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

Linux in the news

Anyway, here are the trial-related articles that are worth passing on:

• Salon Magazine's coverage is thorough and well done, as usual. Linux comes in toward the end. "A frontal assault on Microsoft is always going to be a losing battle. But there are other approaches. Today, the one worth paying attention to arises from the Linux camp of free software/open source code advocates. They're the first Microsoft challengers who don't want to become 'the next Microsoft' -- and that gives them both a leg up in popular support and a strategic advantage." (Found in Linux Reviews).

• This article in The Register discusses Microsoft's use of Linux as evidence that Windows is not a monopoly. " As regards the small matter of Microsoft's dominant position in the OS market, [Microsoft attorney] Warden pointed out that the company's position is by no means unassailable, and cited Linux as the evidence. 'As Linus Torvalds has shown, one person in Helsinki, Finland ... can quickly write the core of a sophisticated operating system now used by millions of people.'"

• In response to the above claim, another article in The Register attempts to respond to Microsoft's claim that Linux was written by a single individual. The author estimates the true cost of Linux, thus far, to be approximately $4 billion. About another $200m is estimated as being necessary to be truly competitive with Windows. "But the point Microsoft's attorney was failing to make, and should have made, is that it can be seen to be possible, from the Linux experience, for a single individual to start a massive ball rolling, ultimately placing that individual's innovation in a position to challenge Microsoft.... The funny part, we reckon, is that Microsoft can't comprehend an explanation that doesn't involve just one person driving. "

• Here is a long and reasonably interesting article about free software in Inter@ctive Week. The setting is the Microsoft trial, but they move past that quickly, making the point that the software world tends to change out from under companies quickly. "If this drive is true, it means the ability of one company to maintain a stranglehold over any key aspect of computing will draw to an end."

• The Indian newspaper The Hindu has an article with most of the usual stuff. They finish up with: "In India, in recent weeks a few straws in the local ``hawa'' suggest that the ``poor person's UNIX'' - Linux - is gaining increasing popularity as a desktop medium, in this cost conscious market, precisely for the reasons Internet Explorer was first embraced - because it is free. If enough Indian software developers work to create Linux based utilities and Internet interfaces, this could yet create a new operating system option here, and make Microsoft's present troubles a non-issue."

There was a small run of introductory articles in the overseas (non-U.S.) press.

• This one in the Indian magazine Computers Today is long and uniformly positive. They have an interesting and different take on some things: "Linux does not require a graphical user interface, while NT does. Graphics require incredible amounts of disk space and memory. The same holds true for sound files, so vital to Microsoft's operating systems. Overall, there is consensus among IT professionals, that Linux greatly outperforms NT." Thanks to Yogesh Wadadekar.

• Thomas Tanner sent us a link to this story (in German) in IT-Sales. It's a general introductory article with emphasis on Intel's investment. (For those who don't read German, here is the Babelfish link, but it's only a slight improvement on the original).

• The Financial Times has a fairly standard introductory article online. This is a registration-required site, but the usual "cypherpunks/cypherpunks" combination will get you in. (Found in LinuxToday).

• ABC News also ran a long introductory article, focussing on Red Hat Software. "In the end, no matter who sells packaged versions, Linux will remain Linux. And it will still be available free." (Thanks to Mike Leddy).

• Certainly one of the most striking media events of the week was this open letter (in French)from the new head of Microsoft France, in Multimédia. It includes, among other things, some pretty serious attacks on Linux. From the Babelfish translation: "Linus Torvald [sic] left the university last year to join a Californian company. The development of Linux since slowed down considerably. In the same way, the maintenance of each functionality of Linux depends on the mobilization of the teams. Thus, certain functionalities have not known updating for two years." There is rather more than just this.

  Those who want to read the whole thing can see a complete English translation pieced together from Babelfish output (and lightly edited) by Karsten Self. There was also a Slashdot article posted by Sengan which includes a translation of most of the interesting parts, an extensive refutation of the attacks on Linux, and, for the masochistic, well over 300 comments.

  The obvious conclusion is that Microsoft is beta-testing its FUD strategy in France, well away from the American antitrust circus. Expect to see more where this came from.(Thanks to Olivier Montanuy for pointing this one out).

• Here is a dismissive piece in ComputerWorld entitled Looking for the Great Microsoft Alternative. It's one of these "there's no hope" columns. "It would be nice to believe that where shortsighted vendors have failed, individuals and the spirit of the community will triumph. It would be a bit like a scene from It's A Wonderful Life. But, although Linux and Apache Software are intriguing, the reality is that the tide is slowly going out on shareware, just as it is for the Internet standards bodies." Shareware??

• TechWeb covered the upcoming 2.2 kernel release. The article is accurate so far as it goes, though it harps on the lack of USB support (a true shortcoming) and misses a number of 2.2 features, like greatly improved network performance, Coda file system, etc.

• This article in The Register takes Linux to task for its lack of support for the USB and FireWire busses, and suggests that Intel might help address those deficiencies. (Thanks to Didier Legein).

• Nicholas Petreley has discovered the Coda distributed filesystem. Coda, of course, is part of the 2.1 development kernel, and will thus be widely available with 2.2.

• This article in Federal Computer Week talks about PC clusters in many forms, including the Beowulf variety. They discuss LANL's "Avalon" cluster (now up to 140 nodes) briefly.

• WRAL TV (a Raleigh, NC TV station) has a feature on Red Hat Software. Portions are available via RealAudio. "Red Hat's success is attributed to its customer support and reliability. Young says the company may double in size soon and move into bigger quarters." (Found in LinuxToday).

• Sergey Dmitriev pointed us to "New Media News", which has a couple of Linux-related features. Here is one about Linus, and another about Cobalt Networks. New Media News is actually a television thing, seemingly associated with KRON TV in the San Francisco Bay area. The above features were aired on this station; "RealMedia" versions are available on the web site (click on the little "video" thing near the top).

• Computer Reseller News covered S.u.S.E.'s "Office Suite 99". "Sales of the suite could be a strong indication of the number of Linux desktop users, as opposed to server users, McNeil said. Since Linux is freely distributed and easily downloaded, it has been difficult to gauge precisely how many users the alternative operating system has."

• EE Times ran an article about Avant! porting its electronic design automation (EDA) tools to Linux. "According to Gary Smith, principal EDA analyst at Dataquest Inc. (San Jose), the trouble with Linux is support. He told of one EDA vendor that sold four Linux products, all using different Linux versions, requiring four support people for four orders. The vendors who are now adopting Linux said times are changing. EDA on Linux has become considerably easier, they said, due to commercial support from Red Hat Software; availability of ancillary products, such as debuggers, under Linux; and the desire of some customers to plug PC hardware into existing Unix networks."

• ZDNet reviews Caldera OpenLinux 1.3. "With Caldera OpenLinux 1.3, Caldera has dressed Linux up in a gray flannel suit and is sending it to work."

• Compaq opens up to Linux in TechWeb explores Compaq's recent announcements. "So far, Compaq hasn't made major investments in Linux development, nor is it offering Linux with its computers. Instead, it will focus on ensuring that Linux works on its Intel and Alpha computers and publish device specifications so device drivers can be written for all of its hardware."

• Time ran a personality piece about Linus Torvalds which would have been better suited for a magazine like People. "Pale, fleshy groupies surround him on all sides, adoration in their eyes. Some are overwhelmed, speechless in his presence. Some ask for his autograph; some just want to thank him for all that he's done for them. Some call him a god and want to be among his disciples, helping spread the word." (Thanks to Dwight Johnson on the linux-biz list).

• APC Magazine has published their Best of 1998 awards. The winner of the "Just plain cool award" is Red Hat 5.1, and the Gimp got the "Productivity software" award.

• Also in the awards category: the Mining Company "Focus on Linux" has announced its "Best of the net" awards.

• There is a brief mention in this Computer Currents editorial about the state of the computer industry. "Like sex in high school, everyone's talking about Linux, but is anyone doing it?"

• Here is an interview with Linus in Finnish. (We're told this one really is in Finnish....) The title, evidently, is "King of the nerds," and Samuli Karkkainen, who sent it in to us, says it's one of the best he has ever read.

• This Performance Computing "Unix Riot" column suggests (at the very end) that HP may support Linux on their PA-RISC architecture.

• IBM's new release of Apache is the subject of this Sun World article. "The new additions include technology for increasing Apache's speed by up to three times, IBM SSL encryption technology running on top of Apache, and a version of Apache for IBM's AS/400 line of midrange servers."

``Like sex in high school, everyone's talking about Linux, but is anyone doing it?'' Computer Currents

``Add in the other software bundled with the typical Linux distribution and you have an approximately $4,000,000,000 investment contained on that one single CD-ROM.'' Eric Green, in The Register

``No, he's not the Dalai Lama or Deepak Chopra or even Mark McGwire. This god is a geek who wears socks with his sandals. His name is Linus Torvalds.'' Time

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