Linus, keynote speaker at this year's Linux Expo, coughed up a nice tarball of kernel 2.1.99 and put it in the usual place. A few changes in this big patch include: major documentation updates for many, many things, some x86 IRQ updates, a quick sparc memory management fix, and some scheduling updates

Conor writes "It seems the Linux Advocacy HOWTO may be working, Columnist Mark Tebbe at infoworld was forced to reconsider his dismissal of Linux as a 'Renegade OS' when he heard about the number of large corporations relying on it for large parts os their IT infrastructure. See his article for more details. "

Jeff Grady writes "I requested technical information from Plustek in order to write a Linux driver for my OpticPro 4800P scanner, and I received this response: "Unfortunately we do not give out that type of information pertaining to our scanners. However, we are planning on writing LinuxUnix drivers hopefully by the end of the year. " Looks like mainstream companies are really starting to support linux! Cool, man. " I wish companies would be more open about releasing specs, but if they can't do it, its cool that they'll at least code drivers. Linux is becoming more of a viable alternative every day.

Sam Rowe writes " Bootnet has 12 steps to installing Debain, with some nice words about Linux. They've also inclded Debain on their magazine CD. " I love when companies do that. It's one thing to get a CD of free software, but to get a CD of free software, it's just a warm fuzzy day.

LinuxFreak writes "Faximum has released the second Linux beta of their commercial fax server product. Go here for the details. " Faximum is commercial code, but its still nice to see commercial linux software becoming more common.

Chris Thompson writes "I've created a mailing list to discuss Linux Hardware Hacking a-la the mp3mobile story. To subscribe, send a message with the subject and body containing the word "subscribe" to linuxhw-request@x4.net. "

Torgo Jr writes "devx.com (a Windows development site) has daily polls, today's being "Do you think Linux will be a threat to Windows NT?". So far Linux only has 21% "Yes"... " when I went, Linux was at 22%, but their server felt like a 486 running PWS. Anyway, vote quick before its gone... :)

Mark Spencer writes "Just so you all know, I am hosting a lotus-linux mailing list to discuss the possibility of running Lotus Notes/Domino under Linux. We have discussed both running SCO and Solaris/x86 binaries, as well as strategies for encouraging Lotus to make a port. We have a contact at lotus and that contact has mentioned that he has been in communication with a representative from RedHat to discuss the possibility. If you're interested, send "subscribe" in the body of a message to lotus-linux-request@marko.net to join the list. We hope to setup a web site soon to collect information regarding the possible markets of such a port. "

While I know that most of our readers prefer Mysql and Postregsql, it still is interesting to read what Dan Kirkpatrick sent in: " Just a rumor from Cringley. However, he says that an "IT manager at a large health-care organization" has tweaked an SCO version of Oracle 7 for Linux, and has it running on a 180 MHz box. Seems to me that Oracle is one of those mission critical apps that *has* to be ported to Linux before many corporations can consider Linux for their mission critical apps. " True enough.

Amos Shapira wrote in to give us this one which I think is quite impressive. This is a MP3 box for a car. Spiffy LEDs and the ability to NFS mount a server for downloading more tunes- what a great concept. My roommates and I are working on getting an old computer to perform the same basic tasks in our living room. Who needs to search for that favorite track when it's sampled on that 2.5 gig hard drive?

Here are a few quickees before I go for lunch: Dark Rain is a new web site by Emissary dedicated to providing new user help for linux. Second, I meant to post this yesterday, but I forgot, anyway Cory Bosley sent us a RH5 easter egg. He says tells us to, as root, run timetool and click the am/pm. I wasn't aware of that one...

An anonymous reader contributed this link where you won't read much unless you read french, but there is a cartoon that a lot of you will find quite entertaining... I think I want a t-shirt of that one.

Despite all the silliness about skipping 2.1.98, it has arrived, with major changes including PPC and Sparc updates. I plan on snagging it myself this afternoon and compiling it tonight. Anything to avoid studying for finals.

David Lebel writes " Just thought you might like to know that on the MontrealCAM LiveCam Network website, there is a camera located inside the Polar ecosystem which looks directly at the penguins that roam there. I thought that all the fans of Tux might want to take a look at the penguins while appreciating the fact that the webcam machine runs on Linux, using a Meteor framegrabber from Matrox, connected using standard phone lines and capturing pictures (using a custom piece of software) each and every 20 seconds. "

This certainly has been a hot topic around here the past few days, but check out what Dave Finton says: "In the latest edition of Linux Gazette They talk about the good and the bad points of Linux evangelism. This guy couldn't be more true, in my opinion. Linux ain't for everybody. However... My goal in life is to prove that Windows ain't for everybody, either. Maybe not even for most people. :) "

Jay Bloodworth has written a nice editorial on Linux, and its use in primary education. He talks about pros, cons, and what needs to happen to make Linux and Education go together hand and glove. Follow the link below and learn more...

Stefane Fermigier wrote in to tell us about Yet Another Linux Web Site. Cool Linux sites are multiplying like rabbits, its pretty excellent. Anyway, The Linux Center is a nice little site. Not comprehensive yet, and I don't think I saw a 'search' anywhere, but a quick glance through it shows that its not a bad starting point for Linux stuff.

Allright I've had several people whisper this my way, and I just have to post it. The rumor is that RedHat 5.1 is coming rsn. Perhaps around the end of the month. Mind you this is just rumor so don't go bug anyone @redhat about it.

Vincent Janelle writes "I just found out about a Serial LCD stats software pack for Linux. This little product is essentially a serial LCD panel that someone has programmed software for Linux, and it generates stats based on the loadavg, mem readouts, uptime, and more. You can get it at here.. You cannot tell me that you do not want this." I want one mounted on all of my machines. Even my laptop! *grin*. I couldn't find how much the little panel cost, but I think I found what I want for my birthday- that thing is just to cool. If somebody buys me one, I'll write something to pump slashdot headlines through it.

The Mining Co (I'd never heard of them before, although it looks like a nice site) has posted their Linux "Best of the Net" site awards. The 10 winners include Freshmeat, Debian GNU/Linux, The Linux Documentation Project, LinuxHQ, and last/least, Slashdot.org. I'm sure everyone here has visited all the winning sites many times, but I'm sure all of them appreciate the recognition.