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

Linux in the news


It was a relatively slow week in the press, perhaps due to the holidays. Your editor is pleased to have a rational number of articles to deal with for a change...

This week's recommended readings:

  • This Sm@rt Reseller article about IBM and Linux created a lot of controversy this week, due to its suggestion that IBM would like to change the licensing of the Linux kernel. "For the past month, channel sources have expected IBM to announce a sweeping service and support agreement for Red Hat Software's Red Hat Linux... But what's really held IBM back from an official support alliance with Red Hat, say sources close to the company, are legal issues."

  • The Motley Fool briefly mentions Linux in an article about Microsoft. "...a recent study from International Data Corporation found that over the past year Linux shipments have more than tripled from 6.8 percent to 17.2 percent of the server OS market. NT shipments remained steady, around 36 percent over the same period, although the market as a whole grew about 25 percent. Companies recently publicly increasing their support for Linux include: Apple, Compaq, and Sun. I can't really comment on the rumors coming out of IBM, but I might be able to get away with nodding a lot."

  • Here's a PC Week article about "Linux's enterprise evolution." It talks about GNOME, the possibility of support from IBM, and even the Coda file system.

  • Internet Week looks at the Burlington Coat Factory and their information systems. They have installed hundreds of Linux systems on desktops. "The company also plans to port its Solaris in-store, line-of-business applications to Linux to let the company have the same operating system across clients and servers, as well as extend the life span of about 300 aging Sun Microsystems SPARC servers." Another good example for people who say Linux is only used by hobbyists. (Scroll just over halfway down to find this article).

  • Diary of a Linux bumpkin is a longish ZDNet article describing one writer's encounter with the OS. "Luckily, I'm beginning to realize that Linux isn't really hard, it's just a lot. It isn't easy, but it is really, really simple. I expect that once you know it, anything else would seem confusing and needlessly complex. Not to mention unstable."

  • Numerous people have written in to tell us that Science Magazine ran an article about Linux in their December 11 issue. Science articles are not available to non-subscribers, so we can't provide a link. It's a fairly standard, accurate, and positive introductory article in a high profile publication. "Linux, by all accounts, is stable, powerful, and fast--and it's free. Yes, free: Linux is the fruit of a kind of online commune, an intellectual descendant of the counterculture of the 1960s."

Much of the press that we did see this week was, unsurprisingly, 1998 retrospectives, often with only passing mentions of Linux.

  • The Industry Standard has a review of 1998 that includes a brief piece on free software. "While Microsoft struggles mightily to fend off antritrust charges, its dominant position in the software world is being challenged by a quiet but dangerous development: the coming of age of open-source software."

  • ZDNet ran an incredible number of such articles, including: this predictions article suggests that U.S. export laws might be changed to restrict exports of Beowulf cluster technology (seems like a hard thing to do). This look back says that Red Hat 5.2 was "the biggest NOS spash of the year." This one briefly reviews Beowulf and the coming of the database vendors. Yet another retrospective says that "The longest-lasting result of the Linux upswing may be its prompting Novell and IBM to start adopting the open-source model." Linux made the "Inter@ctive 101." This one seems to say that Linux isn't serious because its COMDEX presence was substandard. Finally, here's a Babcock column about the increase in Linux's market share.

  • Linux made Time's list of the top ten technology stories of 1998. "Nineteen ninety-eight was the year Linux came into its own. Beloved of techies worldwide, passed by hand from geek to geek, Linux has gained an international cult following of around 7 million." (Found in LinuxToday).

  • Nicholas Petreley's 1998 retrospective is less positive about Linux than one might expect, given the source. "Someone will undoubtedly label 1998 as the year Linux took the market by storm. This conclusion is premature... Should Microsoft ultimately win the [antitrust] case, however, I guarantee vendors will abandon Linux faster than a rat out of an aqueduct."

  • As it seemed was going to happen, Jenni of the JenniCam beat out Linus to win the ZDNN "newsmaker of the year" award. At least, the article says so; people clicking through the results are seeing a different outcome and wondering why. As mentioned before, the JenniCam, while most certainly not a Linux site, is at least hosted on a Linux server (and that must be why so many of you clicked through and visited there when we discussed this poll before, right?)

  • There's another top technology events of 1998 poll out there, this one on MSNBC. Linux sits at fifth place as of this writing. (Thanks to Delbert Matlock).

Some articles were of the business variety, either talking about the business of Linux, or in the form of product reviews.

  • ComputerWorld has an article about the enterprise backup systems (like SpectraLogic's "Alexandria") that are moving into the Linux world. "'I think a lot of organizations are evaluating use of Linux right now ... but [Linux's] backup utilities aren't sufficient,' said Dave Hill, an analyst at Aberdeen Group Inc. in Boston."

  • In Internet Week: Linux didn't quite win their Coolest of the Cool award. "What dropped [Linux] into second place with the rest of the pack was that we wanted Coolest of the Cool to be about technical excellence, and what we thought cool about Linux was mainly its sudden and amazing political and market presence. Any product that's free, open and can still make Microsoft sweat is definitely cool in our eyes. On a technical level, though, it still has a way to go in terms of ease of use and cross-platform support."

  • VAR Business reflects on the increasing popularity of open source in this article. "The main attraction of working with open source code, say VARs, is that it offers the opportunity to provide clients with a more granular level of customization."

  • Here's a ZDNet article about Corel, jBridge, and WINE. "[Corel CEO] Cowpland predicted that within the next twelve months, WINE would enable Linux servers to run a whole slew of Windows applications."

  • Inter@ctive Week ran a brief article about the growth in Linux shipments in 1998, with mentions of Corel and BSDI.

  • MSNBC reviews the Corel Netwinder. They like it. "I can report that even in this early beta form, the Netwinder is wonderful." (Thanks to Richard Storey and "llornkcor").

  • Here's an article (in German) in Schwäbischen Zeitung Online. It talks about Java and Linux, and why Microsoft is worried about them. As usual, translations are available via Babelfish for the non German-capable. (Thanks to Lenz Grimmer).

Other miscellaneous and introductory articles:

  • This long article in Newmedia.com compares open source software to Native American Potlatch ceremonies; it's a highly positive treatment. "Open source lets users take advantage of innovation rather than be victimized by it. There's a world of difference between receiving buggy binaries and reporting problems back to the developers who promise a new release 'real soon now,' and receiving source code that allows your own engineers to make the fixes." There are also sidebars on Eric Raymond, different open source licenses, and a comparison between Linux and Windows NT. (Found in LinuxToday).

  • "Project Heresy," C|Net Radio's experiment with working with a Linux-only system, has posted a 1998 wrapup of their experience. It's available in RealAudio format on the Project Heresy page. (Thanks to Benji Selano and Jeffery Cann).

  • Information Week speculates on an unhappy new year at Microsoft. "Based on the amount of E-mail I've received from Microsoft and its public relations agency regarding Linux and open source software, it's clear that someone is concerned. There's one predictable outcome to these two factors-you can expect Microsoft to play both the FUD card and the pricing card as it gets closer to releasing Windows 2000"

  • PC Magazine UK has a brief article about Linux as a network operating system.

  • Is Linux a fad? asks ZDTV. When we first mentioned this poll in the daily updates page the "yes" votes were winning decisively; the situation has since turned the other way. ZDTV also has a chat topic entitled Is Linux here to stay?.

  • This article in the National Post talks about the new IDC numbers, mentions the possibility of Linux systems from Apple, and finishes out with a bit of support FUD. (Thanks to "aandres").

  • Finally, here's a Detroit News article about the "Squeak" programming language. Squeak is an open source implementation of Smalltalk that seems to be gaining in popularity. "Companies such as Disney like Squeak because it is open source, and taps potentially thousands of developers all over the world."

December 24, 1998

 

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