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

Linux in the news

Dan Gillmor writes about the DVD case in this San Jose Mercury column. "I don't know who'll win the legal case. But it's plain enough who's already won the war over access to DeCSS. In this case, the Net is acting as an antibody to what it perceives as a dangerous disease -- and the implications are clear."

More DVD Hack:

EE Times reports on the DVD lawsuit. "At stake, the plaintiffs assert, is the future of the DVD format itself. But supporters of the DVD hack disagree. They point out that the DVD encryption was cracked not for piracy but as part of a project to develop a Linux-based DVD player, something the DVD industry itself has yet to tackle."

VA Linux:

News.com reports on the announcement of SourceForge.net and other moves by VA Linux Systems. "SourceForge is hosting, at its launch, about 700 open-source projects, including the following: VA Linux's own Cluster Manager; Topaz, a next-generation version of the Perl programming language; and the Berlin Project, a graphical system for Linux and Unix."

From Inter@ctive Investor: a conversation with Larry Augustin about the Linux stock craze. "Sadly, most Linux-related press releases have been coming from companies that can hardly claim any sort of pure devotion. Whether it's 'K-tel International Selects Red Hat Linux as New Operating System' or 'Dunn Delivers Linux Servers' or 'Learn2.com Expands Courseware Offerings into the Linux Market', it's blather coming from companies that get hardly any Linux revenue now and likely won't get a large portion of their revenue from Linux in the foreseeable future."

The Red Herring takes a detailed look at VA Linux Systems. "Mr. Augustin's big challenge is not only selling the company's products and stock, but convincing people that VA Linux isn't just a hardware vendor. 'Because we sell systems, many people view us as a hardware company,' he says. 'That's a misnomer. We offer expertise in getting customers to open code.'"

Red Hat:

The E-Commerce Times looks at Red Hat's acquisition of Hell's Kitchen Software. "The Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-based Linux vendor will bundle the HKS credit card verification system software with the Professional Edition of its OS package, which will provide users with an e-commerce server and services solution."

ZDNet's Inter@ctive Investor reports on the Salon/Red Hat deal and the effect on Salon's stock price. "Salon used a proven formula -- company mentions Linux and/or Red Hat in a press release and surges as day traders go bonkers."

Business:

Here's an article in ZDNet about Intel's new, Linux-powered web appliance. "[Intel manager Claude] Leglise downplayed any split with Microsoft. He said customers asked Intel to use Linux, a free variant of the Unix operating system, because of its flexibility, reliability and ability to deliver much the same capability as PC software. The devices will use Intel's low-cost Celeron microprocessors, Leglise said. Microsoft officials didn't respond to calls requesting comment."

EE Times looks at Linux in the testing and measurement world. "'We like to jump into an area when we see a lot of requests,' said Carsten Puls, instrument control product manager at National [Instruments], 'so we're expanding our Linux-compatible products, which started as a grass-roots effort on the part of our own programmers.'"

Here's an article in the Ottawa Citizen about Inprise. "Inprise said that since it released its JBuilder 3 Foundation product on its Web page early in December, Web traffic has jumped four times. More significantly, demand for a Linux version was double that for a Windows version."

Linux distributors are moving away from direct retail sales and into VAR relationships, according to this Computer Reseller News article. "The fact that most of the Linux business still is going through retail indicates that developers are buying it with plans to build applications that are specifically for the Linux platform..."

Government Technology ran this article about Dallam County (Texas) and its use of free software for its web server. "'It came down to the bottom line for us,' admitted [County Treasurer] Ritchey. 'It's a good use of taxpayer money to use open-source software.' But, it isn't all about the Benjamins. 'If I was going to set up another server and I had money, I would still use Linux and Apache,' he said."

Computer Reseller News looks at Corel. "Despite its current financial woes, Corel Corp. is banking heavily on Linux."

News.com looks at LinuxOne's IPO. "LinuxOne is expected to launch its initial public offering as early as next month. But the upstart company faces a host of issues that were absent in the highly successful IPOs of Linux companies Red Hat, VA Linux, Cobalt Networks and Andover.Net."

ZDNet UK looks at the possibility of a Microsoft Linux. "Anybody tells you that Bill Gates is recruiting Linux programmers in order to launch MS Linux on the new Intel Itanium chip in the year 2000, can be safely sent away with a scornful flea in their ear." (Thanks to Mark Gravolin).

Finally:

News.com ran this retrospective, looking at Linux in 1999. "When the year began, Red Hat had 40 employees. Now, with the acquisition of Cygnus Solutions, Red Hat has grown tenfold to about 410..."

Time makes some predictions for this year. "Linux Gets Small. It was a great year for the Linux operating system and the Open Source community in general. Now it's time to face some hard facts: Linux owns only a tiny sliver of the desktop market, and that sliver isn't likely to get much bigger."

Nowadays, introductory Linux articles even show up in Playboy. "I believe that very soon the Linux OS will dramatically change the operating system as most of us now know it and thus the way we work and play on our computers. At least I hope so; I'm tired of rebooting."

This MacWeek column paints a pretty sad picture of Apple's attempts at open source thus far. "Apple boldly announced Darwin in mid-March and has released several tepidly received updates since then. The main problem is that all the source opened thus far can best be labeled 'mostly useless.' The so-called 'final version' of OS X will not be based on the Darwin source code available today. That means nothing Apple has released until now under the guise of the Darwin OS is much more than smoke screen." (Thanks to John Jensen).

Evan Leibovitch makes his predictions for 2000 in this ZDNet column. "Linux Magazine, in an attempt to increase its profile, decides to feature centerfolds. Their first (and last) one features Corel first lady Marlen Cowpland. As a result of the ensuing revenue from magazines and posters, Linux Magazine goes public, purchases IDG and fires Bob Metcalfe."

Salon has put up an amusing set of predictions for 2000. "Having resolved in a national referendum that it was high time that the country of Finland should be known for something more than saunas and the world's highest per-capita cell phone use, the Finns will declare an open-source country. Citizenship will be open to anybody who writes any portion of the new constitution."

Section Editor: Rebecca Sobol

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