Despite the popularity of open-source software, chances are you don't know how widely this software has penetrated your company—and you likely aren't aware of the substantial risks involved.

The Linux albatross just wouldn't sell. And the Linux platypus, well, who'd buy anything from him? Ah, but the Linux penguin, there's a bird that could really drive an industry.

Having a 64 bit machine sitting around collecting dust is not my idea of a good time, so I decided (since the semester is over :) to have another go at installing again, and also to see what improvements were made in distributions since some new releases have come out. Specifically, I have installed (or tried to) the following 64bit versions: Gentoo LiveCD beta, Mandrake RC1, Suse 8.2 beta2, Suse 9.0 and Red Hat Taroon.

The impending release of a new stable kernel promises greater adoption for Linux, as it becomes more reliable and scalable over a larger variety of processors. Here we'll highlight some of the changes, both big and small, with some code samples.

Linux 2.6 introduces many new features that make it an excellent operating system for embedded computing. Among these new features are enhanced real-time performance, easier porting to new computers, support for large memory models, support for microcontrollers, and an improved I/O system.

Since jettisoning all of Microsoft products three years ago, Ernie Ball has also gained notoriety as a company that dumped most of its proprietary software--and still lived to tell the tale.

The purpose of this document is to provide some helpful tips to readers that currently compile their own 2.4 kernels, but haven't yet made the leap to 2.6.

The Opie project has reached its 1.0 milestone, offering a standardized Linux-based platform for a variety of handheld devices.

Linux, once viewed as an operating system that only computer geeks could appreciate, is today a much more user-friendly software that companies, public administrations and consumers can master almost as easily as Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP.

Can Linux cut it on the desktop? That was the question Linux Magazine asked its readers three years ago, promoting an interview with Corel Software CEO Michael Cowpland. At the time, Corel wasn't alone in making a play for the desktop PC. Other companies, for example Eazel and games maker Loki Software, built their businesses around what they saw as a promising Linux desktop market. But all of them were wrong.