Workstation Pro 6.1 provides a solid set of commercial IDE tools that are well designed for developing and deploying Web-based applications. Borland's popular Java development tool, JBuilder Foundation 3.5, is included, although a serial number registration key (not provided) is needed to install it. However, we were able to install Sun's freely available Forte for Java without a hitch. IBM's Developer Kit for Linux Java and trial versions of WebSphere Homepage Builder and the Apache-powered, JSP- and XML-enabled WebSphere Application Server are included for Web developers building dynamic, database-driven sites.

Turbolinux is alive and well and living in the Asia/Pacific, bringing the power of Linux to millions of people who may not know Red Hat and SUSE outside of press releases. Hey, where was I when the rest of the world started to exist?

Turbolinux was originally based on an early release of Red Hat Linux (4.2), but began developing its own tools and capabilities early on. Today's Turbolinux is well-crafted distribution with an obvious focus on internationalization, but with an equally significant interest in multimedia support.

Red Hat offers the widest variety of support options and additional features, from the basic $349 version to the $2,499 Enterprise Server AS version, which adds load balancing, clustering features, and the promise of one-hour turnaround on support. SuSE supports the broadest variety of processors. Turbolinux offers most of the features of the SuSE version but adds some nice utilities of its own. And Mandrake offers a very nice suite of GUI administration tools that will appeal to those with less Linux experience.

When I saw the announcement for version 10F ( data sheet - PDF ) I was genuinely interested. Not only did this version support DVD playback out of the box using Cyberlink's PowerDVD software for Linux , but it also was to support Windows Media codecs up to version 9, with the exception of Windows Media Audio Pro (but seriously, who really needs that anyway). All this done legally and completely licensed. A more complete picture of what this distro is comprised of follows...

Like most other distributions, Fedora is so far doing the dual /lib and /lib64 setup so that software compiled on 32 bit machines is supported (and yes, Kernel support for 32 bit binaries is on out of the box). I did find a few small binaries from my 32 bit machine that would not run, but they needed a not so obscure library that was not installed. This is not a huge problem to overcome and in fact searching for a pre-built Fedora rpm turned up one that worked fine (in fact, one could copy the rpm from the 32 bit Fedora). All of the installed programs that I tried worked, and I would guess that some are still in 32 bit mode (as seen on Gentoo, etc). However, like Suse and TurboLinux, I did not run across any software installed out of the box that did not work.

TurboLinux is the only major Linux vendor that still offers only a text-based installation routine. Linux veterans may not mind the spartan interface, but if you're new to Linux you should take note that the installation guide specifically says that installing Workstation Pro 6.1 requires some familiarity with Linux. If you're still undaunted, the installation process is reasonably well-documented, with step-by-step instructions as well as pictures and descriptions of installation screens.

Turbolinux is a good deal at the right price. At only $29, its ability to mesh into a corporate environment has got to exceed that of many other desktop Linuxes. Not to mention that TurboLinux support options are available and also inexpensive. I'd stress that deployment in a business would probably be enjoyable. The learning curve between Windows and Turbolinux, I anticipate, is much less than a migration to SUSE Linux, Red Hat, Debian with stock KDE/Gnome, FreeBSD, or any other major distro with the possible exceptions of Lycoris and LindowsOS.

Japanese Linux firm Turbolinux, a founder of the UnitedLinux group and provider of one of the most widely-used Linux distributions in Asia, Wednesday added its support to the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) consortium.