The following announcement appears at XFree86.org . . .

The XFree86 project has released XFree86 version 4.2.0, the fifth full release in the XFree86 4 series. XFree86 release 4 is a major re-design of the basic architectural underpinnings of XFree86's implementation of the original X Consortium's X… (more…)

Long Beach, CA; Bus&Board/2002 Conference — (press release excerpt) — Pigeon Point Systems announced today the immediate availability of the Pigeon Point Hot Swap Kit (HSK) for Linux. HSK for Linux augments the Linux 2.4 kernel to add support for inserting and removing (“hot swapping”) CompactPCI peripheral boards… (more…)

Sunnyvale, CA — (press release excerpt) — MontaVista Software today announced that it has secured approximately $28 million in its third round of funding. New investors include IBM and Sony Corporation. Previous investors — US Venture Partners, Alloy Ventures, Intel Capital, RRE Ventures, and WR Hambrecht & Co. (more…)

Empower Technologies has announced the PowerPlay V, a Linux-based PDA equipped with the look and feel of a Palm Vx. The new PDA is currently available for purchase on Empower's website. (more…)

[Updated Jan. 19, 2002] Seoul, Korea — (press release excerpt) — PalmPalm Technology has announced a strategic partnership with Sharp Electronics whereby PalmPalm will adapt the Sharp Zaurus Linux PDA to the Korean language and character-set and will distribute it in Korea. (more…)

Instant802 Networks Inc. (San Francisco, CA) has announced the release of OpenAP, an open source Linux distribution for 802.11 access points. (more…)

In this interview, LinuxDevices.com founder and executive editor Rick Lehrbaum chats with Robert Love, the principal maintainer of an increasingly popular kernel-preemption patch that improves the real-time responsiveness of the Linux kernel. Love describes his role in the project, explains why the preemption enhancement is important to a broad range of Linux applications beyond just embedded/real-time… (more…)

[Updated 3:00pm PST, Jan. 18, 2002] In this interview, LinuxDevices.com founder and executive editor Rick Lehrbaum chats with Robert Love, the principal maintainer of an increasingly popular kernel-preemption patch that improves the real-time responsiveness of the Linux kernel. (more…)

Research from IDC indicates a 45-80 percent lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for Linux on the Intel architecture over RISC/Unix environments. The result is from a study funded by none other than Red Hat. The two companies (Red Hat and IDC) are holding a webcast to discuss the findings at 10:00 EST, Wednesday, January 23, 2002. (more…)

CNET has published a commentary by the Meta Group which argues that the benefit of lower royalty costs associated with using Linux as a PDA operating system is more than offset by the disadvantage of having fewer available applications. The Meta Group writes . . . (more…)

In this detailed online technical article from Linux Journal, the authors show how to get started developing voice-activated interfaces using the Speech for Java Development Kit. Dilvan de Abreu Moreira and José Fernando Rodrigues write . . . (more…)

Writing at LinuxWorld.com, Joshua Drake contends that while for desktops, the 2.4 version of the kernel is just fine, if you have heavy-duty processing needs, 2.4 has been a series of disappointments. Sysadmins of big iron have two choices, says Drake: go back in time or play upgrade hopscotch. Drake writes . . . (more…)

By Stephen Shankland, Staff Writer, CNET News.com . . . (more…)

The 100+ member Embedded Linux Consortium (ELC) will host its Second Annual Meeting on Tuesday, March 12, 2002 starting at 6:30pm in San Francisco's Moscone Center. This meeting dovetails with our first Platform Standard Technical Committee Plenary meeting. (more…)

CNET News.com's Stephen Shankland reports that Wind River Systems is selling off its assets related to FreeBSD, an open-source version of Unix. Shankland writes . . . (more…)