Linux 2.4 has been out for a year now, and the 2.5 release is just around the corner.

Even in the world of operating systems, inbreeding is a bad thing. James Gosling, Java's creator, explains why heterogeneity is good and how Linux and Java contribute to it.

Apache 1.3 is already the world's most popular Web server. Now Apache 2.0 is here, and it's more powerful than ever. We take a look under the hood to find out what's new in 2.0.

If there's one thing that's certain, it's that today's shaky economy presents some new challenges to those of us in the technology sector. We are entering the "Age of Advantage." This means Linux, like all software serving the e-business economy, must demonstrate and deliver economic benefits: efficiency in resource utilization, speedy time to market, quick time to value, reducing complexity, increasing interoperability, and simplifying management of heterogeneous environments in an extended enterprise. These are the standards to which ISV (Independent Software Vendors) and in-house software developers will be held.

Unix (and by association, Linux) provides the user with an environment full of possibilities. To turn these possibilities into reality, a Unix user must be technical in two senses of the word. Of course, he must understand technology, but to really shine, he must understand and even appreciate good technique.

Computational scientists were early adopters of Linux because of its reliability and efficiency. These folks needed a powerful yet stable computing platform to run their complex scientific simulations. Linux provided a solid development platform and had the reliability and stability they required. Additionally, the open source aspect of Linux was appealing because the open source development process paralleled the scientific method; the code is widely published and reviewed by others prior to acceptance.

Many of you are familiar with the C and C++ languages. You know the syntax and the semantics of the various operations and have a feel for what is allowed by the language according to its specification. However, you may (or may not) be surprised to discover that compilers for these languages deviate from the official specifications.

Welcome to the first of many columns in which we'll explore the various technologies in the LAMP family. For those who aren't familiar with the acro-nym, LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl/Python/PHP -- some of the Open Source world's "best of breed" tools.

The title of this column, Java Matters, has a dual meaning. In one sense, it's about the technical matters that concern Java when trying to use it under Linux. The other way of looking at it is to acknowledge that Java and Linux are intertwined such that whatever happens in one community is reflected in the other -- hence Java matters to Linux, and vice versa. This column represents an attempt to bridge the gap between Java and Linux by providing practices for using them together.

The other day, I was looking at rsync to set up the publishing of my Web site from a CVS-managed archive. I thought it would be simple to use rsync in "archive" mode to accurately mirror a staging directory. But I just couldn't get the hooks right. I also wanted to ignore specific differences and add mail notification for when certain pages were updated.

For those of you who might not know, PHP stands for "PHP: Hypertext PreProcessor." It allows you to embed scripting code into a normal HTML file. The Web server will execute those bits of code, then send back the resulting HTML file.

InterJak 200 Connects

Welcome to our January 2002 issue. With the beginning of this new year, we decided the time was right to make a few changes to Linux Magazine. Some of them you'll see right away, beginning with this issue, and there are some others that we'll be introducing as the year moves along.

I like the Linux desktop. Let me explain further. I love the Linux desktop. When I got started in this business, the big interface debate was not between GNOME and KDE -- it was between Bourne shell and C shell. My personal favorite, Korn, hadn't even been born yet. You probably have your own pick. Unfortunately, no matter what we want, the market does not care. In fact, for most commercial purposes, the Linux desktop is dead.