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I'm glad to extend my subscription because Linux
Journal is a very nice Linux-related magazine providing me with the
global perspective of the Linux world which cannot be easily obtained
by searching the Web, Usenet, and the like. I am always grateful for
your efforts and hope LJ will continue to help me as it did in
the past year of my subscription.
Sohn, Jung-woo
Aerospace Engineering Department
Seoul National University, Korea.
sylph@plaza.snu.ac.kr
First, I would like to thank everyone at SSC for publishing Linux Journal. I eagerly wait for it to arrive at my door each month. I have been using Linux for a few years now and currently develope applications and utilities for Linux using Motif and, more recently, Java.
The concern I have for Linux is the ever-growing use of Java as a programming language of choice. I am not saying using Java to deploy applications on Linux is a bad thing, and I am not putting down the Java programming language (I use it regularly, and enjoy it). It just takes away some of the developer support for Linux-specific applications, which Linux needs. If applications are written in Java and run on Linux or any other operating system for that matter are we just turning our beloved operating systems into another Sun JavaStation or Oracle NC? Running Java-based applications on Linux is fine, but is Linux then losing the free and commercial application base that it needs to bring Linux to the next step? The next step being broad-based commercial Linux applications, that could be purchased at your local computer store or out of a general PC magazine. As many of us know, having a high number of applications available for an operating system attracts more people to it.
On the other hand, Linux has been a Java trail-blazer. Linux
can incorporate Java binary support into its kernel. Creating
applications in Java has its upside--applications which have been
developed on a Microsoft platform can be easily run on the Linux
operating system. Because of this, Linux could become a major platform
in small- and medium-sized businesses that need both a rock solid
operating system to run their operation and to be able to run all of the
big name brand software. The Java language could actually increase
the Linux-installed base around the world. If users of other operating
systems become tired of software upgrade costs, downloading bug fixes
and paying huge per minute costs to telephone support companies,
maybe Linux will become the logical decision.
Stover Babcock
stover@pit-stop.com
The history of personal computers seems to have many examples of systems clutched too tightly by their creators, missing out on opportunities to broaden appeal and usage. Making Linux Java-capable does not change the essential nature of Linux: free and open.
In my article on multithreaded programming [``What is
Multi-Threading?'', Issue 34], I completely failed to mention where to
obtain the library I make use of in the programs that go with the
article. The library I use came from
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~xleroy/linuxthreads and is very good, and
less than 100K to download.
Cheers,
Martin McCarthy
marty@ehabitat.demon.co.uk
I just received my first issue of Linux Journal in the mail today. I must say that it is refreshing to know that there is a journal dedicated to Linux.
I live and play in Biloxi, Mississippi, an area not often
thought of in positive, humanistic ways. But time and imported people
have brought this area from gloom to glimmer. Technology has finally
arrived in the deep south, sparked from casual conversations
on a campus computer system, to a full blown ISP using Linux, of
course. My Linux box is connected to the Internet via their service.
Okay, so
we have technology here, and we have people to utilize it. I know
there is a small and quiet group of people out there who use Linux
also. The gist of this letter is I would like to form a Linux
users'
group here, so the quiet group can join together and spread the wealth
of knowledge out there with each other. For only by becoming a
community of friends and associates, can we continue to grow and
nurture our Love for Linux.
Thank You
Ted F. Fox
tfox@gooner.datasync.com
This is a good opportunity to mention GLUE--Groups of Linux Users Everywhere. SSC, publishers of Linux Journal have established GLUE to give users groups visibility, special deals on SSC products, and other services to help groups grow. See the home page (http://www.ssc.com/glue/) for details.
Greetings! I am writing in response to Cory Plock's letter to the Editor in the February 1997 issue of Linux Journal about not finding Linux distributions in stores.
I have been able to find Slackware and Red Hat in the major
software stores in Houston for some time now, and I can even go into a
few major book stores and not only find lots of books on Linux with
their bundled distributions, but I have even found Red Hat 4.0 and
Applixware on the shelf! I guess Linux has caught on earlier in some
parts of the country than others. (At the first ever Houston Linux
Users Group organizational meeting, we had over 150 people show up!)
Don Harper
Pencom Systems Incorporated
duck@pencom.com
That's good news!