Opera has jumped from Opera 4 beta 5 to Opera 5 beta 6. The new release is now adware and will not expire after 30 days. Some changes and updates are better printing, font handling and better javascript support.

California-based Linux distribution publisher and software provider TurboLinux is laying off staff and announcing a management restructuring today. Jerry Greenberg, senior marketing v.p., says, "We built the company on the expectation of doubling every quarter. We're growing well, but not at that rate. We had to respond to it."

"I've laid off thirty of my best friends, said Wiegand. "That doesn't feel good. I was emotionally moved and this lady took advantage." He says hypothetical discussions with Linuxgram about technology waves were "wilfully misinterpreted as comments about Linux and SuSE respectively.

Compaq is planning a series of acquisitions to boost its enterprise software and services capability - but chief executive Michael Capellas rules out Linux playing a major part in the company's high-end strategy.

IBM expects "a significant number" of Linux deployments over the course of 2001, and is boosting its Linux support offerings to try to overcome enterprise conservatism. The company says it will spend more than $300 million to develop services and support for Linux users.

The new device runs Linux, a 266 MHz Cyrix processor, 64 megabytes of memory, a CD ROM drive and a 56K modem. The device contains no hard disk and for $199 no monitor is included. It can be used on either an Ethernet local area network or be plugged into a phone jack.

Caldera and SCO have announced that they have amended the agreement to purchase the SCO Server Software and Professional Services divisions by Caldera Systems. Under the terms of the new agreement, the SCO OpenServer product line will be included as part of the proposed SCO Server Software Division acquisition, giving Caldera complete ownership of SCO's operating system products.

IBM Japan Ltd. started to strongly promote a wide range of Linux applications for clients. It will launch notebook PCs equipped with Linux through a Linux distributor in March. "There is a need for Linux on notebook PCs among users in universities and research institutes. I will make 2001 the first year of Linux for clients," said Kazufu Hotta, managing director of IBM Japan.

Linux on the iSeries won’t be available for several more weeks, but attendees at LinuxWorld in New York and the Linux Expo in Paris last week got a sneak peak at the operating system. IBM displayed a 4-way iSeries 820 running OS/400 in one partition and Linux in the other three to illustrate that iSeries could support more than one Linux image.

Caldera Systems Inc. will soon close its acquisition of SCO's Unix business—and jump start its strategy of moving SCO customers to Linux.