Leading items and editorials: BT attempts to enforce its patent
on linking, The LWN.net 2000 annual timeline, When Linux companies
go bad, What is Linux? and Michael Hammel officially joins the LWN
Team.
“BT attempts to enforce its patent on linking. It must really be
true that British Telecom is a foe of software patents. What else
could explain its behavior, which is clearly intended to
demonstrate just how ridiculous and destructive those patents
are?…”
“The LWN.net 2000 annual timeline. Our long-time readers will
know that we have made a bit of a tradition out of our annual,
year-end timeline….”
“When Linux companies go bad. What happened to Corel? Earlier
this week C|Net’s News.com reported that Corel was considering a
sale of its Linux business to a venture capital group known as
Linux Global Partners (LGP). While C|Net reported possible
transactions, the National Post was a bit more firm: “Software
maker Corel Corp. has agreed to sell its Linux line of products to
a New York-based venture capital firm in a transaction that will
close in January, sources close to the deal said [on December
15th].” The news wasn’t the first report of Corel’s fall from the
Linux hierarchy – see ZDNet’s report from November – and it
probably won’t be the last. With all the speculation circulating,
what does Corel have to say? “We have no futher comment on this
issue….”
“What is Linux? That may seem like a strange question from a
publication like this; it’s thus, perhaps, even stranger that it
comes from Jon ‘maddog’ Hall. One would expect that the Executive
Director of Linux International and the Director of Linux
Evangelism for VA Linux Systems would have an answer….”
“Michael Hammel officially joins the LWN Team. Many of you may
have already noticed a different name on a response to an enquiry,
comment or suggestion sent to LWN in the last couple of months.
Michael Hammel actually joined our team in September, much to the
joy and relief of the rest of our team members. The volume of news,
development and general information about the Linux community has
only continued to grow, as we’re sure all of you have noticed.
Michael’s addition to the staff was therefore both a necessity and
an opportunity of which we plan to take advantage….”