Josh Lucas sent us an article called Red Hat software takes on the big guys. It's a pretty entertaining piece actually... fairly generalized (and rightfully so considering where it comes from), but it definately is a nice strong example of how far Linux has come in the last year.

Several people sent me a press release about the Avalon super computer. $150,000 worth of off the shelf parts, and it scored #315 on the top 500 Supercomputers list. Alpha chips and a Linux OS managed 19.2 billion floating point ops/sec. Very cool. Can santa fit these things down my chimney?

Mark McCoy was the first to notice a press release over at Red Hat discussing new binary only servers. Basically, binary servers will be made available for chip sets that require an NDA or for chipsets that won't release specs. This seems like a kludge to a bigger problem, but it all is an excellent start to get high end hardware supported quicker.

Don Marti writes "LINC, the International Linux Conference and Exposition to be held in Silicon Valley, California next January, has issued a call for papers. We are inviting Linux developers, administrators, and others to present papers, panel discussions, and tutorials. "

Curtis sent us a link to an MSNBC Article on Linux. Seriously. And it's even positive! The article goes as far as saying that Linux 5.1 is ready for Prime Time. Related: Does it disturb anyone else that we use television terminology to describe software? Maybe it's just me.

Stefan van der Eijk wrote in to inform the galaxy that 2.1.106 is now available for one and all to download, compile, boot, and probably repeat *grin*.

Nick Moffitt writes "The Consortium of All Bay Area Linux (there is no CABAL) would like all Bay Area types who wish there were a West Coast Linux convention to know that the Linux INternational Convention will be happening January 6-10, 1999. "

Kenneth Oswalt writes "Performance Computing (aka the magazine once known as "Unix review") has an interesting review of Caldera Openlinux on their website and in the july issue of their mag. In it they describe the relative ease of installation, and the wide variety of applications, as well as comparing Redhat's documentation to that of Caldera. (spoiler, redhat wins.) "

Apparently June is Officialy the Lets-Talk-About-Linux month in the mainstream press, cuz we've got a steady stream of them. Christopher Blizzard sent us an article on NASA, Linux and Multiprocessing and one called Is Linux the Business? from ZDUK's Linux Focus Week. We also have a Freeware Roundup over at InfoWorld. Aaron Stone sent us another InfoWorld article, this one examines Linux and Business and comes up positive.

CatatoniC Dismay wrote in to tell us that Slackware 3.5.0 has actually now come out of beta and has been officially released. You masochists already know where to get your Slackware fix *grin*.

This is fairly sizable. Michael McLagan, better known to most readers as the brave soul responsible for Linux.org has written a response to the criticism he has recieved lately about the web site. I feel Linux.org is an important resource and Michael is working hard to do a good job. I think it's important that we work together to make sure that Linux.org is all it should be. I guess the first step is to hit the link below and read what he has to say, and talk about it.

What I have here is a few examples on how best to help evangelize Linux. First off is the now fairly well known Unreal petition has apparently been noticed, as The Official Site has mentioned it (although I haven't been able to connect to the server so I can't confirm it). Thanks to Reset for letting us know. Shalon Wood plans to do something similiar for Might and Magic VI, email him if you're interested. Finally Steven Tieu wrote in to say that he has a petition online you can sign if you are interested in a port of a port of SoftWindows. Sign these things only if you're willing to put your money behind it- this is commercial software, but I'm sure more ports is something most of us want to see (except the truly hardcore free folks)

Mark R. Bowyer sent us a link to ZDNet UKs Linux History. It's all part of ZDNet UKs Linux Focus week. Its pretty cool that we've gotten this far guys.

We've got a couple of YALS (Yet Another Linux Story) from PCWeek to report. First off, John Dodge's column at this week is about Linux. Also, they have a Review of Extreme Linux online if you're curious.

Phil R. Jaenke wrote in to inform us that one hundred and fifth kernel release has officially made an appearance on the usual servers. He also commented that people should use mirrors more often, things are bogging down!

Mike Hicks wrote in to say that CNet Radio has wrapped up project Heresey and Brian Cooley and Dan Shafer have given their opinions. They're more or less positive, with reservations in all the places that we would expect. They also say they'll be revisiting Linux every few weeks to see what's up and coming. Quite cool.

Raistlinn wrote in to tell us that Dcg has joined the growing number of companies selling Beowulf based distributed computers. Just another place where Linux is gaining acceptance. But that's not the important part, Jerkweed wrote in to comment that Beowulf, as well as Becker's eth drivers have been pulled from Nasa servers. The (extremely unconfirmable) rumour is that cheap super computers might be "Munitions" so buy those Extreme Linux CDs asap (or at least upload code outside of the US before it is illegal *grin*) Update The Beowulf site is still alive. I'm assuming the munitions thing is just rumor unless someone can prove otherwise.

Patrick writes "Yahoo has reported that Xybernaut has just announced a rather cool new wearable computer. For $5k one can achieve true geekdom with a voice activated, headset micromonitor, 4gig hd and a P2 233 piece of headgear. Runs linux or any of the other x86 os's."

Well folks, the place that everyone links the word Linux to by default has received a fancy overhaul. Gone is the tacky yellow and blue, replaced with a much cleaner design. Glad to see it.

An anonymous read wrote in to "Just a quick reminder that Linux-Kongress has started, right on the heels of LinuxExpo! 3-5 June at the University of Cologne, Germany. Anyone on site giving reports? More info at the Linux Kongress website."