An open source database called MySQL is quickly emerging as a cheap, yet highly functional, alternative to proprietary databases offered by major vendors such as Oracle and Informix. Yet, many in the IT world are still unaware of exactly what MySQL is and how it compares to other existing database technologies. D. Britt Johnston, CTO of NuSphere, a Massachusetts company that sells its own MySQL version, helps shed some light on the technology in this interview.

"And that's the price for Open Source and Free Software -- isn't there one in every human endeavor? In this culture, it's payment due in reputation enhancement. "I sweated to bring this to the world," we say. "If you use it, please say thanks publicly." It's the polite thing to do."

Another high-ranking Microsoft veteran has quit, in a move some are interpreting as an indication that Microsoft is unhappy with how Windows 2000 has been marketed.

Another high-ranking Microsoft veteran has quit, in a move some are interpreting as an indication that Microsoft is unhappy with how Windows 2000 has been marketed.

Currently vice president of engineering at Metapa, an infrastructure service provider with an office in Los Angeles, Wook has deployed a number of Open Source programs, not least among them, Linux, MySQL and gcc. Previously, as director of (digital) engineering for effects house Digital Domain, he helped bring Linux to prominence by choosing it as a tool in manufacturing the spectacular effects in such big-screen blockbusters as James Cameron's epic, Titanic.

Writing a thousand line code is better than having to debug it. The mistakes can vary from a missing ";" error to major errors of logic. At the end of the day, code that refuses to run is merely a temp file waiting to be deleted!

Given below are the most often used gcc options. Though a lot more exist, these are the most commonly used ones (26 to be specific) and can make debugging easier.

For more information refer to the man pages type "man gcc" at the command line. GCC offers a host of options, some even for the AMD-K62 processor.

If I have freedom in my love,

And in my soul I am free,

Angels alone that soar above,

Enjoy such liberty.

-- Lovelace.

The Open Source model of software development has churned out some truly

remarkable pieces of software. There are no dearth of examples of

excellent pieces of Open Source software, right from Apache, which is one

of the most widely used web servers, to Sendmail, which is responsible for

transporting billions of email messages around the world, every day. These

"Someone at DSF Internet took a shortcut to developing their own interoperable instant messenger client, and ported the Everybuddy code instead of starting from scratch. This isn't a bad thing - it's the whole purpose of open source, duh - but since the code was licensed under the GPL, a price was demanded in return: the Windows source code should be made available. It wasn't, of course."

"Someone at DSF Internet took a shortcut to developing their own interoperable instant messenger client, and ported the Everybuddy code instead of starting from scratch. This isn't a bad thing - it's the whole purpose of open source, duh - but since the code was licensed under the GPL, a price was demanded in return: the Windows source code should be made available. It wasn't, of course."

"On a crude count of Linux Apache sites found by Netcraft where the Apache signature has been branded by the Linux distribution company, Red Hat currently has 69%. SUSE and Debian are the closest challengers with 9% and 8% respectively on a worldwide basis, though SUSE is the leading distribution in German speaking countries."