Anandtech reports: “We have seen the performance of the latest graphics accelerators under Windows 9x/2000, but what about under Linux? Read on to find out how the performance standings are on the other side of the road, you’ll definitely be surprised.”

From 32bitsonline.com: “Xi Graphics makes a killer server display if the XFree86 driver for your video card is
unavailable or is crap. If they stopped with the FUD/advertisements intimating that Linux would gain wider
acceptance in the marketplace if all distros used CDE, I might go so far as to give them a full endorsement.”

By Grant Gross

Managing Editor
News of the weird?

Probably the weirdest news this week had closed-source giant Microsoft pumping $135 million into competitor and Linux embracer Corel. That strange move prompted a slug of questions from the tech community. A ZDNet column suggested the investment would head off some potential legal disputes between the two companies. A CNet article amplified that sentiment by saying Microsoft was heading off potential antitrust troubles with its Office product by pumping up a competitor.
A Canadian Press article said the investment helped new Corel president a chief executive Derek J. Burney move from “interim” to the real deal. A 32bitsonline commentary guessed that Corel thought it was “better to strike a deal with the devil than to be annihilated,” and OS Opinion questioned Corel’s commitment to Open Source.

Weird claim, or just a misunderstanding?

Linux distributor Red Hat seemed to send some mixed signals to the Open Source community this week — or at least that’s how it was reported. On Wednesday, CNet reported CTO Michael Tiemann saying that the company “started the Open Source revolution,” much to the dismay of several people who’ve been developing in the Open Source or Free Software models for years. Tiemann disputed the report later in the week, saying Red Hat started the commercial Open Source revolution. Later in the week, Info World reported that Red Hat and SuSE officials said they’re not trying to create monopolies for their companies. Red Hat chairman Bob Young: The company “never set out to be a big fish in a small pond. … My job is to worry about the size of the pond. If we can make the pond that much bigger, it creates more opportunities for everyone.”

Not weird, but not happy news either

Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, reported that the 2.4 version of the kernel will take at least another two months to complete. Torvalds, speaking at a German Linux conference, said Linux developers are now working on fixing bugs.

Reactions to Netscape 6

Trying to make this a weird story might be a bit of a stretch. Netscape released the third preview version of Netscape 6 this week. Analysts seemed to like it, but users called it “slow and clunky.” An eWeek review said 6’s limited messaging capabilities and lack of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol support gave it limited corporate appeal.

Patent progress?

Wired.com reported that two congressmen have introduced patent-reform legislation, calling for the end to obvious patents. NewsForge did its own story on the technology patent debate this week. During a panel discussion of the D.C. Area Chapter of The Internet Society, the director of the U.S. Patent Office said Congress and the courts have tied his hands on patent reform, while a leading patent scholar called for a moratorium on most new software patents.

New in NewsForge

Also new this week from NewsForge’s staff:

Columnist Emmett Plant talked about why many Linux users prefer Debian.

Columnist Jeff Field examined how to resurrect old hardware with Linux.

Columnist Julie Bresnick profiled 20-year-old Alex Chamandy, founder of the interestingly named Black Hat Networks.

Maximum Linux has a review of the Linksys GigaDrive, and how it can be made to interoperate with Linux.

A review of Storm Linux 2000 has been posted at Maximum Linux. “f you’re itching to brew up something special in your Linux box, try this on for size.“

In Open Source vs. Closed Source, who will win? That’s what BeOSCentral asks in this feature.

Linuxdev.net asks a question heard many times before — is Open Source secure?

“Suneido is a free, open source, integrated object-oriented language, client-server relational database, and application framework written in C++. It is a small, simple, effective solution for creating, deploying, and maintaining information systems. Although currently only available for Windows, a Linux version is planned. Download the executable and source code for the current 0.9 version from www.suneido.com. Suneido Software welcomes the participation of the open source community in this project.“
Submitted by Andrew McKinlay.

Technocrat asked the question: How do we get non-geeks thinking about DeCSS? “Few weeks ago I was invited to a birthday party. The present we brought with us was a movie on a DVD disc. Because of my views on the DeCSS case I decided to use the opportunity to get the non-geeks at the party (everyone except me) to think about the free-speech issues related to DVD and the DeCSS case. “

This article (at net-security.org) is written for a linux newbie or anybody who cares, at least a bit about the data stored on his hard drive. You’ll notice that it’s aimed mainly for home-users, not for large network administrators or similar. All procedures have been done and checked on an installed SuSE 6.4 linux distribution. –Mirko Zorz