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

Linux in the news

• Linux, grab your slingshot cries Healthcare Informatics (scroll down a page or so). This is a story about a hospital which switched over to Linux for a number of functions. It's more positive than many: "...with recent graphical user interface advances, Linux is gaining new respect as a desktop operating system also."

  It's also hard to resist this quote: "John Carpenter, Microsoft's worldwide healthcare industry marketing manager, admits that Linux has their attention. 'It will certainly drive us to put new stuff into our products.'" More stuff...certainly the answer to the Linux challenge...

• LinuxWorld has a column by Stig Hackvän about the development of the GIMP and the difficulties it encountered when the two principal developers left the project. "If the story of Gimp's development represents an emerging pattern, then all is not well for open source software."

• Have a look at this lengthy interview with Richard Stallman in Network World Fusion. Once they get past the GNU/Linux thing it's an interesting discussion. "If somebody took a gun and pointed at me and said write proprietary software or I'll shoot, I think under those circumstances, I'd be justified in writing some proprietary software, although I think that it would be very buggy and would never get to work reliably." Note that NW Fusion is a registration-required site; "cypherpunks" as username and password will work if you do not wish to register. (Thanks to Wari Wahab).

• Here is a nicely written article about Linux and Java on O'Reilly's site. It delves into, among other things, one aspect of Linux that is often overlooked: that Linux makes working with computers fun again. Pass it on to your buddies who are still stuck in the Windows world.

  "The title of this article comes from a chapter in J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Two Towers.' It tells of the wizard Gandalf and his army, preparing for a grueling battle at the enemy stronghold Isengard, only to arrive and find that it's already been leveled by an unexpected foe: an entire forest of seemingly-innocent trees. The parallels are obvious." (Thanks to Kyle Dawkins).

• Want to make good money? Here's the scoop, according to this brief salary survey in the Detroit News: "The greatest wage gains between 1997 and last year were reported by people working with Linux, a free operating system. Their knowledge of this increasingly popular system puts them in high demand for Internet projects..."

• A pair of articles was run in the Bangkok post, with different points of view. The first proclaims: "Here's a hunch: 1999 will go down in the annals of computer history as the Year of Linux. I could be wrong, but all the evidence suggests otherwise." The author is particularly happy about the availability of WordPerfect.

  The other one is a bit less optimistic: "Linux, the open source software challenge to Microsoft NT may face a less than stellar year - following its rapid ascendance last year - and momentum may be lost, mainly because most software developers, the resource needed to develop exciting applications, are in the Windows NT camp." (Thanks to Frank Skagemo).

• CNEWS has a brief mention in a 1999 look-forward. "The New Year is going to bring about some interesting competitors and developments to the world of Operating systems and to Internet programming. One of the fastest growing OS programs out right now is a rogue program called Linux."

• Internet Week went a little overboard, starting with this 99 to watch in 99 list; Linux comes up several times.

  They also have an article entitled Microsoft To Lose While Linux Wins. "Prognosticating Linux's fortunes in 1999 is delicious, in part because this open-source software triggered so many surprises in 1998. I predict that a major entity, say IBM or Oracle, will put significant resources behind Linux..."

  Plus their Editor's note says Linux will make progress this year despite the overwhelming presence of the y2k stuff. "Speaking of success, Linux is already coming in through the back door in large accounts. And either it's not reading the 'Reserved For Windows 2000' signs or it simply doesn't care. This is going to make for a very interesting debut if and when Microsoft, fresh from its DOJ spanking, releases 'Why 2K' only to find a coyote in the hen house."

  And as if that weren't enough... this article about intranets is also up on Linux: "In 1999, open source will cement itself as the key method for building highly scalable, Internet-age software. Linux will continue to explode." Interestingly, they also say: "A backlash among developers is already mounting against some open-source 'stars' who have risen (some say without merit) to the level of spokesmen for the movement."

• Jesse is back! Linus Torvalds has made Jesse Berst's list of five "people to watch" in 1999. The emphasis here is on Transmeta, not Linux, though.

• InfoWorld has a general article on the increasing success of Linux. "Although the mainstream world discovered Linux last year, InfoWorld readers have been aware of it for years. Battey discovered that the first mention of Linux in InfoWorld was in April 1993, in a letter to the editor from a reader who chided us for failing to mention Linux in an article about Unix on the desktop."

• Newsweek discovers Linux with a pair of articles. Code Warriers talks about open source and has one of the uglier pictures of Linus around. It's a longish introductory piece.

  I ran Linux - and lived is a pure and not entirely accurate discussion of how hard it can be to run Linux. "And the apps you can get won't work until you have the OS 'properly configured.' Linux is bewilderingly complex, requires a steep learning curve and often demands a willingness to get down and dirty with arcane text-based 'configuration files.' Only very recently have a handful of small companies begun selling computers preloaded with Linux and aimed at the consumer market..." "Only recently"? Your editor bought a pre-loaded laptop from a little company called Fintronic (since renamed VA Research) five years ago...

• The Age (Melbourne, Australia) ran this introductory article. "Analysts estimate there are between seven million and 20 million Linux users. At the current adoption rate, the number of Linux users will be about 40 million by the end of next year and would surpass Microsoft Windows users within five years." (Thanks to David Brown).

• There is an introductory article in the Philadelphia Inquirer. "Linux also faces the obstacle of entrenched ideas. People are familiar, and comfortable, with Microsoft products."

• The Detroit News has an article (from USA Today) about Linus and Linux. "But it was his grandfather Leo Toerngvist, a statistics professor at the University of Helsinki, who had the biggest influence on Torvalds. In the mid-1970s, Toerngvist bought one of the first personal computers, a Commodore Vic 20. Torvalds learned to write computer games at age 12."

In the area of Linux and business (including reviews) we had:

Here is a long ZDNet article about WordPerfect 8 for Linux. It's a positive article with some useful information, worth reading for anybody interested in this product. "WordPerfect8 presents an astounding array of features, but seamless installation may not be among them, especially if you run an up-to-date version of Linux..."
• Smart Reseller has a brief article about Red Hat's dealings with Ingram, a large distribution house. "'Our sales volumes have more than doubled in the past 60 days ... as a result of Ingram Micro,' says [Red Hat CEO] Young..."

• PC Week reviewedIBM's DB2 beta release for Linux. "...Linux's immaturity on high-end hardware, combined with other technical issues and its relatively short corporate IT tenure, makes DB2 for Linux best-suited for workgroup and branch office implementations."

• Dell will offer a low-end Linux box within the next three months, according to this "The Age" article. They also have an article on Iveco's adoption of Linux. "A BITTER experience with closed systems has caused the Australian arm of the Fiat group's international truck making giant, IVECO, to move to ``scarier'' open systems for its business survival."

  Finally, they also have a brief note on Wang's agreement to support the Corel Netwinder. (Thanks to Neville Caine).

• PC Week has an article about how the various commercial database systems are helping Linux get into corporate environments. "However, companies are still waffling on how committed they really are--particularly if a cheap Linux product promises to cannibalize sales revenue from other platforms." (Thanks to Richard Storey).

• Data Communications reviews the Technauts Linux-based server box.

• PC World reports on cheap PC's, making the point that prices have pretty much bottomed out for now. "Vendors could knock about $50 off the price by offering systems with alternative operating systems like Linux or even Windows CE."

• Here's an InfoWorld article about the upcoming release of ApplixWare for LinuxPPC. "[Applix sales director] Miller sees the Linux market as 'a big fat niche,' which he expects will grow significantly in the next couple of years, spurred on by the momentum gathering behind open-source software."

• The Bangkok Post ran this article, which compares free Unix security with that of other Unix systems, and the free systems come out very well. "With free Unixes, the author of the software is always known. If a bug is reported, it usually gets fixed within 24 hours..." (Thanks to Frank Skagemo).

• PC Week has gotten the open source religion, at least if this editorial is to be believed. "Those who avoid the free or low-cost alternatives to products from big software houses should understand that Linux and the open-source model are here to stay. The passion that once permeated the computer industry is back. Developers at big software houses are fixated by stock options and early retirement, but open-source developers are more interested in changing the world--and they are doing it."

• For those who can read it: a Norwegian article on LinuxPPC. (Thanks to Pål G.Larsson).

• Inter@ctive Week ran an article about eCos, the open source embedded operating system put out by Cygnus. "ECos 'is sending ripples through the industry. It's addressing a need' for a low-cost system that can be modified without permission, said Jerry Krasner, research editor at Miller Freeman Electronics Markets Forecasters."

• Windows Developer's Journal reviews"Using Linux, Fourth Edition" by Jack Tacket, Jr. and Steven Burnett. The author uses the column to talk as much about his experience with Linux as the book. "The moral of the story for me was that both the good and bad things you hear about Linux are generally true: you'll likely get your hands dirty setting up and using a Linux system, but it's not a toy by any means and can breathe new life into systems that just can't keep up with Windows' evolving hardware demands." (Thanks to Kenn Humborg).

• InfoWorld talks about Red Hat and GNOME, but without saying a whole lot. They do report that the next Red Hat release is due in April or May, and will feature GNOME as the standard desktop.

• TechWeb ran an article about LinuxPPC. It's a mostly positive piece with some minor technical accuracy problems.

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