Red Hat announced a new version of the Linux operating system software today: Red Hat Desktop, which has been designed for corporate use and will be a companion product to the company's current desktop offering, Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS

Novell has launched a test release of an open-source project that recreates Microsoft's .Net programming framework on Linux and Unix.

Global File System (GFS) is a cluster file-system for operating system distributions based on the Linux kernel. It is used as a shared file-system commonly on share-accessible block storage such as fibre-channel, shared SCSI, iSCSI and FireWire (IEEE 1394) devices.

DaimlerChrysler has asked a judge to dismiss the SCO Group's lawsuit against the company, one of several high-profile cases that have entangled Linux in SCO's intellectual-property claims over Unix.

Red Hat's newest version of Linux has been granted a significant security certification, bringing the company a step closer to competitors.

A Linux thin-client workstations, terminal-server combination is giving enterprises something to consider on the desktop.

Linux essentials:

It’s free for download but you have to pay a tiny bit to mail order it or buy it from a company. If you’re getting Linux for more than 2-3 PCs, you can also get training and support at a small free, if you choose to have it. Else it’s the Linux community on the Net to your rescue.

If you want to get comfortable with Linux, you don’t have to let go of windows. Get Linux installed on a seprate partition and you can switch between Windows and Linux. There are some Linux versions that run off CDs too-xandross and Knoppix.

As Microsoft focuses on merging its Web browser and operating system software, open-source competitors are mulling a proposal to join forces and beat the software giant to the punch.

How will the future operating systems look like? How the user interface, the inner workings, the security policies and the networking will interact? In any case, innovation is the key.

The creator of the Linux operating system, Linus

Torvalds, has weighed in on the issue of backporting

features from newer Linux kernels into older ones,

calling the practice a good thing for the most part.