Microsoft continues to enjoy supremacy in the operating system market. One would expect that Linux, being free, would by now have gained a vast majority of the market share that Microsoft has so carefully compiled. And yet this is not the case. Large firms and corporations continue to use Microsoft products, as does a large percentage of people not involved in "big business." Why is this happening? How can Microsoft retain its competitive edge when its products cost in the upward regions of $300 and Linux is free?

The event was the Linux World Conference in San Jose, a gathering of thousands of computer geeks abuzz with an almost conspiratorial energy. Surrounded by an army of insurgents, the feeling was akin to having stepped into the mythical Sherwood Forest.

The Internet has spawned a plethora of specialty sites dedicated to hot topics such as Linux and Perl, but the new forums haven't displaced the old: Magazines named for popular software, operating systems and program languages are springing up in bookstores everywhere.

SCO announced that it is readying its award-winning Tarantella web-enabling software for the Monterey/64 and 64-bit Linux platforms utilizing an Intel Itanium processor-based server prototype. Users of these forthcoming operating system platforms will benefit from the remote administration capabilities provided by Tarantella, and provide users with secure, web-based access to Windows, mainframe, Linux and UNIX applications.

Microsoft is bracing itself for protesting hordes of Linux supporters at this week's Windows 2000 launch. The Great Satan of Software yesterday confirmed it was expecting direct action from members of the Linux fraternity on both sides of the Atlantic.

UpsideToday reporter Sam Williams talks to Klaus Schleicher, director of product management, Lernout & Hauspie. Klaus Schleicher: We went to Linux because all these new processors for the mobile market, specifically the StrongArm II processor, are designed for low power consumption. Linux seems to be the operating system optimally designed for these processors.

Corel kept its Linux game plan rolling last week, showing a glimpse of a CorelDraw 9.0 version for the open source operating system. The Canadian software maker previewed the pre-beta version of its popular graphics suite at the Seybold Publishing 2000 conference here.

In reading through other articles that were posted on Linux.com recently, along with the public replies to those articles, one can only draw the conclusion that a number of readers see this site as somewhat of a "puppet" of VA Linux. I can absolutely guarantee you that in my own personal experience, nothing could be further from the truth!

Linux and the Internet have changed the rules of the game for Microsoft. While the Windows 2000 operating system may improve on earlier iterations of Windows, its official unveiling this week comes at a time when other competitive forces pose unprecedented challenges for Microsoft.

In order to fully understand the Linux phenomenon, it is helpful to understand a little bit of its history. In this section, we will briefly cover how Linux originated, how it grew from the pet project of one person to a project with contributors from all over the globe, and finally take a look at the current state of development.