Several people have written in with assorted notes about LinuxWorld Expo. I've heard rumblings of prizes for the show including a VW Bug from LinuxCare and even a Harley. I've attached a blurb from Robert McMillan about the show. Also, I've written up a bunch of notes about the Slashdot Booth at the show including a wish list: We need a few contacts in San Jose to help us find some stuff for the show. Somebody has to have this stuff just sitting around, so hit the link if you wanna help.

Luke A. Kanies writes "This company is working on building an SMP PowerPC box that conforms to the open CHRP spec, which was abandoned by Apple. It would definitely run linux, and it is very modular and is being designed by Dave Haynie, the hardware engineer who designed some of the Amigas (3K and 4K, I think). Unfortunately, according to this page, the company is in danger of not making the machine if it has no market--PIOS is not convinced that enough linux people will buy it to justify making the box. So write these guys at domeyer@metabox.de and let them know that your would buy their cheap SMP PPC box and would run linux on it. (Can you say 4-way for under $4K?) "

Agnomen writes "RealNetworks has released a beta version of RealProducer Plus G2 content creation tool for Linux. According to their press release "The final release of RealProducer Plus G2 for Compaq Tru64 UNIX operating system is immediately available as is the beta release of RealProducer G2 for the Linux platform." Ok, so it's not oss, but it is good to see. "

We mention this occasionally, and its listed anywhere this sort of thing would be mentioned, but I figure now is as good a time as any to rerun a link to the Linux Counter. As you might have guessed, this site aims to count the total number of Linux installations on the planet. Go fill out the forms. It'll take a minute, but those numbers are essential to convincing the PHBs. Thanks to Mattias Sörlin for sending in the URL. (and yes I know, there are a dozen similiar efforts)

Dave Miller, the ultracool hacker who does (definitely) work at Red Hat, wrote in to let us know Linux 2.2.2 has been released. A summary of changes should appear on Cutting Edge Linux shortly. This new kernel should fix the recent autofs bug (fixed in ac7). Update: 02/22 11:35 by J :Dave Whitinger, the guy behind the fabulous Linux Today site, wrote in with the linux-kernel-announce(ment). Update: 02/24 03:13 by CT : Dave Miller does work at Red Hat.

An anonymous reader wrote in to tell us that Debian has scheduled March 2 as the official release date for v2.1 (codename: Slink) of their distribution.

Fudge.Org writes "There is a promo link on CNNFN.COM. It mentions RedHat being born in a garage and/or college dorm, and how it will topple the Bill Gates empire. The article should show up some time today. " Someone yell when this link goes live.

An anonymous reader wrote in to sent us a few links to mainstream articles regarding Trinux, a small security-oriented toolkit type Linux distribution that runs in RAM and boots from floppies. One article can be found in InfoWorld, and the other is in c't (most of us will need to babble fish that bugger).

Gary Franczyk writes "Apparently Linus Torvalds was named one of the top visionaries in Upside's Elite 100 list of most influential people in the computer industry." He's the only "Visionary" that didn't get his picture on that page. So sad.

papertiger was the first one to write-in and tell us about the latest issue of the New York Times magazine. The major tech article just happens to be about an OS we're a bit familar with-in this case, Linux, The Rebel Code, as titled here. The link does not require registration but will only be live for the next week.

An anonymous reader writes "rawhide.redhat.com has finally put the 2.2.1 RPMS on their site. It seems to be Kernel 2.2.1 release 3. "

funkwater wrrote in to tell us that Burlinton Coat Factory has been noted as the first significant retailer to deploy the Linux operating system in all 250 stores. Do the responsible parties over there read Slashdot? Want to write something to help convince other companies to join you? This is a great step forward- many people in similiar situations regularly email me to ask for help making this sort of thing happen in their organization. The geeks know. The suits are catching on.

An anonymous reader said "An employee of Hash, Inc., the makers of the phenomenal Animation:Master 3D modeling and animation software, inquired today on the animation:master mailing list on whether or not users would buy a Linux verion of the software package, if Hash happened to port it to Linux. You can email Steve Sappington at Hash and let him know if you'd be interested in a Linux port. " For those of you who care, I animated Hamster Havoc and Duckpins in an earlier version of this software ages ago. I miss this program more than Diablo. Update: 02/18 09:09 by CT : Steve from Hash emailed me and said that this was completely untrue and to stop emailing him. I'm bummed.

An anonymous reader sent us a link to a Linux Power interview with Wichert Akkerman, the Debian GNU/Linux project leader. Talks about the future of Debian, his role, and more.

Henry Griggs sent us an interesting interview and article with Andrew Tridgell, aka the Samba Master. He talks about working with, and against Microsoft. I found it interesting that some groups would help, and other wouldn't-although now Samba is a recognized threat. How many of you folks use Samba, at work and such?

desertfool writes " A good article is running about Burlington's switch to Linux. " Of course, ComputerWorld does call Linux a "shareware" OS, but hey-at least retailors are beginning to see the value of Linux.

An anonymous reader "Red Hat has a set of update rpms that are apparently intended to make 5.2 fully compatible with the 2.2 kernels. (I've been using 2.2.1 since it was released with no ill effects anyway...) " I'm posting this just so people stop emailing me and asking. Besides, the rpms seem to be worki

Cory Williams writes " Scientific American has a nice little article about Open Source and its superiority to commercial software: "The Best Things in Cyberspace Are Free". Not like we didn't already know this. "

Brad Andrews asks: "I recently finished building a new house, and networked it to provide central control over ambient audio levels and possible distributed video. I'm curious whether anyone has heard of a linux-based solution for central video and audio service, with a focus on MP3 and DVD, that I could combine with TV out ports and AC-3 decoders so I can watch the same movie from anywhere in the home. I'd prefer an x86 architecture, but if there is a complete integrated solution on another platform (StrongARM?) I would be interested in that as well. "

mrlament wishes to know about the following: "I've been a long time Linux user, but I keep finding myself having to switch over to my Windows box in order to view videos. I've tried xanim, and have yet had it properly handle a single video, aside from the real player, I cannot seem to find a single decent player for MOVs, AVIs and MPGs. Does anyone know of any, or are there just not any out there?" I posted this up here because I get a lot of this from people outside of Ask Slashdot, so I figure there are people out there that want this information. Hit the link for more.