Sun Microsystems has released a version of Java for small gadgets using the Linux operating system. Sun has a lukewarm attitude about the Linux OS, which competes with Sun's Solaris and is popular chiefly on Intel computer systems. But Sun is clear that it wants its Java software to run on all types of computers, and Linux machines work in concert to undermine the market power of Sun's foe Microsoft.

While Microsoft executives publicly vacillate between declaring Linux either the most hyped operating system or the biggest threat to Windows, in reality, the company has learned some powerful lessons from its open-source competitors.

What a difference a year makes. Last year IBM were not even in the picture. But this year IBM won the limelight at LinuxWorld. Samuel Palmisano, chief operating officer, received top keynote speaker billing, IBM's customers won the front row seats at the keynote address and IBM signs and exhibits appeared at every turn.

The 4th Axis Operating System teams decided to move on to another (slightly different) architecture. Instead of using its traditional VOiD kernel architecture (no kernel, dynamic modules), it will now use a small kernel with assembly JIT-linking.

"These are three key Microsoft trends to watch for in

2001: static growth rate, lessening mainstream interest in

the closed source operating system, and a sharp decline

in Microsoft-based companies' stock value"

Red Hat emphasizes the completeness of its e-commerce

platform's open source offerings for both the device and

server markets. Red Hat's comprehensive solutions are tied

together through Red Hat Network, an Internet-base service

for delivering open source innovations, upgrades, security

features, and user support quickly and cost-effectively.

WhizzBee is a next-generation web server that leverages the

state-of-art clustering technology. It is developed on top of the

open-source Apache web server with a number of

performance enhancement features. The current version,

WhizzBee 1.0a, works for the Linux OS on i386 platforms.

Opera Software hasn't yet put the finishing touches on its forthcoming Mac and Linux browser releases. But the software maker plans to announce shortly that it will make free versions of Opera 5.0 for both of these operating systems available later this year.

Chastened Linux executives pledged to stop their "crazy dreaming" and disband their efforts Wednesday after an executive from Microsoft proclaimed Linux was doomed, and openly questioned whether the free, rival operating system should exist.

Dell will use the facility, which is scheduled to open in the spring, to test and tune Oracle databases running on Intel-based systems running Linux. Oracle also agreed to use Dell's servers and storage products for building the Oracle 9i database on Linux, the companies said.