Beijing, Oct. 29th afternoon, invited by TurboLinux, Richard M. Stallman, the creator of Free Software Foundation made a two-hour keynote introducing GNU and free software on the opening ceremony of Tsinghua GNU/Linux R&D center, which is cofounded by Tsinghua University and TurboLinux.

"Hallelujah!"

Such was the reaction of Ransome Love, chief executive of Linux operating system seller Caldera Systems, after hearing of Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's finding that Microsoft misused monopoly power. "No one wants to see Microsoft go under--we all just want to see them play fair," Love said.

The open-source camp welcomes the findings of fact about Microsoft and its unfairly policies. But some think that Linux doesn't need the courts to beat Redmond.

Beginning with the November 08, 1999 Basic System Administrator course, LearnLinux will incorporate certification with training.

Recognizing the impact the Linux operating system has had on IT environments, Check Point Software Technologies Inc. said today it will port its VPN-1 and FireWall-1 product families to support Linux in the first quarter of 2000.

Journaling for ReiserFS has officially been released by Namesys after extensive testing, and confirmation of its stability by betatesters.

Faced with the critical cross road in the software giant's history, Gates rejected the federal judge's findings and said his company will prevail. He repeatedly said how competitive the computer industry is, "especially the threats posed by the Linux operating system and by Sun Microsystems and IBM."

Kurt Akeley, SGI cofounder and SGI CTO--"More important than having the external world look at SGI the way we want to be perceived, the external world is starting to look at Linux and the Open Source production process the way we think they should be perceived."

Ellison is typically tight-lipped about the specifics of both the new company and the new network computers. So far, all that is known for sure is that the computers will feature Intel processors and the Linux operating system.

Linux is one of the most powerful forces shaping the computing world today. It provides the foundation for numerous firewalls, mail servers, switches, and even a few thin clients. Yet, even as the operating system's popularity as a server begins to wax, one must wonder how successful it will be in the crucial desktop market.