Chip Richards writes "PCWeek's John Taschek makes some rather inflammatory claims about Linux scheduling and I/O in his column this week. The words "dog meat" are bandied about. I don't know enough kernel hackery to know if these claims are true, so I'd like to hear from someone who does."

Nils posted to debian-announce that Debian has passed a Constitution. The highlights of the constitution include the creation of the Technical Committee, the Project Leader postion, the Project Secretary position, Leader Delegate positions and a voting proceedure.

Andrew G. Feinberg sent in a review of Richard Petersen's endeavor Linux Programmer's Reference. The book itself is a guide to scripting and other mini-languages, so if brushing up on that looms in your future, click below to read more about it.

Several folks have written in over the weekend (including Alan himself) to point us to Alan Cox's Diary where he says that LinuxWorld has no intention of covering speaker expenses for their show. There's always The Bazaar and Linux Expo.

A nonymous Coward writes "Computer Retail Week claims that Acer may soon sell Linux servers for the educational market. This was seen on Linux Today. " H: It's a bit hard to find-read down in the article.

EngrBohn writes "They've changed the contents of the web page! This morning, Nicolai Langfeldt [janl@math.uio.no], a fellow subscriber to the Beowulf mailing list, informed me that they changed all references to Linux such that they now read Digital-UNIX: This is odd. The page appears to have been changed, it reads 'Digital-Unix' all over, instead of 'Linux'. The reference is still the same. :-("

jelwell asks "Is anyone working on an RPM installation for the new Xfree86-3.3.3? I've been checking the RPM repository regularly. I tried downloading the source code, but my computer reboots when I try to compile. Am I going to have to wait for Red Hat 5.3? "

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?