[H-GEN] Linux at Javaone

Sid Young syoung at powerup.com.au
Sun Apr 5 22:05:33 EDT 1998


The next battleground: Linux vs. Windows? 
By Mary Jo Foley, Sm at rt Reseller
April 3, 1998 5:58 AM PST

The increasingly vocal freeware community has championed Linux as a real,
viable alternative to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows and NT for years.

But the lack of a single, large backer has hampered the operating system's
acceptance among many corporate customers, integrators and resellers.

That dynamic may be changing, however, in large part thanks to Netscape
Communications Corp. (NSCP) Netscape officially joined the freeware camp as
of this week, by putting its Communicator 5.0 source code into the public
domain. 

Netscape's executive vice president of products Marc Andreessen, who spoke
earlier this week at the Silicon Valley Linux Users Group meeting, went on
record espousing the potential market benefits of a Communicator plus Linux
combination. Andreessen also reportedly committed to making Linux a
reference platform equal in stature to Windows for future Netscape product
releases.

Netscape's move couldn't have come at a better time for the freeware world.
Next week, some of the leading voices in the freeware movement are slated
to hold the first-ever Freeware Summit in Palo Alto, Calif. Representatives
affiliated with Mozilla.org (the Netscape freeware arm), Apache, Linux,
Perl, Python and Sendmail, among others, are slated to meet to discuss
strategies for increasing public acceptance of their wares at the
conference, which is being hosted by freeware advocates O'Reilly & Associates.

The freeware community is gaining additional backing from some unlikely
places.

"A year ago, Linux was seen as too much out of the mainstream. The lack of
a single backer has hampered it getting a lot of notice. But now it's
looking more interesting," said Jamie Love, director of Ralph Nader's
Consumer Project on Technology (CPT). 

Last month, CPT sent letters to six of the top PC makers, requesting that
they offer customers a choice of operating systems. CPT suggested Linux,
BeOS and Apple Computer Corp.'s Rhapsody as possible alternatives to
Windows that companies like Compaq Computer Corp., Dell Computer, Gateway
2000, Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp. and Micron could offer.

Love said that Nader's organization is testing a number of Linux flavors on
different machines at its own offices. 

Contact us with comments, corrections or suggestions. © 1998 Ziff-Davis
Publishing Company. All rights reserved. For additional Ziff-Davis online
information, access ZDNet on the Internet (http://www.zdnet.com). 
Sid Young
=======================================================
Linux!, because reboots are only for *kernel* upgrades!
=======================================================

http://www.synaptic.com.au
n2255291 at student.fit.qut.edu.au
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