The almighty Yosh asked me to announce the return of the monthly GIMP contest. The site returns under the management of tc, and the new topic is a photo collage. Go forth and GIMP!

Con Zymaris wrote in to tell us that APC (Australian Personal Computer Magazine) has Given some awards to a few familiar faces: Productivity Sofware of 1998 to The Gimp and their Just Plain Cool Award 1998 to Red Hat Linux 5.1

Magus311X writes " Even during the usual marketing of Windows 98 and how to effectively nuke your system resources using it, Linux once again is mentioned! The wonder OS was featured on Computer Chronicles with a cool segment featuring Linus Torvalds over national cable access. Linus bashes the OS market by claiming that all the OS's "Just... suck." and self-proclaimed himself as "the best programmer in the world". The show also included snippets of the ever-glorious "Slashdot.org" using Netscape 4.5, as well as The Gimp, KDE. It also featured VA Research, and that they make custom Linux boxen. (Mooo!) So, thanks to WGBH 44 and all the other cable access channels that featured Computer Chronicles, for showing the world "The growing alternative to the Windows platform". The show usually reruns the following Saturday, so tune in on 10-17-98 for some Linux action. And check out the Computer Chronicles website"

The release of The GIMP v1.0.1 has recently occured. Updated plugins, bug fixes, some new odds and ends. And as if that isn't enough software to clutter up the poor modem to my house, we also have Linux 2.1.123 available as well. Download. Compile. Reboot. Repeat.

Partisan writes "This guy has ported GTK (at least some of it, I don't know much about GTK) and THE GIMP to Win32. This port does NOT require the install of Cygnus GNU32 or an X-Server. More information is kept here as well as an explanation of the whys and hows"

Jean Paul Smets wrote in to send us a link to Pictures of Linux at AppleExpo. He also wrote up a few highlights which I've attached to the other half of this story...

Jaime Cruz writes "OS/2 Netlabs has completed porting everyone's favorite graphics manipulation program to OS/2! As far as I know, this is the first port of Gimp to a non-Unix based operating system. For the full details, check here! " Also, Craig Setera wrote in to tell us that he has released binaries of his win32 port of the Gimp. This one still needs an X-Server and stuff, but its a good start.

A.X.G. writes "Red Hat Software and Frozenriver are going to try to create the definitive GIMP manual, plus try to explore as much as possible use of free graphics applications on Linux."

Joe Hamelin writes "S.u.S.E. 5.3 is now out. Get it at suse.org, the Seattle Mirror. Lots of new X config stuff and gimp 1.0 in the release. S.u.S.E. has been so easy to install and maintain that I hesitate to switch. It's reliable too.. all slashdot gifs are served from a S.u.S.E. box. " Last time I tried S.u.S.E, the install seemed a little wierd, but I think I might try it again soon. Anyway, S.u.S.E's official web site is here, and if any of the S.u.S.E folks are reading this, what the heck is zuse.suse.de?

ISHIKAWA Mutsumi writes wrote in to say that v1.0 of X-TrueType Server Version 1.0 is now out. You can read the homepage in japanese or english. Snag the code from there and use the billion TrueType fonts available on the net with the Gimp.

Patrick Aland sent this story from MSNBC about Linux. The story itself is a well-written one, talking about some of things we already know: about how wonderful Linux is and how all it needs is one great application and nothing will stop it. I dunno, I think that the Gimp does a good job, but what do I know?

Sean wrote in to send us this link to a response from Adobe about a Linux port of Photoshop. They say exactly what you would expect (not enough demand to justify a port) and something you wouldn't (they suggest looking at the Gimp).

Ishikawa writes "Anyway, GIMP News reports that there is a port of the Gimp availiable for WIN32. It still requires a running X-server in order to work."

Usman Latif has written a feature for us on Be, and why he believes that it makes sense for them to take their OS and release it as open source.

Brock wrote in to tell us that LinuxPPC is now released. Comes with KDE, The Gimp, Netscape, and all the fixin'z you'd expect in a modern *nix. If you got the hardware, you know what to do.

Benjamin Karas writes "Total Impact announced that they will sell computers, for $15,000, that have 3 4-G3 PCI cards in them. Wouldn't that be nice for Gimp! " If multiple CPU boxes can be had this cheaply, perhaps we'll see support for more than 4 CPUs.

Jeffrey Davis writes "LinuxPPC has a big fresh new release, R4. link ". Indeed they do. The new release features Netscape Communicator, The GIMP, and a very "Kontroversial" Desktop Enviornment. Interestingly enough, the LinuxPPC folk are incorporated, and some of their stuff seems to imply they're for-profit. Can anyone clarify? It's good to see some commercial development work being done (and some good work, at that)!

Shawn T. Amundson has sent us a feature on Solaris and the Desktop. Most of his arguments are cut and paste translatable to Unix as a whole, but in Sun's case, he's quite right. If they want to grow, they need a new desktop. Anyway, hit the link below to see what he has to say about making that happen.

EugeneL sent us a link to a techweb article where you can read about Sun's New Workstations. Obviously I can't afford one, but I bet that Ultra 450 would make one amazing Gimp Workstation.

Piotr Mitros writes "Remember Gyve, the drawing program from Japan meant to complement Gimp? Well, it's finally reaching a state of early usability. It still core-dumps a lot, and parts of it are awfully slow, but it's already possible to draw, add text, manipulate objects, etc. with it. " Looks quite impressive. When the 36 hour day ammendment passes, I'm going to download it and give it a try.