Dell seeks to clarify Linux PC sales, Jul 07, 2004

Webmaster's note: More detailed information on the Dell Linux PC sold in Italy - mentioned in the previously posted story from the Miami Herald

An Italian vendor is selling Dell PCs with customised Linux - but Dell will only provide a warranty on the hardware

A PC dealer in Europe has begun selling Dell desktops equipped with Linux, but Dell emphasised that the systems were customised by the dealer and that this isn't the first time this has happened.

A line of Dell desktop computers running a version of the Linux operating system will be sold in Europe by a reseller, broadening alternative offerings to Microsoft's ubiquitous Windows software.

Bill Gates was recently quoted as saying, "You know what my toughest competitor is? It's pirated software.... If you really look around, you'll find way more pirated Windows than you'll find open-source software. Way more."

Gates couldn't be more wrong. At least in China, his tough stance against piracy is backfiring. The more the Chinese government cracks down on piracy, the more appealing open source, and in particular, Linux, become.

In his first 18 months as general manager of IBM's worldwide Linux team, Jim Stallings has seen dozens of corporate shops and governments around the world push Linux from the periphery to the heart of their IT strategies -- never a bad thing for job security when you have the word "Linux" in your title. But with the open source operating system now more firmly entrenched, the next challenge for Stallings and his team is to help Linux drive IBM's companywide On Demand initiative deeper into corporate accounts with one hand while fighting the ongoing server battle against Windows with the other.

The company has raised money through a bond offering, and plans both new acquisitions and to buy back short-sold stock

Novell, the second-ranked seller of the Linux operating system, raised $600m in a bond offering that closed on Friday.

Novell will use about $475m of the funds for "general corporate purposes, including potential future acquisitions," the company said in a statement. The move comes about six months after rival Linux seller Red Hat raised $600m of its own.

Weather is a tricky thing to predict, but advances in Linux-based High Performance Computing (HPC) are helping climatologists and global weather modelers achieve faster, more accurate results.

Thomas Zacharia, associate lab director at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), said the Linux movement has had a strong impact on weather and climate research, as well as other scientific areas requiring vast simulations,"because obviously you're harnessing the collective knowledge of large numbers of people around the world."

Possio AB has enhanced its PX30 wireless access point (WAP) with 3G networking capabilities. The company claims the PX30 is the first access point to allow users to connect to the Internet through 3G (third-generation) mobile networks, which carry Internet data at broadband speeds. The device targets 3G mobile operators.

You sort of have to feel sorry for Richard Stallman. Poor old RMS, sitting in his dingy office in the comp sci building at MIT, issuing proclamations about the difference between free software and open source software, and insisting that everyone call Linux "GNU/Linux", worrying that the efforts of the GNU Project might be forgotten. But perhaps he has a point.

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