See also: last week's Commerce page.

Linux and business

Interestingly, they offer a diskless version, perhaps pioneering the concept of a "diskless server." More interesting configurations can be seen on the product page; systems with a disk start at US$ 1,339. There is a "$100 off" deal in effect for the next month. The system appears to still be running Corel's port of Linux, rather than a straight Red Hat offering; the product page lists things like a 2.0.31 kernel and Apache 1.2.6.

Compaq has put out another goodie: Iprobeis a tool to access the performance counter registers in Alpha processors; it can be used for hardcore optimization tasks. It has been released under the GPL, and is available now.

The folks at Parasoft have announced an "Internet Store" product, (see the press release) aimed at getting Linux further into electronic commerce operations. "ParaSoft's Internet Store is the world's first fully automated, commercially affordable e-commerce system which can automatically update a retailer's actual inventory when an online sale is made."

Raven Software and Activision have released the source for their "Hexen" and "Heretic" games, according to this GameSpot article. A Linux port is one of the things they are hoping to see from that release.

A market research firm named Summit Strategies has put out a list of ten "top computer industry trends." Interesting entries (from their announcement) include "Linux Threatens Commercial Operating Systems and Provides Model for Freeware Industry," and "Java Reemerges as a Legitimate Windows Alternative".

Press Releases:

• Technauts, Inc., won a Data Communications "Hot product" award for their (Linux-based) turnkey server. (See also Data Communications article)
• Schwartz Communications, has become the PR agency for Red Hat.
• Tucows, launch of Linuxberg site.
• ObjectShare, VisualWorks for Linux release.

Next: Announcements