In Brief: Aug. 28, 2000

THE PENGUIN THAT ROARED Linux, the little operating system that could, is catching up with big siblings Windows and Macintosh. Last week high-tech heavyweights IBM and Dell announced new deals to sell Linux servers, and a host of other firms declared their support for Gnome, a Windows-like user interface for Linux. Unlike its stuffier competitors, Linux is free, and was developed collaboratively by an international community of hackers. Also unlike its competitors, it has a funky penguin as a mascot.

CYBER SCRIPTURES The godless realm we know as the Internet is about to get a little bit holier. A Florida company called Visual Bible www.visualbible.com is producing an epic, completely scripturally faithful video of the Bible, which it plans to make available on the Internet. The project is expected to take up to 15 years and cost in the neighborhood of $400 million. For all that, it won't be the first: the entire New Testament is already online in MP3 format at www.audiotreasure.com C'EST CHIC, LE GEEK Strange bedfellows Levi Strauss & Co. and Philips Electronics have teamed up to produce a line of high-tech, high-fashion clothes that come with electronic devices sewn right into them. The new threads, which Levi's has dubbed ICD+, were created by Massimo Osti, and will debut next month in Europe. So far the line consists of four jackets, one of which features a built-in MP3 player, cell phone and microphone. Levi's says it has no plans to launch ICD+ in the U.S. And that's O.K. with us. Really.

--By Lev Grossman