ZDNET.co.uk says it is remarkable that Evolution allows Linux users to connect to a Microsoft Exchange server. Read more about the bugs removed from Evolution.

Ray Carnes writes: “ESRI now offers GIS solutions (SMART MAPPING) for Linux users.

Redlands, California?ESRI, the world leader in geographic information system (GIS) solutions, now offers a wide selection of GIS software that is compatible with the Linux operating system. In its continuing commitment to open systems, ESRI?s ArcIMS 4, ArcSDE 8.2, MapObjects?Java Standard Edition, and ArcExplorer 4 software are all supported on Linux.

ArcIMS 4, which began shipping on April 29, 2002, runs on Intel-compatible Red Hat Linux 7.1 in addition to Microsoft Windows, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, and HP-UX operating systems. ArcIMS is ESRI?s solution for distributing mapping and GIS data and services on the Web. It is a powerful, scalable, standards-based tool that lets you quickly design and manage Internet mapping services.

ArcSDE 8.2, which also began shipping April 29, 2002, is the GIS gateway for managing spatial data in a commercial database management system. ArcSDE serves spatial data to a wide variety of clients and is the key component in managing a multi-user spatial database. ArcSDE 8.2 for Oracle is the first ArcSDE release that supports Linux servers.

MapObjects?Java Standard Edition, which began shipping on April 1, 2002, is a suite of more than 900 Java-based GIS and mapping developer components that can be used to build custom, cross-platform GIS applications or applets. Because it is pure Java, MapObjects?Java Standard Edition can be used with Linux, Windows, and a variety of UNIX operating systems.

ArcExplorer 4?Java Edition is the newest version of ESRI?s free GIS data viewer. Because it is built with Java, ArcExplorer 4 allows users to enjoy cross-platform support including compatibility with Linux, Windows, and a number of UNIX operating systems.
ArcExplorer 4 can be downloaded free of charge from www.esri.com/arcexplorer.

###

For more than 30 years, ESRI has been the leading developer of GIS software with more than 300,000 clients worldwide. ESRI also provides consulting, implementation, and technical support services. In addition to its headquarters in California, ESRI has regional offices throughout the United States, international distributors in more than 90 countries, and more than 1,400 business partners. ESRI?s goal is to provide users with comprehensive tools to help them quickly and efficiently manage and use geographic information to make a real difference in the world around them. ESRI can be found on the Web at http://www.esri.com.

ESRI, the ESRI globe logo, GIS by ESRI, ArcIMS, ArcSDE, MapObjects, ArcExplorer, www.esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.”

The Register cites our friends Gartner, the research group, who have come out with a recommendation that Microsoft should submit its code for Open Source examination. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha….. Says Gartner: “To make future products more trustworthy, Microsoft will have to become more expert at developing code that can withstand external review.”

VNU.net was having trouble coming up with original stories, so they decided to re-write one of NewsForge’s. Read about how we “attacked” the Sustainable Computing Consortium.

– by Jack Bryar –
The market for traditional servers continues
to fall away. However the growth of the Linux server market is the one
(tiny) bright light in the market.  Will the good news from the Linux
community attract the VARs and Systems integrators it needs to take over
the marketplace? Or will the server market simply evaporate ?

The bad news for server vendors never stops. Gartner Dataquest recently
released news that the dollar volume generated by server sales continues
to decline, as it has for better than 18 months.  There are very few
bright spots in this picture, but one of them is coming from the Linux segment
of the market.  According to Gartner, Linux server sales rose by an
astounding  79% in  the first quarter of 2001. Given that the
overall market for servers fell by double digits, this is even more impressive.
Gartner reports that the dollar volume generated by Intel servers fell
by 17%.

According to Gartner, the growth in Linux servers was one of the reasons
that IBM managed to hold  and even grow its share of the server market..
In addition to an aggressive, Linux-oriented advertising program, the company
has courted the Linux community with programs such as DeveloperWorks,
and a variety of free tools and training programs.  Today IBM claims
an inventory of over 2,800 Linux based applications, available either through
the company or its partners.  Within the market for Open Systems servers,
IBM’s aggressive promotion and marketing has propelled it past Dell as
the premier Linux vendor. In the last year IBM’s share of the Linux market
rose from 15% to 34%. Meanwhile Dell’s share fell from 52% a year ago to
22% and falling.

While Linux’s growth and IBM’s numbers look impressive, Linux still
generates a relatively puny financial footprint. Gartner’s figures show
the Linux server market generating a little under $236 million in the first
quarter, or roughly 6% of the overall server market.

Computer Reseller News ran another survey recently hinting
that the number may be misleading. According to CRN, the fall-off in name
brand hardware hides a couple of important trends . One of these is the
explosive growth in customized no-name “white box” systems sold through
VARs and system integrators.

According
to CRN, VARs and SIs report that they are now selling four white boxes
for every branded system. Sixty-two percent of those polled  by CRN
reported that they built their own servers, compared to 51 percent last
year. While these white boxes still tend to be loaded with Microsoft products
rather than Linux, there is a substantial minority of developers who are
either using or evaluating Linux. The two major considerations are flexibility
and margin. SI’s who build their own can make as much as a 25% margin on
white box systems compared to branded boxes with Microsoft or other proprietary
software. However a
perceived lack of applications remains a major barrier to widespread
adoption by this community.

Would more aggressive promotion of Linux by hardware vendors
help turn the server market around?

There’s substantial reason for doubt. For one thing, small servers,
especially, have become a glut on the market. As Microsoft clients have
migrated from NT to Windows 2000, they have found they no longer need the
clutter of print servers and workgroup file servers required by the old
operating system. In order to subsidize the cost of conversion, many of
these machines are being cannibalized and converted to provide a patchwork
of minor functions  such as Intranet services. While a significant
percentage of these “internal white boxes” may run Linux,  this in-house
after-market continues to be a significant drag on the demand, especially 
for workgroup level and mid-range servers.

In addition, the market is unlikely to improve because the underlying
structure of the enterprise network is beginning to change.  Mass
storage of data is migrating to a variety of storage network appliances
capable of handling terabytes of data. Directory Services architecture
is becoming more and more sophisticated.

Peer-to-peer architectures and “Grid” schemes for sharing computing
cycles across  workgroups are beginning to go mainstream. All these
developments are eroding the demand for traditional client/server 
technology.  Over time, Linux could grow to dominate the server marketplace.
Unfortunately, it is not clear how big that market will be.

From Debian.org:
“Welcome to this year’s twenteeth issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. According to this list of excuses, which says “Gimme an
F, gimme an R, gimme an E, E, Z, E. What does it spell?”, it looks like Woody entered the next step. Not all of you will know this, but Bdale Garbee
is a ham, and as such he will deliver the keynote at Dayton Hamvention Activities.”

From VARBusiness:
“Almost three years ago, a large Japanese engineering firm came to Fly-By-Day Consulting, an Atlanta-based solution provider specializing in
Linux-based security solutions, looking for integration services for its e-mail server, which ran on the open-source OS. Bob Toxen, founder of
Fly-By-Day, configured the Linux server for the Japanese enterprise, and Toxen believed he had roped in a major Linux customer. However, more than two
years elapsed before the engineering firm followed up with Toxen, and he assumed that the customer had simply dropped Linux in favor of a more
mainstream operating environment.”

Eugenia writes “Developers have been waiting for this release for more than 2 years. This is the first ‘stable’, fully recommended for usage version of GCC that is based on the 3.x branch. Except being able to generate much faster code than its 2.9x predesessor, GCC 3.1 brings better C++ compliance, Pentium4 optimizations while even more platforms are now supported. The first Linux distribution to soon use GCC 3.1 by default (along side to ICC), is Gentoo Linux, while others will surely follow. I hope that the KDE folks will modify some of their sources to compile under GCC 3.1 so we can create highly optimized KDE packages, because currently they do not completely compile with the more compliant and stricter C++
rules of GCC 3.1.”

News.com talks about Microsoft on trial (apparently forever). The Judge (who uses Windows), “…quizzed lawyers in the landmark case about whether she should impose sanctions on Microsoft that cover products such as handheld computers and network servers, and whether she should order the company to make features of its Windows operating system removable.”

You are not alone. Everyone gets spam. Lots of spam. “A new survey lends further credence to the belief that e-mail marketing efforts are being blunted by record levels of spam and inbox oversaturation, according to research from Executive Summary Consulting, Inc. and Quris.” Like, we needed a survey to tell us this? Story at Internetnews.com.