Hedonick writes "Seems like a combination of maturity on Linux behalf and bloat on Microsofts part has prompted GM to investigate the possibility of replacing their NT based solution with a Linux based for it's dealerships according to ComputerWorld The whole plan seems to be a bit tentative at the moment but the guy they interviewed, David E. Hutka, is the operations manager for GM:s dealership network and makes some good points on why Linux would be a good (and bad) choice." Unfortunately, it looks like they have a lot of legacy code that may require porting, but it's still good news.

With the increasing momentum in the Linux world, more and more productivity applications have been coming out for Linux. Kurt DeMaagd, who's spent quite sometime in other IDEs, has reviwed Cygnus Solutions' "Code Fusion". Click below to read more about it.

edmz asks: "At work we have about 20 PCs which are all identical. We are planning on installing Red Hat on them but we want to fine tune it for the specific hardware that we have. We would like to install it and tune it on just one box and then somehow make an image or installation from it and store it in CD so that it can easilly be installed in the other machines. We would like to go the CD way, and I was wondering if there is any software that does this or if somebody knows an easy way to do it."

C|Net talked with Marc, but we got hold of Red Hat's Donnie Barnes yesterday, and interrogated, er, asked him questions. Click below to learn more about what to do with IPO money (Hint: Think missle-toting Lear jets), software patents, open source licensing, and trademark issues.

hussar noted that SuSE and Siemens have developed a memory extension that will allow Linux to use up to 4GB of memory. Linus has reportedly approved its inclusion in kernel 2.3.15. The strangest part is excite has taken to posting about Linux Kernel Patches. Pretty crazy stuff.

Will in Seattle writes "Marc Ewing, Chief Technology Officer of Red Hat Software, opens up, in an interview with cNet, about Microsoft, the IPO, and more" C|Net gets Marc, and Slashdot get's Donnie? Waaait a minute! (We love ya Donnie!) Our interview with Donnie J Barnes (which has more meat than this interview) should be up tomorrow.

KuRL wrote in to tell us that Salon has a piece by Andrew Leonard on Linux Laptops and why they haven't caught on. Talks a lot about the cursed WinModems, mentions that VAIOs are yummy, and more on the subject. Its probably stuff that the average Slashdot reader already knows, but its a nice piece.

DrStrange writes "I just noticed that Screen Media has updated their pages with info about their upcoming "FreePad"... It's a Linux based wireless web device and phone with touch screen, and according to one of their techs it's only 2.4cm (less than an inch) thick! The same tech also told me they'll be using NanoGUI for the graphical frontend! "

nd writes "A new beta of Red Hat is out, available at the Red Hat FTP site. This presumably pre-6.1 release is named Lorax, with quite a bit of new features (note: this is beta and is NOT intended for everyone). Perhaps the biggest is their new installation program, Anaconda, featuring gtk+ and text interfaces. Even better, Anaconda is GPLed. Mirror list available here. Check it out. "

Eric^2 asks: "I'm fairly new to the linux OS but I managed to get my Gateway Solo 9100 running Mandrake. After seeing how often the kernel gets updated, I was wondering if there are any GUI tools available to automatically download, compile, and update the linux kernel. I know this sounds a lot like Microsoft Windows Update (which is terribly slow and fails about half the time), but it would be really nice to tell my laptop "go get this kernel and install it tonight at 11:30 and if anything fails, go back to my current kernel" and be done with it instead of having to download a patch or full version, backup, compile, and so on. There's just too much for a novice like myself to *$@% up. Suggestions? " Something like this will be necessary if Linux is to successfully move to the desktop. The masses must have an easy way to update there systems for things like bug fixes or new features. Remember: Joe User doesn't necessarily know how to compile, even if it is as simple as "configure; make; make install" (and to be honest, it isn't 100% there yet).

scobiej asks: "I've been trying for some time now to get a direct serial connection between my Linux laptop and an NT workstation box running RAS to work but to no avail. I've read the documentation etc. but I cann't get PPP (Linux client) to work. I've recompiled the PPP package (Version 2.3.5) with MS-CHAP enabled but I still cann't get it to work. The scenario is like this. The office network consists of NT workstations, servers, unix boxes etc. all running on token ring (!!!) and all I want to do is get my laptop connected to it somehow so I can transfer files etc. (or even use VNC). I'm NOT splashing out on a token ring card as I would never use it anywhere else. "

Mads-Martin writes "Well, it seems as though Alan Cox ^[?] has been kind enough to answer even more questions then the interview. Look at the September 3 entry. "

Chris asks: "For the past while I have had a LAN connecting my parents Win95 machine to my Win98 macine. The 95 machine has a connection to the phone line, and I have been using a Proxy server to connect to that machine and use the net at the same time. Recently, I've installed Red Hat 6.0 on my machine. My problem is that I want to connect to the internet using Linux through my parent's machine like I have always done, but I can't find any info on how to do it. My ISP dynamically allocates our IP address, so that complicates the matter. I realize that IP-Masquirading exists, but that only works with the Linux machine as the server, and I want it as the client. I also know about proxy servers, like squid, but they are too large for a 2 computer network, and again, use Linux as the server. I know my Ethernet card has support, according to LinkSys it uses a Tulip driver and that was detected on installation. Any help would be greatly appreciated."

Monday we asked you to post questions for Alan Cox. We got so many good ones that only those moderated up to five were sent to him! Alan's answers are as great as you'd expect from one of the world's greatest kernel hackers. Read the full Q&A session below.

There's been a significant amount of confusion in the past couple days over the issue of whether Red Hat was requiring everyone who was re-selling the distro to no longer mention Red Hat anywhere. That, thankfully, is not the case. Click below to get the full skinny on what you can - and can't - do with the Red Hat name.

platinum wrote to us with the news that folks at the Internationale Funkausstellung in Berlin are showing a board for Linux that will allow DVD under Linux. Specs for the board are on the site, and the board should be availible towards the end of the year-December, probably.

The Turkish Linux User Group decided to raise a yearly fee for memberships and email aliases due to the inability to get sponsors for their other projects. Read on for an open letter by Andreas Mueller.

Red Hat may be tightening use of its trademark. Robb Sands, an independent reseller of Linux products who generates many of his sales through Amazon.com's auction site, says, "I received a call from a representative of the fraud/legal department of Amazon named Elyssa Back about 1 p.m. eastern time today who said I would need to modify my product and advertising when used in conjunction with a product that is not the official boxed set."

A reader sent us a Datamation article talking about the use of Linux by Southwestern Bell. That's right-if you are in MO or KA, your phone call made it through thanks to Linux. Good press is always nice to see.Update: 09/02 12:06 by H : Yep, I'll admit it. I'm an idiot. Kansas is KS, not KA.

If you've been using Linux or reading Slashdot for more than a few months, we don't need to tell you about Alan Cox. (If you are new to Linux and/or Slashdot you can learn more about him here.) Anyway, this is your chance to ask Alan anything you want. Post your question(s) below. Moderators will choose the most interesting ones. Answers will appear Friday. Please try to ask only one question per post. Thanks.