– by Dan Berkes –

Corporations are out to rule the world — or at least the part that matters to them. Yes, that even includes companies bound together for the purpose of bringing Linux and Open Source programs to the world. Like more traditional business concerns, these companies want you to remember them as the touchy-feely, caring corporation: Welcome to the world of corporate philanthropy.
Opinions on the faults or merits corporate gift giving are as individual as the people offering them.

“Companies give away money to make us feel better about doing business with them,” offers Tom Lemos, an independent contractor from Illinois. “Hardly anyone would admit it, but I think subconsciously they would rather do business with a company that makes them feel good as consumers.”

Diane Coleman, a retired network administrator living in Arizona sums up what could very well be the reason behind Open Source philanthropy: “It would behoove the corporations to give back to the community, because this is the community that gives them their business.”

Coleman’s statement applies just a little more when companies with Open Source business plans are discussed. Some of these companies are building fortunes — or at least they hope to build their fortunes — on software and services that often rely on the contributions made by volunteer developers. This makes keeping within the good graces of the community a vital part of the business plan.

Several Open Source companies can argue that they give back to the community by hiring the community. What better way to fund existing Open Source projects thant to bring them in-house, provide many coders with their first official job and a generous benefits package? Nothing garners good press and goodwill than proving this, something of an ultimate acknowledgement of a job well done.

Last week, Utah-based Linux2Order launched a different approach, something could be one of the most generous corporate giving programs in recent history. Twenty percent of the revenues from Linux CD-ROMs ordered through a special site will be donated to the KDE Project.

The fruits of the KDE Project are freely available to anyone who doesn’t mind spending a little time downloading them. They’re also available on an assortment of commercially available CD-ROMs; some charge merely for the material used to create the disc, other commercial efforts charge considerably more. In all of these cases, the KDE team receives no compensation for their efforts — until now.

Linux2Order considers its donation to be an investment in the Linux and Open Source communities. Call it self-preservation, if you will: If Linux and/or KDE don’t succeed, it affects Linux2Order’s bottom line. It’s charity that helps everyone involved.

Corporate giving as a business model was the sole province (at least in the United States) of organizations like United Way. Now the Open Source community has its very own oh-so-modern way to give directly to the companies that affect their lives the most: LinuxFund.

LinuxFund is a charity that offers credit cards giving a little something back to the community. With every purchase made via a LinuxFund credit card, a small percentage of that sale will benefit a Linux or Open Source development project. LinuxFund’s aim is to spread the money around — grants are capped at $1,000, but the organization also donates hardware and other physical assets that developers need.

To date, the LinuxFund has offered grants to programs from the Caudium Project, a multi-threaded Web server written in Pike and C, and a professional-grade digital video editing program for Linux by the name of Broadcast 2000.
This type of support is crucial for some projects.

While $1,000 or 20 percent of a $4.95 CD-ROM might seem like a small amount to those used to dealing with corporate budgets, extra cash for a small project hashed out in someone’s bedroom could mean the difference between success and failure.

“Think of how many titles, decent titles, that never got past first release. They’re all over the Internet,” said Coleman. “And think how different our world would be if just a few bucks had kept them going.”

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

CNet reports that Internet use over cell phones varies wildly from country to country, but that it’s generally not used due to connection speed problems as well as because cell phones generally lack keyboards.

ZDNet reports that the digital divide is shrinking, but there is still some ways to go, according to a US Government report released on Thursday. The split is becoming pronounced in the speed of users’ connections, though.

MSNBC reports that US Robotics has ratified the V9.2 modem standard, which should improve dial-up connectivity speeds.

PC World reports that tens of thousands of laptops running Windows lost the use of their modems at the stroke of midnight February 21st, as a result of a time glitch in the operating system. The fix, for now, is setting the computers dates back to before Ferbuary 21st, so users can get the patches available on line.

TechWeb reports on Opera’s fight to grow in the browser market. Opera is now offering a free browser paid for by advertising, while its non-free version has to be purchased for $39.

ZDNet reports on what it calls the most significant announcement to come out of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote address at MacWorld Expo in Tokyo: Apple computer’s G4 will soon come with the GeForge 3 video chip.

Sensei writes
“Fly swapping or as it should be called, Swap on-the-Fly allows the addition of swap space as and when needed. This is very handy if you have just ran out of Memory while trying to do a big compile or, more often, you mis-configured your swap at installation and ran out of memory before even X starts.

Though this process is by no means a solution to the problem (there are speed implications) it is non the less a nice quick fix, and I have used this method on many Unix variants.”

Check it out at linuxnewbie.org“

O’Reilly reports that first ever peer-to-peer conference unites 1,026 programmers. Over 1,000 programmers, developers, and investors gathered at the first ever conference on Peer-to-Peer technology–the O’Reilly Peer-to-Peer Conference (February 14-16, 2001, Westin St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco). Deemed a success by attendees and press alike, 22 countries were represented, as well as hundreds of companies worldwide.
O’REILLY RESEARCH ANNOUNCES THE 2001 PEER-TO-PEER INDUSTRY OVERVIEW, a comprehensive report on peer-to-peer from both business and technical perspectives. The report, available in Spring 2001, describes the state of this nascent industry and predicts where it’s going to go next–with hard data to back it up. The report contains:

– Company profiles
– In-depth explanations of underlying technologies
– P2P services: present and future
– Analysis of the hype: what’s the real P2P story
– Estimates of mindshare and community size
– Our forecasts for the field

Until March 31, 2001, the report is available at the introductory price of $895; after that date the cost is $1295. See research.oreilly.com for more information.

P2P GOES EAST: From September 17-20, 2001, O’Reilly hosts an East Coast version of its Peer-to-Peer Conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. The P2P East Call-for-Papers is open at http://conferences.oreilly.com/p2p/call_fall.html until March 19, 2001.

FOR A REVIEW COPY OF “PEER-TO-PEER: HARNESSING THE POWER OF DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES,” (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/peertopeer/), contact Marsee Henon at marsee@oreilly.com. All registered reporters who attended the P2P conference will automatically receive a copy in the next few weeks.

VISIT www.openp2p.com, for all topics Peer-to-Peer–the definitive source for P2P content.

P2P AUDIO TAPES AVAILABLE. Twenty-three session of the O’Reilly Peer-to-Peer Conference, February 14-16, 2001, were chronicled via audio. To purchase P2P audio tapes, contact Ron Vierra at 510.859.2639 or conaudio2@aol.com.

DR. DOBB’S TECHNETCAST WEBCASTS THE O’REILLY P2P CONFERENCE. The coverage features exclusive O’Reilly P2P keynote sessions and interviews with leaders of the P2P community. See for yourself–go to:

http://www.technetcast.com/tnc_catalog.html?item_id=1167.

Download P2P Conference session slides at

http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/p2p/sessions.html

P2P AND ENTERPRISE JAVA? Java is crucial to tomorrow’s most important technologies, notably the collaborative and distributed computing technologies that are changing the way we define networks. Whether you’re developing large-scale Enterprise Java applications or wondering how to incorporate wireless and peer-to-peer networking into current applications, the Second Annual O’Reilly Conference on Enterprise Java will provide the focused training and perspective needed to stay in the forefront of Java technology. For a detailed list of speakers, go to:

http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/java2001/pub/w/90.

To register for a press pass to O’Reilly’s Enterprise Java Conference, Westin Hotel, Santa Clara, CA. March 26-29, 2001, go to:

http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/java2001/register?x-t=java2001.press.

PUT IT ON YOUR PERSONAL RADAR: Watch for the release of Brian McConnell’s book, “Beyond Contact: A Guide to SETI and Communicating with Alien Civilizations.” To make contact with a free review copy when it lands in April, email Marsee Henon at marsee@oreilly.com.

IMPORTANT URLS: Use the following addresses for all of your “press”-ing details:

Session slides:

http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/p2p/sessions.html.

P2P Conference Photos:
http://www.openp2p.com/conference

Dr. Dobb’s WebCast:
http://www.technetcast.com/tnc_catalog.html?item_id=1167

Announcements:

http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/p2p/announce.html

Web Logs by the Editors:
http://www.openp2p.com/conference

P2P Background Material:
http://www.openp2p.com/conference

Vendor Press Release Summaries:
http://www.openp2p.com/conference

P2P LYRICS–courtesy of JoeydeVilla-joey@opencola.com

Director of Developer Relations and Accordion Guy:

Sing aloud to the tune of “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”:

I’d like to teach the world to crunch
Data with P2P
Trade MP3s and cure disease
And go search for E.T.s

To the tune of “Fight for Your Right to Party”:

You went out and bought a CD by GWAR
You want to make a copy for your car
Look out, here comes the RIAA
You want an MP3, but they say “no way!”

You gotta fight
For your right
To faaaaair use!

ABOUT O’REILLY & ASSOCIATES
O’Reilly & Associates is the premier information source for leading-edge computer technologies. We communicate the knowledge of experts through our books, conferences, and web sites. Our books, known for their animals on the covers, occupy a treasured place on the shelves of the developers building the next generation of software. Our conferences and summits bring innovators together to shape the revolutionary ideas that spark new industries. From the Internet to the web, Linux, Open Source, and now peer-to-peer networking, we put technologies on the map. www.oreilly.com.

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“Want to know how fast yor hard drive writes, rewrites, reads, and re-reads? Iozone is a tool that Linux users can run to perform benchmarks of your HDD’s performance.” Read the review at LinuxPlanet.