[fdn-ann] GNOME in NY Times and CNet.com

["Cecile Roux" <croux chenpr com>]

FYI




> NY Times
> Developers of Linux Software Planning Assault on Microsoft
>
> Hoping an Alternative Suite of Applications Will Be More Widely Used
> By JOHN MARKOFF
> http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/08/biztech/articles/14linux.html
> SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 13 -- A group of key Linux software developers and
> major computer manufacturers are planning to announce on Tuesday at a
> Silicon Valley computer conference the first effort to compete directly
> with Microsoft's Office suite of applications for the personal
> computer.
>
> Until now, the free Linux operating system has had its greatest impact in
> the computer server market, where many Internet service providers and
> World Wide Web applications and service companies routinely use the
> program.
>
> While Linux has gained ground on the PC desktop as an alternative to
> Microsoft's Windows operating system, which holds a large share of the
> market, it has not yet been used more widely by businesses and consumers
> because it has not developed the wide application support enjoyed by both
> Windows and Apple Computer's Macintosh operating system.
>
> That may soon change. On Tuesday, a group of Linux organizations will
> announce the creation of the Gnome Foundation, which will have the
> support of I.B.M., Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems and several
> other major computer vendors.
>
> The foundation plans to announce a set of initiatives, including a
> unified desktop user interface and a set of productivity programs
> intended to compete as a free alternative to Microsoft Office.
>
> Gnome is a set of software standards developed by an international group
> of programmers led by Miguel de Icaza. The Gnome software has been
> gaining momentum in both the Linux and Unix communities as a way to offer
> a common software development environment for programmers.
>
> Sun Microsystems also plans to announce that it will adopt the Gnome
> desktop user interface for its Solaris operating system. The move is part
> of the Linux effort to create a larger market for application developers.
> Last month, the company announced that it was releasing the source code
> for its StarOffice software, allowing programmers around the world to
> alter the software and share their work. The announcements to be made on
> Tuesday underscore both the progress that Linux has made toward becoming
> a viable alternative to Windows and the challenges that remain in
> persuading business and consumer computer users to adopt the free
> operating system.
>
> Until now, the Linux system has had its greatest impact in the server
> market.
>
> "What they're doing is extremely valuable," said Dan Dusnetzky,
> a computer industry analyst at the International Data Corporation, a
> market research firm. "However, there's a bigger issue that has not
> been addressed yet and that is the availability of the most popular
> desktop applications on Linux."
>
> While Linux currently has about a 24 percent share of the server market,
> Microsoft's Windows has an 88 percent share of the desktop PC
> marketplace, while Apple's Macintosh has a 5 percent share.
>
> Linux developers say that while progress until now has been limited, they
> are confident they can now rapidly close the gap on Microsoft.
>
> "By the end of the year, we will have a desktop software operating
> system that compares favorably with Windows," said Mike Boiche,
> chairman of the Eazel Corporation. The company, founded by former
> Macintosh programmers, has been developing software called Nautilus,
> which is being integrated into the Gnome user interface for Linux. It is
> intended to make Linux as simple to use as Windows or Macintosh.
>
> A variety of announcements intended to consolidate the momentum for the
> Linux operating system are planned for LinuxWorld, the conference
> scheduled to begin on Tuesday in San Jose, Calif.
>
> On Friday, Hewlett-Packard said that it planned to make Linux its third
> "strategic" operating system in addition to Windows and HP-UX,
> its own version of the Unix operating system.
>
> The Tuesday meeting itself will feature a keynote address by Michael S.
> Dell, chairman of Dell Computer, and will include an announcement from
> I.B.M. that it will make a Gnome version of Linux available on its
> Thinkpad portable computers as a user option.
>
> Compaq is also planning to announce that it will make a version of its
> hand-held iPaq computer available with the Gnome Linux operating system
> on Tuesday.
>
> Henzai, a start-up manufacturer of hand-held and Internet computing
> devices, also plans to announce its support for the Gnome desktop
> software.
>
> Several executives who support Linux said they now felt confident that
> the free software world will soon have a direct competitor to Windows on
> the PC desktop.
>
> "A year ago, we were missing the last mile," said Nat Friedman,
> president of Helixcode, the Cambridge, Mass., developer of Gnome and a
> set of PC applications. "But at the end of this year my mom could
> install Helix Gnome and Sun's StarOffice and have a total office
> environment."
>
> ==========
> CNet.com
> August 14, 2000
> Linux conference shows advances amid investor ennui
> By Stephen Shankland, CNET News.com
> http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_0_4_2515043_00.html
>
> Diminished Wall Street enthusiasm notwithstanding, the continuing
> progress of Linux in everything from golf carts to supercomputers will be
> visible at a Linux conference this week.
>
> Start-ups and established companies will be fighting for the spotlight in
> San Jose, Calif., this week as the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo
> triggers a cascade of announcements and demonstrations of Linux
> technology.
>
> The announcements highlight three areas into which Linux is spreading:
> its stronghold of servers, its continuing challenge of desktops and its
> new frontier of non-PC "embedded" computing devices.
>
> When the stock market burped last March and investors withdrew their
> generous treatment of high-tech companies, Linux companies lost their
> vaunted status. But the software itself is still popular among computer
> makers, software companies and others betting that Linux will
> prevail.
>
> Traditional computer makers such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Dell Computer
> and SGI are among the most aggressive to embrace Linux--and with reason.
> These manufacturers see Linux as a means to sell more hardware, software
> and services. They can add Linux to a stable of other products without
> having to rely on it the way Linux-specific companies such as Linuxcare,
> Red Hat or VA Linux Systems must.
>
> Dell chief executive Michael Dell will deliver the conference's first
> keynote tomorrow. Dell is closely aligned with Red Hat in its Linux
> push.
>
> IBM will announce a plan to release several software packages to the
> "open-source" community of programmers who collectively create
> Linux, said Robert LeBlanc, vice president of IBM's software group. Among
> them are the Andrew File System, a software package for sharing files
> across a network; a collection of 100 new printer drivers and the Omni
> printer driver framework for writing new drivers; and "dynamic
> probe" software to uncover bugs in software.
>
> IBM also will demonstrate its memory-doubling technology for Linux, a
> development that won't be available in products until later, as well as
> unveil a new Linux product that joins together parcels of eight, 16, 24
> or 32 Intel servers within a high-speed network. The product, with a
> starting price of $115,000, is primarily for number crunching and
> high-speed Web or email servers.
>
> In addition, IBM will begin selling its NetVista thin clients now running
> TurboLinux's version of Linux, said Peter Hortensius, director of
> technology development at IBM's Personal Systems Group. IBM pays
> TurboLinux for support of the systems, he said.
>
> HP is trying to unify its Linux efforts under a new organization, the
> Open Source and Linux Operation. HP also will release several software
> packages for Linux servers.
>
> Meanwhile, SGI, a company that has bet much of its future on Linux, will
> show some of the more advanced systems at the show. It will demonstrate a
> 128-processor cluster of Linux servers acting as a single
> high-performance graphics workstation, as well as another system with
> eight Itanium processors, the company said. SGI will emphasize using
> Linux in scientific and technical computing, electronic design,
> biological-information processing, streaming media, e-commerce, digital
> film creation and other specialized tasks where SGI hopes to carve out a
> niche.
>
> A host of start-ups also will be announcing new server products:
>
> • Great Bridge will tout measurements showing how its PostgreSQL-based
> database software stacks up against competitors, the company said.
>
> • Atipa will showcase its new protective firewall products that protect
> networks against attack.
>
> • WireX will show how easily its Immunix server software adds Web
> serving, email, file-sharing and printer-serving abilities.
>
> • Pervasive Software will show its Pervasive.SQL 2000 database software
> for Linux.
>
> • SteelEye will show new software to let Linux servers run Sendmail email
> software and Apache Web server software while insulating users from
> crashes.
>
> On the desktop
>
> Two start-ups in the Linux world--Eazel and Helix Code--are going to push
> Linux on the desktop, a difficult market because of Linux's technically
> abstruse roots and Microsoft's dominance.
>
> Eazel has several former Apple Computer employees who designed the
> Macintosh's user interface, and Helix Code employs Miguel de Icaza, one
> of the key members of the Gnome desktop user interface and office
> application effort.
>
> IBM laptops come with Caldera Systems' version of Linux, which uses the
> KDE user interface. IBM will begin bundling a CD to let people install
> Helix Code's user interface as well, the company said.
>
> Sun Microsystems, ordinarily lukewarm toward Linux, also has an
> increasing presence on the desktop because of its advocacy of its
> StarOffice software, a competitor to Microsoft Windows.
>
> One of the areas where Linux has taken hold is among gamers. Indrema, a
> company building a Linux-based video game console, will announce a
> partnership with Collab.Net to build a site for hosting the development
> of software to support next-generation games. The site, called the
> Indrema Developer Network, will use Collab.Net's SourceCast site for
> collaborative software development, the companies said.
>
> Embedded Linux
>
> Linux also will be making appearances in handheld gadgets and other
> nonstandard computing devices.
>
> One unusual use will be from Applied Data, which will show embedded
> software used in golf carts. Applied Data has a browser that runs on
> Intel's StrongArm 1110 chip.
>
> The golf cart application, from a company called ParView, lets golfers
> determine their location with a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver.
> The location information "provides golfers with graphical hole and
> green overviews with exact distancing, electronic scoring, a live
> tournament leader board, weather and safety messaging, two-way radio
> communication, and food and beverage ordering capability from the
> cart," the company said.
>
> In addition, IBM will show its Linux-powered watch.
>
> Also in the embedded market, Motorola will announce a new partnership.
> The wireless communications company, an investor in Caldera, Lineo,
> Linuxcare and LynuxWorks, is pushing to have Linux used on its
> telecommunications servers.