Ransom Love from Caldera has published a positional paper about Linux Standard Base and what he thinks about if the Linux community won't adopt it. I think it's a "must read" (thanks to Linux Weekly News). Update: 03/01 03:23 by S : Seems like that LSB needs a boost: now Intel is talking of setting up a new initiative... (see half way down the page)

Mithrandir sent us a link to a new.com article which hits on the Intel investment, but also reveals that VA Research has acquired the Linux.com domain.

Fionn tells us that German computer magazine c't is reporting that Altavista's German Server (in Germany) runs Red Hat Linux instead of Digital Unix as the US front-end server does. Netcraft confirms the story.

Peter Neves writes " There is a Linux story on the very front page of the MSNBC Technology Section, "the front slide" as they call it, on why Linux should be the OS running your server. While the story gives a technical overview on the features and performance of several distributions in comparison to NT, the summary says that Linux is not capable of "Competing with the 800 pound Gorilla" of the MS Marketing and distribtution channels. "

Glen Raphael submitted this odd question a while ago: "Suppose I have a test tool running under Linux in an environment where the power is expected to die often and for long periods of time without any warning (and buying a UPS isn't an option). How can I make it safe to just turn off the power to the PC running Linux without properly shutting down?" So what is one to do when they want to run a Linux box and they can't trust their outlet?

Miguel de Icaza writes "The people that did the MOSIX cluster system have now made a port for Linux. But they do not provide all the source code of their work. They only provide a binary kernel module which allows the user to run only a cluster of six machines(they show a picture of their 100 cluster node). The binary module requires kernel modifications. (Thus breaking the Linus permission for binary modules). I think we should stand up against this blatant violation of the GPL. " Update: 02/27 11:34 by S : In related news, xose points out other license violations: Linux Network Drivers states "Several drivers have been distributed that are little more than renamed versions of my drivers. Some have my name, the copyright notice or the Gnu GPL license notice removed. The less flagrant violations merely fail to note that the driver has been modified from the original version. (The GPL requires such a note.)"

levanti writes "Looks like Dell will outsource support of their Linux servers to LinuxCare. Article can be found here. "

Jean-Paul Smets wrote in to tell us that Fujistu has released its first Linux software: AVS5 is a visualization and computer graphics program that includes advanced features such as volume rendering. Apparently Fujitsu has a strong Linux tradition, with Linux already running on its AP1000/AP3000 series of parallel computers. Update: 02/25 11:22 by S : Can someone who reads Japanese confirm this story because...

iKON writes "Moreton Bay has ported linux to Motorola's ColdFire processer. " You can visit the porting projects page here for more information too.

Yesterday we totally nuked the Linux Counter by linking it on these pages. Steve sent us a link to a detailed page on the Slashdot Experience contains logs and the like, documenting the server going crunch. I'm reposting it because yesterday the server spent several hours down and I'd like more people to have a chance to register their Linux box. Drop on in, fill out the form and let the world know that you run Linux. When you can't track sales to determine an OSs market share, things get tricky. Update: 02/25 11:47 by CT : That didn't take long. Guess you guys have more work to do over there (sigh).

Gihadrah writes "Pacific Hi-Tech will next week preview a new version of its Linux distribution that lets system operators tie together as many Linux machines as they want in order to achieve faster and more reliable Web servers. "

jeff sent us a link to the transcripts from the CNN Fortune special that was on wed. evening on Open Source, Linux, Red Hat, Linus, Microsoft, Operating Systems, and more. It was a pretty standard fluff piece, but hey, it was 10 minutes of CNN which never hurts.

Thank my mom for this one: tonight on CNN's CNN/Fortune program, there will be a story about Linux. You can read about the show here. For those of us on the east coast, it will air at 10PM. Don't know about other time zones. From the promo, it looks as though the piece will be positive, and possibly oriented a tad towards the (potential) investor.

ninjaz writes "LWN is reporting an announcement by LinuxPPC Inc. that it will be showing off their quad-cpu 400mhz powerpc boxes at LinuxWorld. " Drool drool drool.

Several people have written in with assorted notes about LinuxWorld Expo. I've heard rumblings of prizes for the show including a VW Bug from LinuxCare and even a Harley. I've attached a blurb from Robert McMillan about the show. Also, I've written up a bunch of notes about the Slashdot Booth at the show including a wish list: We need a few contacts in San Jose to help us find some stuff for the show. Somebody has to have this stuff just sitting around, so hit the link if you wanna help.

Luke A. Kanies writes "This company is working on building an SMP PowerPC box that conforms to the open CHRP spec, which was abandoned by Apple. It would definitely run linux, and it is very modular and is being designed by Dave Haynie, the hardware engineer who designed some of the Amigas (3K and 4K, I think). Unfortunately, according to this page, the company is in danger of not making the machine if it has no market--PIOS is not convinced that enough linux people will buy it to justify making the box. So write these guys at domeyer@metabox.de and let them know that your would buy their cheap SMP PPC box and would run linux on it. (Can you say 4-way for under $4K?) "

Agnomen writes "RealNetworks has released a beta version of RealProducer Plus G2 content creation tool for Linux. According to their press release "The final release of RealProducer Plus G2 for Compaq Tru64 UNIX operating system is immediately available as is the beta release of RealProducer G2 for the Linux platform." Ok, so it's not oss, but it is good to see. "

We mention this occasionally, and its listed anywhere this sort of thing would be mentioned, but I figure now is as good a time as any to rerun a link to the Linux Counter. As you might have guessed, this site aims to count the total number of Linux installations on the planet. Go fill out the forms. It'll take a minute, but those numbers are essential to convincing the PHBs. Thanks to Mattias Sörlin for sending in the URL. (and yes I know, there are a dozen similiar efforts)

Dave Miller, the ultracool hacker who does (definitely) work at Red Hat, wrote in to let us know Linux 2.2.2 has been released. A summary of changes should appear on Cutting Edge Linux shortly. This new kernel should fix the recent autofs bug (fixed in ac7). Update: 02/22 11:35 by J :Dave Whitinger, the guy behind the fabulous Linux Today site, wrote in with the linux-kernel-announce(ment). Update: 02/24 03:13 by CT : Dave Miller does work at Red Hat.

An anonymous reader wrote in to tell us that Debian has scheduled March 2 as the official release date for v2.1 (codename: Slink) of their distribution.