EE Times reports that Intercept Technology will produce a gridless autorouter for the CAD market, available in the first quarter of 2001. Tentatively named Connex, the product is designed to make Intercept’s Pantheon design software less dependent on third party routers. Connex will be bundled with new versions of Pantheon for Linux, UNIX, and Windows platforms.

“If a U.S. online buyer runs into a problem with an order during next month’s holiday rush, chances are that instant online help will come from a customer services representative halfway around the world in India.” Wired News reports on India’s booming Customer Relationship Management industry.

Appplixware is arguably the most stable and mature Linux office suite
available, but it will no longer be aggressively marketed as a desktop product,
according to VistaSource Marketing VP R.J. Grandpre.VistaSource is a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Applix
(NASDAQ: APLX) that was formed specifically to market
Applixware products.

Despite a recent price cut for the Applixware Office package from $99 per copy to $49, it couldn’t compete in the marketplace with Sun’s
StarOffice,
which costs nothing. And with KOffice — also free — rapidly becoming mature and stable enough to
be useful for everyday work, it was time for Applix to
throw in the desktop towel. “We typically come out on top when compared to StarOffice,” Grandpre says, “but it has been impossible to
differentiate ourselves enough to get people to pay for Appplixware when they can get [other Linux office suites] for free.”

Future Applix products will concentrate on the servserside marketplace. An online demo version of the next generation of “Web-enabled”
Anyware
Office, which works on any operating system, is scheduled to be available through the VistaSource website
“in a couple of weeks,” says Grandpre. A current version is available now; Grandpre says the new one will incorporate a “smaller and more
stable Java applet that will be surprisingly fast to download and run through all but the slowest connections.”)

Adobe has apparently withdrawn its plans to release a
commercial version of Framemaker for Linux, but this may be a result of the beta version’s poor reception by testers rather than lack of
faith in Linux.

Corel’s relationship with Linux is also in doubt; but this may reflect
Corel’s internal problems rather than problems with the Linux.
software marketplace.

Besides, Grandpre speculates, the current lack of a solid market for commercial Linux applications may not last. “It could come
full circle in two or
three
years,” he say, with commercial Linux desktop applications becoming “hot” again as the operating system increases its penetration of the
home and office desktop marketplace, and more end users who are accustomed to buying shrinkwrapped software, rather than downloading free,
GPL-licensed
applications software, start using an increasingly user-friendly Linux as their everyday desktop operating system.

Dr Dobb’s latest weekly edition of Python news and links is now available at LWN.net.

In a press release at PR Newswire, Caldera Systems today announced the appointment of former TurboLinux executive and Samba project co-founder John H. Terpstra to the position of technology vice president and OEM strategist.

– by Tina Gasperson –
Do you remember this old song?: “He’s makin’ a list, and checkin’ it twice, gonna find out who’s naughty or nice, Santa Claus is comin’ to town.” You probably thought that song was just for little kids, but since we’ve already embued Linux with the human quality of “freeness,” shouldn’t Torvald’s little nutcracker — er kernel, be entitled to a few goodies from Santa at Christmastime? As long as Linux has been good, that is.

And while Newsforge wouldn’t presume to know exactly what items are on the top 10 most desirable presents list for Linux, we have acquired the services of a keen little North Pole penguin who’s been helping the old uber-elf keep an eye on Linux this year. We’ve received this exclusive report, direct from Santa’s workshop, about the status of the upstart OS’s behavior.

Before we divulge the contents of the report, let’s get Santa’s Open Source status straight. He’s strictly a user. Sure, a number of the toymaking elves are rumored to moonlight as game developers, but when it comes to doling out holiday happiness, the big fat guy is in charge. So with his checklist in tow, Santa’s looking for features like good GUI and easy hardware installation, quick bootup and a wide range of wallpaper choices — things that a large percentage of the computer-using population consider important when it comes to operating systems.

First of all, how does Linux look? Has it been wearing clean, fashionable clothes, or is it still hanging around in wrinkled tee-shirts and jeans with holes in the crotch? Santa’s little helper says that several Linux distributions are dressing spiffier than ever this year, especially the little rich kid, Red Hat, and his brother Mandrake. Santa gives a nice big checkmark to these two. (Cousin Corel also had potential, but just when things were starting to look up, it seems this distribution is about to have its inheritance yanked out from under it.)

When it comes to moving into a new house (like Santa’s desktop system), does Linux play nicely? Santa’s little helper says yes and no. Great strides have been made, especially on the rich side of the tracks, but sometimes Linux is still finicky about where it wants to live. Everything has to be just so — and when it’s not, Linux may or may not tell you what the problem is; it just sits down and refuses to budge. Santa says, no checkmark — gotta work on this.

Does Linux share its toys? Well, Linux is climbing a learning curve when it comes to hardware support, and if you’re on the down side of that, you probably think Linux needs a spanking. But you’d be in the minority, and Santa agrees that this is one OS that is trying to be generous. In an interesting but odd twist, sometimes the big boys won’t let Linux share, so it’s not necessarily its fault. Checkmark in this category for effort.

Many Linux fans have extolled the virtues of uptime and stability; Santa has heard these kudos, but doesn’t take anyone’s word for it. Unfortunately, Santa hasn’t experienced the same level of un-crashiness that others have; in fact, he’s beginning to think maybe it isn’t the chilly North Pole climate that’s causing all the big freezes on his system lately. Not only that, but Santa’s Linux box has been known to hang on restart, just like the old Windows setup. Nothing like familiarity for breeding contempt. But Santa remains cheerful as he says, “No checkmark for you, little Linux. Try harder next time.”

And in the “hard work” category, Linux also falls short. It will do only a limited number of chores, and while it does those very well, Santa has diverse needs and finds himself yearning for the smorgasbord-like availability of applications that Windows provides. “But there are ways to gain access to those programs with Linux,” some would say. Santa says yes, but it’s a long and winding road, and he wants instant productivity. No checkmark.

But when it comes to cooperation, it’s no surprise that Linux gets the big A+. With Linux’s great attitude toward teamwork, and its willingness to bare its source, Santa is so pleased with this aspect of Linux’s character (even though it’s not immediately apparent to him what the benefit is), that he’s willing to give two checkmarks. Santa also gives checkmarks for the efficient use of resources which make his system run so much faster (most of the time), the low price (read “free” ever since Santa picked up a CD-RW drive), and mostly, just because Santa likes Linux, and we all know Santa is the boss.

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

“The Federal Trade Commission has delayed a meeting set for Thursday, at which it planned to vote to sue America Online Inc. to block its purchase of Time Warner Inc., sources close to the talks said on Tuesday.” Full story at ZDNet News.

ZDNet News reports that former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart has joined Oracle’s senior management team. The company says that Lockhart will focus on “refining and communicating Oracle’s business strategy.”

German prosecutors said Monday they were investigating US
Internet retailer Yahoo! for the suspected online auction of copies
of Hitler’s infamous Mein Kampf, which is banned in the country, according to this report at ZDCOUK.

Linux Today posted this note from Linus about the latest kernel pre-release.