Stories about: Mindcraft

Legal threats may be the high-profile risk for Linux, but the popular open source kernel project is coming face-to-face with key technical shortcomings, too. As the Linux Foundation plans its first Collaboration Summit for June 13 through 15 at the Google campus in Mountain View, Linux contributors are speaking out about kernel gaps that have no solution readily in sight.

Microsoft funded and released a new set of benchmarks to follow the debut of its often-renamed Windows 2003 Server. The boys in Redmond are proud as punch of their new baby, whatever its name. They would have the world believe that Windows 2003 Server is twice as fast as Linux, at least when it's used for file serving.

Microsoft Wednesday began a new offensive in its efforts to convince network executives that its Active Directory is ready to break the bounds of the firewall and become a viable platform for supporting security services on corporate extranets.

We built a test lab using Intel-based servers and 10 clients. The directory server was a generic dual-Pentium III/650-MHz system with 380M bytes of memory, running a standard Windows NT Version 4/Service Pack 6a installation. The disk was a Fast/Wide SCSI drive from Seagate Technology Inc. and a standard Adaptec controller. The test clients were Cubix Corp.'s Density servers based on the Celeron 366-MHz chip set (www.cubix.com). All network communications were via switched 100M bit/sec full-duplex connections. Our entire setup was hooked to a Cybex Autoboot Commander 4XP that allowed us to connect dozens of PCs to a single monitor. Without that we would not have been able to control everything (www.cybex.com).

The open-source Linux operating system is being enthusiastically looked at by companies in Asia's developing nations like India, China, Korea and Malaysia, but is less popular in wealthier countries such as Japan and Singapore.

I had a conversation with a journalist last night (who shall remain nameless. Ah, what the heck? It was with Ellen Creswell). We were talking about a piece she had written, quoting Gartner's Research about yadda, yadda, yadda and Linux not being ready for the desktop.

It feels as though millions of readers have responded to my two recent Linux columns at www.infoworld.com/printlinks. So how can I stop now? It also feels as though the open-source software movement has launched a new marketing campaign.