See also: last week's Commerce page.

Linux and business

• Inprise is opening up InterBase. Inprise's open source announcement made perhaps the biggest splash of the week. InterBase may have had a hard time of it in the marketplace, but it is a serious database system and will be a valuable contribution to the open source portfolio.

  The source will be released later in this quarter. Meanwhile Inprise has not released any details on which open source license will be used.

• Macbird has been released by UserLand Software. MacBird is a Macintosh drawing program; it is being released under an MIT-style license. UserLand hopes to see a Linux port soon.

• MontaVista Software released its CompactPCI networking package as open source. This package will be useful for developers working on certain types of embedded systems; see the announcement for more.

• QLogic has announced that open-source Linux drivers are available for its Fibre Channel and SCSI adapters.

Red Hat has bought Hell's Kitchen Software, the makers of the widely-used CCVS credit card processing system for Linux. Evidently the HKS software will now be bundled with the "professional" version of Red Hat's distribution. The current CCVS license is far from open source - binary only, no reverse engineering, etc. Presumably some changes will come once Red Hat takes over, though evidently some of the code needs to remain closed-source due to its use of proprietary financial protocols.

This move helps to position Red Hat for sales into e-commerce settings. It may be cause for some concern for others, in that CCVS has been, for a long time, the only commercially-available credit card processing system for Linux. About the only alternative appears to be the open-source YAMS system; it can do credit card processing, but only through one clearinghouse. The OpenMerchant system provides a lot of interesting functionality, but says nothing about credit cards. Thus, to a great extent, Red Hat is now the only source for this capability.

HKS is being purchased for about $90 million in Red Hat stock. The final deal is contingent on approval from HKS's stockholders. More information in Red Hat's press release.

Red Hat will be carrying Salon's content on Wide Open News, thus helping to fill out the content on that site. Salon's stock price took off on this news, of course... See Salon's press release for more.

VA Linux Systems announces SourceForge. VA Linux Systems has put out this press release announcing SourceForge to the world. The Linux community has known about SourceForge for a bit - it seems like a dozen development projects move over there every day. But this announcement is the first much of the wider world has heard about this resource, and it has drawn some significant attention.

XFree86 wins IDG/Linus Torvalds Award. IDG World Expo announced that The XFree86 Project, Inc. is the recipient of the February 2000 IDG/Linus Torvalds Community Award.

More announcements from LinuxOne. LinuxOne may not be all that strong on revenue, but they have the press release game down. Recently, it has announced the opening of a Taiwan office, staffed by six people.

LinuxOne has also put out a somewhat suspicious press release claiming to have a $500,000 order from Power Source. A good counter to this release can be found on Technocrat.net, where Bruce Perens points out that Power Source, a tiny company, is not in much of a position to spend $500,000 on anything.

White Paper: Open Source and Microsoft. The Aurora Development Group has put up a white paper on open source software and Microsoft. They side strongly with Microsoft. "While Linux is reliable, free, and scalable, you should really consider sticking to NT. Love it or hate it, we all know how NT will behave in just about every situation. Since each person who uses it can modify Linux, it makes the OS harder to master. On a typical day, I visit three different client sites in New York City. Each of them are running Windows, so I know what to expect. What if they were each running a customized version of Linux? My support burden would dramatically increase."

OS X released. Apple has put out a press release announcing the rollout of OS X. "At the core of Mac OS X is Darwin, Apple's advanced operating system kernel. Darwin is Linux-like, featuring the same Free BSD Unix support and open-source model."

Section Editor: Jon Corbet.

Press Releases:

Commercial Products for Linux:
• Dataware Technologies, Inc. announced (Red Hat) Linux support for it's search technology components.

• Planet Intra announced that its "instant Intranet" software for small and medium-size enterprises will be bundled in Donovan's Penguin64 Lite - a 64bit server running the Linux operating system for under $2,000.

• PowerQuest Corp. announced the addition of SmartSector support for Linux ext2 and Linux Swap partitions in Drive Image Pro 3.01.

• Tux Games has gone live as "the first online store dedicated just to selling Linux gaming products."

  Java Products:

• Track Data Corporation announced the release of myTrack-Linux v1.0. myTrack is a Java-based stock trading system, apparently tied into Track Data's brokerage.

  Products with Linux Versions:

• Accrue Software, Inc. announced expanded platform options for Accrue Insight and Hit List for customers who choose Linux operating system deployments.

• Active Concepts announced the release of Funnel Web 3.6.

• Andover.Net announced Animation Factory Volume Two, a CD-ROM including over 60,000 clipart images.

• Alteon WebSystems announced the commercial availability of a Gigabit Ethernet adapters which can operate over common copper wiring.

• Connectix Corporation announced its expansion of the Virtual PC product line with two new versions, including Virtual PC with Linux.

• ECCS Inc. announced the availability of Linux support in its Synchronix family of fault-tolerant data storage products.

• InfoValue Computing, Inc. announced the development of a Linux version of its comprehensive suite of QuickVideo software.

• Lava Software announced Japanese WordMage v5.7, a complete Japanese application suite.

• OptiSystems Solutions Ltd. announced the availability of its Energizer PME for R/3 support for AS400 and Linux platforms.

• Performance Technologies, Inc. announced enhancements to its Synchronous/Serial and T1/E1 WAN communications adapters.

• PowerCerv Corporation announced that it will support the Linux operating system in the next release of its ERP Plus software suite.

• Progress Software Corporation announced that it is shipping its embedded database and other deployment products on the Linux operating system.

• Virtual eXecuting Environment protects Unix/Linux servers from intruders and hacker attacks. Product is free for non-commercial use.

  Partnerships, Investments and Acquisitions:

• Ariel Corp. announced that it has expanded its distribution and integration agreement with Trilogic Systems to encompass all of the U.S.

• Classics International Entertainment, Inc. announced the signing of the final documents for the purchase of IBP, Inc., a private company that specializes in Linux based data compression technologies.

• click2learn.com, inc. and ComputerPREP announced a strategic partnership to distribute ComputerPREP's e-courseware through click2learn.com.

• Cyber Merchants Exchange announced that it signed an agreement licensing its Linux-based Internet Sourcing Network software to C-ME.com./Taiwan.

• Midnight Cafe LLC announced the acquisition of Gamers Depot. It now plans to create a network of Linux, Macintosh and Console Gamer sites.

• Unibol announced a contract with RoTech Medical Corporation for custom software development and associated licenses that will allow RoTech to use Linux-based web servers to access corporate applications and data.

• VA Linux Systems, Inc. announced that NetLedger, a provider of Web-based applications for small business, has selected VA Linux to provide rackmount Linux servers and integration management services for its entire application server infrastructure.

  Other:

• Lehman Bros. has announced that it is starting its coverage of VA Linux with a "outperform" rating; they think it will hit $230/share.

• Simultaneously, W.R. Hambrecht + Co. has announced its coverage of Andover.net - also with an "outperform" rating.

• Andover.Net opened the balloting for the first-annual Slashdot Open Source Community Awards, a.k.a. Slashdot Beanie Awards.

• Applix, Inc. announced estimated 4th quarter results for 1999.

• Global Media announced that its Linux-based broadcast solution was featured in the January 2000 issue of Linux Journal.

• internet.com announced a re-launch of its homepage. Part of the re-design includes the addition of the Linux/Open Source channel.

• The Linux Business Expo has announced that it is expanding to four annual events in North America. An advisory board has also been named, with names like Larry Augustin, Mark Bolzern, Lyle Ball, Jon Hall, Dave Sifry, and a guy named Linus Torvalds.

• The LinuxPower folks asked us to put out a reminder of their ongoing membership contest. Create an account with linuxpower.org (make an account here) to be one of the winners of a t-shirt, a penguin hat and a chocolate bar from copyleft.net and linuxpower.org. Contest ends January 9.

• Track Data Corporation reported a new milestone for its myTrack online trading service. To download myTrack-Linux software, go to http://www.mytrack.com.

Section Editor: Rebecca Sobol.

Next: Linux in the news