James Hubbard wrote in to give us a link to 32 Bits Online where you can read an article about preinstalling Linux on hardware. Some companies have begun shipping computers with everyone's favorite OS already installed, hopefully this is a growing trend.

Zach "Gimp News" Beane writes "Network World has a columnist who wrote an interesting column about creating an alternative to Microsoft by investing effort in Linux. The web version of the article is at this link.

Both TurboLinux and Stampede have announced new versions. Proof positive that Linux is growing and thriving. If the 'Big 3' don't do it for ya, give one of these a shot. Thanks to maskatron and Ola Hakansson for the links.

Kevin Nunn writes " Reading my Sunday Morning Paper (the best part, the Best Buy Ad) I noticed they had RH5 Linux for $37.99. The price is good but it surprised me that RH5 actually made it into the ad! Linux is definitely getting a push in the mainstream it looks like. And this is in an area (Deep South Texas) that is normally 5 years behind the rest of the world." That amazes me guys- when I first installed Linux a few years back, I never would have dreamed that you could buy a CD at Best Buy with a distribution easy enough that a smart Best Buy customer can make unix happen on their own machine. I love linux.

I've been writing articles for Slashdot for an hour now, so forgive me for lumping these together guys- I need to do something else eventually. First, Kristian Köhntopp wrote in to tell us that Linux has claimed 2 of the top 10 books at many german book stores. Next, Alan wrote in to tell us about an InfoWorld letter praising Linux, written by the CEO of 4front. Finally This articleis from the UKs Computing Trade Magazine. Its good PR for Linux and Netscape, even if they did misspell Linus' name. Thanks to Mike Brodbelt for that one.

Colin Plumb sent in this link where you can read about Microsoft neglecting small business and Linux picking up the slack. Colin also commented about the sites Microsoft only Browser support- apparently it works under Netscape though. Maybe if everyone reads the article they will realize that Netscape & Linux are actually being used out there.

Christopher Smith writes "The article itself isn't a big deal, but this is the first time I've ever seen the GartnerGroup acknowledge Linux in any significant way. They aren't exactly overwhelmed by it, but hopefully it's a taste of things to come."

Linus released 2.1.87 to the world, just minutes ago. Major changes include *MAJOR* m68k updates, many SCSI and sound updates, and UFS and UMSDOS updates, in addition to other changes. You can get it here.

This Story was sent to us by a lot of people including Mishari "CyKiX" Muqbil and Damian Counsell. There was another earlier one, but I can't find it, so to whoever you are, sorry! Basically the article is almost pro linux, and then at the end it says you could get fired if it fails! Personally I've had better luck with setting stuff up on Linux boxes than NT boxes, but what do I know?

All the good press InfoWorld has given Linux over the last few weeks has created a conversation about Linux on their discussion groups. Steven Borrelli wrote in to tell us about the discussion and said "The Linux momentum just keeps building! But also note the reasons why non-Linux users are hesitant to jump on the bandwagon..."

An anonymous tipster sent this link our way where you can read a ZDNet story about Linux, and basically how wonderful and peachy it is. Nothing new, but once again we see the mainstream press praising it.

Partisan sent us this link over at redhat where you can learn about how Linux will help do more Important Stuff(tm).

Chrome Void sent us a link to this page. It is purely speculative and rumour based, but it discusses Intel's upcoming Merced platform, and a rumour of an "Official" Intel port to the new line of CPUs. Read it if you're curious.

I was sent in this story by several people but the first was Robert Herrmann. This place speaks about a Linux/Pilot port. It's rough, but it'll probably smooth out if the project gains some intertia.

Oh boy. A new kernel. Major updates include IPv4 and IPNG (IPNG) updates, AX.25 updates, ELF header files for all platforms, updates for almost all 3Com cards, and a few Alpha boot fixes.

In the last several months, several new Linux news sites have sprung up. While Officially I recommend you still visit Slashdot every 14 seconds, but sites like Linux Weekly News sent in by Shane provide even more news on the Linux front, and everyone likes that.

lilo wrote in to tell us about another nasty hole in the devel series of kernels. He writes " Ultima (Marc Santoro) at irc.linpeople.org has discovered a security hole in Linux 2.1.x which is fairly novel. It has to do with IP fragment expirations, and does not affect production kernels. He's made the patch available and it's on the LinPeople security page. He'll be providing the exploit in a couple of days and it will be posted in the same place."

Max Lingua writes " a new (development) version of dosemu is avaible from S.u.S.E. at suse.com And - what's more - Hans Larmen (one of the project developer) has mailed me letting me know that a know stable (even) version should be out in the fist quarter of this year."

It's impossible to accurately say how many Linux boxes are out there. Estimates range from a half a million to 10 million. TBTF has an interesting writeup in their latest issue using various estimates to guess at how many boxes there are. Alessandro Russo recently sent me an email saying we should make a small kernel patch that sends some sort of registration information to a central server occasionally. Such an idea has amazingly complicated issues (forging? dynamic IPs? bandwidth? privacy?) associated with it, but is certainly interesting. Back when I first installed slackware I remember it telling me to send email somewhere to track installations. Various other Linux Counting Projects have been underway, but maybe it's really time to get into doing this. Linux Installations potentially outnumber MacOS! Let's prove it.

Joe Vigneau and Bill Broadley sent us info about Cobalt Microserver's brand new workgroup server. It's a 133mhz RISC box that runs Linux, has all the normal servers (www, email etc), and costs under $1000. And it supposedly fits in a 7" cube!