one sentence... Check it out.

Didier Legein sent in a pointer to this article in SunWorld on running Linux on the Sparc platform. This article is part 2 of a series and covers installation of additional packages, kernel rebuilds and Linux on the Ultra.

There is now an English translation of the c't editorial we mentioned in last week's newsletter. Thanks to Olaf Zimmermann for both doing the translation and telling us about it.

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