See also: last week's Back page page.

Linux links of the week

Reviewing past Links of the Week has been amusing, to say the least. Checking out our editions from last March, no wonder that links were easier to find, when we were busy introducing Slashdot and FreshMeat. Both of these sites, of course, predate our first edition by several months, but we mentioned them for anyone who happened to run across our site before hearing about theirs.

Section Editor: Jon Corbet

Letters to the editor

From: Mike Richardson <mike@quaking.demon.co.uk>
To: letters@lwn.net
Subject: MS Buys RedHat
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 09:03:55 +0100

There has been some speculation that M$oft might buy up all the RedHat
stock. It has been pointed out that this would not give them any useful
control over RedHat, so presumably there is no immediate threat.

But what if they could. Suppose that RedHat offered anough stock that
M$oft could buy control, and suppose that M$oft forgot their "Linux is
a viable competitor" arguments to the DOJ. What would they gain? I
suggest that the answer is pretty well zero.

IPR? Hardly, everything is available under the GPL, they can obtain it
anyway if they want, just as I can. People? I think that you wouldn't
be able to see for all the dust as the people who make RedHat distinct
bolt. Income? RedHat sales would go down like a lead brick.

I think we can ignore this one.

Mike Richardson
Series 1 Software
England

Date: Fri, 09 Jul 1999 03:50:53 -0500
From: Tom Adelstein <tadelstein@earthlink.net>
To: letters@lwn.net
Subject: Lotus Notes on Linux

In your article you say:
It seems Lotus will only come kicking and screaming into the fold after
all...it ends with the comment, "What Lotus won't be doing, however, is
bringing the Lotus Notes client or SmartSuite Millennium Edition 9.5
office suite to Linux...

In a press release published at LinuxToday we stated
(http://linuxpr.com/releases/124.html)

"We're beginning to source some important breakthroughs for Linux. One
of our consultants has a Lotus Notes client running on Linux and we'll
post the how-to very soon. That's a milestone for moving the Linux
desktop into the enterprise." 

Also, several references within IBM internal forums exist discussing
Lotus Notes running on Linux desktops in production environments.

What is IBM going to do, deport companies and their own personnel who
want to run the Client on Linux? In our call center we're running Notes
server on an OS/2 in a token ring environment with Linux clients. How
about that!

Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 19:35:25 +0200
From: Bernhard Weiss <Bernhard.Weiss@KryptoKom.de>
To: letters@lwn.net
Subject: CORBA - IIOP/GIOP

Hello dear reader,

to expand our Linux based "High level firewall" we look for someone who is
capable and interested to give a one or two day inhouse introduction on
CORBA.  The focus should be IIOP/GIOP and the implications in their use
through firewalls in Intranet, Extranet and Internet.  An additional topic
might be interoperability between different implementations.  The CORBA
basics should be included, to help understanding the whole concept.

The presentation language may be english or german and it should be given
at our main location in Aachen/Germany.

Financial terms are to be negotiated.

Please refer to our homepage for informations about
KryptoKom:

Homepage in english http://www.kryptokom.de/english/index.html
Homepage in german http://www.kryptokom.de/

Thanks and regards
                Bernhard Weiss
-- 
Bernhard Weiss                   KryptoKom GmbH
Technology Service               Dennewartstr. 27
                                 D-52068 Aachen
bernhard.weiss@kryptokom.de      http://www.kryptokom.de

       Office Marburg            Central Office Aachen
Phone: +49 (0)6424 / 964497      +49 (0)241 / 963 - 1380
FAX:   +49 (0)6424 / 964495      +49 (0)241 / 963 - 1390

Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1999 13:53:08 -0700
From: Anand Srivastava <anand@nmi.stpn.soft.net>
To: tburgess@netcom.ca, letters@lwn.net
Subject: Designing the Linux for the Masses

Hi,

If you look from the programmers point of view Linux fulfills all the seven
criterias that you have outlined. But then the system is made by
programmers for programmers. I guess if general users can't think the way
programmers think they will have to live with Windows ;-). Why do
programmers care. They are not making Linux for altruistic motives. They
just want to have the best systems for themselves. We will and are getting
GUIs but they will also fulfill those criterias only for
programmers. Unless users take it upon themselves to write an operating
system for themselves, or they can continue to use Windows and live with
its stability (or rather the lack of it).

Of course there will be a time when Linux will have GUIs for normal users
too.  Because programmers are making our GUIs very very configurable. It
melds with their idea of choice in everything. They will also make it
easier to make those configurations. That will be the time when some
intelligent (we are not oriented towards normal users, they don't pay us,
they don't make any additions, if they can't even use the interfaces made
by us, so we can call them stupid, for our purposes, and as Scott Adams
says everybody is an induhvidual in some field), normal users will be able
to dumb down the GUI to normal users tastes.

I don't know why anybody would like less freedom. But maybe normal users
need chains around them to prevent them from poking around where they don't
have any business. But this is what Orwell predicted. So maybe we are
entering a time when they will need chains. But I would rather be free. My
advice would be to have the freedom, but just don't go around messing with
things that you don't understand.  That is what freedom is, if you screw up
you go to jail, rather being in jail from the beginning.

I hope you won't lull yourself into thinking that programmers want to make
Linux the best system for everybody. They care too much about
themselves. If you want to do that start a company and hire designers and
programmers to do that, of course you will be charging money for what you
produce. We will see what eventually becomes more used the free stuff or
the more dumb user friendly. I believe the masses don't want to spend money
on GUIs, and they will take whatever is free.  As long as their favourite
browser, or app runs on it ;-).

-anand