Closing notes

(This is the second of two special columns written by Russell Pavlicek for distribution via e-mail.)

The world of Linux and open source is a big place. And good things tend to happen very quickly, often with a minimum of fanfare. In this final e-mail edition of The Open Source, I’d like to touch on a few recent events of interest and mention a few ways in which you can stay in touch with the world of open source in the absence of this column.

Open-source world events

One important bit of news is the release of CodeWeavers CrossOver Office V2 (www.codeweavers.com). (See “Crossing over to Linux,” May 31, 2002.) Although the software itself is not open source, it allows users to use many pieces of Windows-based software on Linux. In particular, the latest release of CrossOver Office allows you to run Office XP, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Access, Lotus Notes, Intuit’s Quicken, Microsoft Outlook (before the current XP version), Visio, and Internet Explorer. If you find yourself bound to one or more of these applications, you might want to download the free test drive and give it a whirl.

CodeWeavers is also a contributor to the Wine project (www.winehq.com). Wine is an open-source project that attempts to implement Windows APIs under Linux, the BSDs, and Unix. Although it is not complete yet, it has come a long way. You might find Wine capable of running some of your current Windows applications, especially those from third-party vendors who need to rely on published APIs.

For example, Wine is now reported to allow Visual FoxPro to run on Linux. Unfortunately, according to published reports, Microsoft contacted a man who was due to demonstrate this in a meeting and informed him that running Visual FoxPro on Linux is a violation of FoxPro’s EULA. As a result, the demonstration did not occur. Of course, in retrospect, Microsoft’s actions may have done far more to promote open source than the Visual FoxPro demo ever could have done.

Certainly, the use of legal threats to suppress open source is nothing new. Published reports now indicate that Caldera dba (doing business as) SCO Group intends to press intellectual property claims against SuSE and Red Hat once it is finished with its claim against IBM for allegedly giving SCO’s intellectual property away to further Linux development. Is there reason to pay attention to what develops? Yes. Is there reason to fear? In my opinion, no. There is a lot of ground to be covered before anything is settled here, and I doubt the end result will deter the growth of Linux.

Just look at Linux on the AMD Opteron processor. While the supposed masters of innovation are not likely to have a 64-bit server operating system for Opteron available for another six months or more, I just played with a production version of SuSE Linux Enterprise Server for AMD64 on an Opteron server. It was smooth and sweet. And you can order it today.

Open news sources

So how can you stay on top of the changing world of open source? Well, I’m sure you’ll see major announcements in InfoWorld, but more stealthy advances require the use of Web sites. I’ve mentioned some of these before, but let me recommend them again.

Need to find a piece of open-source software to fill a particular niche? Get to know and love Freshmeat.net. It has an index for locating software, but I find that nothing beats an intelligent use of the search function. If you are working with open source, get to know this site cold. And if you don’t find know what you want, step over to SourceForge.net. Note that lots of these projects are works in progress, but a little intelligent investigation can yield great fruit.

To see all sorts of open-source news as it happens, there are many excellent Web sites out there. Two of my favorites are LinuxToday.com and Linux Weekly News (at http://lwn.net). Both are excellent sources for links to Linux-related stories across the Web.

Another favorite is NewsForge.com, which combines lots of current news links with a steady stream of original articles about open source. It also happens to be a Web site I’ve written for in the past and may continue to write for in the future.

On a personal note, I want to say thanks to everyone who sent me well wishes in the past couple of weeks. Although it’s unclear where I am going from here professionally, you can follow my progress by checking my bibliography at https://linuxprofessionalsolutions.com/pavlicek/bibliography.html. I generally keep that page up to date regarding my writing and speaking engagements.

Also, if you want to be advised if I start a new column somewhere, please send a blank e-mail to column@linuxprofessionalsolutions.com, even if you sent me a previous e-mail.

Remember: There’s a big future for open source in business. Don’t miss out on it.