When my copy of SuSE Linux 8.0 arrived, I felt almost like I was coming home after a long trip. SuSE had been my primary Linux distribution for over two years, until last November, so it was exciting to see what they had been up to. SuSE 8.0 seems as good a way as any to come back to SuSE, after all it was the first distribution to ship with KDE 3, and it comes with a truckload of improvements over previous versions.
NewsForge has a short piece on the launch of the Itanium 2 platform. “Hewlett-Packard and Intel will announce with great fanfare the pending release of the Itanium 2 platform today, and you'll probably be able to read several stories with the two companies saying their new 64-bit architecture is going to breath new life into the Itanium line and kick the competition's butt. HP is also touting the Itanium 2 as a perfect match for Linux.”
MandrakeSoft has released a statement detailing the reasons why Mandrake will not join United Linux. The two key reasons for the decision repeated through out the document consisted of UnitedLinux's non-Free nature and lack of any advantages for MandrakeSoft.
PCWorld.com looks at a beta version of an upcoming Lycoris Desktop/LX release. “Looking for an inexpensive, simple-to-use alternative to the Windows operating system? Linux may leap to mind, but since Corel abandoned its effort, no vendor has concentrated strictly on making Linux friendly enough for newbies. Now, the $30 Desktop/LX distribution from upstart Lycoris demonstrates that Microsoft's monopoly on friendly operating systems for the PC could be coming to a close.”
A group of leading independent websites are planning to launch a new Linux cooperative website in conjunction with “wIndependence Day 2002.” The unveiling of the new web site is scheduled to take place early next week.
The Gnome Foundation announced the final release of the much touted, much delayed GNOME 2 desktop environment today. As the desktop of choice for RedHat Linux and Debian GNU/Linux, as well as Solaris and HP/UX, the significance of this release is only rivaled by KDE3's release in April.
OEone, the developer of the internet appliance-like HomeBase Linux distribution, announced that HomeBase 1.5 has been released. The new release adds a number of nice features on to the system we reviewed back in March.
NewsForge is reporting that Wal-Mart.com will start offering Mandrake Linux on its Microtel PC's in addition to LindowsOS. “Keep your eye on Walmart.com for new Microtel systems bearing the Mandrake logo. The systems will sell alongside the newly announced Lindows-based PCs, say sources. And continue to look for more online retail envelope-pushing from Wal-Mart's online wing, of all places.”
In an article from yesterday, InfoWorld is reporting that Sun will start shipping a server with its new Sun Linux in August. “The Sun server, to be officially named Cobalt LX50, is the company's first general-purpose server to run Sun Linux and could be attractive to customers looking for a system to handle tasks such as e-mail, file and media serving. The new server will use two 1.4GHz Pentium III processors from Intel and two 72G-byte hard drives, the sources said.”