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)

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. "