Despite a vicious downturn in the stock market value of top Linux companies, the four top Unix vendors IBM, HP, Compaq, and Sun Microsystems finally said "I do" to Linux in 2000.

The staff at the Linux Hardware Database have put together the ultimate guide to finding the perfect Linux laptop.

Despite a slumping stock price, Red Hat CEO and president Matthew Szulik expects partners to get squarely behind the Linux software company, so much, in fact, that they will tip the balance of software sales generated by the Research Triangle Park, N.C., company to third parties.

"With the recent layoffs and stock devaluation of various Linux distributors, the Big Blue nod acts as a vital impetus to boost momentum in the open-source development community. At the very least, IBM's move serves to indicate that old masters of the proprietary game, such as Sun and Microsoft, must certainly take heed."

"Fortune smiles on the gadget freak who runs Linux and is willing to spend a little time on the web looking for answers to questions, like: How to make the Visor work with my Linux machine without resorting to a serial cable? This eyemodule's neat, how do I get the pictures out of it? How do I get a functioning word processor on my Visor?"

"So the question is if Linux can hope to compete head on with Windows and Macintosh with our diverse desktop GUI, or will the average user reject us as too complex and inconsistent?"

"The software industry has been unable to keep up with the huge influx of Windows users turning to Linux who need access to Windows applications. The result is

applications that either emulate or run Windows concurrently with Linux to allow access to Windows applications."

We all know Linux is great ... it does infinite loops in 5 seconds.

-- attributed to Linus Torvalds

I'm sure that anyone even remotely interested in computers must have heard

of Linux by now. Some have wondered what it is, others have tried

installing it. Yet others play with it now and then. Some people bless it

and some curse it. Some are scared of the apparent need to learn arcane

commands. Others would rather type `find / -name mailto.pl -print' than

search through a GUI file browser.

But there are many who wonder -- Just what is Linux? Linus Torvalds, the

This article is the second in a series that explores the history, status, alternative architectures, and future developments of Linux on PDAs and handheld devices.

"Installing Linux on an old laptop is far from simple, as the following attests, but it is possible. It just takes a lot of work. Available documentation online is less than stellar."