NikoDemous writes " Red Hat Software has certified a line of Dell Workstations and Servers as compatible with Red Hat Linux. We've heard some talk of this for some time so does this represent a rift in the Win/Dell relationship?"

Ed Bailey wrote in to say that the Linux-7K project to get Linux on the Psion has started Bearing Fruit Fict sent in a link to LinuxApps which recently got a recamp. Looks strangely familiar GVeloper wrote in to say that gdev has been revamped (to use Slash) as well as containing some comments about glide and glade possibly merging. Lincoln sent us a link to a CG short parody of the politics of sfx which will be of interest to Star Wars fans. my copy of xanim won't play it, but several people told me it's really excellent. freejack wrote in to say that the Star Tribune rated Slashdot in top sites for geek gossip mongers. Whatever that means. Shave sent in a link to Jerry Pournelle's web site a where he talks about Refund Day and Slashdot (and neither in particularly cheerful terms) And finally, for the gamers out there, mgix sent a link to a N64 Emulator that can do Zelda64. That game has been a staple in the Geekhouse for weeks now. Addictive.

NYC writes " Definitely check out this site. The web site is running of a computer measuring 2.7" by 1.7" by .25" for a volume of about a cubic inch. The processor is an AMD 486-SX with 16MB of RAM running RedHat 5.2. Super Cool." Update: 01/25 01:12 by CT : Didn't take long: It got cracked and taken down a few hours ago.

Jon Frisby wrote in to plug his Linux Based and Linux Focued Job Search Engine Brain Power. gr0k sent us a goofy rap by Netmaster 10baseT which you might enjoy, but then again, you may not. I laughed outloud. I was also unable to maintain enough beat to rap along. Mr. Black sent us a link to Stairway to Middle Earth: a page that tracks Tolkein/Zeppelin References. Believe it or not. Hans sent us a link to Stormtrouper Costume HOWTO. Suddenly my fashion sense seems award winning. And finally, Adam Wright wrote in to send us an amusing anecdote: "Some people claim that RedHat Linux 5.2 is not easy to install. Well, my roommate Andy Burchett, has decided to prove those poor lost souls wrong. He installed RH5.2 with his nose. Yes, he used his nose to type ALL stuff for the installation. The installation was started at 10:47pm EST, and was concluded at 11:24pm EST. Andy encourages all Linux users to try using their Linux in new and different ways."

Having survived mysterious apostrophes and commas in my columns, weeks of flame wars and assaults from hostile geek warriors, large and expensive Linux handbooks, and useful, enlightening and conflicting suggestions from friendly Slashdotters, a Linux Box was delivered this week to my house this week. Technology being what it is, that's only the beginning of the story, which quickly came to involve CompUSA (the literal incarnation of computer Hell) my yellow lab, a geek hero and a computer savagely assaulted by an overnight delivery service. And I haven't even gotten to Linux yet. Johnny Depp, are you reading this?

Bert de Bruijn writes "As Red Hat prepares all RawHide packages for RedHat 6.0 (codename "BlueSky"), support is being added for the ARM architecture. Obviously, Red Hat Software plans to release the next version of their distribution for the ARM architecture (Corel Netwinder & co.)" I dunno if this is proof but it looks hopeful.

Jeremy Lee has contributed another feature to Slashdot. This one attempts to address some of the issues surrounding the new commercialization of Linux and Open Source. This is a really good piece that raises a lot of good issues worth thinking about. A must read.

emptybody was the first of you to write in with this PC Week story that Compaq is about to ship RedHat 5.2 bundled on some of its servers, and provide 24-by-7 support for them. This apparently will save time for them, since they currently pre-load Linux by hand. If this is becoming a problem, it suggests demand for Linux Servers is increasing. Gateway also expects to deliver such servers by the end of the year. Kim Brown, an analyst at Dataquest Inc, says this means Compaq is walking away from SCO, and that Linux is starting to be acknowledged as the low-end Unix alternative.

rdsmith writes "This week's Info World has a short article on Linux and its growth over the past few years. It makes a couple of mentions of ESR and the Halloween document. Although the article bases Linux's growth on numbers provided by Redhat, it's still good press for Linux. "

Andy Tai writes "This InfoWorld story reports on RedHat's choice of GNOME as the desktop for the next version of its Redhat Linux. While the story is nothing new, this is a sign that GNOME has captured "mainstream" attention." The IDC analyst quoted does not seem to realize that GNOME is optional.

Panu Hällfors writes "The first one installfest ever in Finland takes place in Ulvila from 16. to 17. January. I'm expecting something like 60 to 70 new installs and of course about as much experienced users to drop by to lend a hand to new users. We'll probably install mainly the new RedHat derivate SOT-Linux which is translated to Finnish. More info can be found on the Internet site of the event, "> here (In Finnish and *only accesible from Finland*) "

Donnie Barnes wrote in to say " LinuxExpo apologizes for the confusion and does intend to provide several booth spaces to non-profit organizations on a first come, first served basis. " Interested folks should contact stacy@linuxexpo.org.

Hamlet Batista writes "Last time checked at 1:30 on 21 December 1998, the beta version of RedHat's Linux Intel distribution included KDE-1.1pre packages. This is very good news for Red Hat Linux users. Welcome, Red Hat. "

Oracle_Monkey asks: "I finally got my first LINUX box up and running with RedHat 5.1, and downloaded ORACLE8. Added path to $ORACLE_HOME/bin and still the apps - sqlplus, svrmgrl..etc won't execute. "shared libraries not found". Anybody elese got this up and running? I have visions of blowing my boss out of the water with a web - enabled (Apache ) datamart . I haven't been this excited about a new product ...well, ever , really.... Anyt thoughts , Ladies & gents? "

python_geek writes "Red Hat has announced a new training/certification program for those who want to be certified Linux Geeks. It looks like their certification will actually mean something as it includes a lab exam were you actually have to show you know how to solve problems, unlike the Microsoft tests which anyone who crams hard enough can pass. It looks really cool, now if I could just get my company to pay for the training and test..."

My recent essay on "Secrets of Linux", which chronicled my painful and clumsy first attempts to master the OS Beast, drew more than 2,000 e-mail messages in less than 24 hours, a record for me on any website. The responses ranged from talks about Slackware, Red Hat and Debian to quotes from Yeats and invitations to Installfests. Since so many of you shared with me, it's only fair to share back.

The OSI has sent us a report on the Open Source discussions they had with IBM. What's cool is that the opening-up of the Jikes Parser has been discussed, which would make Jikes more open, and provide a tool with better error correction capabilities than Yacc/Bison. The report is below, so people know what the fuss is about. update Dave Shields updated us on events at his end. There's a nice hacker anecdote at the end.

Sean Garagan writes "The PCWeek labs reviewed the latest RedHat offering as a desktop alternative. They had the usual problems of GUI interface and hard to configure sound subsystems. I have to agree on one point though, the RedHat package install interface needs to be cleaned up somehow."

Dr Mike writes "The Rasterman has released a spec for making any window manager compliant with GNOME. Window managers complying with this specification will gain: - the gnome pager will work "out of the box" - gmc will be able to get root window button presses (allowing a root menu which is the same/similar to the panel start menu to be brought up) - icons on the desktop will properly layer - the panel will be a managed app The specification is available at: link " Oh man - how cool is that? This come just in time for the upcoming gnome-libs 1.0 freeze (of which yours truly is assisting with).

ZDNET published an article regarding a Worm program who appears to attack IMAP servers with ISP's and others who run Redhat 5.0. Needless to say: People who use Redhat 5.0 - please install patch or upgrade (patch available at redhat FTP site)