UpFront

Wonder what the weenies at Google are up to, besides finding ways to make 17,000+ Linux servers search for everything in nothing flat? Try finding out where you live. It's easy. Maybe too easy.

Substitute your name for these: John Doe KY (in other words, first name last name two-letter-state-abbreviation). If they get enough information from some white pages directory, they might even come up with a Yahoo! map to your house.

Want to de-list? Go here: www.google.com/help/pbremoval.html.

And, for more information, go here: www.google.com/help/features.html#wp.

—Doc Searls

Maybe it was the long-awaited Apache 2 beta release in March, or maybe it was the “increasing returns” economics by which the huge get ubiquitous while the small get trivial. Any way you look at it, it's hard to beat the increasing majority Apache—which is open source—enjoys as a server of web content to the World.

Netcraft's April 2001 survey finds nearly 18 million sites serving with Apache, or 62.55% of the total population of 28,669,939 surveyed sites. That's a 2.3% gain. Microsoft's IIS also gained .89%, achieving 20.64%. Sun/Netscape's iPlanet beat even with a .03% gain, for a 6.27% share. The rest, in total, were down.

Here are some of the improvements in the Apache 2 beta:

The Apache Software Foundation is at apache.org.

Netcraft also reported that Compaq and AltaVista have followed Amazon's lead by moving its servers to Linux. Both were on Tru64 (formerly Digital UNIX, which was bought by Compaq along with the rest of Digital Equipment Corp). Compaq moved off Tru64 to Windows in January 2001, before moving to Linux. Netcraft is at http://www.netcraft.com/.

—Doc Searls

It's starting to look like a tsunami of Linux-based PDAs is about to spread out of Asia. From Japan, Sharp recently announced that it would roll out a new PDA based on Linux rather than an OS from Palm or Microsoft. The Korea-based G.Mate Yopy is a PDA that uses a speech interface from Conversay, a company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Ericsson Singapore and Singapore's Centre for Wireless Communications have announced a jointly-developed “handheld computer” called the DelphiPad that runs Linux, features a 10-inch touch screen and is scheduled to sell in the fourth quarter of 2001 for under $1,000 US. VTech has the Helio. And you can put several forms of embedded Linux into Compaq's iPAQ and other PDAs.

But the PDA with major momentum at the moment, judging from the sudden upswelling of buzz in the Linux community, is the Agenda VR, from Agenda Computing. While Agenda is owned by Kessell International of Hong Kong, which also handles manufacturing, the company's whole agenda (pun intended) seems to originate out of its Irvine, California offices, where the company is run by its president, Bradley La Ronde.

Recently I was on The Linux Show with Brad, who seemed to be at least as committed to mobilized Linux as the OS' famous creator. I got the distinct impression that Agenda is a harbinger of change in the consumer electronics business, from one controlled by corporate giants to one controlled by small developers who take advantage of freely available technologies that are constantly improved by their surrounding development communities. I later found out that this particular show was one of the most popular in the history of the program.

Then a couple days ago I got this unsolicited e-mail:

Later he added,

In the words of Ian LeWinter, Agenda's VP Marketing, the Agenda VR will compete with Palm, Handspring and other PDA companies for a reason that has nothing to do with Linux' hermit crab-like ability to run in almost anything. The whole look and feel of the device “screams cool”. It's truly palm-sized (4.5" x 3.0" x 0.8"), comes in three colors, runs on NEC's 66MHz 32-bit MIPS processor, with 8MB RAM + 16MB Flash Memory, both IrDA and its own peripheral ports. Audio, too.

According to the independent supermegamulti.com/agenda/ site, there were 93 Agenda VR3 programs in the on-line software depsitory. Those include 23 apps, 16 games and 22 utilities. By the time you read this the number will certainly be much higher.

A review of the Agenda VR is in the works for a future Linux Journal.

—Doc Searls