Linux growing on businesses, May 22, 2001

Linux has long enjoyed a cult following among technically advanced computer enthusiasts, but businesses are still wary of this open-source platform.

... resistance to Linux has almost evaporated among larger companies, thanks to increased support by the big computer manufacturers, but he says smaller businesses still need a lot of convincing.

In 2000, Linux-Mandrake took #1 slot in US Linux retail sales (Source: PC Data). The recent management changes and refocusing of our strategy on our core distribution and related online and offline services have allowed us to make major savings and we are on course to break even within a few months. The announcement of the latest release of the Linux-Mandrake operating system - version 8.0 - has met with unprecendeted success, both in terms of user adoption, which is made obvious by the hundreds of thousands of versions downloaded from our Web site since the announcement, and in terms of positive media coverage and pre-sales to our business partners throughout the world.

IBM will announce late in the week that it has made one of its 10-processor zSeries mainframe computers available via the Internet for access by people interested in working with the Linux operating system. The mainframe has been set up to give people "virtual servers," allowing them to log in, explore Linux features and test heavy-duty applications designed to run on Linux.

VA Linux Systems, which makes products and services for the Linux computer operating system, on Tuesday said its third-quarter pro forma loss grew more than fourfold, citing difficult market conditions. The company's pro forma net loss totaled $19 million, or 38 cents a share, compared with a loss of $4.5 million, or 13 cents a year earlier

Caldera International was raised to ''market perform'' from ''underperform'' by analyst Jennifer Jordan at Wells Fargo Van Kasper.

NeTraverse Inc., the leading provider of software solutions enabling Windows application hosting on the Linux operating system, announced today a relationship with Red Hat the leading providero f Linux and open source solutions, to support NeTraverse modifications to the Linux kernel.

Mandrakesoft, which produces the popular Mandrake Linux distribution, confirmed this morning that CEO Henri Poole and other management officials have left the company.

Mandrake's U.S. public relations firm would confirm only that there had been a management shuffle and that Poole had left. It would not disclose how many jobs had been lost, but said no further staff reductions were anticipated.

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