What if you have two or more Linux machines on a network and want to access the disk directories of one Linux machine from the other? The solution for this is NFS, short for Network File System.

Linux has been criticized for not being able to tap into the potential power of large servers, but programmers have begun taking early steps to push it onto these high-end machines. The next version of the core of Linux, the 2.4 kernel, is up and running on Sun Microsystems' top-end E10000 server with 24 processors.

The lack of a journaling filesystem has kept Linux from being an option for administrators of busy e-commerce sites. But that will soon change, as IBM's JFS and others fill the void.

With Turbolinux's EnFuzion, it's no longer computing for the masses but supercomputing by the masses.

When Oracle9i on Linux is released, business apps built on it will be able to run on Linux "supercomputer" clusters, and a large part of the gap between Linux and the high-end proprietary Unices will be closed.

"With the announcement this week of Corel and Microsoft completing a $135 million dollar deal, it brings into question the seriousness of the commitment Corel has to Linux. This monster deal entitles Microsoft to a very large stake in Corel, 24 million non-voting shares (a whopping 24 percent of the shares), which to some may border on conspiratorial."

Linux means business is a collection of articles that focus on the way

businesses can make use of the Linux operating system. For many users the

attractiveness of Linux software stems from its price. However for business

users the price of the software license is only one factor. In a business

environment the total cost of the software is assessed.

Cron comes in handy when you want to schedule a specific task to be run when ever you please, on the minute, hourly, daily, monthly and gives you a sense of relief knowing tasks are being executed without you having to baby-sit your system.

When you are installing / for the first time, the setup program copies stuff from CD/floppy/hard disk to the intended / partition. When you are moving /, you have to do the copying yourself.

The debate is endless. Proponents of open source software and proprietary

( closed source ) software are fighting it out on mailing lists, Usenet,

personal flames, advertisements, and Websites. The question -- which gives

better security as a generic model of software development, open source or

closed source software?