In probably one of the biggest pieces of Linux-related news in weeks, the Washington Post revealed an apparently reliable rumor that AOL might be in discussions to aquire RedHat, Inc. “AOL Time Warner Inc. is in talks to buy Red Hat Inc., a prominent distributor of a computer operating system, an acquisition that would position the media giant to challenge archrival Microsoft Corp., according to sources familiar with the matter.”
NewsForge is carrying an interesting look at virtualizers (tools that can run multiple operating systems on a single computer at the same time). “Consolidating those servers into a single 'footprint' can save server management costs, she says. In some cases, companies running IBM zSeries with Linux virtual machines are running hundreds, and even thousands, of images of Linux on one box.”
The Register has a report on the recently announced migration of Korean civil servants to Linux desktops from Windows ones. “The Korean government is to buy 120,000 copies of Hancom Linux Deluxe this year, enough to switch 23 per cent of its installed base Microsoft user to open source equivalents.”
KDE::Enterprise, an enterprise savvy site about KDE first reported last year in OfB, has launched a forum for it's users. “The KDE::Enterprise Forum went live today to give you the facility to discuss with others topics about KDE in businesses, schools, charities etc.”
RedHat, Inc. announced today that RedHat Linux 7.2 for Itanium processors is now available. This is particularly noteworthy since RedHat has finally started to offer a journaling file system in this release, making RedHat 7.2 a lot more ideal for enterprise systems than previous releases from the Research Triangle-based company.
ZDNet is carrying an interesting article on post dot-com crash Linux. “'Everyone has been saying that the Linux movement is over because the dot-com boom is over,' said Jacques le Marois, president of French Linux distributor MandrakeSoft. 'But Linux is going to go on. It predates the dot-com hype.'”
According to the results of several polls from independant sites mentioned in the MandrakeSoft Shareholders Newsletter, Mandrake Linux topped the list as the distribution preferred by most respondents.
Looking back over the past year, I think most people would have
to agree it has been a ground breaking time for open source.
While it is true that open source companies suffered just like
the rest of the tech sector from poor economic conditions, those
same conditions have also made open source appear even more
attractive.
The KDE Project made KDE 3.0 Beta 1 available to the public yesterday. The new third generation beta of KDE moves the desktop to the QT 3.0 development platform, and sports numerous improvements.
NewsForge is running the article that makes this claim, not to mention a heap of evidence to back up the statement. “Windows addicts curious to see how the other half lives but wary of the installation challenges Linux is supposed to present will find Mandrake 8.1 considerably easier to install and configure than Win-XP. It's quite nearly Harry Homeowner-proof.”