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March, 2001

The Python Software Foundation is launched. Its purpose is to own the copyright on Python and aid its future development. The web site shows no activity beyond the initial meeting, however.

Lineo acquires Convergence Integrated Media (announcement).

No license can stop Microsoft from practicing "embrace and extend" if they are determined to do so at all costs. If they write their own program from scratch, and use none of our code, the license on our code does not affect them. But a total rewrite is costly and hard, and even Microsoft can't do it all the time. Hence their campaign to persuade us to abandon the license that protects our community, the license that won't let them say, "What's yours is mine, and what's mine is mine." They want us to let them take whatever they want, without ever giving anything back. They want us to abandon our defenses. -- Richard Stallman on ZDNet.

Borland Kylix for Linux is released at last.

IBM's "Peace, Love, and Linux" ad campaign takes off.

Microsoft launches "shared source."

George Kraft becomes leader of the Linux Standard Base project as it works toward its 1.0 release (announcement).

Transmeta launches Midori Linux, its mobile distribution (announcement).

Eazel releases Nautilus 1.0 (announcement).

Savannah.gnu.org hits the net, being a SourceForge-derived free software development site.

Linuxgruven's training scam falls apart; the company founders vow to try again.

Lineo begins construction of its new headquarters, with room for 450 people (announcement).

As with the Internet boom, the Linux market has shown itself to be subject to the basic reality of capitalism--to survive, sooner or later a company must turn a profit. Some Linux distributors will likely fail. Some will merge. Others will likely be acquired by the bigger server companies. -- The Gartner Group, in News.com

Eazel lays off over half its staff.

SuSE claims 48% of the U.S. retail market, using data from a PC Data report.

The Stanford Checker surfaces, using a detailed analysis to find hundreds of potential bugs in the Linux kernel. The checker remains unreleased, however.

To date, Eazel has come up with exactly zero ways for potential customers to give them money. Along with the software, they give away 25MB of online backup storage to anyone who registers. Is this company just too idealistic, too good to lower itself to capitalism? The company has talked up a lot of interesting service models over the last year -- everything from remote backups to full remote system administration -- but so far none have materialized. -- ZDNet

EBIZ announces an agreement to acquire Linux NetworX (announcement).

Turbolinux officially withdraws its IPO, citing market conditions (withdrawal letter).

Red Hat starts charging for Red Hat Network services.

The kernel janitors project launches as a rallying point for those working for cleaner kernel source (announcement).

The request to change the name of the ssh protocol was denied by the IETF, disappointing SSH Communications.

The Lion Worm breaks loose, attacking Linux systems with ancient security vulnerabilities.

Given the revenue slowdown and efforts to cut essential investments, however, it looks as if the company is engaging in defensive tactics to achieve profitability, perhaps leaving bottom-line-minded investors with better places to put their money. -- Motley Fool on Red Hat.

KDE 2.1.1 is released (announcement).

Red Hat announces its 4th quarter results and claims to have broken even - despite a $24.2 million reported loss (announcement).

The Linux 2.5 kernel summit is held in San Jose, California; it is, perhaps, the most complete gathering of Linux kernel hackers in history (LWN coverage).

EnGarde Secure Linux, a secure distribution, is released (announcement).

Ben Collins is elected Debian Project Leader (announcement).

Libranet Linux 1.9.0 is released (announcement).

February <==

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