No, this is not another of those "Apple should base OS/X on Linux" articles. This is about cross-platform APIs. This is about paradigm shifts and knowing when to go with the flow.

A company known by few outside the Linux community is planning to spin off a division that will try to take on Microsoft and Sun Microsystems.

Linux may be red-hot as a server operating system, but it's also creating some heat in the embedded operating system market. Developers have been putting Linux on small devices and cramming the operating system into a space the size of a SIMM for some time, but embedded versions of the operating system are on the verge of coming to mainstream devices, such as slimmed-down Internet clients, handheld devices and network appliances.

Sun's StarWriter is part of the StarOffice package. Longtime Linux users are familiar with StarOffice, which, like WordPerfect, inspired a HOWTO on making it work under Linux long before Linux was the market force it is today.

I first looked at Red Hat 6.2 when it was offered to the public in beta several weeks ago. I did not install it but I did manage to look through the packages and see what was there.

Internet Security Systems Inc. (ISS) says it has identified a backdoor password in the Red

Hat Linux Piranha product that could allow an attacker to compromise a Web server and

deface and destroy a Web site.

Customers of IBM's Netfinity servers will now be able to buy machines preloaded with the Linux operating system and will be able to choose from three flavors of the ever-popular open-source software.

Linux distributors are moving beyond simply repackaging the operating system by adding management tools and applications.

The Penguin, like most Linux (and Unix for that matter) hardware comes with rather skimpy documentation. Better is available online, but it will all take study. You don't just buy one of these and turn it on. Setting up a Windows NT server network is simpler. On the other hand, the Penguin with Linux is extremely reliable. Once you get things going, they won't need a lot of attention.

Dell has released its first top-shelf laptop certified for Linux. Model CPxH500GT, part of the Latitude series of business laptops, runs Red Hat. When a top vendor starts including Linux laptops in one of its premier product lineups, it is a big step; Dell has also been fairly forward about bringing Linux to its full line of hardware.