The Gnome Foundation announced the final release of the much touted, much delayed GNOME 2 desktop environment today. As the desktop of choice for RedHat Linux and Debian GNU/Linux, as well as Solaris and HP/UX, the significance of this release is only rivaled by KDE3's release in April.
OEone, the developer of the internet appliance-like HomeBase Linux distribution, announced that HomeBase 1.5 has been released. The new release adds a number of nice features on to the system we reviewed back in March.
NewsForge is reporting that Wal-Mart.com will start offering Mandrake Linux on its Microtel PC's in addition to LindowsOS. “Keep your eye on Walmart.com for new Microtel systems bearing the Mandrake logo. The systems will sell alongside the newly announced Lindows-based PCs, say sources. And continue to look for more online retail envelope-pushing from Wal-Mart's online wing, of all places.”
In an article from yesterday, InfoWorld is reporting that Sun will start shipping a server with its new Sun Linux in August. “The Sun server, to be officially named Cobalt LX50, is the company's first general-purpose server to run Sun Linux and could be attractive to customers looking for a system to handle tasks such as e-mail, file and media serving. The new server will use two 1.4GHz Pentium III processors from Intel and two 72G-byte hard drives, the sources said.”
In somewhat of surprise move, Wal-Mart, the United States largest retailer, has started selling PC's pre-loaded with a Linux distribution. The PC's, similar to the ones that Wal-Mart made news with earlier this year by selling them without any operating system, range from $300-$600.
Richard M. Stallman is the founder of the Free Software movement that created the basis of the GNU/Linux operating system. Since founding the project back in 1984, Stallman, known by the community as RMS, has spent his time programming and promoting free software in the hopes of eliminating the need for non-free software completely.
IDG.net has a report on the current status of countries adopting Open Source and Free Software. While it notes a few countries are adopting Microsoft-friendly policies, in large part most of the industrialized world is taking a serious look at Linux and related software. “Government officials the world over are getting drawn into the debate over the relative merits of using open source software rather than Microsoft Corp.'s Windows applications and other software developed by vendors who closely guard the intellectual property of their source code. Some countries, such as Germany, have decided to replace Windows and other commercial software products with open source applications.”
CodeWeavers, a leading contributor to the WINE project, announced today that they had made available an update release to their CrossOver Office product. The new release adds official support of Microsoft Outlook and Internet Explorer to CO Office's repertoire.
The Taiwanese newspaper Taipei Times reports government officials in Taipei are considering the advantages of Linux. “Weeks of debate over what the government considers exorbitant fees bureaucrats will have to pay Microsoft Corp for use of the Windows operating system culminated yesterday at Computex Taipei 2002 in an call by lawmakers for the development of an open-source operating system.”
Russell Pavlicek takes a look at VMware Workstation 3.1.1, a popular tool similar to Win4Lin, over at NewsForge.net. “In the thunderous noise of this growing herd of desktop alternatives, it is easy to forget that other options have existed for some time. Such is the plight of (the non-free) VMware Workstation, a virtual machine architecture that has been serving Linux users since 1999.”