Linux experts look at the Linux database market and conclude that open source databases will be ready for prime time soon but it may be a while before corporate America accepts the technology.

Lineo Inc. is buying a company that specializes in embedded system development products aimed at helping developers create programs for incorporation into larger systems. The deal gives Lineo access to the RTXC real-time operating system, which will allow Lineo to enter the 8 and 16 microprocessor field.

"Most awkward moment for a kernel creator: During the Golden Penguin Bowl, a quiz-show event, it fell to Linus Torvalds to define "BogoMips," a term he himself invented. When the judges ruled his answer insufficiently specific, the look on his face was absolutely priceless."

How can the Ramen worm be stopped? The same way any other worm is stopped: starve it. Administrators of all Linux and other Unix-based systems must take the time to secure all servers in their care.

Mandrake is making all its training and support modules open source. "People can take them and use them at will for free. They can add to them and can even take the courses and then take the exams online," said Barry Cochrane, EMEA sales director.

"While certain parts of the community will never let a bad word about Linux go unchallenged, most folks have come to realize that while the new "recognition" by Microsoft is bound to turn up some legitimate flaws, it also establishes Linux and open source as the alternative."

"I don't think it is too fanciful to point out that from a user point of view, the progression from KDE 2.0 to 2.1 is at least on a par with the move from, say, Windows 95 to Windows 98 AND Office 95 to Office 2000. At the current pace of development, KDE will be able to offer a computing experience far superior to that offered by Microsoft by around the third quarter of this year."

Corel's recently announced spin-off of its Linux distribution is the "best thing for Linux", according to Rene Schmidt, Executive VP for Corel's Linux Product Group. "Corel believes that a spin-off will provide better focus for our resources and this focus will better position our Linux offerings as key components of an end-to-end solution."

"Many of the old limits which prevented Linux adoption in the "enterprise" market have been lifted. Performance problems highlighted by the infamous Mindcraft Benchmark have been removed. More file systems and partitions types are supported, even NFS has been moderately improved. SMB support has continued to rock with the help of the SAMBA team."

When talking to "typical Linux users," Miller [A Microsoft .Net program manager] said, he constantly hears that they're not interested in paying for software, which means it isn't likely that Microsoft will be developing any Linux-ported software of its own anytime soon.