Oracle Corp. announced the pending availability of Oracle8i Release 2 on Linux. The latest offering from Oracle will provide dot-coms and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) with a reliable, scalable, and secure Internet database based on Linux, the low-cost operating system that has enjoyed an explosive adoption rate among e-businesses.

Last week, Corel and Inprise, two companies that in recent years have struggled to find their places in a Microsoft-dominated software market, forged a relationship bound by Linux. Armed with a strong core of users, engineers, and equity, the two will now plow ahead arm in arm, looking for the market share that has eluded them on their own.

Wearable computers need a nanosize operating system. That's the philosophy of MIT spinoff InfoCharms, which will describe Nanux, its forthcoming wearable computer OS, later this month at the Everywhere Internet show in San Francisco.

This Thursday, as Microsoft finally unveils its Windows 2000 operating system in San Francisco, software fans will finally get a chance to see whether the aging champ has what it takes to take on its first serious challenger in nearly a half-decade. Of course, we're talking about Linux, the Rocky Balboa-inspired operating system that went from beating up on dead carcasses in the Unix meat locker to outpunching more agile rivals such as SCO and Sun.

As the release of the new stable kernel series is approaching us, I thought I'd summarize some of the new additions, and try to present what the average desktop user is going to get out of all this.. Will it be worth it, or is it just going to be a hassle?

Interbase's decision last month to release its upcoming InterBase 6.0 database under the open-source Mozilla Public License 1.1 will give this wallflower a chance to bloom.

Beneath the roar accompanying the release of Windows 2000 on Thursday is a conspiratorial whisper. There's an alternative to Microsoft's sophisticated new business operating system, it says, and it has a name we're hearing more and more: Linux.

Intel Corp. said it is considering dropping Sun Microsystems from its roster of partners supporting Intel's upcoming IA-64 platform. Intel and Sun have a contract for Solaris on Itanium, which is the first member of Intel's IA-64 family and is due this year. But an Intel spokesman said that while Intel will honor that contract, it dropped Sun's name from its marketing materials in December and is already putting its resources behind other operating systems, including Linux and Project Monterey from IBM.

I fear this might be the slow painful death bell for Novell, unless they act now. I cannot think of a more robust combination of technologies than Linux at the desktop coupled with Novell Directory Services for connectivity to networked resources. But client connectivity provided by the open source community through the use of SAMBA does not support authentication of credentials to NDS. And Novell has not yet released an NDS client for Linux, under a proprietary nor an open licensing system.

Heretic 2 is a fine addition to anyone's Linux gaming library... and I'm not just saying that because their Linux gaming library is likely sparse! It really is a very enjoyable game, with an awful lot of nice elements and features. The game's Tomb Raider like play is a welcome change on a platform that has largely seen Doom/Quake style 3D games. Other than the minor sound problems, the 3D sound environment is one of the best I've ever heard in a Linux title.