While not a Linux-specific show, CEBIT is one of the best events to announce new products. Also, with Linux on the fringe and going for the mainstream, it is an excellent opportunity for Linux vendors to get an audience with the rest of the computing crowd. Which provides an excellent opportunity for me to see what the Linux community is doing to pitch to that crowd.

The Santa Cruz Operation Inc.'s (SCO) UnixWare 7 is the operating system squeezed in the middle between Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 2000 and Linux on the low end of the server market, and by Sun Microsystems Inc., IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co. on the high end.

Linux users will soon find another big friend: Novell Inc. After nearly two years of talk, the Provo, Utah, company plans to pull the trigger on a broad Linux strategy at its BrainShare user conference in Salt Lake City next month.

Swedish wireless telecommunications equipment provider Ericsson will use Norwegian Opera Software's Linux-compatible browser in the Ericsson Cordless Screen Phone HS210, which offers both cordless telephony and Internet access. The Linux operating system has been making inroads in the market for nontraditional computing and Web-browsing devices.

VA Linux Systems saw revenue grow to $20.2 million during its first quarter as a public company, but the computer maker reported a net loss of $11.6 million.

Worldwide open-source association Linux International is about to go national, according to its executive director and most colourful representative, John "Maddog" Hall. Linux International, which coordinates the activities of open source programmers and Linux companies of all sides around the globe, will be split off into a number of national bodies.

Matthew Vernon is a Debian developer and a candidate for the Debian Project Leader position. He maintains trn, word2x, electric-fence, and other packages.

On Thursday at CeBIT, the Symbian consortium dismissed as hype Transmeta's claim that MobileLinux would establish itself as the dominant platform for the mobile Internet.

Although Linux already has a pair of evolving GUIs -- KDE and Gnome -- neither is anywhere near as easy to set up and use as the Mac OS or Windows. Indeed, users must occasionally resort to typing commands into a command-line interface.

A comprehensive survey of over 2200 IT, education, and government decision makers reveals that Microsoft Windows 2000 will not only fend off the Linux/Open Unix threat, but will, in fact, have no real competition for the next few years at least. The survey indicates that Linux will experience massive percentage gains in marketshare over the next two years but that Windows will maintain or increase its lead regardless.