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It may not rise to the popularity of Antiques Roadshow, but Sun Microsystems is betting a new TV show will help boost recognition of its Java software. The 30-minute program, called "Mobile Entertainment World," will be sponsored by Sun and perhaps by phone service sellers, said Ingrid Van den Hoogen, Sun's new vice president of brand experience and community marketing. It's one of several efforts the Santa Clara, Calif.-based server maker has undertaken as part of a multimillion-dollar program to make average people aware of the Java brand.

Numbered and bulleted lists that don't disappear, switch, realign themselves or otherwise make your life miserable.

Anyone following the high performance computing industry has probably noticed the growing popularity of Linux cluster systems. The 23rd Top 500 list, a ranking of the world's most powerful supercomputers, reported that clusters make up more than 50 percent of the list. The appeal is easy to understand; Linux clusters are a fraction of the cost of traditional supercomputers while providing blazingly fast performance numbers. Many organizations from national labs to Hollywood special effects shops have reported performance increases that their previous systems couldn't touch. With such widespread appeal and tangible benefits, the migration to cluster systems seems inevitable for many organizations.

A new guide designed to help federal government agencies evaluate open-source products alongside their proprietary rivals is due to be completed and distributed by September, officials told ZDNet Australia on Wednesday.

It doesn't take a genius, or even Smarty Jones, to figure out what's been happening in the hallowed halls of Microsoft Corp. and Dell Computer the last few hours. A bit of background, for those new to the situation: Linspire and Dell Italian channel partner Questar jointly announced that they are making available pre-loaded Linux desktop computers at a fair price.

New Linux co previews software tool for system management. New Linux vendor Open Country has announced that a technical beta release of their software to cost effectively manage Linux systems in the enterprise is available for download. Priced from US $9 per system per month, the company's OC-Manager manages popular RPM-based Linux from SuSE, Sun JDS, Red Hat, Fedora, Mandrake and even legacy software from these same vendors, all running on the same network according to the company's product specifications.

The KDE Project is pleased to announce the immediate availability of KDE 3.3 Beta 1. As another step towards the aKademy in late August, this release is named Klassroom. This beta release shows astonishing stability, so the KDE team asks everyone to try the version and give feedback through the bug tracking system. For packages, please visit the KDE 3.3 Beta 1 Info Page and browse the KDE 3.3 Requirements list. The Konstruct build toolset has been updated for this release.

[Some humor... it's fun. :) -dave] I'd like to start this off with a brief introduction. My name is Preston. I program for fun (and sometimes money), and I write for the same reason(s). With all the controversy lately over intellectual property from other companies being in Linux, I thought it would be a good time to clear things up. There is no way that Linus stole SCO code or Minix code to write Linux because, you see, the author of Linux was not Linus Torvalds, but me....

Tolly report quantified management effort: 160% higher for multiple point producs versus integrated security software.

In another public-sector boost to open-source software, Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam called for his country's military to use such nonproprietary technology to ward off cybersecurity threats.

Under a policy of 'informed neutrality', federal and state government departments are to receive information about assessing open-source software products.

The reseller taking orders for Dell Optiplex workstations with an open source operating system claims that its website has received over 200,000 hits in the past 24 hours. Italian reseller Questar is buying workstations from Dell under a custom factory integration agreement.

Oracle continued its bullish optimism for its Linux strategy at its OpenWorld customer event in Melbourne today, revealing that 90 per cent of new Australasian customers had deployed its database on the operating system over the last 12 months.

Weather is a tricky thing to predict, but advances in Linux-based High Performance Computing (HPC) are helping climatologists and global weather modelers achieve faster, more accurate results. Zacharia, associate lab director at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), said the Linux movement has had a strong impact on weather and climate research, as well as other scientific areas requiring vast simulations,"because obviously you're harnessing the collective knowledge of large numbers of people around the world."

Hard to fathom this is Balmer's true belief. "Quote" Microsoft needs to do a better job of convincing customers that the latest versions of its products are worth having, CEO Steve Ballmer said in a companywide e-mail on Tuesday. Ballmer said that one way to make Microsoft products more useful is to offer more tailored versions of its main products. The company has already expanded the number of versions of Office and is also working to offer more specialized versions of Windows Server, such as a forthcoming version for high-end computing."unquote"

1,000 IBM Linux-Based PCs Delivered to Schools in 16 Mexican States.

Sorry, but Linux will never be completely accepted by the consuming public in the United States until one can walk into a mainstream store such as Best Buy, Fry's, or Circuit City and buy such a computer off the shelf -- or on the Web -- from a name-brand maker.