Nathan Boeger reviews FreeBSD 4.1 for Web Techniques: “…for speed and security, FreeBSD is the way to go. In no way am I trying to say that Red Hat, or Linux, is inferior. Linux has very good desktop uses, and works well in some server situations. But, the FreeBSD 4.x tree is by far the fastest OS running on Intel hardware that I’ve ever seen.”

LinuxDevices.com offers The Embedded Linux Newsletter for the week of December 14, 2000.

P. Fiorini, a ZioBudda.net contributor, reviews Linux Mandrake 7.2.
From the original text:
“Senza dubbio un’ottima distribuzione per tutti gli utenti che non mi ha dato problemi durante il riconoscimento dell’hardware presente.” –ZioBudda

“With the slew of systems both released and being developed, and the age old platform of the PC, we have every avenue of gaming covered. However, there is a backside to all this. It is very likely that the events of 1984 could happen again..and it is my belief that given the current politics of the videogame industry, this will happen once more. Might we be seeing the formations of another console crash?” More at Joystick101.org.

ZDNet News reports that Canadian software company Corel is ready to sell its Linux business to venture capitalist firm Linux Global Partners.

LinuxPlanet’s Kevin Reichard writes: “I usually don’t spend a lot of time defending Microsoft, but there’s a case where some highly irresponsible writing is making the Linux community look extremely bad. I’m speaking of Joe Barr’s piece of tripe in LinuxWorld, where he takes Microsoft to task–calling them the “piracy police”–for asking Virginia Beach, Va., to verify that no unauthorized copies of Microsoft products were in use.”

From The Register: “IBM is to begin shipment of its first G7 mainframe, today, as well as an enhanced storage system. Big Blue hopes the revamped products will reinvigorate mainframe sales and improve its position in the market against Sun and storage rival EMC.”

CNET News.com reports: “Great Bridge has packaged the PostgreSQL database software with easy-to-use installation software and extensive documentation. [The company] hopes eventually to reproduce the success Red Hat has had in establishing a foothold against operating system competitors such as Sun Microsystems and Microsoft.”

From Mark-Jason Dominus at perl.com: “Advocacy has become so natural to us that we forget there is any other way to discuss programming languages. Even if we don’t forget, other people can’t understand us because they hear advocacy whether we want them to or not.”

From a guest column at ZDNet by HP’s Bruce Perens: “In a recent column, ZDNet News columnist Mary Jo Foley asked, “Open-source backers: Are you afraid?” Citing the recent rush of corporations such as IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and even Sun to open source, she wondered why open-source purists weren’t afraid of being co-opted by big companies. Mary Jo, we planned for this to happen, and we’re overjoyed that it has come about.”