Author: JT Smith
It’s that time of year when pundits like to look back and forward. Indeed, NewsForge/Linux.com will have a news roundup of 2001 this week. Looking forward this week were a couple of writers who boldly offered predictions on Linux.
Our friend Joe Barr offered 10 Linux predictions for 2002. Some are serious, some less so. Among his predictions: The Linux business sector will emerge from slump, and “at least one global megacorp will announce a complete migration away from all Microsoft Windows platforms to an interoperable mix of Unix, Mac and Linux platforms.” He also sees a bigger acceptance of Linux on desktops in the coming year.
NewsForge’s Robin “Roblimo” Miller gazed into his crystal ball a little further, predicting what will happen to Linux in 2003, when Microsoft will stop full support of Windows 98 and NT. He predicts many people running old versions of Windows will move to Linux instead of upgrading their hardware to run Windows XP.
Santa switches to Linux, Open Source
OK, so a lot of you don’t believe in Santa Claus anymore. But NewsForge freelancer Daniel P. Dern swears he visits with the old guy once a year, and this year, Santa says he’s switched to Linux and other Open Source tools. Hey, could I make this up?
New releases
While the holiday week made for a slow news week, there was a whole lot of Open Source software releasing going on. Perhaps the developers used time off from their day jobs to crank out code on their pet projects. Among the new releases this week:
Newly reviewed
New at NewsForge and Linux.com
Other stories that NewsForge and Linux.com reported first this week:
Stock news
The holiday-shortened stock week was a good one for the tech-heavy Nasdaq and for many Open-Source related Linux stocks in general. The Nasdaq ended last week at 1,987.26, up from 1,945.83 Dec. 14, and some analysts are predicting continued increases based on news last week that the manufacturing sector seems to be turning around and consumer confidence is up.
As expected, it was a slow news week for the companies on our Open Source stock list.
Of the 11 Open Source-related stocks on our list, eight were up this week, although most posted modest gains. Only Hewlett-Packard and MandrakeSoft posted losses for the week, while Wind River Systems ended the week at 18.05 for the third week in a row.
Here’s how Open Source and related stocks ended this past week:
Company Name | Symbol | 12/21 Close | 12/28 Close |
Apple | AAPL | 21.00 | 22.43 |
Borland Software Int’l | BORL | 15.39 | 15.85 |
Caldera International | CALD | 0.77 | 0.89 |
Hewlett-Packard | HWP | 21.00 | 20.82 |
IBM | IBM | 122.00 | 122.90 |
MandrakeSoft | 4477.PA | e4.90 | e4.69 |
Red Hat | RHAT | 6.95 | 7.02 |
Sun Microsystems | SUNW | 11.74 | 12.59 |
TiVo | TIVO | 5.47 | 6.30 |
VA Software | LNUX | 2.48 | 2.49 |
Wind River Systems | WIND | 18.05 | 18.05 |