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

Linux in the news

Jon Hall's August "Penguin's Brew" column in Performance Computing is about the D.H. Brown and Mindcraft reports. "I thought of the D.H. Brown report as a suggested project list for Linux. Let's take a look at what the commercial community needs, and then provide them with it at Linux speed."

PBS's Robert Cringely describes Apple's open source releases as a cleverly veiled attack on Microsoft. "By embracing open source and throwing Darwin to all-comers, Apple will effectively defeat Microsoft's investment plan. In the media space Jobs covets (he is, after all, a movie mogul), he will even steal support from Linux. But the main target is clearly Microsoft..." (Found in OS News).

More comments back from Comdex Canada, this time in the Andover News Network. [Thanks to Cesar A. K. Grossmann]

Red Hat:

ECommerce Times ran an article about Red Hat's new European offices. "The new European organization, functioning as a wholly owned Red Hat subsidiary, will expand upon the company's current distribution, engineering and service partnerships in Europe."

Wired News covers Red Hat's IPO and the set-aside of stock for Linux developers. "Longtime open source contributor Kirk McKusick said Red Hat's move is political, and in keeping with the community's tradition."

The (Canadian) Globe & Mail reports on Red Hat's IPO. "The high-tech community will be watching Red Hat's IPO with great interest because it will be one of the first Linux sellers to go public and will likely set the stage for other firms to follow."

From Salon Magazine is this story about Red Hat and a web design firm called Atomic Vision. "... Red Hat's mass employment of Atomic Vision designers suggests the company is quite serious about expanding its portal possibilities."

This Salon Magazine article asks, "Is Red Hat becoming Linux's Microsoft?" A close look is taken at the growth of Linux, and a few of the different companies offering variants of Linux. "Many Linux experts argue that Linux is in no danger of fragmenting, and suggest that the recurrent surfacing of the issue is just more FUD -- "fear, uncertainty and doubt" -- spread by Linux's competitors."

Robert Young of Red Hat Software talks about a variety of topics, including the LinuxCare poster and the Linux Standards Base in this interview from the Linux Journal. On pursuing venture captital he says, "... even if Red Hat doubled in size or even became ten times bigger, we would still be way too small for an MIS director at Ford Motor Company to trust our technology. So we realized the only way around that problem was to get the endorsement of the industry leading players."

Business News:

Forbes has run an article on "The E-Gang" - a group of people who are "reinventing the rules of business." One of those people is Linus Torvalds. "Open-source isn't a solution for everything; it didn't turn around the flagging fortunes of Netscape's Web browser. 'If you want the benefits of open-source, you've got to be willing to let go, to give up the code,' [Linus] says. 'Otherwise people don't feel like they're in a position to make big decisions and have fun.'" (Thanks to Larry Mills-Gahl and Didier Legein).

"Linux is doing well in the Internet Service Provider (ISP) market.", begins this article. "Hurdles aside, Linux has given the computing industry a viable choice in operating systems. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing proposition. Most enterprises already have a heterogeneous environment and they will likely find a place for Linux too." (Thanks to Cesar A. K. Grossmann)

Mark Hall at Performance Computing talks about why the big Unix gang isn't heavily promoting Linux yet. "Sure, they'll take the service revenue from IT companies that are installing Linux, but you won't see any 2-for-1 sales on Linux servers anytime soon. Part of the problem is that the Linux advocates inside systems companies (who are as dedicated as any open-source people in the business) are way down the corporate food chain for scarce marketing and development resources."

Conversely, he goes on to why this attitude will have to change, and the Chief Financial Officers, with an eye on bottom-line revenue, will be the ones to do it. "They'll have to, just to keep market share, especially if the members of the UNIX Systems Gang intend to grow their businesses outside the United States, Europe, and Japan, which is where most of the serious growth in the computer industry will take place in the coming years."

IT-Director looks at Microsoft's latest profit figures. "...we believe that time is now running short for Microsoft as the price it now charges for the Windows license is excessive compared to all the other components of a PC. The immediate effect is that it profits substantially and accidentally from the dramatic growth of the Internet. In the medium term PC and internet device vendors are going to Linux for their next generation products, because the price that Microsoft charges is prohibitive."

Computer Reseller News reports on Windows 2000. "[Microsoft's] Windows 2000 server lineup ... will be met with new competition both from Unix vendors out to protect their transactional turf and from Linux vendors out to exploit the emergence of E-commerce applications and Web hosting..."

MicroSoft uses Apache? Yes they do, at least for some functions. This CNET story gives more details. "The use of non-Microsoft software is interesting in light of the issues that high-tech companies face as they try to persuade others to buy their products. Some customers, for instance, may be left scratching their heads if a software behemoth with many products begins using outside methods to get the job done." (Thanks to Damon Poole)

This story begins with detailed background about the modern printing industry, then gives even more detail about merging Linux servers into a multi-OS environment. "When I reveal that SuSE Linux 6.0 with kernel 2.2.5 and Helios EtherShare was the top performer, I hope the readers of this article will realize the significance of this announcement. Eric Morris, one of the network engineers in my Linux Users Group (http://www.lugoj.org/), and I expected Solaris 7 to beat Linux--but it did not." [Linux Journal]

Here's a TechWeb article on Linux-based routers. "If the question is, 'How can I compete against a Cisco or a Lucent?,' one way is to take advantage of all the brains out there developing applications for Linux so that we can be more competitive with special features."

and another TechWeb article about how Computer Associates is making their Unicenter TNG product available to Linux users for free (though the purchase of a service contract appears to be necessary). "CA has been particularly surprised by the adoption rate of Linux in large accounts, [CA VP] Gupta said. The open source operating system also is making significant inroads in the small- and medium-business market, he said."

This ECommerce Times story predits that Linux use will rise in developing countries. "Nick Thompson, Penguin's director of marketing and the author of a book comparing development in Ghana and Thailand, said Linux makes economic sense in countries where the per-capita income is less than $5,000 a year."

There are a number of editorials from OS Opinion:

First come a series of editorials by author Scott Billings:

• Scott takes a well-reasoned look at the competition between MicroSoft and Linux in this article.

• Scott also gives us his views on Linux Hardware Support.

• Where's the creativity? he asks in this article.

• and finally this one on free software versus open source.

And by various other authors:

• This one on the future of Microsoft.

• This one looks at how various operating systems will fit the needs of PC users in the year 2000.

• This one is about the lack of commercial security tools for Linux.

• Here's one on the need (or lack thereof) for a uniform GUI.

• and finally this one on Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt - FUD.

Finally:

Salon Magazine has a listing of all the Linux related stories they have run recently. It's called 'The Free Software Story'.

Open Source IT has a new weekly email newsletter, free for subscribers. If you are interested, sign up here.

This review of the Unix/Linux Printing HOWTO Support Database website praises the efforts of the site's maintainer. "What that site provides is an easy way to quickly figure out how to install a color or black and white inkjet, LED or laser printer on a Unix, Linux or FreeBSD machine."

A wildly enthusiastic (and extremely long) article introducing Linux to current Windows users comes from Al Fasoldt, a long-time computer columnist who recently discovered Linux. "Linux is outstanding in dozens of ways that Windows is not. Linux is powerful and stable and forgiving. Linux can't possibly run low on "resources" -- the single biggest Dumb Thing in Windows -- and it doesn't use DOS in any way at all." [Thanks to kosmo]

The San Francisco Chronicle has a paragraph about Linux in this column. "LINUX UPDATE: Judging from the e-mail I've gotten this week, it's clear that fans of Linux are every bit as rabid as Apple fanatics. They love their technology, hate Microsoft and have skin about as thin as the underbelly of an armadillo."

Section Editor: Rebecca Sobol

Next: Security