Progress Software began shipping Linux versions of its database and application server products Tuesday.

I've thought about the BSD License and GPL, and I've concluded that BSD is the most free intellectual license around. BSD allows anyone the freedom of doing whatever one wishes with BSD code. BSD allows reward through money from proprietary work or the zero cost to great software. I also like the GPL because I can get good stuff for free, but BSD also does the same.

FOR almost the first time in its history, Microsoft is to face a competitive challenge when it launches the next version of its Windows operating system. Called Windows 2000, the new OS (which controls the way personal computers work) is scheduled to launch on February 17 the same date when a rival OS, Linux, might steal its thunder by releasing an upgraded version.

A Linux user is taking credit for restoring service to Microsoft's Hotmail free email service, saying he paid a delinquent domain name registration fee that blocked access to some users over much of the Christmas weekend.

"Mr. Hall, I have only one question...". It happened to be a question posed to me by the Director of the computer center of Sao Paulo University. He had just finished telling me about the way they used the Linux Operating System.

When most people think about Linux, they just think about running it on an x86 machine. But, there's whole other world out there with PowerPCs, Sparcs, and Alphas. While I don't see the Sparc or Alpha reaching a point where you see them in every home on the street, the PowerPC is much more likely to end up there.

Selecting an operating system - whether for a startup operation or an existing company - can be a drawn-out process. The considerations are far-ranging, including your computing platform, your required applications, the logistics of porting existing data and matter of taste.

Linux runs on not one, but two desktop environments, the German-born K Desktop Environment, or KDE, and the GNU Project's GNU Network Object Model Environment, or Gnome. Both are making rapid progress, but both have a way to go to meet ease-of-use demands.

The following column is based on the hurtful (but true) assumption that most users want to stay away of the command-line, and that Linux will never reach World Domination unless its geek-friendly face is hidden from Joe Public.

Open source software has taken up residence on enterprise networks despite initial concerns that its unconventional version control and support structure would make it a risky bet for corporate IS.