The chief policy statement of the free-software movement, the GNU General Public License, is finally getting some traction among commercial vendors outside Linux companies.

Linux seems to be on a crash-course with the emerging market for wireless devices, a convergence that Linux advocates think could dramatically improve the process of developing software to run on handheld computers and wireless devices.

All of the major Unix vendors have flirted and batted their eyelids at Linux. They've supported Linux ports to their proprietary hardware, and they've open sourced valuable intellectual properties, but the two worlds were still essentially separate.

Bob Shimp, senior director of Internet platform marketing at Oracle, affirmed Oracle's long-term commitment to the Linux platform.

The dot-org pavilion was an oasis of community outside the corporate din at the recently concluded LinuxWorld Expo.

OpenSales Inc. announced that its software is now bundled with the packaged Linux-Mandrake 7.1. The agreement provides for worldwide distribution of the popular Linux distribution and open source e-commerce applications.

Question marks were raised over the future of Hewlett Packard's Unix variant last week when it announced it was positioning Linux as its third strategic platform alongside HP/UX and Microsoft's Windows 2000.

VA Linux showed impressive fourth-quarter earnings. While it appears to have some momentum and has carved out a nice little niche for itself, investors shouldn't expect a miraculous recovery anytime soon.

A very strong showing in the latest quarter by VA Linux Systems, a hardware manufacturer that focuses on Linux-only servers and systems, proves that the open-source market has legs.

The stock prices of three pure-play Linux companies have received big boosts in August, after a solid second-quarter report and bullish announcements for the open-source industry.