Linux Archive

Andreas Girardet writes: "Yoper limited (a New Zealand Operating System Company) is proud to announce the first public release (release candidate) of Ydesktop. This is the first part of Your Operating System that Yoper Limited ("Yoper") is developing."

Four new articles appeared today regarding Linux on the desktop: "As business looks to Linux desktops, some critical apps lacking", "Microsoft Says Linux on Desktops Would Hurt Growth", "Red Hat chief: Linux will take desktop market share from MS", "$199 PC with no Windows, no Intel inside".

KernelTrap has interviewed Ingo Molnar who has been contributing to Linux kernel development since 1995 with an impressive list of accomplishments.

As dominant systems and software companies continue to pour millions into scaling Linux for the enterprise, some observers now believe the open-source OS's future is to serve as a distributed, network-based operating system. Read the article at InfoWorld.

Coming from a background of using MS-DOS for about 4 or 5 years exclusively (MS-Dos 4.1 or something) Being new to Linux and *nix in general I thought that I would want to learn from the "ground up". I did not want the bloat of Redhat or Mandrake but wanted something simple where I could learn the "stuff" of the OS.

Get the Linux kernel 2.4.20 from here, changelog here. Test-kernel 2.5.50 was also released.

"If the UnitedLinux developers don't recognize the folks who made most of the software in the first place, I'd say they're quite likely to fail -- and deserve to do so." Read the editorial at OSOpinion.

"One of the most intimidating things to new users about Linux is the layout of the file-system. Users who are learning to hack Linux have to just clench their teeth and learn their way around, but what about a user who just wants to send e-mails, browse the web and type up a few documents?" The rest is here.

"Scalability enhancements, as well, will add to the appeal of the latest kernel, Version 2.6, for enterprise customers, according to Linus Torvalds, the creator and top programmer for the Linux kernel, in an e-mail exchange last week with eWeek. While he would like the 2.6 kernel to be ready early next year, Torvalds said, "It's just too hard to predict, and it does end up depending a lot on how good the vendors are at trying to calm things down through stability fixing."" Read the report at eWeek.

The LinuxBIOS Project "now have a completely free software replacement for the BIOS that supports (without modification) either LILO or GRUB as bootloaders, and Linux, OpenBSD, and Windows 2000 as operating systems". FreeBSD, Win98 and WinXP support are in the works. See announcement here.

Today the UnitedLinux group announced the release of Version 1.0 of its UnitedLinux product, a standards-based Linux operating system targeted at the business user. Founding companies of UnitedLinux are Linux industry leaders Conectiva, SCO Group, SuSE and Turbolinux. UnitedLinux Version 1.0 is the engine that powers products to be sold by the four companies, each with its own local language support, value-add features, and pricing. There is already a new article, describing UnitedLinux, at DeveloperWorks. Our Take: Erm, great, but why there isn't a "buy now" link or a "contact me" form anywhere in that site?

"Okay, I'm playing with your head today, but I expect to write that headline for real sometime in 2003. We're seeing an explosion in the number of Linux distributions meant specifically for desktop users, and not all of them are going to survive." Read the editorial at NewsForge.

Ladislav writes: "Knoppix has taken the Linux world by storm. Barely known outside its borders only a few months ago, it has suddenly become the focus of Linux media as a great way of introducing anyone to Linux. This amazing product is a brainchild of Klaus Knopper. Klaus was kind enough to take time off his schedule and agreed to answer a few questions for the benefit of DistroWatch readers."

"Linux will be deployed on no more than five percent of desktops over the next two to three years because of a lack of viable applications, claimed Gartner research director Phil Sargeant on Thursday evening at the Gartner Symposium and ITXpo." Read the article about the Gartner Group's analysis.