For the last six years, John "Maddog" Hall has been one of the strongest and most effective North American supporters of the Linux open-source operating system. "Maddog" also has more than 17 years experience with the Unix community, a personal history that seems to have primed him with the determination to see an open-source operating system done right.

There has been a lot written about the possible fragmentation of Linux over the past year. Many Penguinistas (AKA: Linux enthusiasts) label these articles as FUD. (Communication intentionally created for the sole purpose of creating FEAR, UNCERTAINTY, and DOUBT about products that might otherwise have a fair chance at competing.) What I would like to do is point out examples of operating system fragmentation that are quite common but do not appear to disturb the mainstream IT press much. They have a different label for it, they call it "DLL Hell.

How Berkeley hackers built the Net's most fabled free operating system on the ashes of the '60s -- and then lost the lead to Linux.

Computer maker VA Linux Systems today reported quarterly revenues of $34.6 million and a net loss 10 cents better than expected.

Red Hat, Inc., the market leader in open source Internet infrastructure solutions, announced today a new per-server support program that provides scalable, 24x7 annual services for desktops and servers.

LynuxWorks, Inc., formerly Lynx Real-Time Systems, today announced that it has joined the Intel Applied Computing Platform Provider program and will work with program members to integrate the LynuxWorks product family into the Intel applied computing platform.

Red Hat Inc. is working with online teaching company DigitalThink Inc. to put its Linux training curriculum online.

The godfather of Linus' children and the glue that holds the Linux community together talks about his life and involvement in the programming community.

Linux will soon benefit from programs built using classic Windows-style rapid application development tools, making the rebel operating system more viable on corporate desktops. Officials at Inprise say Delphi for Linux is on track to ship midyear, while C++ Builder for Linux will be available before the end of the year.

He's been called "intransigent" and an "arch-ideologue", even by his friends, but when it comes to clarity of vision, few hackers can compete with GNU Project founder Richard Stallman.