Linux founder and Transmeta Corp. engineer Linus Torvalds says the final Linux 2.4 kernel will be posted for commercial release early December. This version of the program brings better support for symmetric multiprocessing, USB support and an improved networking layer, delivering the scalability that corporate users have wanted. A Gartner group VP says of Linux, "It's done a good job as a Web server and server appliance, but this may be the first release that can demonstrate whether it can measure up to other operating systems such as Windows 2000 and different variants of Unix, and whether the open source and community development model work, even in a commercial operating system environment."

In related news, Linux developers are grappling with the opposing objectives of keeping Linux unifed versus modifying the OS for different sets of applications.

To read the source article on Linux 2.4, click techweb.com. For the story on Linux fragmentation, read eetimes.com.