Oracle says it is investing in the adoption of Linux in Asia by incorporating support for the regional open source version of Linux, Asianux. The company announced in Shanghai today that it will be offering complete certification on Asianux across the Oracle product line.

Key Oracle partners, including AMD, Dell, HP, Langchao, NEC, and Sun, have all said they will certify their products and support the adoption of Asianux as a Linux standard in Asia, according to Oracle.

CCID Consulting estimates the Linux server software market in China will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 49.3 percent over the next five years.

Asianux was developed through a joint partnership between China's Red Flag Software and Japan's Miracle Linux at Oracle's China Development Center in Beijing. Staffed with Linux experts from Oracle as well as local and multinational partners, the China Development Center certified Oracle 10g on Asianux.

Oracle has two research and development centers in China, in Shenzhen and Beijing. In addition to supporting Asianux, the company also has strategic partnerships with top Linux firms Red Hat, Novell, Miracle Linux, and Red Flag.

In May, Oracle claimed to be the "largest Linux-based development organization in the world," with more than 9,000 developers creating Linux products globally.

HP has introduced a multi-user desktop PC with MandrakeLinux. Dubbed the "441" solution, the concept system can be used by four users simultaneously.

This new PC, available from HP for 'emerging markets' targets the education market and ships with productivity applications including OpenOffice.org, educational software, developer tools, and role-based customized graphical user interfaces. The 441 boasts cost savings at 50% of acquisition costs and 65% of maintenance costs, according to the HP website.

"This 441 HP concept with MandrakeLinux is a proof that the IT TCO can be reduced by an important factor, for 0 acquisition costs and maintenance costs as well", said François Bancilhon, CEO. France's MandrakeSoft said in a statement that their Linux OS was selected "for its increased reliability and enhanced security to minimize the maintenance of the computer in the classroom."

The HP machines use either an Intel Celeron or Pentium 4 processor, with minimum 512MB of RAM, a 40GB hard drive, a CDROM drive, and four graphics cards.

IBM Developerworks has published an article about building wireless network devices with Linux. The article, entitled "Running Free with Linux," focuses on the various options and tools offered to manage wireless access points under Linux.

According to the article, the first decision is whether or not to use tools supporting "wireless extensions," an API used by wireless drivers to convey statistics to applications.

Tools that do not support "wireless extensions" include ROSE (Radionet Open Source Environment), an access point development kit that works with Prism-based radios and the 2.4 series kernel, as well as several Bluetooth and IrDA tools.

The "wireless extensions" avail users of the "wireless tools," a number of commandline-based management and configuration utilities, including: iwconfig, iwlist, iwspy, iwpriv, and ifrename. The article discusses various graphical end-user applications that put a friendly face on the wireless tools.

The article then discusses hardware compatibility issues, before concluding with a look at WIANA (wireless assigned numbers authority), NoCatAuth, and the future of Linux wireless networking.

Enfobridge has announced a free support program for the OpenOffice.org application suite, along with the launch of a new website that offers users a way to register for support and download OpenOffice.org software. The program is available to new and existing OpenOffice.org users.

Seattle-based media company RealNetworks is staking its claim on the Linux desktop. Novell and Red Hat said today that they will ship RealPlayer 10 in Linux desktops when it becomes available later this summer. Sun and TurboLinux previously have said they would use RealPlayer as their default mediaplayer in their Linux-based desktop offerings.

RealPlayer 10 for Linux supports media playback for RealNetworks' own RealAudio and RealVideo formats, as well as open standards-based Ogg Vorbis and Theora codecs. It is built on top of the open source Helix Player and is being developed within the Helix Community.

As part of today's announcement, Novell said it will be contributing resources to help qualify RealPlayer on its Linux desktop.

GNOME Foundation executive director Tim Ney said, "Working together, Real and Novell will enable users of the GNOME Desktop Environment to enjoy premium content on the Web such as corporate, enterprise, educational, governmental content, as well as all the great movies, sports, news, music, and content available on the Web through RealPlayer for Linux or the Helix Player."

RealPlayer 10 includes support for a range of both open source and commercial components including MP3, Flash, and other popular media formats. RealPlayer 10 for Linux and the open source Helix Player can be downloaded here. The Helix Player will be available under the GPL, and RealNetworks encourages the further development of its media offerings.