NEC decided to join the IA-64 Linux Project led by Intel, making it the first Japanese server maker to do so. NEC's decision expresses its post-Windows strategy more distinctively than most Japanese server vendors, who have been sensitive to reaction of Microsoft.

Caldera's acquisition of SCO's Unix business would appear to mark the latest stage in the ongoing consolidation of the Unix industry and is likely to bring about one of the most radical shake-ups in the sector to date.

The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, Japan recently introduced a clustered parallel supercomputer based on the Linux operating system. The introduced system uses the platform of Compaq Alpha Beowulf cluster.

The new version will be previewed along with a demonstration of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite for Linux at the three-day LinuxWorld convention in San Jose.

IBM plans to release open-source code for a Linux edition of its emerging Sash Weblications development environment from the www.gnome.org Web site, plus Weblication plug-ins that will include a Lotus Notes client.

Computer Associates joined IBM in its effort to expand the use of Linux on host

systems and announced that it has ported a suite of Internet-based business management software to Linux on the S/390.

Independent Unix is effectively becoming Linux, and over time, Linux will acquire the high-end features of Unix.

It's probably, in a certain sense, our primary competitor. But if you look at

the value in an operating system, Linux just competes with one piece [of Microsoft's Windows business]. There's no new features in Linux. Linux is just 1960s-era Unix deployed in a very interesting development model.

The crown jewels of the acquisition are a mature server Unix, and clustering technologies. The Linux environment in which Caldera operates expects these to be returned as open source, and frowns on the laggardly time-release ploy used by TurboLinux.

Those in the Linux camp for any length of time know that in most cases, Linux outperforms SCO UNIX. Allowing the customer to choose without having to change vendors or support organizations should help Linux penetrate new markets quickly.