An anonymous contributor wrote that he found a check for Linux in a Macromedia Generator script for Solaris (currently in beta). From this he surmises that Macromedia may be thinking of supporting Linux. The relevant script-fragment follows. Can someone verify this, and does anyone know anything worth knowing on this subject?

Dave Whitinger writes "In an agreement struck October 28 between AFUL (the French association of Linux users) and the French Ministry of Education, AFUL will assist with installing Linux and Free Software networks in high schools, junior high schools and primary schools throughout France." Note that the french text does not state that schools must convert over, but that should they choose to, the AFUL will help them by providing support, turn-key solutions, and the like. This is an important step towards ensuring the diversity of OS's in French schools, and I hope that many schools will elect to join the project.

The Gartner Group has an Operating System Survey you can go and complete if you use Linux at work, as I do. Please don't lie, since it'll discredit the results, and I'd like to know whether/by how much Linux usage in the enterprise is growing.

Mike Hostetler has graciously taken the time and energy to send a review of Neil Matthew and Richard Stones' Beginning Linux Programming. The title isn't quite what it would seem, so if you want more info, click below.

echo writes "On C-NET's Project Heresy yesterday Dan Shafer and Brian Cooley talked about where they think Linux needs to go in the future. In particular, they seem to think that the command line should be totally hidden, that the notion of multi-user should go away, and that programs shouldn't have "modes". At least for "regular" users. Here's the site. What do you think? " I agree that these things should be hidden from the novices, but making multi user go away? Yeah, right. update: (S) Apparently the guys at Project Heresy tried to contribute to the discussion but failed. This is what they had to say.

Linux.org has been missing in action for several days. This Url explains that they had some DNS troubles as they lost their net feed. It should be resolved soon. Thanks to Dave for letting us know.

Red Hat Linux Secure Web Server 2.0 won the Best Of Show Award at Networld+Interop '98 Atlanta today, according to the editors of Data Communications and LAN Times. Link courtesy of LWN

Kristian Köhntopp writes "IGEL Systems, a german maker of embedded and thin client Linux systems, is promising DM 30.000 (approx. US $20.000) for the development of a functioning X11 RDP-client, German Linux Magazin reports. The resulting program will be made available under the GNU GPL. The english translation follows."

Nils sent in a few Debian announcements this morning including links to Software in the Public Interests new web pages and and Open Letter from Corel thanking the Debian guys for their NetWinder port.

Klas Elmby writes "I have completed the building of a MP3CD player for my home-stereo. I hope this could inspire/help others to do the same thing. It is based on a Matrix Orbital LCD-display with keypad interface and ... yes, linux. " Now that is what I want for Christmas! The RIAA needs to back off so we can all buy these things. With 9 gigs hard drives. Imagine not having to rummage through mountains of CDs to find that perfect track. Update the other link died fairly quickly. Klas has since moved the pages here.

Now I can selfishly abuse Slashdot and pose my own Ask Slashdot! I need a new scanner, and it (duh) needs to work under Linux. There's a lot of scanners listed as supported by SANE, but what have folks used, and what works good? Color, Flatbed, 600DPI, Cheap. Update looks like I'll need a SCSI PCMCIA controller too. So feel free to throw out suggestions on that too...

Barry Roberts sent us a link to an upside article which I guess is yala (yet another linux article) although this one has a few interesting quotes. Check it out if you're interested.

Pacific HiTech is to enter the US market. Currently it has has more than 50 percent of the Japanese Linux market, making it the second largest Linux distribution worldwide. Interestingly Pacific HiTech has been successful in the chip corporate market, and includes as customers the Japanese Broadcasting Corp., HSBC Securities Japan Ltd., and the Otsuka Shokai group, one of Japan's largest office supplies and systems integration firms. I'm also guessing that TurboLinux 3.0 is to be released soon. Any Japanese capable readers care to confirm? The first link was found in LWN.

Anas Nashif writes "There is an effort in germany to build the biggest linux cluster in the world and present it in a LIVe TV show this december. More info in German but babelfish will the job for you ;) "

Tom Minchin writes "Red Hat 5.2 is about to be released. The directory has appeared on the mirror sites (locked down of course) and official RedHat dealers have pricing and are taking orders."

Norm J, who I had the pleasure of seeing again at ALS, dropped a line to let everyone know that the Linux Resouces Wish List has opened it's doors. This is a project to convince ISVs that porting their software to Linux is a must do, and convince the companies that it is worth the time to port it. So, head over, vote, and add your software to the wish list.

Rich Payne writes " Alphalinux.org is now open. The hope of this site is to provide a comprehensive resource for the Alpha-Linux community. " Nuts, with a URL like that, I was hoping it was a dairy products distributor or something. *grin*.

EETimes interviewed Linus recently. Nothing terribly new, but nice to see more mainstream press attention.

branvanman writes "Cahners In-Stat Group Expects Linux to Gain Popularity within the Telecom Industry" Apparently this is related to the fact Linux is more stable than NT.

sune writes "It seems the big bad bit-bucket has swallowed x11amp, no information is available yet (more info will be available soon according to the homepage.) " update: Thanks to D Hall Stevenson for alerting us to the fact the site was cracked. In fact x11amp is going to be GPL'd and converted to GTK.