Linux

Linus Torvalds and Open Source Development Labs plan a big coming-out party late next month for the Linux 2.6 kernel. Partners won't see commercial distributions based on the updated kernel until well into 2004.

Torvalds, Linux's lead developer and now an OSDL Fellow, and Linux kernel maintainer Andrew Morton this week released the test10 version of Linux 2.6 after a three-year development effort. A final test11 version is expected before they sign off on the production version next month.

LINUX DISTIE SuSE said that from the beginning of December it will sell an add-on to version 9.0 personal or professional that will allow "numerous" Windows applications to run under the operating system.
CrossOver Office and CrossOver Plugin from Codeweavers will let users run Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, Visio 2000, Intuit Quicken, Apple Quick Time, Photoshop, and notes as well as other Windows apps.

Gamers will be offered WineX from Transgaming which will allow a heap of games such as Half Life, Counter Strike, Warcraft III and other games run.

Enrico Pesatori, an executive who has held posts at several major computing companies, has taken over as chief executive of Linux system seller Penguin Computing, the company said Tuesday.

Pesatori has worked at three companies that eventually became a part of Hewlett-Packard: Digital Equipment, Tandem Computers and Compaq Computer.

He left Compaq in 2000 to become CEO of start-ups Synaxia and then BlueArc. He left BlueArc in 2002.

Red Hat and SuSE Linux, the top two sellers of the open-source operating system, are launching new discounts to attract students and educational institutions, a strategically important customer set for technology companies.

The earth moved last week. The seismic shock was felt most keenly in Redmond, Wash., where Microsoft Corp. executives bask in world dominance.

Red Hat Inc. announced it was dropping the desktop version of its high-profile Linux operating system to concentrate on corporate customers with its Enterprise Linux line, first released last year. And within days, Novell Inc. announced that it had purchased SuSE Linux AG, Red Hat's most important competitor, based in Nuremberg, Germany.

One of the founders of the open-source software initiative is planning to release a new version of Linux to challenge Red Hat's enterprise version of the operating system, and fill the hole left in the consumer market since Red Hat announced last week it would no longer sell a consumer version in retail stores.

IBM's other Linux shoe could drop Monday, as Big Blue is expected to endorse the idea of Linux on desktop computers at a conference.

IBM has heavily promoted the open-source operating system for use on servers, but Sam Docknevich of IBM's Global Services group plans to discuss how Linux's popularity now has spilled over into the desktop market, according to the agenda for the Desktop Linux Conference in Boston.

The Chinese government plans to throw its financial weight behind Linux-based computer systems that could rival Microsoft Corp's Windows in one of the world's fastest-growing technology markets, an official said on Wednesday.

China would build a domestic software industry around Linux -- a cheaper software standard that can be copied and modified freely -- said Gou Zhongwen, a vice minister at the powerful Ministry of Information Industry.

A decade ago, then-CEO Ray Noorda decided it would be neat to turn Novell into a carbon copy of Microsoft.
As far as brainstorms go, this one rates right up there with the charge of the Light Brigade: It produced a lot of headlines but ended up badly for all those concerned.

Novell had a nice gig selling network operating systems. But Noorda, who could have used personal instruction from Michael Corleone, confused business with the personal and became obsessed with taking down detested rival Bill Gates.

What sets LindowsOS 4.0 apart from the crowd is not what is shares with standard Linux approach, but what it doesn't. LindowsOS has been reviewed many times over, mostly with favorable results - but this is not just another review. This piece will tell you not only about my experience with LindowsOS 4.0, but also what you need to know to arm yourself with the knowledge to make the decision whether LindowsOS is right for you. LindowsOS (hereafter, casually, "Lindows") is a project aimed a users of Microsoft Windows.