Mr. Daemon not only has a cool nick, but he also writes "Compaq and Mitsubitshi are going to build a Beowulf of 130 Alphas to Japan's Institute of Physical and Chemical Research." It's cool because its Beowulf, and its cool because its good to see Compaq pushing Alphas forward.

This Internet World article makes some interesting predictions. The first being that Kaffe will end up shaping Java as much as Sun does, and even that Microsoft will end up adopting Kaffe. While that might be a little far out, the second set of predictions are believable: IBM and Compaq may be lining up a ton of software to release as open-source. However, unlike the article I expect it will be go beyond server software. Improving support for Java, existing Xterminal and WinTerminal support will increase the number of users whose GUI is Linux based. By helping make Linux into a fully fledged desktop OS, large vendors' reliance on Microsoft is reduced, increasing the ability of their own software departments to compete without being constrained by undocumented APIs, and the like. I'll make the bold prediction that by 2000 Linux will be a very strong desktop contender, with some desktop features Windows 2000 does not have.

Robert McMillan wrote in to plug a few new articles over at LinuxWorld. The first is about a the major investments in Linux from various sources lately. The second is an anlysis of Sun's Java License.

Rob Bos writes " "Windows users know Tucows as one of the virtual places to get Internet software. And now it's planning on adding Linux." "[tucows] doesn't allow ISPs to mirror its site on servers running Windows NT" "If Tucows didn't believe in the profit potential of Linux, it wouldn't bother." "isn't ruling out the other popular flavors of Unix, such as Solaris and FreeBSD, as future additions" " News like this makes being up since 4:30 in the morning a little more passable. A little.

Barrett Lyon writes "The new and improved Alpha Linux web site is now up. This site replaces the original on Azstarnet, left behind by David Mosberger-Tang and Bob Cauthorn. The site promotes Linux on Alpha architecture and also holds archives of AXP Linux Documents, Mailing Lists, Software, Hardware, Howto Docs, and Links. Oh, and of course the site is hosted on a Alpha Linux machine ;) " And it looks awesome.

Sean Garagan writes "The PCWeek labs reviewed the latest RedHat offering as a desktop alternative. They had the usual problems of GUI interface and hard to configure sound subsystems. I have to agree on one point though, the RedHat package install interface needs to be cleaned up somehow."

Kendall Hunter sent us a link to a Mining Co article called 6 Lies About Linux which attempts to address a lot of the FUD that has been popping up in the mainstream media (Does it ever stop?). Things like Linux is Unstable and Linux is Insecure. Good PHB stuff. I wonder if we can get permission to use the PHB for articles of this nature. That would be kinda cool.

Wheely writes "There is a vote for the best dressed and the most interesting guests at the Finnish President's Independence day ball. Linus and his tux can be viewed at here and by selecting "Kuvat vieraista". Linus is tag "9" number 46. Vote by selecting "Aanestys" and entering 46 in the two boxes and hitting the button. NOTE. Votes must be in by 2.00pm 8.12.1998 Finnish time (GMT +2) "

Siva writes "There's an update on the X11AMP homepage regarding the release of the next version along with some nifty screenshots. X11AMP is a (soon-to-be GPL'd) mp3 for linux. "

Murray Kosovich writes " Applix plan to make parts of the Applixware product's source code and internal development tools available for download under an Open Source style agreement. See this Applix List message for details. " Please note that this applies to things like filters, add-in functions, and build-tools, not to the whole Applixware Office Suite.

xose sent us a link to the MkLinux OSF Page which has the following message: " Status as of November 1998 This page is no longer being maintained, since the MkLinux development is no longer active "

Anonymous Coward writes "Greetings from CLOWN, the worlds largest (512-Node) Linux cluster. Theres an english page here. Take a look at the CLOWNs own website story. All 512 Nodes are busy preparing a movie right now (02:20 MET), and many international Television-Channels are carrying the "WDR Computernacht". Were on the air in China as well! " Nice to know it's up and running... More details on this page in German. Apparently the cluster uses Debian Linux.

te wrote in to tell us that penguins are being threatened by oil spills, habitat destruction, the overfishing of their food supplies and even the weather. For those that do not know why the Linux mascot is a penguin, read the latest Linus interview. (It also tells us what he thinks of the DOJ-Microsoft trial). Since the ocean is far away (from me in Colorado at least), does anyone know of any organisations set up to help our favorite feathered friends?

Kythe writes "This article in ZDnet reports that a "key" Linux kernel, number 2.2 to be exact, will be delayed. Several erroneous suggestions are carried in the piece, but the one I like best is the implication that current versions don't include SCSI and multiprocessing support. I don't suppose they've printed a correction for their "Linux worm" story yet, either. Oh well. " How can something that never had a release date be delayed? Just your usual FUD. I'm pretty pissed that SMP & SCSI aren't working in previous versions of the Kernel too- I'm kinda wondering how Slashdot (which is Linux, SMP and SCSI) was working without it.

jdlt writes "The German television program "Computer Club" is celebrating it's 250th broadcast by doing a 7-hour live-show saturday-night. During the live-show their are going to attemp, with the help of the German Linux Magazin to build a 512-machine Linux-cluster. What makes this even more special is that they're using P C's of people coming to the broadcast"

Jason Lango writes "Silicon Graphics, Inc. is now a Sponsoring Corporate Member of Linux International. Go us! An official press release from Linux International can be found here. " Sun, Intel, Adaptec, now SGI. Who's next?

Troy Baer writes "There's a good article on CNN.com about the Linux Doc Project and getting help for Linux. It's honest and largely positive." This is excellent mainstream coverage.

Greg writes "Sun Microsystems posted an interesting article on SunWorld today regarding how Linux may not only be a threat to WinNT, but to other commercial Unix vendors. "

azdolt asks "I hope I can get some help on this: I have been trying to get xdm to run on all the virtual consoles, but I have no success so far and I read the man page for xdm and anything that I can find about xdm." This isn't difficult at all, but there's a note in /etc/inittab that worries me - Click below to find out what it is...

A new development kernel has been released. You can get 2.1.131 from the usual and the unusual places. It's a 173K patch that contains updates to the joystick, i386 and alpha code. A more detailed summary will probably be available soon on linuxhq.