IBM said it has announced several new hardware and software offerings and a broad set of initiatives to help its developer and reseller partners develop and install Linux solutions for customers worldwide.

IBM is trying to liven up its mainframes with some new Linux initiatives. IBM executives detailed plans to make the installation of copies of the Linux operating system on S/390 machines easier for nonmainframe personnel, as well as less expensive.

Most people don't attribute customer support with Open Source, thinking that with free or open source software you get what you pay for. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Borland announced the availability of the source code for InterBaseR 6.0, its cross-platform SQL RDBMS. InterBase 6.0 has been released under a variant on the Mozilla Public License V1.1.

To entice developers to begin coding applications for the impending wireless connectivity technology, Bluetooth, IBM has set the ball rolling for Linux, by releasing the BlueDrekar protocol stack for Linux, and by open-sourcing a driver for the HCI UART transport layer.

At a projected growth rate of 17%, Linux will outpace all other server operating systems through 2004. But revenue growth will be barely noticeable at only 1%,

compounded annually.

Wall Street may be cautious on Linux these days, but that's not discouraging Dirk Hohndel, chief technology officer of German software and services firm SuSE.

TurboLinux announced the release of the new TurboLinux Operating System for Compaq Computer Corporation's Alpha systems. TurboLinux OS for Compaq's Alpha systems is a 64-bit Linux OS designed and built for intensive tasks.

Linux, thanks to its open-source underpinnings, has overcome the interoperability troubles that bedeviled SCO Unix and its competitors. It showed that an open-source, open-standard approach was much more successful than the proprietary ones of the older Unix vendors.

According to new research by IDC, Linux will pose a significant threat to Microsoft's market share among server operating systems over the next few years.