Not another bubble, please

After Internet stocks crashed, investors wondered what new exciting industry would again inspire the market and lead the next rally. The answer: Internet stocks, according to USA Today.

In a development eerily reminiscent of the dying days of the bull market, stocks such as Yahoo and Amazon have snapped out of their three-year funk and are leaving the broader market behind, the paper reports.

Going into today`s end to the first quarter, the USA Today Internet 50 index is up 6.2% for 2003, while the Standard & Poor`s 500 is down 1.9%. The performance of some individual Internet stocks is even more impressive. Fibre-optic maker Corning is up 81.3%; Yahoo, 49.1%; Amazon, 43.9%.

The Internet revival reopens debate on whether a new mania is forming.

Sun Microsystems` branded Linux distribution has been extinguished before it ever even caught alight, reports The Register. The company will go with "standard distributions" instead. Sun refused to utter the words Red Hat and SuSE, the site reports, "but we are quite sure those are the 'standard distributions` which it intends to offer on 32-bit hardware".

The company is reported as saying customers do not really want a Sun-crafted version of Linux when more than ample operating systems already exist.

Sun Linux has only been available since late last year on the LX50 server. It walked hand-in-hand with Solaris x86 on this system and was to provide a common link for Sun`s desktop and low-end Intel server efforts.

Much-loved computer columnist Henry Norr has been suspended by the Hearst Corporation - owner of The San Francisco Chronicle - for expressing political views on his day off, The Register reports.

Along with 2 000 other citizens, including the former head of the Pacific Stock Exchange, Norr was arrested in San Francisco last week as he was protesting against the US-British invasion of Iraq. He e-mailed the paper to say he would be late the next day. The Chronicle suspended Norr without pay.