From The Register: “On Monday, Sun intro’d the LX50, its first general purpose x86 server, which will run either Sun’s version of Linux or a Lazarus-style reincarnation of Solaris on x86.

In response IBM has created a SWAT team of migration experts to port Sun Solaris customers to IBM Linux systems. At the same time it has revamped its most popular Linux-based Intel server, the x335, and announced a series of customer wins from Solaris to IBM Linux …”

An anonymous coward writes: Canon U.S.A., Inc., a subsidiary of Canon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ), and industry leader in networked imaging solutions, and Codehost Inc., a leader in Linux and Unix software applications, today announced a development agreement where Codehost will supply its Bright(tm) suite of Linux and Unix-based printing tools for use with Canon’s imageRUNNER line of multi-function devices. The two companies will demonstrate the solution this week at LinuxWorld 2002, being held in San Francisco’s Moscone Center August 13-15.
“Canon U.S.A. is very pleased to announce this new development agreement with Codehost,” said Dennis Amorosano, director and assistant general manager of Canon U.S.A.’s Copier and Networked Office Systems Division. “With BrightQ, our dealers and customers will have complete Linux and Unix print support for our popular line of imageRUNNER devices, including access to the advanced document finishing features that have clearly differentiated us from our competition.”

“Canon is demonstrating that both complex printing and finishing features need not be the sole realm of Microsoft and Apple clients. This step will enable a MFD market that up to this point has been almost completely ignored and subsequently untapped,” said Eric Levy, general manager of Print Systems at Codehost Inc. “The Linux operating system continues to make inroads into corporate infrastructure, and on the desktop. We envision this trend continuing. The nature of not having to manage costly client OS licenses, and the ever increasing volume of available software will continue to push Linux onto the desktop, where complex printing will be the norm.”

BrightQ(tm), in addition to providing Linux and Unix printing to Canon’s imageRUNNER line, will also provide a turnkey print driver interface, support for industry standard printing protocols, and a queuing system that is simple, intuitive, and cohesive across Unix operating systems and Linux distributions. Other key components of BrightQ(tm) include Codehost’s BrightInstall, an installation tool that enables systems support personnel to easily install, configure, and support their Unix/Linux customer base, BrightQ(tm) configuration tool, and the BrightQ(tm) Print Job Manager. BrightQ(tm) offers support for most major UNIX operating systems and Linux distributions.

About Codehost Inc.
Codehost is a software development firm that focuses on developing custom applications and turnkey solutions for a variety of hardware manufacturers and software vendors. With their expertise in a number of software platforms, hardware architectures, embedded technologies and peripheral devices, Codehost strives to establish long-term relationships with OEM’s to support and grow their market share, while helping them enter emerging market segments.

About Canon U.S.A.
Canon U.S.A., Inc. delivers consumer, business-to-business, and industrial imaging solutions. In 2001, the Company was listed as one of Fortune’s Most Admired Companies in America, and was ranked #41 on the BusinessWeek list of “Top 100 Brands.” Its parent company Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ) is a top patent-holder of technology, ranking third overall in the U.S. in 2001, with global revenues of $26 billion. Canon U.S.A. employs approximately 11,000 people at over 30 locations. For more information, visit www.usa.canon.com.

Anonymous Reader writes: “At 10 AM PST today, DesktopLinux.com founder and executive editor Rick Lehrbaum will be on CNET radio with Desmond Crisis talking about desktop Linux. Be sure to check it out online at DesktopLinux.com or in the San Francisco Bay Area tune into 910 AM on the radio.”

– By Robin “Roblimo” Miller –
Let’s not knock the “business side” of Linux and Open Source. Even those gloomy old-timers who feel this edition of LinuxWorld is less clubby than previous versions will benefit from increased mainstream Linux exposure and spread, because this exposure will create more Linux and Open Source jobs. (This article will be updated throughout the day, same as part one and part two.) Now let’s see what Red Hat has to say about UnitedLinux and Sun.

After hearing UnitedLinux talk about how there was only room for two commercial Linux distributions, and listening to all the Sun talk about how they were getting into Linux in a big way, I wondered what Red Hat had to say in return, so I buttonholed Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik and asked. He said, “Only two Linux distributions? That would be disappointing. And what about the embedded marketplace?” He pointed out that the embedded Linux marketplace, alone, has room for lots of players, and that there should always be plenty of competition for Linux user’s hearts and minds. (We didn’t get into a long conversation, since we were both rushing off to other meetings, but let’s note here that Red Hat is fully in synch with the Linux Standards Base, same as UnitedLinux — and lots of others.)

As far as Sun, Szulik asked, “Did you notice the Red Hat screens in Sun Linux?” Yes, we had. Right now “Sun Linux” is nothing but Red Hat rebranded. Perhaps this will change as Sun’s Linux effort cranks up. After the LinuxWorld hoopla dies down, we’ll talk to Sun people and ask, although they seem to be trying to hold off on answering questions about their Linux plans until their own conference in September.

Meanwhile, attendance at this LinuxWorld is up nicely from last year, and the crowd seems to be in a buying mood. These are, for the most part, people seriously interested in Linux. There are not many swag collectors or partiers. (We’ll have a report from last night’s FSF party for you later.) Let’s not lament this evolution too much. If you want a hard-core, inner-circle Linux tech gathering, nowadays you go to the Ottawa Linux Symposium or one of several regular “kernel crowd” get-togethers, and leave LinuxWorld to the new users and corporate people.

When you think about it, the fact that Linux is now “big” enough to have different gatherings for different purposes is amazing. We should all be glad to see this evolution take place.

12:15 p.m. — Things are winding down. I spent the morning cruising the dot-org pavilion. First stop, the Free Software Foundation booth. They had a nice party last night at a local bar, with about 200 people there. Some FSF volunteers felt it could have been promoted better and drawn a bigger crowd, but some of the folks who were at the party said its comparatively small size kept it fun.

The KDE booth people say this show has been “awesome” for them. The X.org people say it’s “gone very well, lots of enthusiasm … it’s good to see that what we do is appreciated, both in terms of individual users and in terms of companies.” The Free Standards Group (who run the Linux Standards Base) called it a “good crowd.” We couldn’t talk to the OpenOffice.org people except to say “hi” because their booth was so crowded. The same applied to the Linux Terminal Server Project. They were just as mobbed.

We exchanged plenty of business cards and will be writing about many of these projects — and others — in coming months.

Now, back to the show floor …

“Maybe it’s the sour grapes over spectacular evaluation failings, or maybe it’s just desperation, but it seems hardly a day goes
by when there’s not some new item that makes me want to distance myself ever more from the mainstream of the “open
source” movement. Today’s nugget was the utter inanity behind the CNET article Open source’s new weapon: The law? and, with
apologies to CNET authors Kanellos and Shankland, I offer this fictional retelling of the story, freely transliterating the rosy
oss double-newspeak.” More at Advogato.org.

The Register: ”

Dell has devised a cute trick to accommodate its big corporate customers without
crossing its Lord and Master, Microsoft, which has decreed that all OEM computers
shall be shipped with operating systems, according to a recent Cnet article.

To make life easier for big shops using Linux, which can be installed on any
number of machines without drawing a ‘dynamic entry’ from the BSA paramilitary
squads, Dell is going to ship naked desktops and workstations and simply chuck a
copy of FreeDOS into the shipping carton to satisfy the Microsoft licensing Taliban.”

PCWorld: “Once again, Geeks battled Nerds at LinuxWorld Expo’s annual Golden Penguin
Bowl, in an all-out battle of brain cells in which the team that knows the most obscure computer and
sci-fi trivia wins the coveted Golden Penguin award.

The Nerds have prevailed in past years, but this Penguin bowl saw a
victory for the Geek team–and a performance by a penguin. But the
highlight was three rounds of often overly obscure trivia, allowing players to
show they know their BogoMips from their teergrubes.”

ComputerWorld: “One thing Houston said he noticed immediately is that the show appears to
be moving from a focus on the open-source community to a focus on
business computing.

“It’s a change in the show itself from the Linux faithful to people here now who make business decisions,” Houston said. The open-source community is
still here, he said, but is now being joined by IT people hoping to learn more about this thing called Linux.” Yes, and this year you didn’t have to wear a trench coat over your Windows tattoo, Houston.

Mohamed Eldesoky writes: “Linux-Egypt has started a new series of interviews with people who made significant efforts to bring arabic support to *nix.
This is a first step to give credit to those people and to encourage others to jump in and help.
The first guy to be interviewed is Nadim Shaikli, arabeyes.org team member, who made many things possible for arabic user.
Worked to make VIM read and write arabic, also helped with mlterm and printing utilities….and more.
Read the interview to know the man.
http://www.linux-egypt.org/ACE/1/en“

bryam writes: “The basic elements of an alternative desktop exist. The challenge is in creating an integrated platform that gains the kind of community development support and governance that Linux has garnered. ZDNet has the coverage. The new initiative is called: iWork.”