– By Grant Gross–

A pessimistic attitude about Open Source, Linux companies in particular, didn’t abate this week. In response to this down cycle of news, a column at Canoe.ca questions how Linux companies are positioning themselves in the market, going after the consumer market, instead of focusing on their traditional strengths.

Another sign of the time?

Red Hat closed its San Francisco office, laying off half the staff there. According to the company, the layoffs were caused by redundancy created by recent acquisitions and have nothing to do with the Linux market.

Better signs of the times?

The Linux-on-handhelds market continues to create a buzz. A story at Brighthand.com showed readers how Linux on Compaq’s handheld, the iPAQ, looks and works. Also, Hitachi has recently rolled out a Linux-powered Internet appliance, to good reviews.

IBM also announced a Linux initiative this week, making available the DB2 Universal Database for Linux on IBM zSeries and S/390 mainframes. And computer-maker Dell announced a partnership with desktop gurus Eazel.

Even the big announcements have their downsides, it seems. A ZDNet column asked why Open Source advocates aren’t afraid that big companies like IBM and Hewlett-Packard will dictate the Open Source market. That came on the heels of news that HP hired Open Source activist Bruce Perens for its Linux initiative. NewsForge’s own Tina Gasperson talked to Perens about his decision to sign on to HP’s payroll.

India’s Ciol.com praised HP’s Linux initiative, even though “no major Linux company has ever earned a dollar of profit.” The story says profitable companies can use Linux to their advantage.

Linux, with double cheese

A story based on an odd trend: Apparently, pizza makers are early adopters of Linux for point-of-sale applications. Maybe it’s all those sausage-mushroom-and-double-cheese pies delivered at 3 a.m. to Linux programmers.

This week at NewsForge

Jack Bryar says that companies can really make money on Open Source. He even gives examples.

Dan Berkes challenges the Java Community Process as being too cumbersome. Apparently, some Open Source community members agree.

Julie Bresnick chats with Jay Fenlason, the creator of what evolved into the popular Nethack game.

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

In the “neat-and-fun” category, kOrbit (an object request broker for 2.4.x kernels) has been released, as published by Slashdot. From their press release: “This opens the door to a wide range of experiments/hacks: We can now write device drivers in perl, and let them run on the iMAC across the hall from you. 🙂“

“On behalf of freedesktop.org, the GNOME Project, and the KDE Project,
I’m happy to announce that version 1.0 of the freedesktop.org extended
window manager hints specification (EWMHS) is now available. This
document specifies extensions to the Inter-Client Communication
Conventions Manual (ICCCM) which allow desktop environments to
implement features such as pagers, task lists, or full-color icons via
communication with the window manager.” The announcement is at LWN.net.

From LWN.net: “Alan Cox discovered that GNU ed (a classed line editor tool) creates
temporary files unsafely.
Please verify these md5 checksums of the updates prior to upgrading to
ensure the integrity of the downloaded package. You can do this by
running the md5sum program on the downloaded package by using
‘md5sum package.rpm’.”

Linux PR has a press release announcing that MPT Data Products Limited (the exclusive UK Main Distributor for Cyclades Corporation products) have appointed RedWire as official Cyclades E-Commerce Distributor for the UK and Ireland.

Linuxdevices.com discusses embedded Linux.
“This article is the introduction to a new LinuxDevices.com series by Jerry Epplin that will explore the history, status,
alternative architectures, and future developments of Linux on PDAs and handheld devices.“

“Does the open source model support big business? When those 90,000
POS terminals have a problem, who do they turn to? It’s hard to tell your manager, that
‘there no fix for the problem yet, but it’s expected in the next pre-patch release.’ Big
businesses like accountability, someone they can point a finger at and say ‘Make it work’.”
The full story is on Slashdot.

“In today’s world of Information Technology it is almost impossible to to
work exclusively with only one operating system. That being the case the
folks at VMware, Inc. dove in and developed VMware; a friendly, robust,
and affordable Virtual Machine. Here’s the cool part, no dual booting!” Read the full review at linuxlookup.com.

ROCKLEDGE, Florida, December 8, 2000 – Highlander Technologies,
Rockledge,
FL and Eloquent Systems, Lamar, AR, announced today that the two
companies
have entered into a strategic agreement under which Highlander will
distribute Eloquent’s software for boat manufacturers. The application
is
the first of its kind developed for variations of the Unix operating
system
and has already been deployed on Red Hat Linux. Highlander will
initially
focus on integrating and reselling complete system solutions combining
Eloquent’s software and systems running the Red Hat Linux operating
system.
Under the terms of the agreement, Highlander and Eloquent will also
team to
develop future versions of the product incorporating Highlander’s
eCommerce
and bar code software components.
“Eloquent Systems is accelerating its time-to-market by engaging
Highlander’s existing system integration/VAR infrastructure,” said Brian
Richardson,
Founder and CEO of Highlander Technologies. “Boat manufacturers have
needed
a right-sized solution for their business for some time. Eloquent saw
it,
and reacted quickly. This relationship also furthers Highlander’s
strategy
of aligning with developers in a variety of industries to offer
complete
business solutions for the Linux market.”

The application enables boat manufacturers to automate their operations
by integrating manufacturing functions and general functions such as
accounting, inventory management, and sales management. The product
includes automated sales features supporting “just-in-time”
manufacturing
by coordinating production requirements with sales teams. Current
users
include Kenner Boats (www.kennerboats.com), manufacturers of high
quality port fishing boats.

About Highlander Technologies, Inc.
Highlander Technologies, Inc. provides B2B eCommerce solutions enabling
companies to compete effectively in the digital global economy. In
1999
Highlander released the first Linux-based business solution for Freight
Forwarding companies. Highlander’s eCommerce data broker software
product
enables companies to perform standards-based eCommerce transactions
without
modifying existing software applications. Highlander Technologies is a
privately held company based near the Kennedy Space Center in
Rockledge,
Florida with additional offices in Brentwood, NH. Highlander can be
reached
at (321) 637-1126 or at www.highlander-tech.com.

About Eloquent Systems, Inc.
Eloquent Systems, Inc., headquartered in Lamar, Arkansas, has a
comprehensive background in developing solutions for manufacturing
companies
as diverse as boat, industrial roller, graphite electrode, and
aluminum.
Customers include Kenner Boats, manufacturers of high quality sport
fishing
boats. Eloquent can be reached at (321) 433-1653 or at
www.elo-systems.com.

Slashdot reports on the move by IBM to sell some of its packages, including DB2 and WebSphere, for Linux. Currently DB2 is an unsupported download (personal developer edition only).