When it comes to tools and applications, open source operating system Linux is going from strength to strength. Austin, Texas- based Metrowerks Inc has licensed its Java Acceleration Technology for PowerPC to the Linux community. A just-in-time compiler, the software should improve the performance of Sun’s Java Development Kit by a factor of five to ten on most machines, the company claimed. Meanwhile, in Oakland, California, Linux distribution outfit S.u.S.E has unveiled its Linux Office Suite 99. The package bundles AppplixWare’s spreadsheet, word processor, presentation graphics and HTML authoring tool with the ADABAS D 10.0 database. It also includes both the KDE and GNOME graphical desktops, S.u.S.E’s own fax utility, a backup tool and the GIMP, a kind of free PhotoShop for Linux. The whole caboodle should retail for around $79.95. If the S.u.S.E announcement seems designed to tread on Microsoft’s toes, there’s worse in store for Redmond. As we predicted yesterday (CI No 3,502), Caldera Systems Inc has made Sybase’s Adaptive Server Enterprise for Linux available for immediate download. What’s more, the relational database will be included in Caldera’s new Linux-based business solution, OpenLinux 1.3. With every new port, Linux becomes a more clear and present danger to Windows NT. Oracle and Informix are already on side, making it three for three of the big relational database companies now supporting Linux. The doomsayers who predicted that lack of applications would prove Linux’s downfall (CI No 3,441) might want to start eating their words.
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