Well, a friendly bird over at IDG has dropped me a line saying that a LinuxWorld press release has come. It's so new, it's not even up on the web site-click below for details. Exhibitors are signing up, and things are starting to take a more concrete shape-looking good. Rob and I will definitely be there-maybe more. Click below to read more-and to find out who the keynote speakers are.

Jason Haas writes "We have the first real beta version of LinuxPPC 5.0 running! It's running glibc2 and fvwm -- and looks identical to RedHat 5.x. I posted the update about it on www.linuxppc.org from the PowerBook G3 that it was developed on, so I know basic services are working. We'll post the beta for everyone to break/fix/contribute in a day or so. (Figure December 3 would be a realistic date to have it up with a working installer.) To read about the R5 beta's first boot, go to www.linuxppc.org/r5.html. We'll put up a large note there when R5b1 is available online. "

As usual, C|Net Radio with the Project Heresy. This week they talk about the Redhat & S.u.S.E support issue (24/7), Open source in other things like Squick (I really don't know what it is) and possibly combine it with Linux, BeOS 4.0 issue, MS vs Java, and finally - the Chrome program that MS dropped. Enjoy.

Alex deVries from Red Hat wrote in to tell us that they have a network called the Red Hat Contrib Net that will allow the world easy access to the contributed rpms that always seem to be on really slow mirror sites. You can read more at Red Hat's Developer Pages.

John A. Turner writes "Haven't seen anything on /. about how much Linux-related stuff there was at Supercomputing '98 so thought I'd mention it. One of the best things was a panel discussion titled "Clusters, Extreme Linux, and NT". There's a nice summary of the Linux-related events at SC '98 at the Extreme Linux site " Note that reactions to Red Hat's support options announcements included One area in which Linux is far ahead of the pack is clustering . Has any participant written up a summary we could post? Update Rahul Dave has written a report for us.

Dave Whitinger writes "Oh Boy did Red Hat make some serious announcements today. Check out the press release here. " Indeed. Check out even more news at Red Hat's page. The enterprise, GNOME, messaging, oh my!

Thomas Muldowney writes "Mozilla screenshots using GTK are up on Mozbin " They've also got binaries and stuff if you're interested, I haven't tested them, I have no clue how they are. Probably ought to download one and get Slashdot to render under it *grin*. J Thanks should go to Pavlov and msw. Also, msw just told me Rob's wish has been fufilled: nglayout-slashdot.png.

Anonymous Coward writes "Apparently, a company in Austin TX is hiring a significant number of Linux-aware people. They will be announcing a technical support agreement with Red Hat (for RedHat software) at Comdex.Could this be the enterprise support structure that will finally push Linux into mainstream corporate culture? " Can anyone confirm this? Perhaps that is what CMPnet article is refering to. Update PC week is also refering to a Red Hat support announcement.

Unknwn writes "RedHat has announced that they are now splitting Powertools into three separate products. One is RedHat Variety Pack which has RedHat 5.2 for Alpha, Intel, and Sparc along with the source code. Linux Off-Line is mirrors of sunsite, mozilla, GNU, and X. The third product is the Powertools 5.2 which contains many software packages in RPM format. "

Jacob Lundqvist wrote in to tell us that a report about Linux was shown on prime-time Swedish television. Hit below to read his report.

Rob Kaper sent us a link to something you might have missed on Freshmeat. It's a nifty site that is tracking Server uptimes. El wrote in to send us a link to "Penguin Lust" which I found silly enough to post. Josh Baugher sent us a link to the so called Christmas Document that you might find amusing. Quazi sent us a link to a ZDNet IE5 Review that normally wouldn't deserve a glance. But apparently a Slashdot fan was involved. Or just as likely, they wanted some hits and figured that this publicity might send some clicks their way *grin*. iota wrote in to send us a link about Mexico using Linux in schools and saving themselves over a hundred million bucks in the process. Mark Woon sent us a link to a funny BMW ad poking fun of MS. Lastly, worth noting (and based on the submissions box, and my msglog, a lot of you did) Red Hat has updated their website with a cleaner, and frameless design. Joy!

Dougal Watt submitted this question "I have implemented a RedHat 5.1 based DNS server for an intranet, and want to install a mirrored drive array into it in case of drive failure. Does any one know a good controller/array solution?" Does someone have answers?

Nirvani writes "check here. Some other mirror have it to, ie: wcarchive. Have fun! " Ok, are we sure that this is the real one? I see files at least *grin*.

Several folks wrote in to tell the world that Red Hat Software has released v5.2 of their distribution. You can snag it from the mirror sites. For those of you on less then speedy connections, LinuxCentral is shipping the official version starting the 9th, and I'm sure the usual places will be carrying super cheap unofficial CDs just as soon as they can burn them.

An anonymous contributor wrote the following: "Intel has a private website for authorised dealers, on its "IPD" program. It also sends out by email some newsletters. They now provide "recipes" for setting up servers under Linux, as well as a few other OS types. Today in my inbox I got the following: It provides a series of PDF files showing how to set up your system, prepare disks, install Red Hat or Caldera Linux, configure LILO, XFree, and installing Apache. The PDF files have high revision numbers (1.5+), some cover Redhat 5.0, and were last changed in July, suggesting that Intel's official Linux involvement has been going on for some time." slashdot has seen proof that these documents exist and are well-written: nicely idiot proof. They'd probably be useful to the LDP if Intel were to make them generally available.

Tom Minchin writes "Red Hat 5.2 is about to be released. The directory has appeared on the mirror sites (locked down of course) and official RedHat dealers have pricing and are taking orders."

Edward C. Bailey wished to consult with you all on the following: "I've started to look at upgrading my home system (p166) to something a bit more up-to-date. However, I discovered that my current ATX case has so much stuff overhanging the motherboard there's no room for a PII, and a Xeon is just completely out of the question...;-> And I've yet to see a follow-up article from that earlier /. discussion on making cases from Legos; that might be worth considering, if I could see one first... :-) So does anyone out there have a favorite case supplier? URLs, please!" There's more! Click below...

Steve Blood, whom Nate and I have been talking to for quite some time now has officially opened the gate to thebazaar.org. New York City. Javits Hall. Many cool people (check out the list). March. Everyone must come. He also asked anyone who is interested in contributing, speaking, or just dropping a line to send some thing over here. This will be an interesting conference because it shows a different emphasis and new directions for Linux. update! Steve Blood has sent a response to the some of the comments below.

Microsoft is not going to wait for the outcome of its trial with the DOJ before attacking Linux. The battle scene is France, where Microsoft's new (expendable?) regional director Marc Chardon has just issued an open letter to his clients. Click below to read the translation of the Linux-section (it's in French) and some commentary.

Christian Selig writes "As this poll at Linux.de shows, SuSE is the preferred distribution in German-speaking countries" SuSE is the largest European commercial distribution, making it like RedHat in the US.