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In a deal similar to one it already has with Novell, IBM is now joining hands with market leader Red Hat to push Linux into emerging markets such as China, India, Russia and Korea without overlooking the established markets. The alliance, which started with a pilot in Europe earlier this year, is cast as an anti-Microsoft software- capturing migration play.

Macros are important in an office suite. They are the only realistic way for non-programmers to create interactive documents quickly or add special features to the application. While many open source office suites are embracing OpenDocument as a common file format, the lack of common macro language support will prevent meaningful file interchange.

The Dell Latitude 110L features a Linux operating system, a mobile Celeron/Pentium chip and starts at around $1,000.

Jorg Janke flipped through an Italian dictionary and found a word to describe the key attributes of his open-source ERP software. That word: compiere, which means “to fulfill” or “to complete.

Klik is a system which creates self-contained packages of programmes installable over the web with a single click. In the article below Kurt Pfeifle discusses the potential uses of this technology for helping the non-coding contributors to KDE. He also looks at how the system works and the obvious security issues involved.

The Code Project, Mainsoft, and IBM are challenging developers to a race. Developers won't be setting any land-speed records, however -- this race is to be the first across the finish line with a port of an ASP.Net application to run on Linux.

You're ready to be a card-carrying Linux geek, but with several different Linux distributions available, you don't know where to start. Which one offers the best balance of tools, performance, and price? takes you through the most popular Linux distros and introduces you to a brave new world without Windows.

"Having full control over the source codes in which we have built our prepaid billing system based on Oracle Database and Oracle Application Server gives us the ability to anticipate trends and rapidly roll out innovative offerings that capture the explosively growing prepaid communications marketplace." -- Wilma D. Cruz, Chief Information Officer, SMART Communications Inc.

There are lots of applications built on an open source platform, such as the operating system from Linux and the Internet browsers from Firefox and Mozilla. Typically, open source software starts with a small company developing the foundation application code. Other software developing companies, individuals and small groups test and determine the code’s usefulness and whether they have any interest in enhancing the code. This public participation creates the opportunity for a major collaboration among the original developers and a wide range of other developers. Some believe that open source is the domain of the geek who does nothing but play with code. With easy access to an open source application, the techie can wreak havoc and make error-filled changes. However, this does not happen.

Imagine you're a new Linux user. You ordered an Ubuntu CD weeks ago and forgot about it. You're surprised it actually comes in the mail. You slap the shiny disc into your PC and cross your fingers. The installation is quite slick. You're impressed by the splash screen and attractive desktop. Wow, you think you're hot stuff -- a Linux user. But the euphoria fades as you realize there's a problem with your modem. Now what do you do?

Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems have a lot to prove. The two struggling IT vendors this week will unveil a wave of products designed to patch weak spots in their product lineups and re-establish their former positions of strength. They're innovative additions, but the companies will have to do even more to keep up with Dell, which drives the market for high-volume, low-cost PCs and servers, and IBM, which dominates the high end with its mainframes, systems integration and outsourcing services, and army of consultants.

Today, the Linux Association of Germany announced that it has received a temporary restraining order from the first-district court of Hamburg against Germany's Channel One, which was displaying the Microsoft logo when it showed the results of polls taken by Infratest dimap. In light of the "urgency" of the situation, the temporary restraining order was issued without a hearing. No one from German public television wished to make a comment.

MontaVista Software released the latest version of its embedded Linux software: MontaVista Linux Professional Pro Edition 4.0. The new software, targeted to run real-time applications on appliances, mobile devices and other non-traditional PC/server equipment, includes the latest version of the Linux kernel - 2.6.10 - as well as support for several new interface types, network protocols and improved processing capabilities.

Live Web search got a lot bigger yesterday, when Google launched its new blogsearch engine. There's no direct link on the Google index page yet. For now, you can find it in the roster of services behind the "more" link. There are 29 of those, and Blog Search is the newest. But the news is still big. It legitimizes the Live Web--and blogging in particular--in a big way. Far as I know, the blog search category was born when David Sifry put a hack he called Technorati on a Penguin Computing Linux box that lived in his basement while he and I were working on "Building With Blogs", a feature for the February 2003 issue of Linux Journal. Dave needed to research blogs, so he created a tool for it. As of today, Technorati's traffic is #751 on Alexa, pushing 80 million page views per day. (Disclosure: I'm on Technorati's Advisory Board.)

The WinFS threat to Mono that Mark Driver pointed out at the recent Gartner AD Summit stuck in my mind. I decided to check with Mono project founder and longtime free software developer Miguel de Icaza for his view on the subject.

How long does it take a .NET developer to write a Linux application? The Race to Linux project aims to find out. Race to Linux was announced Wednesday at the Microsoft (Quote, Chart) Professional Developers Conference. The challenge for developers is to port any existing ASP.NET application to Linux using any cross-platform tool of choice, including Mono, Grasshopper and PHP. The winner of each of three races will win an xBox 360. Chris Maunder, co-founder of The Code Project, a community site for .NET developers and one of the organizers of Race to Linux, said that one in five Code Project community members also works with Linux, while 16 percent use Java.

DistroWatch reports - Slackware Linux 10.2 has been released: "Announcing Slackware Linux 10.2! The second Slackware release of 2005, Slackware Linux 10.2 continues the long Slackware tradition of simplicity, stability, and security. Among the many program updates and distribution enhancements, you'll find two of the most advanced desktop environments available today: XFce 4.2.2, a fast and lightweight but visually appealing and easy to use desktop environment, and KDE 3.4.2, the latest version of the award-winning K Desktop Environment. OSDir has some nice screenshots of Slackware Linux 10.2.

For the first time Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) is No. 1 inworldwide unit shipments of x86-based Linux servers, according to themost recent data compiled by market researcher IDC.(a) Dell also retained its top x86-based Linux server shipmentposition in two of the world's largest regional markets, the U.S., andJapan.(a) "We attribute our continued success in the Linux server market toour focus on addressing customer needs through our scalable enterprisestrategy," said Judy Chavis, Dell's director of business developmentand global alliances. "With a combination of performance, ease ofdeployment and management, our Linux solutions for the scalableenterprise help customers scale information technology as theirbusiness needs require."

IBM and Red Hat have jointly announced a global initiative to help accelerate the development and adoption of Linux-based solutions in emerging markets, such as China, India, Russia, and Korea, as well as in established markets worldwide. I talked with Todd Chase, Program Director, IBM Innovation Centers, about the program and why it should be of interest to every IT manager involved with Linux and open software.

The Dell Latitude 110L features a Linux operating system, a 1.4GHz or 1.7GHz mobile Celeron/Pentium chip and starting price under $1,000.