OUSpirit writes "I saw this over at Netscape's Technews site. Evidently, Intel (and some other companies) just invested some major bucks in TurboLinux to put them on more equal footing with RedHat. They plan to use the money to expand management and development staff. "

An Anonymous Coward wrote to inform us of a new Chinese Linux distro, Blue Point Linux 1.0RC, which includes support for Chinese characters. The bad news is the developers, who have based their effort on Red Hat's are alleged to have forgotten to include the modified kernel source. Coward asks: "Don't they violate the GPL?". Some people over at the BP Forum apparently have some thoughts. What do you think: is this against the terms of the GPL? (Can someone translate this?)

S7 writes "Opera Software has indicated that it is currently diversifying its browser to accomodate a wider flavour of Linux distributions, not just RedHat and its derivatives. Hope they finish soon!" Yeah, I know Mozilla is going to have wonderful features like instant messenger and changeable themes and I don't know what-all else if and when it ever gets end user-usable, but Opera is a plenty good enough browser for the likes of me; it's fast, compact, simple, and reliable, all of which are software qualities I admire immensely. In fact, the only two things I really miss from Windows are Opera and NoteTab, which is IMO the worlds's finest text processing tool for online journalists. Now that Opera's on its way to Linux, all I need is a Linux version of NoteTab or something like it and I'll be in PC heaven!

Yet Another Anonymous Coward asks: "How easy is it to set up Linux boxes as thin clients? My boss wants to use some old 486 boxes as X terminals, networked to a largish server where all applications are run. Has anyone tried this? What is the minimum software that needs to be installed on the X terminal systems? My boss likes open source software because it saves money; Is this another way he can save money?" Obviously the use of older machines is going to ease the costs of putting PCs on employee's desks, but are there other advantages (or disadvantages) to a setup like this?

Doug Moreen asks: " I'm a Linux user who is trying to stop using Windows forever. The sole reason I'm using Windows is for the ftp program I'm using, GoZilla, which is really useful for downloading new distributions. What I'm looking for is a Linux ftp program that does the following; download resume, search for other-faster download sites with less latency, and auto-reconnect if disconnected. The reason I need this is due to the crummy phone lines where I live. Yeah I know about the newer broadband methods ISPs are now offering, however, most of these services are either are flaky, or not available in my area. I do have a dedicated phone line that I don't mind being connected to the Internet. I also don't mind having the download taking a couple of days. So guys, what should I use? What is the URL for this program? Help me to kill windows forever!"

Josquin is on a quest to find ECCO, a PIM software offering from NetManage. He felt it was one of the best ones on the market. Since it's quite possible that this particular piece of software has gone to binary limbo, I was wondering if someone might happen to be familiar with this particular package and might be able to suggest other alternative packages. To hear Josquin's own words on the subject, click on the link below."

GW Hayduke writes "I stumbled across this on CNet, It's a definitely like dumping some petrol on an allready raging fire on this site, but I found it interesting..." Linuxfund.org is getting lots of press. It'll be interesting to see whether all their sound and fury signifies anything besides a clever credit card marketing scheme, but at least this Microsoft art thing they're running has some humor value, and laughter is always worthwhile. ;-)

Silent Node asks: "I am involved with a campus radio station where the web-site, e-mail, and pretty much everything else are hosted by third parties. In the interests of both cost savings, and control, we're considering purchasing our own server, and handling things directly. Aside from hosting a nothing-too-wild web site, this server would also have to hadle about two-dozen Email accounts, a couple mailing lists, and...streaming audio. I have experience administrating Windows NT, which is why I don't want to use it for this many things on one box. Our consideration is to perhaps get a G4 and run Linux on it. I have a few questions related to this... Would it be 'easier' just to run x86 Linux? What sort of minimum specs would a server like this need (remember, being listener funded, price is a big deal)? What streaming media sofware choices would we have (MP3 streams would be prefferable, due to the wide distribution of players)? Do you forsee any 'hang-ups' I haven't mentioned (i.e.: is this even practical)?"

Anonymous Coward writes "I just found this funny idea: A Linux Hotel in Essen, Germany. They give seminars, courses and workshops on Linux, some of them free. And Tux is in every bed, as seen here. Sorry, it is in german, but there are also english pages."

aqua writes "Linux Weekly News posted its penguin gallery, a collection of the various forms in which Tux has been used in logos and such. Some are quite entertaining." Great stuff! I'm glad LWN is doing this. I immediately sent them two new entrants myself. Perhaps you have a favorite penguin of your own for them. If so, please send it.

BoNeS writes "Alan Cox, revealed at the first ever UK Linux Expo that the 2.4 kernel of Linux could be available for developers everywhere as soon as November. Cox also revealed that in a couple of weeks he will be working "directly" for the most successful commercial Linux distributors by contracting programmers for their European operations."

sneakyfrog writes "Larry Ellison of Oracle made a (supposedly real this time) announcement claiming he would fund an NC effort with boxes running Linux. "

Thanks to John Mark Walker for sending over a great spoof video performed by Jon "mad dog" Hall -and given the recent "myth debunking by Microsoft, the linux4u project seems timely. The project is intended to educate the corporate setting about the benefits of Linux. Grab the Mad Dog videos (high bandwidth) here and (low bandwith) here and see what I mean about mad dog going underground. RealPlayer is required.

bOnUs (among others) slipped us the skinny on a story @ silicon.com that talks about how Red Hat is gonna use recent cash injections from Dell, Oracle and IBM to increase its presence in the heart of S.u.S.E. territory, AKA Europe. Normal business expansion in an increasingly borderless world? An attempt at creating Red Hat World Domination? This can be interpreted either way.

Wonko42 writes "In his address at Internet World '99, Linus Torvalds threw some harsh words at Microsoft and Sun, criticizing Microsoft's thoughts of opening portions of Windows source and making his feelings known about Sun's restrictive new community license. He also spoke some about the future of commercial software, and dodged lots of Transmeta questions. "

mikeraz told us about Microsoft's new page on Linux Myths. Designed to convince the seasoned business professional that Linux doesn't measure up to the hype. Some good points. Some not-so-good points. Care to comment? Update: 10/05 06:43 by CT : Mandrake has comments on his page.

O'Reilly's Running Linux is something of an established textbook on learning Linux from the beginning to getting deeper in the innards. The latest version is written by Lar Kaufman, Matt Welsh and Kalle Dalheimer. Click below to read the review of the newest edition of the book.

g8orade wrote to us with a column currently running on ZDNET about Macmillan Linux, aka Linux-Mandrake. The column is regarding the fact that while Macmillan is the best selling, the "geeks" of Linux don't give it any respect - which is an interesting point, although I would like to say that we've done more then one story on it. The column has some thought-provoking comments about useability and the direction of Linux, as well.

drsparkly writes "Linux Today is running this story claiming that the recent ZDNet Linux vs NT security `shootout' was biased against Linux. Apparently ZDNet had neglected to apply 21 available security fixes. They claim that `enterprise businesses would not want to apply 21 individual fixes' and `most large companies would prefer the one large, sweeping-in-scope, fix'. Do they have a point? "

Alex Prestin writes "Donnie Barnes will be doing a Q&A chat session on CNN.com tonight at 8 PM EDT. " To read more from Donnie, check out the post-quiet period chat that CT and I had with him.