At first glance, portions of this article might appear to be in rebuttal to a nicely written piece that appeared here several days ago, entitled Microsoft: Who Cares? This is not by design.

Configuring a TCP/IP SOHO network initially seems quite confusing. You will have to decide on an IP address to use for each computer, a Netmask, DNS servers, and a lot of other Internet nomenclature. But it is really not too difficult. The Internet infrastructure is logical and well documented. Once the concepts start falling into place, the pace at which you learn will accelerate exponentially.

It is an article of faith among Open Source software advocates that the freely available source code of Linux makes it easier to identify and patch bugs than Closed Source software and hence provide greater overall systems security.

IBM's pledge to increase support for Linux should boost corporate confidence in the open-source Unix variant, said analysts and users. IBM last week said it will substantially expand its use and marketing of the Linux operating system across its entire range of server hardware.

IT WAS SUGGESTED that I write my column this week about my pick for Product of the Year. It wasn't exactly my readers who suggested this, of course. My inbox isn't full of messages saying, "Please, tell us which of the many products you mentioned last year is the very, very best one."

In this interview, we asked Michael Tiemann about the implications of the Red Hat / Cygnus merger on the embedded Linux market, its effect on the Cygnus EL/IX Embedded Linux API initiative, and his general views on the growth of Linux in non-desktop embedded applications.

Vim is an almost 100% compatible version of the UNIX editor Vi. Many new features have been added: Multi level undo, syntax highlighting, command line history, filename completion, block operations, etc...

Being a RedHat/Mandrake sympathizer, when I noticed Mandrake 7 was available, I jumped right on it. Having a fast connection, I decided to try out an FTP install.

You’ve probably been using Linux for years as a workhorse system for file serving, Web serving, and other thankless tasks. When Linux first came into the shop, it was as a server only and little thought was given to needing a graphical user interface (GUI). Recently, the focus on Linux has been as a workstation or desktop operating system.

Soothsayers of Linux doom raise the specter of fragmentation and predict that Linux will suffer the same fate that's held back the commercial UNIX flavors. arnim rupp suggests that not only will Linux hold together, but may also be the means to reunite the UNIX factions.