MS testers shout 'Linux!' over Whistler copy protection, Feb 05, 2001

Microsoft's Product Activation technology has triggered a row in the company's official Whistler beta newsgroups, with testers threatening defection to Linux or piracy over the matter. The irate testers - who, as far as we know, haven't actually been hit by a real live Product Activation Whistler build yet - seem to have been sent further up the wall by the intervention of a Microserf, who referred them to a couple of FAQs on the site.

LinDVD, a Linux software DVD player developed by InterVideo, provides users with a fully licensed, legal DVD player for use on their Linux platforms.

The software targets makers of embedded Linux devices such as home entertainment equipment. Presently, InterVideo is negotiating with Linux vendors like Red Hat, SuSe, Caldera Systems, and Corel to bundle the software. While the program isn't an open source, the company plans to publish the program's application programming interfaces (APIs) to promote customization.

Analyst Meta Group has warned its customers against running database servers on Linux for at least three years.

However, it concedes that the agreement between Dell and Oracle is a major endorsement for Linux and that the open-source operating system may be appropriate for Web or appliance servers.

Hewlett-Packard's announcement of major amounts of Linux support at the New York LinuxWorld Expo was supplemented at the Linux Expo in Paris last week with the announcement of preloaded Linux distributions on some of its server products and the formation of support and training teams throughout EMEA, writes Bruce Tober.

In New York, the company announced a range of Linux-based products, technologies and services, including more extensive Linux support for more than 40 HP LaserJet and business inkjet printers.

Before the acquisition, Akopia was an e-commerce platform that created Web sites that retailers use as their online storefronts. Red Hat will integrate Akopia's Interchange e-commerce platform, which allows transactions online, into its own software products. Akopia will take on the name Red Hat and will market all of Red Hat's e-commerce services

SuSE 7.1 might be coming up -- but that doesn't mean that SuSE 7.0 isn't a worth-while investment. Featuring the excellent SAX2 configuration tool, XFree86 4.0, kernel 2.2.17, a wealth of documentation and much more, SuSE 7.0 proves to be a mammoth in more ways than one.

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