Weekly news roundup: IBM puts its money into marketing Linux

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Author: JT Smith

– By Grant Gross –

IBM’s $1 billion-plus investment in Linux is starting to show dividends in several ways, the latest being an ad campaign in print, online and on billboards touting peace, love and Linux.

A reader even wrote in to tell us where we could view the ad, and reports this week say IBM is even paying its partners to learn Linux. With what appears to be the full force of IBM’s marketing efforts behind it, the Linux industry may have the shot in the arm it’s needed lately. Now if we could figure out how to translate IBM’s marketing efforts into Linux stock price bumps.

HP’s curious dance with Open Source

Hewlett-Packard, another big tech company that’s been embracing Linux, announced this week that it’s discontinuing its OpenMail messaging product line after version 7, which is scheduled to be released this month. The closed-source OpenMail product had been a source of consternation with some in the Open Source crowd, including newly hired HP Linux advisor Bruce Perens, but others are concerned that discontinuing OpenMail kill Microsoft’s only real competition to the Microsoft Exchange Mail Server. Perens wrote Sunday urging patience from the Open Source community as HP considers several options for OpenMail.

In other news of the HP/Open Source romance, some reports this week at the company dumping Windows CE for Linux on its Jornada handhelds.

New release

KDE 2.1 was released this week, and reviews said nice things, like how the new KDE makes Linux ready for the enterprise.

And in a little inter-community sword rattling, LinuxPlanet took Richard Stallman of the free software movement to task for comparing the GNU General Public License to the Declaration of Independence. Delusions of grandeur, or something like that, LinuxPlanet says. Maybe that should be musket rattling, instead of sword rattling.

New in NewsForge this week

Stories you may have missed:

  • Hardware reviewer Jeff Field checks out the hardware support improvements in the Linux 2.4 kernel. “Hardware support becomes more efficient, the possibility for data loss lessens, 3D games run (or if they ran before, they run better), and overall the world becomes a better place.”

  • Editor in chief Robin Miller reviews the Opera browser for Linux and finds that while it’s a fast little browser, the annoying accompanying ads and the $39 price tag hurt it when compared to Open Source browsers available.

  • Business columnist Jack Bryar previews the next Linux coming down the pike, a Transmeta released designed to work on mobile devices.

    NewsForge editors read and respond to comments posted on our discussion page.

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