The Linux revolution continues with the arrival of the 2.2 kernel. New features, ranging from support for desktop environments to advanced functionality for high-end servers, position Linux to make a huge impact in 1999.

Until now, Microsoft and Sun have had only one thing in common their hatred for each other. Now they share something else: a fear of Linux.

"It wasn't that I wanted to change the world; I wanted to make Linux freely available, but there wasn't any deep philosophical thinking behind it. I want to have fun in my life... I want to do something that matters." Linus Torvalds shares his thoughts on Linux, Microsoft, and life in Silicon Valley.

Linux has been quietly invading the corporate workplace, doing the job better than alternative operating systems. Samba

This column is an introduction to installing Linux onto your computer, getting it running, and beginning to explore the best OS in the universe.

I'm 36 years old, and it seems that makes me an elder in the computer business these days. The employees at my own company, VA Research, are on the average at least five years younger than me. I first noticed the age difference when employees whose first computer was a 486 started showing up. They'd nod politely and smile with a humoring look as I described how to load a program from punched cards on a General Automation 1830 by entering the jump op-code for the card reader subroutine using toggle switches. I tend to tell people around the office I'm "in my late twenties" lest they think it's time to put me out to pasture.

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are a cost-effective, relatively secure means of transporting data between a number of connected points. And Linux can be used quite easily to set up and administer such a network. Using simple tools created by the folks at LinuxCare, someone with a basic Linux background can set up and maintain a VPN for either corporate or personal use.

When Linus released the 2.1.102 development kernel last May, people were surprised that the old packet filtering control program, Jos Vos's ipfwadm, no longer worked. Documentation of the change followed in 2.1.103.

The desire for more speed and better multi-processor support has caused inevitable changes in Linux, resulting in the development of the current kernel -- Linux 2.2. As a driver author, you may initially avoid taking advantage of the latest kernel changes. Ultimately, however, you'll probably end up re-writing your driver to stay current with kernel design, to improve your driver's performance, and to take advantage of the ever-increasing opportunities that appear on the horizon for Linux users in 1999.

Before anyone can write software for a particular operating system, they must first understand the programming interfaces the system provides. Many of Linux's APIs are defined by the POSIX standard; other APIs which Linux provides were originally introduced by groups like the X Consortium or by other operating systems. At the core of all of these APIs is Linux's system call interface, which every other system API is built around.

The free availability, high reliability, and relative efficiency of Linux has been a boon to computational science in the 1990s, and grows ever-popular with computational scientists everywhere. Using Linux, scientists have been able to turn off-the-shelf personal computers into effective UNIX workstations suitable for a number of tasks, including number-crunching for scientific models. Beowulf-style cluster computing -- pioneered by Thomas Sterling, Donald Becker, and others at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (http://www.beowulf.org) -- has extended the utility of Linux to the realm of high performance parallel computing. Additionally, the open source nature of Linux has allowed programmers to add features directly to the operating system to meet the unique needs of cluster computing. A collection of these enhancements is now distributed under the name Extreme Linux (http://www.extremelinux.org) -- "It's Hot and It's Cool" -- by Red Hat Software, Inc. (http://www.redhat.com).

Recently, we had the opportunity to interview Doug Leone at Sequoia Capital in Menlo Park, California. Sequoia seems to have a unique perspective on Open Source Software (OSS) and the way it's transforming software and hardware industries.

To kick this column off, I answered the ten questions most often asked by new Linux users. In the next issue, I will respond to your own questions; e-mail them to me at stumpmike@linuxcare.com. The author of the toughest question -- the stumper -- gets a mug!

Corel's free, downloadable version of WordPerfect outshines other Linux-compatible word processing programs.

Welcome to the premier issue of Linux Magazine. Normally, this section of the magazine will contain your letters to us. As you can probably guess, we haven't received many letters yet, so we decided to use this opportunity to write a letter to you.