Weekly news wrapup: Linux veterans to merge?

Expecting a news slowdown the week following the Linux 2.4 kernel release? Well, the people at Turbolinux and Linuxcare don’t want you to be bored. Late this week, the two veteran Linux companies told the world they’re talking about a merger.

It may be too early to tell, but watch for how a merger between the distributor and the Linux service company might affect competitors like Red Hat. Turbolinux was busy inking deals this week — the company also announced a global distribution and support agreement with IBM.

We’d also be remiss if we didn’t mention that VA Linux, otherwise known as our owner, was named in a lawsuit connected with VA’s IPO. The lawsuit alleges that IPO underwriter Credit Suisse First Boston Corp. had “solicited and received excessive and undisclosed commissions from certain investors in exchange for which Credit Suisse allocated to those investors material portions of the restricted number of Linux shares issued in connection with the Linux IPO.”

Blinding flash of the obvious

Steve Ballmer, otherwise known as president and CEO of that big Microsoft software maker thingie, admitted that Linux is the company’s biggest problem going into 2001. And we thought all along it was Microsoft’s crappy software. NewsForge editor in Chief Robin Miller responded to Ballmer by giving advice on how to become a total Linux user. Leave behind that closed-source software!

In other business news, it wasn’t a good week for Open Source pioneer Zelerate, previously known as Open Sales, which announced it was cutting 40 percent of its staff.

Where will they put Linux next?

File this under, “ain’t it cool?” DaimlerChrysler’s newest concept car has Linux embedded to “satisfy the never-ending thirst of tomorrow’s automobile drivers and passengers for Internet-based data and information.” And the car’s pretty cool looking, too.

New at NewsForge this week