The Spirit of Unix

"Several readers took me to task for referring to Linux, BSD, and OS X as Unix. Lighten up, folks -- I'm on your side. No one feels more protective of Unix's heritage than I. Unix has a rich legacy that deserves to be preserved and accurately conveyed to new generations of computer scientists. It rattles many of us to see that the operating systems that best exemplify Unix traditions today aren't Unix at all." Read the editorial at InfoWorld by Tom Yager.

Lots of Interest Reported for New Amiga Solutions in Italy & Germany

Quantum Leap has written a small report regarding VirtualWorks and Soft3's presence at the Italian Webb.it show. The report includes some pictures of the AmigaOne and AmigaOS4 modules running with classic hardware. A lot of Amiga interest in Italy is being reported and PPCNUX.de recently reported that the AmigaOne is selling very well in Germany. And this week’s Q&A session with Amiga’s CTO covers various topics at the AmigaWorld community portal.

Editorial: Company or community?

"I was all set to run a column this week about the deplorable lack of even marginally acceptable word processors for Linux -- I even had it all written -- when along came TextMaker and blew that plan out of the water. (I still like the product, even though it has now made more work for me.) But the newfound existence of TextMaker suggests another, similar but broader, question: Why can't the community write something that good?" Read the editorial at LinuxAndMain by Dennis E. Powell.

MySQL Creator Contemplates RAM-only Databases

"When will RAM prices make disk drives obsolete for database developers? I first came across this question when talking with Michael "Monty" Widenius, one of the visonaries behind the MySQL database. For some applications, running entirely in RAM is not news at all. One major platform, the Palm Pilot, relies entirely on battery-powered RAM. Disks are used only occassionally for remote backups." Read the article at DevChannel by Peter Wayner.

The Unix Tree Rethought: an Introduction to GoboLinux

"Lately, there has been lots of discussion on the current state of Linux as a desktop system, and articles pop up here and there, occasionally with very good ideas. However, none have surprised me more than this one. It was all very hyphothetical, but had pretty radical ideas on how the author thought the Linux directory tree should be reorganized." Read more about GoboLinux, a Linux distro that uses a new style directory tree at Kuro5hin.org.

SuSE Linux 8.2 Available for Download

From DistroWatch: "SuSE Linux 8.2 has now been spotted on several mirrors. While SuSE does not provide easily install-able ISO images for download, their 8.2 directory has been uploaded to provide a method to install SuSE's Professional Edition directly from FTP servers. First, get the installation image: boot.iso (20MB), then boot from it and follow the instructions provided in this readme file." German and international mirrors. Here is the OSNews review of the 8.2 version.

Search Engine as OS

"If I asked you to name the internet's dominant operating system, you'd probably nominate Linux, Windows or possibly Solaris. My answer would be none of the above. Increasingly, our most value-adding interface layer is Google—and our industry's annals of operating system wars and browser wars are looking ever more like ancient history. It might seem odd to call a Web search engine an operating system, but look at the fundamentals." Read the story at eWeek by Peter Coffee.

ISV’s Test Drive IBM eServer Linux

Frank writes "IBM has a new eServer Linux Test Drive program. It enables ISV's the ability to test drive Linux on all IBM eServer platforms. It's no-charge access(14 to 30 days) to the eServer iSeries, pSeries, xSeries, or its mainframe zSeries. ISV's can choose Turbolinux, SuSE, or Red Hat to develop, port, and or test drive their solutions on IBM's eServers running IBM's middleware, and the e-business developers' toolkit based on Linux."