SOT, publisher of Linux in Finland, has unveiled its new Best Linux developers’ site, BestLinux.org and joined Linux International as a sponsoring corporate member. The press release is at LinuxPR.

PR News Wire reports that Lineo has announced the availability of the Lineo Embedix GPL Compliance Toolset, which protects OEM and embedded system developers from accidentally violating the GNU General Public License.

From a ZDNet story: “With archrival Sun Microsystems Inc. breathing down its neck, Microsoft needs to make good on its Office 10 ship date and ease-of-use promises. Sun has announced plans to make an open source version 6.0 of its StarOffice suite available on October 13. StarOffice 5.2 runs on everything from Windows 98 and Windows 2000, to Linux and Solaris.”

Publicly, the new Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) hopes to promote Linux in the enterprise. But privately, the OSDL-funded by HP, IBM, Intel and NEC USA-may be plotting against Sun Microsystems. Unlike earlier Linux partnerships, the OSDL was not driven by pure-play Linux vendors. Instead, as Linux pioneer Red Hat confirms, major hardware vendors started the OSDL in mid-July. To be sure, the OSDL’s primary focus is catapulting Linux into the enterprise. But OSDL’s hardware members wouldn’t mind if Linux somehow manages to eclipse Solaris, too. The report is at Inter@ctive Week.

Salon.com has an article remembering Rich Stevens, whose influence is still treasured a year after his death.

Salon.com has an article remembering Rich Stevens, whose influence is still treasured a year after his death.

From humor site Segfault.org: “As a female surrounded by male geeks and on the way towards becoming a female one myself I am forever being asked that unvocalised question that eternally burns in the breast of every sock- and sandal-wearing techie who has ever stared at a half naked Pentium chipset, namely: Are geeks sexy? That is to say: Could a woman get linear with a man who knows his Linux?”

Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina will next week unveil the firm’s mainframe-class Unix server, codenamed Superdome. HP’s support for multiple, partitioned operating systems will find favour with firms wanting to consolidate multiple servers and applications into a single high-availability unit. HP’s Superdome will provide another alternative to Sun’s UltraSparc II-based systems, especially the top-end E10000. Sun’s Serengeti UltraSparc III systems will be released on 27 September, according to a story from IT Week.

Thanks to a collaboration with Linux.com’s Tuneup section Sandlab.org, an Italian news site recently opened a Linux zone where all Italian users will be able to read the Linux.com’s tips translated in Italian. — Submitted by Div By Zero

From a Los Angeles Times story about a shortage of electronic components: “At the heart of this shortage are prized commodity parts used in multiple industries. In part because of the popularity of music-swapping services such as Napster, laptop computer buyers demand the ability to create their own CDs from downloaded music. But the disk drives needed to download music from the Internet onto a personal CD depend on tiny components that also are sought by the booming cell-phone industry.”