The Bang!inux conference held in Banglore from the 25th to 27th of February 2000 was a new and enriching experience for most of the GNU/Linux enthusiasts in India. To see, meet and listen to the people making history and fighting the evil powers was a great blessing in itself. Thanx to Wrox and other sponsors of Bang!linux.

By hitching their considerable resumés to the Linux bandwagon, several members of the original Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Macintosh development team are hoping to storm the stage one more time with a plan that calls for development of a user-friendly interface for Linux, as well as online services to help Linux users.

One of the many buzzwords surrounding Linux, as its adoption into the small server arena becomes quickly dominant, is the question of how well it "scales" -- that is, the question of how well it can handle multiple thousands of users as opposed to multiple scores, or several hundred.

Mark Stone joined VA Linux Systems in December 1999 to head VA's Media Group. Prior to that he was the executive editor for O'Reilly's & Associates' Open Source Group, where he developed and contributed to Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution.

Real-time systems developer, TimeSys Corporation, has released a version of Linux that can support applications working in real-time. TimeSys claims to have altered the basic kernel, or core of the OS, to provide reliable real-time performance.

Axis has developed a Bluetooth driver for Linux that can be used both in our eLinux environment as well as on an ordinary Linux PC. The code is developed for a Linux 2.0.33 kernel, but should not prove difficult to fit in the latest kernels.

KENTON CHOW has served as Vice President and Chief Financial Office

since April 1998 and as Secretary since September 1999.

MandrakeSoft, the publisher of the user-friendly and award-winning Linux-Mandrake operating system, today announced the immediate availability of the latest version of its award-winning solution, Linux-Mandrake 7.0. Version 7.0 offers major new additions and enhancements that makes Linux distribution easier to use.

Providing dependable software for the hundreds or thousands of computers connected to a typical campus network can be a daunting and expensive task. Some institutions are finding relief by customizing their own versions of Linux, the free computer operating system.

It always seemed like there was something strange about it: SCO sponsoring and talking at a Linux conference. Was this the same SCO which last year said, "Linux poses so many risks, which could jeopardize the future of a company, that SCO perceives no direct competition in this area"? Yes, it certainly seemed to be.