Despite all the silliness about skipping 2.1.98, it has arrived, with major changes including PPC and Sparc updates. I plan on snagging it myself this afternoon and compiling it tonight. Anything to avoid studying for finals.

David Lebel writes " Just thought you might like to know that on the MontrealCAM LiveCam Network website, there is a camera located inside the Polar ecosystem which looks directly at the penguins that roam there. I thought that all the fans of Tux might want to take a look at the penguins while appreciating the fact that the webcam machine runs on Linux, using a Meteor framegrabber from Matrox, connected using standard phone lines and capturing pictures (using a custom piece of software) each and every 20 seconds. "

This certainly has been a hot topic around here the past few days, but check out what Dave Finton says: "In the latest edition of Linux Gazette They talk about the good and the bad points of Linux evangelism. This guy couldn't be more true, in my opinion. Linux ain't for everybody. However... My goal in life is to prove that Windows ain't for everybody, either. Maybe not even for most people. :) "

Jay Bloodworth has written a nice editorial on Linux, and its use in primary education. He talks about pros, cons, and what needs to happen to make Linux and Education go together hand and glove. Follow the link below and learn more...

Stefane Fermigier wrote in to tell us about Yet Another Linux Web Site. Cool Linux sites are multiplying like rabbits, its pretty excellent. Anyway, The Linux Center is a nice little site. Not comprehensive yet, and I don't think I saw a 'search' anywhere, but a quick glance through it shows that its not a bad starting point for Linux stuff.

Allright I've had several people whisper this my way, and I just have to post it. The rumor is that RedHat 5.1 is coming rsn. Perhaps around the end of the month. Mind you this is just rumor so don't go bug anyone @redhat about it.

Vincent Janelle writes "I just found out about a Serial LCD stats software pack for Linux. This little product is essentially a serial LCD panel that someone has programmed software for Linux, and it generates stats based on the loadavg, mem readouts, uptime, and more. You can get it at here.. You cannot tell me that you do not want this." I want one mounted on all of my machines. Even my laptop! *grin*. I couldn't find how much the little panel cost, but I think I found what I want for my birthday- that thing is just to cool. If somebody buys me one, I'll write something to pump slashdot headlines through it.

The Mining Co (I'd never heard of them before, although it looks like a nice site) has posted their Linux "Best of the Net" site awards. The 10 winners include Freshmeat, Debian GNU/Linux, The Linux Documentation Project, LinuxHQ, and last/least, Slashdot.org. I'm sure everyone here has visited all the winning sites many times, but I'm sure all of them appreciate the recognition.

Damien Miller writes "This article States that NT's popularity is partly due to unrealistic user expectations (driven by MS Marketing), that Unix is not declining and that 14% of coporate shops already have Linux installed."

Alexandre G wrote in with this link to an article at 32 Bits Online where you can read about Office Suites for Linux. Its a series of article that will be covering Applix and StarOffice as well as something called AndrewUser Interface System that I've never heard of. Looks like it'll be interesting- check it out as the week continues."

Ok, Justin sent me this link and I just had to post it. It discusses Prostitution in the penguin world, and well, I've been Raku Firing ceramic bowls since 8 this morning and I'm in just the frame of mind to think that this is the funniest thing since the invention of funny. Maybe its not, but I'm gonna post it anyway and then fire a couple more loads of bowls. Isn't clay fun?

Linus took some time from his busy schedule to put kernel 2.1.97 in its rightful place. Major updates include major PowerPC and Macintosh updates, major sparc and sparc64 updates.

Kendall Koning has written in with a mini editorial that everyone should read. In addition, read The Linux Advocacy Mini HOWTO, On many occasions, Linux users appear to be more of a mob than a team. I've fallen prey to this more than a few times in the thousand articles I've posted on these pages. Its something that we all need to work on if we want Linux to truly be mainstream.

Karl J. Smith wrote in to tell us that Linus v3.0 (Linus' second daughter) was born at 9:04 yesterdat morning. Congratulations Linus, enjoy the additional diaper duty!

Ben Kosse writes "In this week's PC Week magazine, Peter Coffee let's us know what we already knew: Linux is considered a proven choice in some enterprise-class sites. This tidbit is at the very end of an article which basically points out even more stuff we already knew: Microsoft doesn't have a Mission Critical Operating System."

Vertigo writes " While reading some newsgroups i came across this article: http://www.32bitsonline.com/Issues/april98/redhatlinux.shtm it's a very positive review of RedHat 5.0 .. it was published today, 15 april.. so still fairly recent ;) " Ya gotta love this kinda press.

Linus, favorite kernel developer to many souls, released kernel 2.1.96 to the world. Weighing in at over 11MB compressed, the major changes include many ARM updates, many many SCSI driver updates, and a few net code updates.

Scott James Remnant wrote in with a comment about BeDope, and how cool it is. So cool in fact that he wants to work on a Hinux focused humor site. If you are interested in helping in joining in on this project (Hey, I'll write a Slashdot Parody!) you should send `subscribe' to `lindope-request@lantonet.com' (Scott also notes that this is just a working title- a real one will be determined later). The idea isn't to duplicate BeDope (which is already a hilarious site) but to have a centralized place for Linux related humor. I'm all for that.

Atul Chitnis wrote in to tell us "India's premier computing magazine, PC Quest takes on the "real corporate world" with it's April issue's editorial. This is a curtain raiser for the May issue, which will have RedHat Linux 5.0 plus huge amounts of apps and utilities (plus all the bug fixes) on the cover CD."

JEDIDIAH sent us this link where you can read about the US Postal Office using Linux to run OCR at the post office to help route our mail. Very cool stuff.