To help speed the development of Linux on enterprise-class hardware, several major technology vendors and Linux companies have created the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL).

Linux is popular as a platform for Web and e-mail servers, but it has yet to find success in corporate data and applications or on the desktop. Those markets belong to Unix and Windows respectively. Many software developers, such as Red Hat, Caldera and Corel, have hitched their wagons to the Linux star in the hope that they can crack those markets.

Mr. Cowpland, who remains a director at Corel, said that he and others are on the verge of opening an incubator facility in Hull, Que., for local Linux startups. The incubator, which would provide infrastructure and guidance for smaller firms.

The Linux startups that Corel invested in under Michael Cowpland, former CEO, have seen their financing cut and the turnover in employees at the software maker

has left them with no communication with the Ottawa-based company.

Behind every hype, there's a product. We've been hearing about Red Hat Linux 7 for quite some time now, but even Red Hat has kept quiet about its details. Finally, Red Hat 7 is here.

Linux offers true multitasking and actual multi-user capabilities with the ability to switch from one user login to the next with just a keystroke. It has better virtual memory handling. It mounts several different types of partitions and multiple daemons like mail, ftp, www servers.

The deal brings Toshiba's DNCware ClusterPerfect clustering software and IBM's NetFinity server hardware, a combination that both companies will bring to the Japanese server market. The product will be offered as a Linux-based redundant fault-tolerant server and disk array system.

Sun is considering replacing Linux on Cobalt Networks server appliances with its own Solaris. Sun has announced that it intends to acquire Cobalt, which is the

leading maker of server appliances.

In the interests of full disclosure, I must reveal that I participated in the "Name-the-SuSE-lizard" contest last February at the Manhattan LinuxWorld. My entry of "Get the Hell Away From Me You Big Green Thing!" did not win for some reason, and I freely admit I hold no bitterness towards SuSE for picking the name "Geeko" instead. Really.

The 486 makes a perfect firewall/router/IP-masquerading machine. The Linux Router Project (LRP) has created a GNU/Linux distribution that runs from a single floppy.