TEMPE, Ariz. — Linux user and advocate Deepak Saxena has proposed that the Linux community use the launch of Microsoft's upcoming Windows 2000 to help educate more users about the benefits of Linux.

Saxena has organized with such pro-Linux companies as Caldera, Red Hat, SGI, TurboLinux, Linux Mall, Linux Central and Linuxcare to provide local Linux users and user groups around the world with information material to distribute on the Feb. 17 launch date. The plan is for every Linux user to take some time on that day to explain some of the benefits of the operating system to people who haven't had much experience with it.

Red Hat files with the SEC

DURHAM, N.C. — Red Hat Inc., a Linux distributor, has filed with the SEC for a follow-up offering of up to four million shares.

The stated goal of the offering is: "To provide working capital and for other general corporate purposes including geographic expansion and possible strategic acquisitions or alliances."

IBM products get ready for Linux

SOMERS, N.Y. — IBM has announced that it is committed to making all its major computer product lines Linux-ready, combining a number of efforts in that direction that different divisions within the company have taken in the past few years.

Irving Wladawsky-Berger, the founder of IBM's Internet business unit and developer of the company's "e-business" strategy, will be heading a new unit within IBM's enterprise hardware business group.

The unit will have responsibility for all Unix and Linux software efforts, for advanced computer designs and for bringing together IBM's next-generation Internet strategy.

IBM is also planning to set up a new sales force focused on marketing Linux and Unix products.

— Compiled by Owen Ferguson