The number of Linux users in an OS survey fell suspiciously quickly, a German news service reported. Slashdot readers discuss the report. A Linux Today staffer sends MSNBC a letter saying how disappointed he is.

A ZDNet column says Microsoft is on the way out: “Today, Microsoft presents users with a
bewildering array of end-user operating system
options: Windows 95, Windows 98 SE, Windows ME,
Windows 2000 Professional and Windows CE. With
so much potential confusion, is it any wonder
that people are beginning to look at other
end-user operating systems? Corel Linux, a
consumer’s Linux, while far from a hit, has
garnered a small following. As the Unix desktop
interface programs KDE and Gnome mature, we can
look forward to seeing even more user-friendly
interfaces appearing on top of Linux, the BSD
OSes and Solaris.”

An eWeek story about a new “system-on-a-chip” product of National Semi says some companies are frustrated with chip-maker Transmeta for not shipping a product yet.

By: Jeff Field
NewsForge Columnist

Recap

In last week’s hardware column, I discussed the status of Linux hardware support, and the dismal efforts some companies were giving to get their products supported. In response to this article, I received some new information from someone at VA Linux Systems’ multimedia and graphics engineering group. (Disclosure: NewsForge is owned by OSDN, a division of VA Linux systems.)

3DFX

Last week, I discussed how 3DFX had only partially functional drivers for their Voodoo5 boards. The drivers only run one CPU and do not support FSAA, a key feature of this new board. This essentially limits the board to Voodoo3 levels of performance, not something people who just shelled out $300 are eager to find. However, this isn’t an attempt by 3DFX to rip off Linux users, but rather it is a result of a lack of devotion to Linux.

Typically, a video board company will have more than 30 people working on Windows drivers for its products. This is because video drivers are complicated beasts, and can require a lot of man hours to develop. However, when a company hires VA Linux to write video drivers, it typically hires only one or two people. Now, imagine if you will, trying to develop an equally complex video driver with only 10% of the typical team. Doesn’t sound fun, does it?

Their are several reasons for this problem. First, Linux market share isn’t at the level it needs to be for companies to be able to devote equal time to development of drivers for it. That costs money, and that’s the first order of business at most companies, making a profit.

What many companies don’t seem to realize is that when they are licensing DDKs (driver development kits) from Microsoft, on which they build their Windows drivers, they are paying for the development of the graphics/driver infrastructure which they are using. VA’s multimedia and graphics division is also working on such an infrastructure, except without as much funding as Microsoft. This common codebase for Linux drivers would allow cheaper, faster and better Linux drivers, as it would be funded by the various graphics companies, and would have that many more people to work on it.

It would seem that there is indeed hope on the horizon, with more drivers coming out all the time and more companies embracing open source with their hardware products, but the battle is far from over. As Linux gains more marketshare and more companies demand support for it, we will see a surge in Linux support. Perhaps by this time next year I’ll be able to complain about the lack of quality Windows drivers for most hardware.

Are you on the verge on selecting Linux for your Internet site computing
environment?
You’re not alone.
Alex Samonte, Chief Engineer for SiteSmith, a provider of Internet
infrastructure management services, encounters a great number of Internet
sites that are at various stages of implementing Linux. In many areas, he
says, Linux is ready for prime time, but in others work still remains.

Join Alex, this month’s Planet IT Linux Roundtable host, to discuss the
strengths and weaknesses of Linux in multi-tier architectures with a focus
the following categories:

Linux as a Web server;
Linux as a streaming server;
Linux as an application server;
Linux as a database server.

Join him at
http://www.planetit.com/techcenters/resources/roundtable/linux/PIT200>
00911S0034
as he discusses Linux & The Multi-Tier Enterprise.

I.T. News reports on the happenings at the Linux Users of Victoria’s largest-ever Installfest at Monash University earlier this month.

Reuters on ZDNet: Competition chief recommends analysis of how competition and antitrust regulation should work on the Internet.

OLinux presents this interview with Bill Portelli, President and CEO of CollabNet.

LinuxWorld discusses the origins of the OSDL.

In this article on migrating from Perl to Python, LinuxPrograming looks at the basic numeric object type.