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Linux/Unix
Business PerspectiveThe Value of Linux for the SMB Market Linux is here to stay. As the computing industry’s fastest growing operating system some analysts predict that Linux will surpass Microsoft Windows in new server shipments in just a few years. This represents a significant growth opportunity for solution providers as Forrester Research estimates that 50 percent of SMBs would consider open source for desktop applications and 38 percent would consider open source for database applications. As the technology continues to mature it’s becoming easier for solution providers to implement allowing SMBs to overcome the real and imagined roadblocks to adoption. Linux a low-cost multi-platform operating system that scales from PC desktops to mainframe computers rivals Microsoft Windows with regard to performance and reliability. And due to the freely available nature of the Open Source code base users can customize the software to meet their unique business needs – without incurring costly license fees. more > Unisys Predicts 2007 Open Source Trends: Architectural Approaches and Specialized Stacks Will Domina Legacy Integration and Expanded Channels Will Also Be Keys According to Unisys experts 2007 will be the year that open source software attains the architectural backing and distribution channels needed to gain acceptance from enterprise customers as a front-rank vehicle for deploying enterprise applications to drive business growth and innovation at a lower cost per transaction. Forecasting the year ahead Unisys executives predict that: 1. Architectural approaches to open source will begin to predominate; 2. Specialized stacks will drive a new direction for business applications; 3. SOA and standards will close the gap between legacy and open systems; 4. Open source providers will boost SI and channel distribution strategies; and 5. The smart money will be on driving business growth and innovation. more > Linux Drives a Mainframe Revival Linux may not be everyone’s idea of a mainframe operating system but for a growing number of large and medium-sized businesses the synergy between Linux and big iron is the solution to a significant problem. Many users want to consolidate their burgeoning populations of distributed Linux applications and to find a way of applying centralised management and security. And when it comes to consolidation the System z takes some beating. IBM mainframe support was a late addition to the Linux repertoire. Work on the project began around 1997 and Linux/390 (the predecessor to zLinux) was rolled out in 1999 some eight years after Linus Torvalds first unveiled his software. more > Unix shops ignore signs of market decline Doug Burak calls his two midrange Unix servers the cornerstone of the computer services at Bucks County Community College (BCCC) where he is IT security director. Ken Edgecombe claims throughput has improved fivefold since upgrading to new midrange Unix servers at the High Performance Computing [HPC] Virtual Laboratory in Ontario Canada where he is director. Midrange Unix systems are getting squished like a sandwich from increasingly affordable mainframes from above and increasingly robust x86 systems from below. IBM's smaller mainframe now starts at $100 000 while many Unix systems cost at least twice as much. Meanwhile x86 systems are developing multicore processors to compete with the number-crunching computing that Unix has been known for. more > Microsoft COO Lashes Out At Linux Google Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner had some strong words for Google and Linux vendors looking to stomp on the software dynasty. We're not going to let Google win in the enterprise space. That's our house our market space said the 40-year-old Turner the former Wal-Mart CIO whose tough talk elicited cheers from hundreds of Microsoft partners gathered for the closing keynote at Microsoft's partner conference Thursday in Boston. more > IBM's Investment in India Includes Linux Development IBM recently announced it would triple its investment in India over the next three years. India and other emerging economies are an increasingly important part of IBM's global success said IBM Chairman and CEO Samuel J. Palmisano. In the next three years we will triple our investment in India -- from $2 billion over the last three years to nearly $6 billion in the next three years. That investment will ensure that we make the most of the opportunities to grow this marketplace while it also enables IBM to fulfill its vision to become a globally integrated company. more > Yankee Group: Time Is Ripe For Oracle Linux Oracle Corp. building or buying its own Linux stack offers possibilities that would allow the company to compete with established open-source market leaders Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Novell SUSE Linux according to an analyst. Yankee Group research fellow Laura DiDio estimates Red Hat already owns between 75 percent and 80 percent of the commercial open-source distribution market. If Oracle's going to do it they need to get product out before Red Hat runs away with the race DiDio said. Unless they have a secret lab somewhere and they've been building and testing a complete stack for the past two years they need to buy into the space this year. A Linux distribution stack would do a lot for the company DiDio as 80 percent of Linux databases already run Oracle. more > Novell Offers Details on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 Novell is betting that its upcoming SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 will be the release that drives widespread business adoption of its Linux desktop especially as it brings features like integrated desktop search which is not yet found in its largest competitor Microsoft's Windows.Executives from Novell based in Waltham Mass. are in Germany for the annual CeBIT trade show where they will be talking about the new desktop due out this summer. The desktop has also been renamed and rebranded from the current Novell Linux Desktop 10 moniker to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 Greg Mancusi-Ungaro a director of Linux and open source at Novell told eWEEK. While he declined to give specific pricing details Mancusi-Ungaro said not to expect much movement from the current price of $50 per system a year for its Novell Linux Desktop 9 which is targeted at those customers with more contained workloads. Until now the biggest issues IT administrators faced around the Linux desktop were overall desktop usability connectivity to collaboration the productivity applications at its core and its ability to be deployed and managed by IT. more > Survey Shows Linux Is the Better Server Choice Opinion: Get the real facts. Linux takes up less time to run and provision than Windows. Do whatever it takes to get your senior executives to read the new research report Get the Truth on Linux Management co-sponsored by the OSDL (Open Source Development Labs) and Linux management company Levanta. After years of putting up with Microsoft's anti-Linux half-truths in its Get-the-FUD campaign Linux supporters are finally striking back. But if that's all this report was I'd barely bother with it. Operating system flame wars may be exciting but no one ever changes their positions because of them. People just harden into the positions they were already occupying. What's different about this report from Microsoft's endless series of anti-Linux reports is that it focuses on the hard evidence of uptime management and software costs and system administrator costs per server and user. By those basic metrics they (Microsoft) prove that Linux is simply easier and cheaper to manage on servers than Windows. Actually OSDL and Levanta don't need to prove anything. The numbers speak for themselves. more > Solaris and Linux: No Code Swapping While Sun Microsystems is open to licensing Solaris under Version 3.0 of the GNU General Public License it will not reconsider its decision not to license the operating system under GPL 2.0 the current version of the license. Sun's refusal to reconsider licensing Solaris under GPL 2.0 also appears to effectively remove any chance that code from that software can be co-mingled with that from the open-source Linux operating system which is currently licensed under GPL 2.0. That's because Linus Torvalds the Linux kernel project leader has said that he has no plans to relicense the Linux kernel under GPL 3.0 when it is released early next year. Thus if the Linux kernel code does not get licensed under GPL 3.0 even if Solaris does the current restrictions on the co-mingling of code from the two operating systems will essentially remain in force. more > Windows vs. Linux: Think Patch Quality Not Quantity News Analysis: Tests at Microsoft's Linux lab show that counting the raw number of security updates required by the various operating system flavors is not as meaningful as examining the efficiency of the update process. Microsoft Corp. seems to be moving away from focusing on the actual number of security patches and updates that it and its software competitors release. Instead it is concentrating on making it easy and efficient for customers to obtain the security fixes and update their systems. Bill Hilf who is director of Platform Technology Strategy at Microsoft and heads its Linux and open-source lab told eWEEK in a recent interview that the differentiator for customers is not the number comparison but which vendor makes the patching and updating experience the least complex most efficient and easiest to manage. more > Mainsoft IBM Port .Net Apps to Linux J2EE Mainsoft Corp. and IBM Wednesday announced an effort to work together to extend the Linux ecosystem by helping Microsoft customers move to Linux. Mainsoft of San Jose Calif. said the new program enables Windows Web and server applications to run on Linux across IBM's line of eServer platforms supporting IBM WebSphere application servers. Mainsoft a cross-platform development company produces the Visual MainWin single source code development solution for .Net and J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition). This is a teaming agreement with IBM for .Net ISVs to get into the Linux and J2EE markets said Yaacov Cohen president and CEO of Mainsoft. This gives ISVs the opportunity to double their market. With the announcement of its agreement with IBM Mainsoft also announced Version 1.7 of Visual MainWin for J2EE. Visual MainWin enables C# and Visual Basic .Net developers to develop and maintain Web and server applications on both platforms Cohen said. In addition Version 1.7 has been validated on IBM's ServerProven program he said. more > Microsoft Challenges Linux's Legacy Claims News Analysis: Tests run in Redmond's Linux lab seek to dispel the myth that Linux can run on anything especially older legacy hardware. Microsoft Corp.'s Linux and open-source lab on the Redmond Wash. campus has been running some interesting tests of late one of which looked at how well the latest Windows client software runs on legacy hardware in comparison to its Linux competitors. This may seem strange given Microsoft's desire to upgrade every possible customer to the latest version of Windows often resulting in a forced hardware upgrade as well. That strategy however is far more effective in the developed world than among developing nations Bill Hilf who is director of Platform Technology Strategy at Microsoft and runs the lab told eWEEK in a recent interview. The tests which found that Windows performed as well as Linux on legacy hardware when installed and run out-of-the-box were done in part to give Microsoft the data it needed to effectively put to rest the myth that Linux can run on anything. It also shows us what applications can run on those machines and software helping us better identify the needs and challenges of the public sector in those countries Hilf said. more > Swiss Government Switches Systems to Linux Novell said that operational efficiency and cost were the key reasons the Swiss government moved its servers to Novell's SUSE Linux operating system. Novell Inc. Tuesday announced an agreement with the government of Switzerland to convert some 3 000 of its servers to the company's SUSE Linux operating system. Operational efficiency and cost were key factors driving the Swiss government's decision to move to Linux according to Novell. Novell did not disclose the value of the contract but did say it was the first formal procurement of any Linux platform by the Swiss government. Linux has been gradually introduced into various government departments in recent years but this is the first formalized procurement process regarding the introduction of Linux at a federal level said Jurg Roemer Delegate for Information Strategy of the Swiss Federal Government. The agreement we have reached applies to the entire Federal Government and will see the adoption of Novell's SUSE Linux throughout the Swiss federal administration. Since Novell acquired Germany's SUSE Linux two years ago it has made a handful of noteworthy enterprise Linux deals to go with many smaller transactions. Last August for example the company announced an agreement to supply 250 000 of its Linux desktops to Argentina. more > New Linux Study Suggests Fundamental Microsoft Creditability Problems This time around Microsoft commissioned a study to show that Windows does a better job of serving e-commerce applications than Linux does. Of course in the study they didn't use the same e-commerce or back-engine DBMSs. OK right there without saying another word anyone who really knows anything about benchmarking knows that the study is fundamentally flawed. You're not comparing apples to apples; you're comparing apples and oranges. It would be a different story if you were trying to compare the transaction speed and reliability of e-commerce packages but that's not the case here. Microsoft was trying to prove that Windows was better than Linux. To do this study Microsoft hired Security Innovations Inc. Paul Thurrott a Windows journalist describes the company as highly regarded. I prefer to use Security Innovations' own description of its relationship with Microsoft: Security Innovation is a certified Microsoft partner for security services. We have both the Microsoft SWI and ACE certifications as an authorized professional services provider for Microsoft technologies. more > OSDL Aims Multivendor Initiative at Linux Mobile Phones The OSDL on Monday launched the Mobile Linux Initiative an effort to accelerate adoption of Linux in mobile phones--one of the fastest growing consumer device segments. Linux is already among the top three OSes in converged mobile phones according to industry analysts and has shipped in Motorola handsets since 2003. The OSDL (Open Source Development Labs) which employs Linux creator Linus Torvalds and strives to be the center of gravity for Linux has long been rumored to have an embedded Linux project in the works. The organization last summer hired embedded expert Bill Weinberg and more recently took over stewardship of the Embedded Linux Platform Specification following the demise of the ELC (Embedded Linux Consortium). OSDL CEO Stuart Cohen said in April that the organization would get involved with embedded given enough member interest. And indeed Linux has turned out to be hugely interesting to mobile phone vendors many of whom already belong to the OSDL because of its Carrier Grade Linux initiative. more > Teaching Children To Love Linux The Chinese government is embracing the penguin. It awarded a $42.7 million contract last week to Sun Wah Linux Ltd. for 141 000 desktop PCs running the open-source operating system for primary and secondary schools in Jiangsu Province. Sun Wah Linux working with six PC vendors plans to install Rays LX its version of Debian-based Linux workstation software. The original contract called for Windows but the software vendor says it managed to turn these desktops into dual-boot machines with Rays LX as the preferred loading OS. The computers also will be loaded with E-learning applications from local vendors. The deployment in Jiangsu Province a heavily populated area that encompasses the lower Yangtze River plain and western approaches to Shanghai is part of China's School-to-School Project which aims to connect 90% of the nation's schools to the Internet by 2010. Sun Wah Linux says the deal is among the top five largest Linux desktop deployments in the world. more > Dell Offers Potential Linux Desktop It may first appear that Dell is offering small office/home office buyers a Linux-based PC but what the company is actually offering is simply a PC without a Microsoft operating system. Dell Inc.'s new Dimension E510n PC is shipped with an empty hard drive and a copy of the obscure open-source FreeDOS operating system. FreeDOS is an open-source version of MS-DOS that Dell E510n users can install. The operating system is also freely available at the FreeDOS Web site. However although the E510n PC is advertised as a desktop on which you can run Linux or other open-source operating systems Dell will not install Linux: FreeDOS is you only choice. In addition as it says on the product's Web site Dell does not support non-Dell installed operating systems. So if you install a Linux and it doesn't work you'll need to look to your Linux distributor for any technical support. more > IBM Exec Scans The Open-Source Horizon. Is That Linux On The Desktop Ahead--Or A Mirage? IBM's top software exec talks about the many ways the company is embracing open source and why. When IBM considers the future of its $15 billion-per-year software business the proliferation of open-source software and Java-based applications is crucial to kick-starting the division's relatively flat sales and keeping it competitive with Microsoft. IBM climbed aboard the Linux movement early but over the past few years the company's open-source efforts have extended well beyond the operating system. IBM has made a habit of contributing code to open-source projects hoping others will create new software that IBM can sell and provide services for or that at the very least will encourage the growth of Java-based development to block Microsoft's .Net ambitions. more > New Ways To Corral Content: Businesses turn to enterprise content management to help meet regulatory Enterprise content management an amalgam of processes spanning Web content management document management imaging forms management and archiving has become Topic A as companies struggle with an explosion of unstructured content and a relentless stream of regulations governing records retention. The overriding themes are regulatory compliance and business managers' desire for greater control over the content that drives revenue.Content-management suites from vendors such as EMC Documentum FileNet Interwoven Open Text Stellent and Vignette as well as entries from IBM and Microsoft provide companies with a wide choice of platforms. Oracle also has entered the fray with its Files 10g product. Both IBM and Oracle have provided tight linkage between their enterprise-content-management offerings and their relational database products. more > What's Driving Global Linux Adoption? Open Software Development Lab (OSDL) business recently took me to India a country of 1 billion people with a highly skilled IT professional class that is doing some amazing work with Linux. This trip as well as many others I have taken on behalf of OSDL provided me with another opportunity to see firsthand the phenomenon of Linux and open-source software spreading across the globe. more > Linux vs. Windows - Is the Gap Narrowing? According to leading analysts Linux is a legitimate player for corporate servers but it has yet to make any perceptible impact in the desktop market. In the past the main reasons for migrating from Windows to Linux servers were to lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) and to improve security. However recent analyst commentary is questioning this reasoning. more > Novell reveals its Linux strategy and 10-year support program Novell used its Brainshare conference last week to spell out long-term plans for Linux extending its commitment to encourage application development on the open source operating system. The company discussed a framework on which it would build tight security for Linux to support authentication and also unveiled details of a 10-year support plan for its Groupwise e-mail system. Jack Messman chairman and chief executive of Novell argued that Linux helps CIOs achieve their most critical priorities including simplified operations cost containment and improved business agility. more > Linux to break into mobile market Meta predicts that within five years Linux will capture between 20% and 25% of the global mobile OS market from a virtual standing start and that manufacturers including Motorola Siemens and Samsung will drive that growth. The market is currently dominated by the Symbian operating system followed by Palm and minor player Windows Mobile. Meta said it expected to see a significant number of new mobile phones with embedded Linux operating systems coming on to the market in the next two to three years joining the existing MontaVista system. more > Novell users eye Linux for kernel swap Two weeks after Novell Inc. released software that lets users run its stack of computing services on either the NetWare or Linux kernel members of the NetWare faithful cited widely varying plans for migrating their servers to Linux. Some attendees at the software vendor's BrainShare user conference here said they're in no rush to move to SUSE Linux the distribution of the open-source operating system that Novell acquired in January 2004. But others are starting to dabble with Linux and some are eager to take the plunge right away. Once Novell was behind [Linux] it was an easy decision said Roger Fenner infrastructure services manager at Comair Holdings Inc. in Erlanger Ky. I not only trust the Linux platform but I really trust Novell's handling of the Linux platform. more > Open source's open sore In a case which over the course of several years has spiralled to encompass some of the biggest names in computing a Utah federal court has finally ordered IBM to turn over the code-base of its AIX and Dynic operating systems for scrutiny by SCO a relative software minnow. The action against IBM is the latest step in a lengthy campaign by SCO to enforce intellectual property rights over code allegedly misappropriated and redistributed worldwide as part of the Linux open source operating system from which AIX and Dynic are derived. Although SCO's dogged pursuit has been controversial it does highlight the challenges which have appeared around open-source during its evolution from intellectual hobby-horse to global business phenomenon. Let there be no doubt that today open source - in particular Linux - is very big business. more > Linux group to hold first meeting BCS members have formed the Open Source Specialist Group which will have its inaugural meeting on 14 March in London. At the meeting Sarah Ewen Linux evangelist in Sony Computer Entertainment's Technology Group will describe the company's long-standing business use of Linux and other open source systems. She will also discuss the design of the Playstation 2 entertainment system. The strengths of open source software have played a crucial role behind the scenes in our organisation and continue to do so as we look towards the future she said. more > Partners: What Happens Now with HP and Linux? Hewlett-Packard Co. has been a strong Linux supporter but since CEO Fiorina has been forced out what will happen next? Novell Inc. one of HP's three major Linux partners—the others being Red Hat Inc. and Mandrakesoft SA—sees business as usual ahead. Bruce Lowry Novell's director of PR said HP is and remains a strong partner of Novell. We don't anticipate any changes in that. HP's other Linux vendors and its Unix partner The SCO Group Inc. had no comment. On the other hand Stacey Quandt a senior business analyst with the Robert Frances Group said she thinks that if the HP board allows the server division to be sold off this would impact HP's Linux strategy for servers. more > Real-World Linux Implementations My cable remote control is an intimidating little device. It has many buttons and quite frankly I’m not sure what roughly 60 percent of them do. I’ll sometimes have to resort to unplugging my cable box which may seem like a primitive approach to problem solving but it seems to work.Sometimes however I’ll discover something about my cable remote that’s truly useful and often timesaving. Similarly ever since IBM* iSeries* servers have been able to house Linux* partitions some iSeries loyalists have been cautious about leveraging the new technology. They know they have the Linux functionality at their disposal and they’ve been assured that it’s a useful and convenient technology. Still it’s tough for some companies to garner the courage to push that strange little Linux button to actually see what it can do. more > Linux leaders at open-source summit A panel of Linux luminaries took the stage at last week's Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) Linux Summit and held forth on a range of topics from the threat of software patents to the challenges of making a career in open source. The panel included the creator of Linux himself Linus Torvalds who serves as an OSDL fellow; Mitch Kapor chairman of the Mozilla foundation and semi-legendary founder of Lotus Development Corp; Andrew Morton maintainer of the Linux kernel for the OSDL and Torvalds' right-hand man ; and Brian Behlendorf CTO of CollabNet and a founder of the Apache open-source project. The event was emceed by OSDL CEO Stuart Cohen. more > IBM Tones Down Linux Desktop Plan More than a year after IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano challenged his company to move to the Linux desktop by the end of 2005 IBM has significantly toned down its rhetoric on the subject of open-source clients. We don't have anything we want to say that's definitive said Nancy Kaplan an IBM spokeswoman. She declined to comment on specifics of the Linux rollout. There are people using Linux and nobody is telling them to stop she said. more > IBM Launches Ambitious Marketing Support for ISVs Database Trends and Applications As a part of a $1 billion effort to support its ISV partners in specific industry sectors IBM has launched new marketing and advertising benefits for business partners that participate in the company's PartnerWorld® Industry Networks initiative. We will continue our world class technical enablement support Aimee Munsell director of ISV and developer relations told LinuxLine. But we want to also help ISVs accelerate their marketing and selling efforts industry by industry. According to Munsell Linux plays a key role in many of the solutions IBM ISVs provide. more > IBM seen challenging software industry with release of patents IBM Corp. this week took the next step in its efforts to spur development and adoption of open-source applications by pledging to offer developers free unfettered access to 500 of its massive collection of software patents. The company said it won’t threaten developers who use the technology covered in the announcement with patent infringement lawsuits as long as resulting products conform to the Open Source Initiative’s (OSI) definition of open-source software. more > Linux Workstations Play Key Role in IBM-NYSE System IBM® is working with the New York Stock Exchange on a new order management and messaging system in support of the 1.6 billion shares traded daily. The system will be one of the world's most sophisticated examples of Extreme Availability relying on IBM computers infrastructure software and engineering expertise for a network designed to virtually eliminate downtime. Joint work on the new NYSE TradeWorks processing system is part of a long-standing and wide-ranging technology relationship between the world's largest equities market and the biggest information technology and services company. more > Torvalds and others set to speak at Linux summit Linus Torvalds Andrew Morton Brian Behlendorf and Mitch Kapor will participate in an open conversation as part of the keynote at the OSDL Enterprise Linux Summit Jan. 31 to Feb. 2 in Burlingame Calif. according to Open Source Development Labs Inc. (OSDL). The Beaverton Ore.-based consortium also announced that Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Computer Associates International Inc. and Red Hat Inc. among others have recently been added to the lineup of exhibits at the first-ever event. more > What it's like to switch to open-source About three months ago I was hired by an 80-person manufacturing company as director of IT primarily because of my experience with Linux. Job No. 1 they said was to ditch as much Microsoft software as possible. The business had just acquired a company that used Linux; it was time for the home office to switch over too. The company's motivation was price and stability. It needed $50 000 just to catch up on its Microsoft licenses. At the same time several Windows servers -- including the mail server -- were crashing daily. My initial research showed that if we spent $1 000 on hardware and software we could save $10 000 to $50 000 per year in license fees and other maintenance costs. more > IBM and Red Hat launch Linex certification program IBM and Red Hat launched a jointly developed Linux certification and support program in Europe earlier this month in an effort to accelerate the migration of applications to Linux in that part of the world. The new program is designed to help independent software vendors (ISVs) who want to certify applications to run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux IBM hardware and IBM middleware. IBM Innovation Centers for Business Partners in Hursley England Moscow Paris and Stuttgart Germany will provide ISVs enrolled in the program with on-site and remote support (through VPNs) for the porting and enablement of software as well as a self-certification process for their applications. more > Open-source practices moving into enterprise development Everyone knows that open source is gaining widespread acceptance in enterprise settings. A recent Forrester report found that 60% of organizations are adopting open source technologies and platforms in one form or another. From Linux to Apache to Sendmail and beyond open source is fast becoming an enterprise commonplace. Interestingly businesses also seem to be adopting the techniques and development practices of the open source community. Corporate IT and R&D organizations face many of the same distributed development challenges already overcome by the open source community says Colin Bodell senior vice president of product development at VA Software. So it's no surprise he says to find companies employing concepts like collaboration and reuse in their development practices. more > Linux sales growth beats Windows IDC's Q3 2004 server report found the users spend £529m worldwide on Linux servers - an increase of 44% on last year. Meanwhile sales of Microsoft Windows-based systems were also growing but at a lower rate. Sales hit £2.8bn worldwide - an increase of 13.3% on last year's figures. Hewlett-Packard said it had shipped 27.4% more Linux servers compared to last year. Blade servers which promise more compact and manageable server technology are gaining popularity according to IDC. Sales have grown by 44% over the past year although at £152m they only account for 2.5% of the global server market. more > Novell Kick-Starts Desktop Linux Push Novell on Monday took the wraps off its first desktop Linux operating system a product that brings to fruition the company's August 2003 acquisition of Ximian Inc. and January purchase of SuSE Linux. Although Novell claims its strategy is to patiently build up a market for desktop Linux in the face of Microsoft's dominance the company's Novell Desktop 9 includes several components that compete with head on with Windows. Desktop Linux has to cohabitate with Windows today says Ted Haeger Novell's director of project management. In fact the company projects it will take as long as five years before a desktop version of Linux is capable of displacing Windows in any significant way. more > Novell launches desktop Linux for enterprises Novell Inc. tomorrow will begin shipping a desktop version of its open-source Linux operating system aimed squarely at enterprise users. Linux Desktop 9 is built on the same code base as SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 a product used by a growing number of enterprises to run their back-office computers Novell announced today. The product which will be available through channel partners will cost $50 per system which includes upgrades and updates for one year. more > Adobe Eyes Linux Desktop Strategy Signs are pointing to a growing interest in desktop Linux and open-source software at Adobe Systems Inc. the maker of popular imaging and graphics software and the standard-bearer of PDF. While details of its Linux and open-source plans remain scarce the San Jose Calif. company has joined a major Linux-advocacy group and is hiring engineering and business development employees focused on desktop Linux. more > IBM SGI win Linux supercomputer deals in Asia IBM and Silicon Graphics have won contracts to supply Linux-based supercomputers to a Korean national university and a Japanese nuclear research institute the two companies said Thursday. The IBM system will be provided to Seoul National University and consist of a 425-node cluster of the company's JS20 blade servers. The servers were launched by IBM earlier this year and are the company's first to be based on its Power PC processor. The South Korean system will also include IBM's Fast 7000 data storage system and will have a maximum performance of 5 teraflops said the company. more > UPS Unsure Open Source Can Deliver Despite the growing acceptance of open-source software not all companies are willing to entrust their operations to a community of strangers. Open-source software's collaborative model resonates with United Parcel Service Inc. as the company looks to build a services-oriented architecture where applications can be developed in one part of the company and deployed in multiple locations. But Nick Gray UPS's applications manager for architectural services sees the open-source developer community as a less-stable incarnation of the collaborative programming that IT departments have been doing for years. more > Choose open suppliers says OGC Government departments could demand that IT outsourcing partners demonstrate open source capabilities following the recommendations of an Office of Government Commerce report published last week. The OGC is taking the lead in the Treasury’s drive to save £20bn across the public sector. After a year-long series of trials it reported that open source software was a viable and credible alternative to propriety software for the public sector. more > Open source software gets the ‘rubber stamp’ The Linux community has received a major boost after the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) declared open source software (OSS) a viable option for the public sector. In a report that was released last week resulting from recent pilots the OGC concluded that OSS was an efficient and cost-effective desktop software option. Areas tested in the pilot scheme included OSS’s viability as an alternative to proprietary software costs and benefits as well as value for money. The findings will not only help resellers selling Linux into the public sector but will prompt the private sector to take a new view of the open source options available. more > Ballmer's Linux Spin Which operating system Linux or Windows is cheaper more secure and lower risk? Countless hours have been spent debating the question and last week Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sparked the argument again. In a letter E-mailed to customers Ballmer contended that a growing body of data proves that Windows beats its open-source competitor on all three fronts. It's pretty clear that the facts show that Windows provides a lower total cost of ownership than Linux the number of security vulnerabilities is lower on Windows and Windows' responsiveness on security is better than Linux Ballmer wrote. And Microsoft provides uncapped IP [intellectual-property] indem- nification of their products while no such comprehensive offering is available for Linux or open source. more > Business Technology: Microsoft And Its Blind Spot: Linux Steve Ballmer's letter to customers said nothing about the widespread reality of tens of thousands of Microsoft customers who are eager to deploy BOTH Windows and Linux. It's not so much what he did say; it's more a matter of what he didn't say. Steve Ballmer's letter to customers that was also artfully distributed to media across the world said that some analysts say a Windows enterprise solution is often less expensive than a comparable Linux enterprise solution. more > Open-Source Software Use Joins The Mix Companies in the United States are expected to build out their software architectures this year at a cost of $234 billion. Prepackaged and customizable commercial software will account for 56% of spending; 37% is spent on internally built software; and custom-developed software supplied by third parties comes to 7% of 2004 spending according to Forrester Research. Open-source products have gained a firm foothold in many U.S. companies. more > Full Text of Microsoft Comparing Windows with Linux and UNIX Letter Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer this week sent a letter to customers outlining the reasons it believes Windows is superior to Linux. This is the full text of that letter. more > Dell to pre-install SuSE Linux on servers Dell will install Novell's SuSE Linux operating system on Dell PowerEdge servers as part of a worldwide agreement the companies announced at the LinuxWorld conference in Frankfurt. Novell's SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 will be available on PowerEdge 1850 2800 and 2850 servers for an annual subscription per single CPU (central processing unit) server for £110 while the price for a dual-CPU annual subscription will be £160 said Judy Chavis director of marketing for global alliances at Dell. The Novell agreement gives Dell Linux customers more platform choices with Dell's full customer support. We are offering a single point of service said Mathias Schadel vice-president and general manager of Dell Germany. more > Australian government inching towards desktop Linux The Australian government agency responsible for distributing social security payments is still moving towards near-universal use of desktop Linux but it's slow progress. Centrelink the Australian government agency responsible for distributing social security payments is expecting delivery of Novell's Open Enterprise Server technology early next year--another step on the organization's path that seems to lead to the ubiquitous deployment of Linux. Peter Gunning Centrelink's national manager for infrastructure architecture told ZDNet UK sister site ZDNet Australia that Centrelink is investigating various combinations of hardware and software to find the best possible solution in terms of manageability security and efficiency. more > Ballmer: Windows better value than Linux In the face of growing competition from Linux Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer outlined the economic and security advantages Windows has over Linux the potential dangers of open source involving indemnification and the intent to aggressively convince Unix shops to migrate to Windows. Ballmer contended that the increasingly higher prices companies such as IBM Red Hat and Novell charge for technical services and support along with costs associated with indemnification now outstrip the financial advantages of free open-source software. It's pretty clear the facts show Windows provides a lower total cost of ownership than Linux. The number of security vulnerabilities is lower on Windows and Windows responsiveness on security is better than Linux and Microsoft provides uncapped IP indemnification of their products. [There is] no such comprehensive offering available for Linux or open source he wrote in the memo. more > Chicago Exchange makes Linux call A quiet corner office of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. high above the steady roar of shouting traders on the exchange floor Joseph Panfil director of distributed computing is focused on the smallest increments of time. There is a direct relationship between system performance and trading volume at the CME also known as the Merc. By reducing the amount of time it takes to process a trade trading volume can increase. The more trades there are the more trading fees the exchange collects. Time is the bottom-line metric of Panfil's world. Everything in the trading world is a matter of split seconds he says. more > Windows dominates but desktop Linux may be skill of the future Linux is an open source operating system widely used on servers. It has also been touted as an alternative to Windows on the desktop but is far behind the Microsoft product in terms of number of users. Champions of Linux on the desktop claim that the KDE and Gnome Linux desktops have reached a level of maturity where they offer an acceptable end-user experience . This may not be particularly inspiring but as the Open Source Applications Foundation pointed out Bill Gates built his empire on software that was good enough for most people. Linux is now good enough for large numbers of people. A key remaining task is to convince buyers to consider a Linux desktop on its merits the Open Source Applications Foundation said. more > Unisys joins Open Source Development Lab IT services and hardware vendor Unisys Corp. has joined the nonprofit Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) a move that comes as the company continues to expand its involvement in Linux and open-source products. The Beaverton Ore.-based OSDL is a global consortium working to accelerate the adoption of Linux in corporate computing. Last month Blue Bell Pa.-based Unisys joined the Red Hat Partner Community and in August it announced the expanded availability of Linux on its ES7000 server line. more > Gartner Analysts Give Nod to Prime-Time Linux Analysts at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo are finally acknowledging that Linux and open source should be part of a company's plans in every IT area. Things have changed. Oh the titles of the Linux/open-source sessions may sound the same: Enterprise Linux: Will Adolescence Yield to Maturity? and Does Open Source Deserve a Place in Your IT Portfolio? But the content ah that's another matter. For example if you went to the enterprise Linux session with yours truly you'd find that the analyst Gartner vice president and distinguished analyst George Weiss doesn't think there's really any question at all about Linux becoming mature. Indeed it already has in some ways and by 2010 it will equal any other operating system still in business. more > Open source products grab corporate attention When the Internet travel market began to kick into high gear in 2002 National Leisure Group which sells vacation packages through sites such as Orbitz and Priceline.com knew it had to step its services up a notch. It embarked on a project to create an online system that could put together custom vacations for prospective customers in minutes. That meant writing a new application and extending its application server platform. NLG is not alone in looking at open source alternatives beyond Linux. Analysts say that in the move to cut costs and drive efficiencies enterprise users are starting to get more serious about open source products such as Jboss; and databases such as MySQL and PostgreSQL the Apache Web server the Samba file and print server and OpenOffice desktop software. more > Q&A: Red Hat exec talks of challenges to open-source The biggest challenge for the open-source community is that there are too few open-source developers according to Michael Tiemann vice president of open-source affairs at Red Hat Inc. Tiemann is the latest among a number of key executives from the Raleigh N.C.-based Linux vendor to visit India which has a large base of software developers as well as a number of companies that are investing in computerizing their operations. In a telephone interview from Mumbai last week Tiemann talked to IDG News Service on issues relating to the open-source movement Red Hat's strategies and his recent blog debate with Jonathan Schwartz president of Sun Microsystems Inc. on Sun's commitment to open-source. more > Don’t pay SCO without a refund guarantee Software company SCO is suing IBM for billions of dollars and threatening users of Linux with legal action claiming that IBM has put parts of SCO’s intellectual property into the open source operating system. Although Ovum analysts are confident that SCO will lose its case this serves as an important warning about the potential dangers of downloading software with unknown origins. In March 2003 Linux distributor SCO announced it was suing IBM for allegedly placing Unix code to which SCO had obtained the rights via an acquisition into Linux. At the time SCO’s chief executive claimed that thousands of lines of Unix code had been copied into Linux by IBM. more > Paris city authority hedges bets on Linux move The city of Paris intends to reduce its dependence on software suppliers with de facto monopolies but considers an immediate switch of its 17 000 desktops to open source software too costly it said Wednesday. Elected officials met Tuesday to receive and discuss a report on the economics of migrating to open source software commissioned from IT consulting company Unilog SA. One scenario presented in the report a total and immediate switch to open source was ruled out as being inappropriate given the aging state of many of the city's computers. In addition the high cost of such a move would produce no improvement in service. Officials instead accepted the report's recommendation of a gradual opening of the city's IT systems to alternative suppliers. more > Hot skills: More companies are using Linux despite lawsuits and cost issues Deployment of Linux is growing across large enterprises. Linux is a version of Unix that runs on a variety of hardware platforms and is widely used for servers. As open source software it is free although it is distributed for a fee along with technical support by suppliers such as Red Hat and SuSE. Linux has suffered a couple of setbacks in its previously unstoppable rise. One is the lawsuit by SCO Group against other Linux suppliers - and threat of suing users - claiming that some versions contain proprietary code. Although Novell and other suppliers have promised to bear litigation costs smaller distributors and the free software community can make no such undertakings. more > Novell Warns Against Patent Suits Maintaining that patent lawsuits can stifle innovation the Linux software vendor warns that it could wield its own patent portfolio as a defense. Subscribing to the theory that the best defense is a good offense Novell on Tuesday made it clear that any patent litigation against the Linux kernel or the open-source community would give Novell cause to check any accuser's own software against Novell's extensive portfolio of patents for possible retaliatory litigation. The company's sentiments underscore the complexity of reconciling the roles that open-source and proprietary software play in enterprise IT environments and among software developers. more > Open Source: Balancing Innovation and Risk The world of software development traditionally was a clandestine one where developers in the bowels of their institution were entrenched in writing thousands of lines of code to meet ever-changing business requirements. That isolated environment is increasingly giving way to open collaborative development. Through this ubiquitous Web-based community end-users' needs are posted and programmers-hungry for recognition or just the betterment of technology as a whole-write an application after which an army of individuals rewrites and debugs it. Open source software's potential for enabling rapid development of IP applications could be important as the Internet drives new services in the fixed and mobile worlds. Whether MySQL Apache Open Forge GNU Linux or any number of open source projects-the open APIs by which component architectures talk may lay the groundwork for interoperability among applications. more > How Serious Is AT&T About the Linux Desktop? According to AT&T CIO Hossein Eslambolchi the telecommunications giant is considering Linux or the Mac to replace its Windows desktops. Or is it? Is AT&T as one report had it looking to throw Windows out? No not according to AT&T spokesman Michael Dickman. The bottom line is that Eslambolchi has set up a team to evaluate multiple desktop platforms Dickman said. Yes today Windows has security problems but Eslambolchi is looking for desktops two to three years down the road and if Linux becomes popular and hackers pay attention to it who's to say the Linux desktop won't have its own security problems? more > Microsoft's Longhorn Failure Is Linux's Chance Opinion: With the promises of Longhorn revealed as market-freezing trickery Linux has its best chance ever to seize control of the desktop. Microsoft's vaporware master plan is finally broken. The wonderful wizards of Redmond are still saying Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! But even the most fanatical Microsoft supporter has to see that Longhorn has become Shorthorn. more > Linux Doesn't Make Sense for Desktops Longhorn's woes may open a door for Linux—a very tiny door—but Linux just isn't a good choice for desktops. Instead desktop Linux proponents should wake up and switch to the Mac OS. more > SCO Posts $7.4 Million Loss The SCO Group the beleaguered Unix company that's locked in an intellectual property war with IBM over Linux and Unix reported another poor quarter Tuesday. For its fiscal third quarter ended July 31 The SCO Group Inc. reported revenue of $11.2 million compared with $20.1 million in the same quarter a year ago. This was in line with SCO's third-quarter estimates. more > Cuts to Longhorn Don't Faze IT Managers Microsoft' weeping changes to its next major Windows release are drawing little surprise from enterprise IT departments many of whom were not counting on the most revolutionary changes promised in Longhorn. Late last week Microsoft announced that it was dropping a centerpiece of Longhorn called WinFS (Windows File System) in order to meet its schedule for releasing the desktop version in 2006 and the server version in 2007. more > Riding Open Source To CIO Spot Sun's new top I.T. exec sees a future fit between Linux and Solaris; also why tech managers must wear three-cornered hats Four years ago when Bill Vass was one of 10 oversight CIOs at the Department of Defense reporting to the CIO-in-chief he was an early implementer of Linux and advocated that a single secure version be used throughout the agency's many branches. Now as new CIO of high-end server vendor Sun Microsystems Vass explains how his advocacy of open source and willingness to manage it might have led him to his latest CIO job. more > Retailers Are Cool To Linux Market-research firm Venture Development Corp. says a survey of retail IT execs shows that just 2% of point-of-sale systems use Linux far less than expected. The retail industry has failed to embrace Linux as warmly as expected a market-research firm said Monday. A survey of retail IT executives has found that Linux is in just about 2% of point-of-sale systems which is far less than the 5% to 8% range expected Venture Development Corp. said. You hear a lot of hype and a lot of talk about Linux but as far as the numbers go we haven't seen them VDC analyst Taylor Smith said. more > Longhorn Delay Stirs Dismay Delight in Developers Developer reaction to Microsoft's decision to hold off on delivering planned parts of the next release of Windows Longhorn to meet the 2006 deadline has been mixed with many calling it a prudent move and others outright upset by the decision. Microsoft Corp. on Friday announced it would be making key elements of the Windows WinFX developer platform in Longhorn available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Microsoft will deliver the WinFS Windows storage subsystem after the release of Longhorn the company said. more > Open-Source Developers Cheer New Linux Base Standard The Free Standards Group will announce on Tuesday the availability of the Linux Standard Base (LSB) 2.0 and that this standard has the support of almost all global Linux distribution vendors. The Linux Standard Base is developed and maintained by the FSG and Version 1.1 was first released in January 2002 at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in New York. At that time the Free Standards Group said the move would allow true interoperability between the multitude of Linux distributions and also facilitate better internationalization capabilities. more > IBM Puts Spotlight On Entry-Level Linux Servers A virtualization option will be available for the systems which are based on 1.5- or 1.6-GHz Power5 processors IBM on Monday introduced a new line of Linux servers intended to compete with entry-level Unix platforms from Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard Corp. We have given users of Linux and those who have made the commitment to move to Linux a server of their own says Elaine Lack director of marketing and strategy for Linux on Power. This is a system designed to run Linux at entry-level prices while providing enterprise-level performance. more > Linux Aims For The Desktop Security and pricing concerns are causing companies to consider alternatives to Windows but adoption of the open-source operating system has been slow Linux software has found lots of friends in IT departments and research labs that like its low price flexibility and crash-proof reputation. Now tech companies such as Novell Red Hat and Sun Microsystems are beginning to market those same virtues on the computer desktop where Microsoft's Windows has a virtual lock on sales. There's an open window of opportunity but few customers seem to have noticed the breeze. more > Open-Source Development: LinuxWorld roundup Attendance at last week's LinuxWorld Expo was on a par with the previous year's show (between 10 000 and 11 000 according to conference organizers) but the exhibit floor was busting at the seams. More than 190 vendors (around 55 more than last year) pitched their tents in San Francisco's Moscone Center to flog their latest Penguinesque offerings. more > Cheap Windows For New Markets Microsoft aims to take advantage of opportunities in countries where PC use remains low with Windows XP Starter Edition. On the lookout for new markets for Windows--and at the same time seeking an opportunity to stymie the growth of Linux--Microsoft will offer its cheaper version of Windows XP in more countries this year. more > Open Source Stress Customers brace for the future as the intellectual-property agendas of the biggest tech companies seem ready to collide. Late last month Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told Wall Street analysts that the commercial software industry faces a risk: Open-source software could threaten the sector's profits in the next decade. At the same daylong meeting chairman Bill Gates asserted the need for increased intense focus on protecting intellectual property in the software business and predicted a dramatic rise in the number of patents that Microsoft files. A week later in San Francisco a different sentiment was in evidence at the LinuxWorld trade show. IBM perhaps the most influential patent holder in the tech industry said it wouldn't use its hefty patent portfolio against Linux as it released into the public domain the software code for its Java-based Cloudscape database. No single vendor no matter how large can claim a monopoly on innovation said senior VP Nick Donofrio. And Matthew Szulik CEO of Linux distributor Red Hat Inc. denounced patent holders' veiled threat of legal intimidation against users of open-source software during his speech. more > Microsoft Rules Another Market With Small Biz Server—Report The Yankee Group says 86% of midsize and smaller companies use Small Business Server. Microsoft's Small Business Server is a remarkable hit said a research firm Monday as it released the results of a survey that claimed an astounding 86% of small and midsize businesses either use the server bundle or are planning to deploy it. more > Due at LinuxWorld: IBM to boost Linux on Power platform IBM has put a lot of effort into beefing up its Power brand over the past year. At the last LinuxWorld Expo the company rolled out Linux on Power-based microprocessors as a major strategy for luring customers away from Intel systems. At this week's LinuxWorld in San Francisco Big Blue is expected to reach out to developers and ISVs with new resources to help them tune their applications for Linux on Power environments. more > eADT at LinuxWorld: Beyond the OS The West Coast edition of the bi-annual LinuxWorld conference opens this week in San Francisco. More than 190 exhibitors are showcasing their wares this year -- 55 more than last year according to Warwick Davies group VP at show organizer IDG World Expo -- and attendance is expected to match last year's numbers of between 10 000 and 11 000. more > Feds Take Two Routes To Supercomputer Power Navy and NASA are doing ocean modeling but building separate supercomputers When it comes to supercomputing one size apparently doesn't fit all. As part of its efforts to solve advanced mathematically intense problems such as weather modeling NASA last week said it would deploy a supercomputer consisting of 20 Silicon Graphics Inc. servers containing hundreds of Intel processors. At the same time the Navy is turning to a system that incorporates hundreds of IBM servers each with just eight processors for its own high-end computing needs. more > Open-Source Insurance Provider Finds Patent Risks in Linux SAN FRANCISCO—On Monday OSRM a provider of open-source consulting and risk mitigation insurance announced that the group has found that there are 283 issued but not yet court-validated software patents that could conceivablly be used in patent claims against more > LinuxWorld SAN FRANCISCO— Sun Microsystems Inc. will demonstrate a new version of its Sun Ray thin-client computing technology for Linux at this week's LinuxWorld conference here. The company is also announcing the release of its C C++ and Fortran development tools for Linux.http://www.eweek.com/article2/0 1759 1630171 00.aspOracle's Rocha: Linux Kernel Ready to Rock DatabasesEweek.comBy Lisa Vaas August 2 2004Categories: BQ&A: Noting that the company's Linux market share blossomed 361 percent in 2003 executive vice president Mike Rocha says it's extending its world-class Linux support and working hard to improve the 2.6 more > Groupware for Linux Goes Open Source Netline Internet Service GmbH of Olpe Germany will announce at LinuxWorld this week that it is open-sourcing its Open-Xchange Server the core technology behind its Linux-based groupware collaboration and messaging application under the GNU General Public License.http://www.eweek.com/article2/0 1759 1630115 00.aspUnisys Brings Linux to High-End Systems Eweek.comBy Jeffrey Burt August 2 2004 Categories: T At the LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco Monday Unisys announced that it can now run Linux operating systems from Red Hat Inc. and Novell Inc.'s SuSE Linux unit on the ES7000 servers which can scale from four to 32 more > Perspective on XML: XML circles the globe Developers are an ambitious bunch. The early rallying cry for Linux began with the words “world domination.” So how do software developers whether community groups or corporate coders go about such a conquest? Perhaps one can take a lesson from the myth of the Tower of Babel whose story is so widespread across cultures that some either think it’s true or an apt symbol of a basic pillar of the human psyche. more > Clusters a’plenty Linux’s maturing clustering and failover capabilities have quickly positioned it as an attractive alternative to high-cost Unix systems whether they are monolithic or distributed. And if their business models would permit it Unix vendors could also create low-cost clusters. Some might say then that the real story here is the cluster. There are plenty of indications that the fabric of computing is changing once again and app development managers can expect to see some “rocking in their world” in turn. more > Microsoft To Take Cheap Windows To More Markets It plans to take Windows XP Starter Edition to a number of emerging markets outside the United States and Western Europe. On the lookout for new markets for Windows--and for ways to stymie Linux's opportunities-- Microsoft will expand its cheaper version of Windows XP into more countries an executive says. more > Survey Says Linux Hacks Are Rare An Evans Data report says only 8% of Linux developers surveyed had ever seen a virus infect their systems.Adding more fuel to the Linux vs. Windows fire a research firm released a survey Wednesday that noted only 8% of Linux developers had ever seen a virus infect their systems. more > Tibco Draws Business-Process Road Map Gartner cites software company as leader in process-management tools. Tibco Software Inc. is using software from its $217 million acquisition of Staffware plc to upgrade its ability to manage business processes. more > Japan Issues Anti-Monopoly Warning To Microsoft The Japanese Fair Trade Commission is demanding that Microsoft remove what it says it a restrictive clause from contracts with electronics makers. more > Red Hat Changes Revenue Recognition Restates Earnings It's changing the basis by which it recognizes software subscription revenue from a monthly to a daily accounting method. more > IBM Poised To Unveil Server Enhancement The new servers will compete not only with Itanium-based configurations from Hewlett-Packard but also with servers from Sun Microsystems. more > IBM Ships Its Answer To Exchange The company says the newest member in its Express line a messaging and scheduling version of Notes is our Microsoft killer. more > Thought for the day: Linux access rights expose CIOs June was a big month for IT directors of companies listed on any of the US stock exchanges including UK firms or having a close business relationship with a company listed there. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 which covers the need to protect the integrity of information provided to investors set a deadline of last month for various criteria to be met. more > Sun Unveils Tiger But It's Still A Youngster Sun execs debuted the upcoming version 5.0 of Java 2 Standard Edition known as Project Tiger at the company's annual JavaOne Conference--though general release isn't expected before fall. Sun Microsystems executives took the stage Monday to unveil a recent contribution to open-source code Project Looking Glass and the upcoming Java 2 Standard Edition version 5.0 known as Project Tiger. more > Gates: Microsoft To Explore Cheap Software With Asian Governments Bill Gates said Tuesday that Microsoft will hold talks with Asian governments to offer tailored cheaper versions of its Windows operating system geared toward bringing computer skills to millions of poorer people. more > BAM goes XML Business intelligence (BI) must be real-time as well as right time and that means business activity monitoring (BAM) and business process monitoring (BPM) need XML according to Anant Jhingran IBM's director of business intelligence. more > Trial Illuminates Ripple Effects Of Oracle's PeopleSoft Bid It's becoming increasingly clear that PeopleSoft Inc. isn't the only high-tech heavyweight worried about Oracle Corp.'s hostile takeover bid for the business software maker. more > Inflation Concerns Don't Deter Investors The markets finished the week on a mostly positive note despite worries about the upcoming Fed meeting that's likely to produce a boost in interest rates. Neither concerns about inflation nor mounting trade deficits could keep stocks from pushing upward on Friday. However the key indexes ended the week mixed as investors continue to worry about the Federal Reserve's pending decision on interest rates. more > Red Hat's Solidly In The Black The Linux vendor posted large gains in sales and net income from the year-ago quarter as the market for the open-source operating system continues to move beyond servers. Although widespread adoption of a desktop version of the open-source Linux operating system seemed like little more than a pipe dream a year ago the strong quarterly financial performance Red Hat Inc. posted Thursday provides a solid foundation for the Linux market to continue its surge beyond servers. more > PeopleSoft adds new version of former J.D. Edwards toolset PeopleSoft Inc. has unveiled a new version of its EnterpriseOne Tools which officials said adds features that can help mid-market companies with limited IT resources more easily deploy applications. The Pleasanton Calif.-based company claims the new version can reduce the time it takes to install its EnterpriseOne Rapid Start solutions by as much as three days. more > Google's secret: Fast cheap and in the driver's seat The biggest stories in recent application development history -- Amazon.com and Google -- are so big that they are pretty much hidden. Both applications required a big helping of chutzpah to happen at all. And both disrupted existing industries creating whole new ones. more > IBM Takes Aim At Brazil It's targeting the country's enterprise IT market with services and PCs based on open-source software. IBM on Monday said it will target the Brazilian enterprise IT market with a range of new PC offerings based on open-source software. The company says it will target companies in Brazil with bundles of client devices--including desktops laptops and PDAs--running the Linux operating system. more > Wyse Adds Capabilities To Linux Desktops It introduced enhanced management security and Web-browser capabilities on two of its Winterm desktops as well as an updated version of its thin-client Linux operating system. Looking to seize a greater share of the growing Linux-based thin-client market Wyse Technology Inc. on Monday introduced enhanced management security and Web-browser capabilities on two of its Winterm desktops. Wyse also introduced version 3.2 of its thin-client Linux operating system. more > R&D Envy Amid today's cost-cutting obsession is there any room to experiment with new technologies? There is at these companies. Each year HIP Health Plan Of New York finds one or two of what chief technology officer Pedro Villalba calls golden nuggets in the company's IT sandbox. The first golden nugget extracted this year from the sandbox--as the company's research lab is known--is a tablet PC with customized software that's used by nurses to gather information about hospital patients so the health-insurance company's case managers can recommend the most cost-effective treatments more > CyberGuard Makes Offer For Secure Computing The acquisition valued at just under $300 million would be CyberGuard's fourth in about a year. more > Ballmer Memo Pushes Concept Of 'Information Work Scenarios' Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's annual E-mail to the troops highlights that concept and Integrated Innovation. more > IT Confidential: Analyze This: The Microsoft Connection Remember the controversy kicked up last year by an analyst report paid for by Microsoft comparing the cost of ownership of Microsoft products favorably with that of Linux? A recent report by systems integrator BearingPoint concludes that the licensing and support costs of Windows Server 2003 were lower than Red Hat Linux or Novell/SuSE Linux in some usage scenarios. Guess who paid for the report? Co-author Christopher Jackson a senior manager of technology with BearingPoint downplays any conflict of interest insisting the findings are entirely objective--and suggesting the fee paid by Microsoft was small anyway. BearingPoint joins Giga Research (now part of Forrester Research) IDC and Meta Group as IT consulting firms commissioned by Microsoft to generate such reports which generally cast Windows in a favorable light. Following last year's controversy Forrester CEO George Colony established a policy against paid for publicized product comparisons. more > Microsoft Cuts Prices To Court Developing Countries The long-running legal battles between Microsoft Corp. and governments in Europe and the United States make the company look like a partner in a bad marriage ready to walk out and call the divorce lawyer. more > Microsoft's Patent Plans Worry Open-Source Supporters Microsoft's new policy for licensing its patents has supporters of open-source software worried that the company will use a broken government system for protecting intellectual property to beat back gains Linux and other competing software have made in the marketplace. more > Oracle unveils native BPEL engine Oracle Corp. last week unveiled what it called the industry's first and most complete Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform. Based on technology acquired with its recent purchase of Collaxa Inc. Oracle's new BPEL Process Manager features what the company claims is the first native BPEL engine or software that collects data from different applications to complete particular business processes. more > Security Q&A: Are Companies Doing All They Can? InformationWeek invited a few key technology suppliers to the financial industry to respond to some of the questions on the BITS/Financial Services Roundtable wish list. more > Testers start your engines! For months now I've been suggesting that most developers should not touch the early builds of Visual Studio 2005 with a stick. Microsoft has released a series of alpha and Community Technology Preview builds that while interesting were far too unstable to actually do anything useful with. But at Tech Ed Europe last week Microsoft unveiled the Beta 1 bits for Visual Studio 2005 and now it's time to put the stick away and start typing. more > Model Driven Architecture (MDA) moves onward ADT sat down for a Q&A interview with Mike Rosen at Cutter Consortium's recent Cutter Summit. Few people know more about Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) than analyst Rosen. As well few have considered more deeply the evolving role of MDA in Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) strategies. more > Taking Stock: Novell's Linux Focus Could Lead To Growth It's been some time since I touched on Novell a leader in PC networking in small and midsize businesses through its flagship product NetWare. Unfortunately NetWare has been a slowly declining cash-flow franchise. A new version NetWare 7.0 should be out by year's end and that might help stem the tide in the short term but does little to resolve the declining long-term fortunes for this once-dominant company. This is where Novell's new Linux strategy comes in. more > CA Turns To Open Source A sweeping intellectual-property exchange sets the stage for future products. Computer Associates has expanded its relationship with the open-source development community with the release this week of its Ingres enterprise relational database for collaborative use. more > Big Blue's Mainframe Gathers No Rust Mainframe customers are taking a fresh look at the Big Iron that celebrated its 40th birthday last month. IBM is spurring things along with new pricing schemes; more powerful processors; support for non-proprietary technologies such as TCP/IP Linux and Java; and on-demand offerings that put the mainframe in the reach of even the smallest customers. more > Defection: Microsoft Proponent Moves To Linux 'Suppose I upgrade to Windows 2003 and Windows XP. What would I be able to do then that I can't do with my current boxes? Nothing. I don't need all of the collaborative features ' Hentzen says. Since its inception more than a decade ago Linux has held a special appeal for small businesses because of its low startup cost kernel stability and communal approach to problem solving. It was so attractive that Whil Hentzen an eight-time recipient of Microsoft's Most Valuable Programmer Award has for the past two years been converting most of his company's Windows systems to open source more > Network Associates Unveils Linux Anti-Virus The company is pitching LinuxShield as a necessary defense for Linux servers in heterogeneous environments. Network Associates Inc. on Monday shipped McAfee LinuxShield an anti-virus package expressly designed for Linux servers. Based on the company's McAfee virus-scanning engine LinuxShield scans for viruses worms and other malicious code that can threaten Linux systems. It features automatic signature updates can sniff out viruses within archived files and has a heuristic scanner that can pinpoint suspect worms and viruses before an updated signature is actually available. more > From CAWorld: Taking life-cycle tack As part of its kick-off at CAWorld 2004 in Las Vegas Computer Associates (CA) officials will describe a renewed effort to promote an application life-cycle software strategy with a wider collection of products now placed under the AllFusion umbrella. Like competitor IBM the company expects life-cycle approaches to gain traction as ''on-demand'' computing grows. more > Linux Going Mainstream When United Parcel Service Inc. first tried Linux three years ago the delivery company ran the open-source operating system for four months on a virtual machine within its mainframe. The test pitted CPU- and input/output-intensive applications on Linux against similar ones on a Unix server. Linux came up short on performance and added a layer of complexity that was discouraging. UPS decided the operating system wasn't ready for the demands of its data-center environment and IBM which had prodded UPS into doing the test agreed more > Timing is Everything Two online essays touching on software patents recently crossed my browser window. The first is Seth Nickell's Why Mono is Currently An Unacceptable Risk . Nickell is a Gnome developer (that's Gnome the open source software project not gnome who lives in the garden) and his essay discusses his reasons for not wanting to base any work on the Mono open-source .NET implementation. The second essay is Microsoft's Patents Pending part of their continuing Microsoft on the Issues series. Coming two days after Nickell's piece this will no doubt strike some folks as the official response from Redmond though a moment's thought will convince most reasonable observers that it must have been planned long before. In any case this particular bit of tub-thumping argues that software patents are A Good Thing and that it's good that the Bush administration is planning to spend some money to try to support the overtaxed patent office. more > The BEA Buzz: Beehive Open Source Initiative BEA Systems is donating the application framework in its WebLogic Workshop Java development environment to the open source community the company disclosed last week. All future development of the newly re-branded Project Beehive will be done in the open-source community by BEA engineers and community participants said BEA’s CTO Scott Dietzen and the company plans to make the framework freely available under a BSD-style license. more > Telelogic tool promises to extend requirements If you want your software development projects to succeed manage the requirements effectively say analysts at Meta Group. Meta surveys have found that approximately 60% to 70% of IT projects fail because of poor requirements gathering analysis and management (Research on Requirements Realization and Relevance 2003). The Standish Group came to a similar conclusion in a survey in which 50% of the reasons given for project success were related to well-managed requirements. more > Windows Linux Highlights From Around the Web Microsoft is accepting applications from organizations that want to beta its Live Communications Server 2005 a next-generation enterprise instant messaging and presence-awareness server previously code-named Vienna. It includes encryption and authentication as well as integration with Office. Interested companies should contact their Microsoft account manager or sales representative for instructions on how to nominate their organization according to a Microsoft announcement. more > IBM Puts New Spin On Client Computing IBM last week introduced technology that's designed to ease the manageability of business applications and increase the productivity of mobile workers. The company says its Workplace Client Technology--a set of downloadable middleware components that work with server-based applications--marries the power of local processing with the efficiencies of thin-client computing. more > Qantas Airways Hands Over IT Management To IBM The deal includes transitioning about 80% of Qantas' servers from Unix to Linux. Qantas Airways Ltd. has signed a 10-year $445 million outsourcing pact with IBM Global Services that will create a utility computing environment expected to help with the airline's effort to slash more than $1 billion in operating expenses over the next two years. more > Windows Linux Highlights From Around the Web IBM's Workplace bundle of application software could actually prove to be the biggest threat to Microsoft's hammerlock on PC software since IBM was pushing its own competing operating system OS/2 from 1987 through 1996 technology editor Alex Salkever writes in a Business Week Online commentary. more > IBM Unveils New Managed Clients Firing the latest shot in the battle to control client side deployment costs IBM is extending its middleware to run client side applications. IBM is releasing new versions of Lotus Workplace that will provide collaboration and lightweight productivity tools while using server-based portal and software distribution technology to manage client deployment. The embedded Micro Edition is currently available for download now while the PC-oriented Rich Client Edition will be available in Q3. more > Two Roads Ahead May 4 2004 Categories: Every few years it's time for developers to take stock and decide where to put their efforts for the future. For the last decade or so I've been following along as Microsoft releases new versions of Windows and the odds are that you have been doing the same. After all that's been the safe choice. But for the next round it looks like there are more than ever two paths to follow. more > IBM launches Power5-based iSeries server The eServer i5 formerly known as the iSeries comes bundled with the company's Virtualisation Engine a collection of embedded software technologies and services intended to help corporate users fine tune their infrastructure and wring more value out of their existing IT assets. more > IBM Unveils Final Beta Version Of Flagship Database The updated DB2 Universal Database features new self-management capabilities and more support for Linux. IBM on Monday debuted the final beta version of the next major release of its DB2 Universal Database which sports self-managing capabilities extended Linux support and geospatial technology inherited through IBM's 2001 Informix Corp. acquisition. more > Dell And SAP Team To Lower Customer Costs SAP needs to fulfill a promise it made to customers CEO Kagermann says SAP needs to lower the costs of software projects and Dell wants to work more closely with software vendors. Those mutual interests converged last week in the form of a partnership aimed at convincing more companies to run SAP applications on Dell servers. more > SOAPtest bubbles up Testing Web service apps can be tricky. Generally speaking a development team in a business-to-business environment is responsible for one end point in a Web services architecture. To verify that your portion of the service is functional you need the other end point which leaves you with a choice between waiting on the completion of the other end point or building your own in-house version of the opposite end point to your Web service architecture. Parasoft's SOAPtest provides an automated environment for emulating a SOAP server or client. more > Covering your assets For anyone following SCO's Linux litigation headlines that SCO's lawsuit against DaimlerChrysler was originally targeted at Bank of America may have provided a bit of comic relief. How do we know about this possible lawsuit? According to press accounts someone at SCO forgot to turn off the Microsoft Word change-tracking feature. more > Study: Small And Midsize Companies Will Lead IT Spending A new Forrester Research report says smaller businesses will increase their IT spending by 6.6% this year as opposed to 1.7% for larger companies. more > Zone Labs Updates Security Enforcer For Guest Access The update includes checks for spyware worms Trojan horses key loggers and other malicious code lurking on guest systems. Zone Labs on Monday rolled out an update to its Integrity Clientless Security solution that blocks non-IT controlled PCs--such as those owned by partners and used by mobile workers--from accessing a company network without having proper security provisions in place more > Open-Source Insurance Open Source Risk Management LLC last week launched the Open Source Legal Defense Center which will advise companies that find themselves accused of infringing on intellectual-property rights--whether or not the accuser is SCO Group Inc. more > IT Job Market Causes Concern A few years ago students entering college to study computer science had high hopes of landing secure well-paying jobs after graduation. Peter Rayson 21 a computer-science major and math minor had visions of earning $70 000 a year in a Java-related position when he entered Queens College in New York five years ago. But with graduation near Rayson is worried that the outsourcing trend will stand in the way of his long-term dream. more > Linux vendors claim Forrester Report favored Microsoft A recent report from Forrester Research comparing security on Linux and Windows systems is being sharply criticized by four major Linux distributors as being biased against them. more > Enterprise inertia holds back open source Canadian IT managers have to get over their inertia if open source software is to make more headway in the corporate enterprise experts told the Real World Linux 2004 conference Wednesday. more > The call of MySQL Attention has focused of late on how open-source Linux is displacing Solaris Windows NT and other OSs. Effects are being felt in the database world as well as MySQL especially seems to be displacing other DBs and gaining open-source traction. more > Software Truce Will 'Grow The Market' First results of Sun-Microsoft pact due in June Sun's Schwartz says more > Linux Vendors Question Forrester Security Report They say the Forrester report about operating-system security used a flawed methodology and feel the report is slanted toward Microsoft. more > Japan's Fair Trade Commission Raids Intel Offices It suspects the chipmaker pressured PC makers to avoid using competitors' products. more > Linux vendors attack analyst report Linux vendors Debian Mandrake Red Hat and SuSE have hit back at research which claims that Linux and Microsoft products are both secure. In a report released late last month entitled Is Linux more Secure than Windows? analyst Forrester said: Microsoft gets a bad rap for security while many believe that Linux is relatively secure. more > Oracle And Dell Take Aim At Midsize Businesses After a couple of years working together to sell their combination of database software and commodity servers to large data centers Dell and Oracle are turning their attention to small and midsize companies. Oracle has granted Dell the exclusive right between now and year's end to deliver preinstalled versions of Oracle Standard Edition One on Dell's PowerEdge 2600 or 2650 servers running either Red Hat Linux or Windows. These pre-install licensing agreements are available in five 10 25 and unlimited user variations starting at $4 108. more > Macs discover new life in sciences Although the Apple Mac platform was long ago counted out by a lot of corporate IT managers it has morphed and continues to find adherents -- the graphic arts in particular have persisted as a major stronghold. And the Mac platform may even be thriving again in the science sector where it once held some dominance on the desktop. more > Langa Letter: Virtual Excellence: Microsoft's 'Virtual PC' Is Too Good Not To Check Out Late last year Microsoft quietly rolled out its entry into the virtual PC arena--Microsoft Virtual PC 2004--and delivered its offering at about half the price of competing commercial products. What's more Microsoft even offers a 100% free 45-day trial of the software. more > IBM To Open Its Microchip Technology IBM says microchip technology is reaching its physical limits so the company is shifting the focus of much of its processor-design strategy from the chips themselves to the creation of tightly integrated high-performance architectures for specific industries and applications. more > Survey: Moving From Windows To Linux Isn't Cheap For years Linux advocates have touted the open-source operating system as a less-expensive more-reliable alternative to Unix and Windows running on x86-based or industry-standard servers. Not so fast says the Yankee Group. more > Superpower: China's Choices Echo Around The World When the Chinese government makes technology decisions it impacts businesses around the world. China's always wondering 'Are we going to have our own standards or are we going to follow world standards?' says Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. And it's one of the few countries that's absolutely big enough to go through that kind of a process. more > Collection takes Web services route Meta data management is something of a new concept among financial service providers but it proved to be key to the success of a major IT innovation at CompuCredit. Last March the Atlanta-based specialty financial services and credit card company asked its IT organization to develop a way for its collection agents and customer service reps to use Web services to access and process data in real time. This January the group went into production with a solution: an information portal called the XML Business Gateway. more > IBM Opens Up Power Processor Design It's shifting the focus of much of its processor design strategy from the chips to the creation of tightly integrated high-performance architectures for specific industries and consumer applications. more > Windows Linux Highlights From Around the Web A new survey purports to show that Linux total cost of ownership is higher than Microsoft's but skepticism abounds among Linux advocates after some other studies showing such results were found to have been funded by Microsoft. more > HP And Novell Join Forces To Put Linux On The Desktop Hewlett-Packard and Novell disclosed a partnership on Wednesday that will bring SuSE's open-source Linux operating system to select HP desktop and laptop systems in the second half of 2004. Touting the new effort as the first play by a major technology vendor to offer Linux from the desktop to the data center Martin Fink HP's VP for Linux said the move comes at the urging of its largest business customers who want to deploy a single operating system a single distribution of Linux from top to bottom. more > Open-source MySQL DBMS adds clustering tech Swedish open-source database maker MySQL AB plans to release a new clustered database product with high-availability support next month company officials disclosed. The new MySQL Cluster combines the company's flagship open-source database with a clustering architecture officials say is designed to deliver database applications with so-called five-nines availability (99.999% or less than five minutes of downtime per year). more > At SD West: Microsoft exec asks if for-profit software can survive At SD West: Microsoft exec asks i How will the for-profit software industry fair if the open-source model continues to proliferate? According to Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Jim Gray it might not survive. Commenting during a panel discussion at the Software Development Conference and Expo West (SD West) in Santa Clara Calif. last week Gray asked: How will there be a software industry if there's open source? more > Linux push breathes new life into Novell for some IT execs Attendees at Novell Inc.'s BrainShare conference this week will hear more product announcements related to the company's Linux strategy but the bigger news may be the smiling faces of Novell officials and many users. more > Lock-free ANTs Data Server updated ANTs Software Inc. a Burlingame Calif.-based developer of SQL database management systems recently announced availability of Version 2.2 of its ANTs Data Server. The product a standards-compliant relational database management system that includes some new design approaches now also includes support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux as well as replication with automatic failover stored procedures triggers and event mechanisms. more > Wind River gets Linux fever Embedded systems mainstay Wind River is telling all and sundry that it is set in a new direction with a refocused aggressive Linux strategy. The 20-year-old company's software runs devices from cell phones to the Mars Exploration Rovers. Its product list includes VxWorks an operating system that accounts for 30% of the market for embedded systems; the WindPower integrated development environment; and middleware targeted to particular industries. The company also offers services and support. more > Lock-free ANTs Data Server updated ANTs Software Inc. a Burlingame Calif.-based developer of SQL database management systems recently announced availability of Version 2.2 of its ANTs Data Server. The product a standards-compliant relational database management system that includes some new design approaches now also includes support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux as well as replication with automatic failover stored procedures triggers and event mechanisms. more > IBM aims for 40 000 Linux desktops in-house by 2005 IBM hopes to have 40 000 Linux desktop users within the company by year's end but that doesn't necessarily mean that the computer giant thinks everyone should move to the Linux desktop an IBM executive said today at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco. more > HP To Introduce Linux-Based PCs In Asia Hewlett-Packard Co. plans to become the first company to trumpet personal computers that run the freely distributed Linux operating system in Asia HP's Japanese unit said Tuesday. more > Start-up to sell open source insurance A New York company has spotted a new business opportunity in The SCO Group's legal battle with the Linux community: open source insurance. more > Showdown At The SCO Corral Can't you see it? A new version of the old Western movie is coming to a town near you. Entitled Showdown at the SCO Corral this movie has the cast of characters assembled to create one of the most heated battles in the IT space in years. In case you haven't seen the trailer to this film let me give you a quick review. SCO is currently suing IBM DaimlerChrysler and AutoZone for violating SCO's Unix copyrights by using Linux. However it has yet to be proven that SCO's intellectual property is part of the Linux operating system. So you now have companies being sued for possibly no reason whatsoever. Plus there's passing innuendo that Microsoft may be funding SCO in its efforts. All the while the lawyers are having a field day collecting gold from every party that's trying to protect themselves. Tell me this is not the perfect Western! more > SQL Server Delay May Complicate Microsoft's Software Assurance The delay of SQL Server 2005--the official name for what has long been called Yukon--may complicate Microsoft's efforts to keep businesses within its Software Assurance maintenance and upgrade program analysts said Thursday. more > Popularity Growing For Open-Source Databases Database systems built from open-source code are gaining in capabilities and enjoying rapid adoption by early users of new technology on IT staffs. The trend indicates that open-source databases will move from the intellectual curiosity of 2003 to widespread mainstream use by 2006 a major analyst firm says in a recent report. more > Microsoft And SCO Group: What's So Secret? Some people suspect Microsoft is conspiring with SCO Group the litigious self-appointed flag bearer of intellectual-property rights for the commercial software industry by covertly sending other companies SCO's way to sign license agreements worth tens of millions of dollars. The money brought in through this covert arrangement the thinking goes is keeping SCO afloat long enough to continue its legal campaign on a widening front that now includes lawsuits against IBM Novell AutoZone and DaimlerChrysler. more > Conversation with Novell's Stone Q: How do you describe Novell now? A: Obviously it’s a company that has been transformed in a very short period of time over the past probably 12 months. The transformation that has taken place isn’t something we just cooked up along the way -- we actually laid out a strategy about a year ago; it began at Brainshare where we methodically thought about how to transform the platform. This is all about the platform first before you move up the stack. more > Q&A: Sam Greenblatt Sam Greenblatt SVP and chief architect of CA's Linux Technology Group says open software and modeling will push app server progress; Linux is seen as the inevitable platform of choice to run the corporate enterprise. We asked about that in this Q&A interview. more > Coming Soon to Centrino Notebooks—Linux Lindows.com has announced a new version of its Linux operating system with support for portable computers based on the Intel Centrino platform. Although few observers see an immediate threat to Microsoft's operating system franchise according to Lindows.com officials making Linux available on cost-effective notebooks has been a big request from PC manufacturers. The first Centrino systems with LindowsOS Laptop Edition will begin shipping in the late-March to early-April time frame. more > Sabre Rebuilds on the Fly It was about 10 years ago when executives at Sabre Holdings Corp. decided they needed to start thinking about moving their online travel business off their existing proprietary mainframes and onto a new platform. more > CA: It's Time to Join the Linux Generation First we had the PC generation. Then the Internet generation. And now we're in the midst of the Linux generation. And it's not too soon too join. That was the message of Computer Associates International Inc.'s Senior Vice President and Chief Architect Sam Greenblatt who delivered the LinuxWorld keynote here Thursday morning. more > Linux Is Ready for the Desktop For years Microsoft's competitors have been paving the way for Linux to move from the data center to the desktop. At last all systems are go. It's hard to remember but a few short years ago Linux was an operating system for hobbyists -- freely available Unix-like software for folks who liked to tinker with their computers. Heck that's why Linus Torvalds created it in the first place. more > IBM to offer new point-of-sale OS from SUSE Linux SUSE Linux AG and IBM are now offering SUSE's first-ever point-of-sale (POS) Linux operating system combined with IBM's retail services and support. In a deal announced today the operating system called IBM Retail Environment for SUSE Linux will include an operating system based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server along with other software needed by retailers. The POS operating system is designed to be compatible with IBM's SurePOS cash register machines eServers and middleware to allow retailers to create a scalable secure operating environment across their entire business according to IBM. more > Chinese-Japanese Linux Venture Aims To Challenge Microsoft A pair of Chinese and Japanese software companies announced a joint venture Wednesday aimed at developing a Linux-based platform for Asian markets that they hope will challenge Microsoft Corp.'s dominance. Chinese Japanese and South Korean officials have expressed hopes for creating a product to compete with Microsoft's Windows operating system reducing reliance on it and creating more opportunities for Asian companies. more > Red Hat and Fujitsu join forces to develop enterprise Linux Engineers from Fujitsu and Red Hat will work together to strengthen the capabilities of Linux for large corporations as part of a global Linux partnership between the two companies. The Joint Development Organisation will serve as a base for the two companies to share technology and develop enhancements to the Linux operating system that meet the needs of enterprise customers and strengthen customer support efforts. more > Sun looks to lead Linux onto desktop Sun Microsystems Inc. has just rolled out its first Linux-based desktop software and is working to secure deals with governments and businesses to deploy it but the company isn't targeting Microsoft Corp. a Sun executive said Thursday. First and foremost the objective of the Java Desktop System (JDS) isn't to go after Microsoft said Peder Ulander Sun's director of marketing for Desktop Solutions. Ulander was speaking at the SunNetwork Berlin conference the company's first major conference in Europe where the market for Linux-based desktop software is seen as much stronger than in the U.S. more > Its Linux v/s Unix Not Microsoft: Gartner Linux and open source initiatives will continue to make headway in the future but mainly at the cost of Unix and not Microsoft claims Gartner. According to Gartner's research presented here on Wednesday by 2008 60 percent of large enterprises with 500 or more employees will have migrated 80 percent of their Unix based applications to Linux. By 2006 Linux will possess 70 percent of the performance and functionality available from Unix. more > The greening of Linux As vice president in charge of Hewlett-Packard's Linux strategy Fink says HP's decision to indemnify its customers against lawsuits the SCO Group files has been a boon to sales. He also sees HP making inroads with its Linux products against Sun Microsystems' Solaris operating system. Fink has been with HP for 18 years holding a variety of positions in hardware and software support consulting and telecom sales. He serves as vice president of the board of directors for the Open Source Development Labs a global consortium of industry leaders dedicated to enabling Linux. He also wrote the book The Business and Economics of Linux and Open Source. more > Gates: Blazing the Longhorn Trail The smoke having almost cleared from several years of antitrust proceedings Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates is turning his attention to what he's calling seamless computing. The most influential figure in the software industry is confronting other challenges as well including following through on his company's Trustworthy Computing initiative to make Windows more secure. In addition Gates is shepherding a landmark Windows upgrade in Longhorn which is due in 2006 while fending off the Linux challenge and pushing Web services for application integration. Gates discussed these issues and more in an interview with eWEEK Editor in Chief Eric Lundquist at Comdex in Las Vegas last week. more > InternetNews.com A top Chinese official is indicating the government will invest in developing a domestic software industry based around Linux a move that could minimize Microsoft's (Quote Chart) position in the world's largest market. Linux is an opportunity for us to make a breakthrough in developing software said Guo Zhongwen vice minister at China's Ministry of Information Industry is quoted saying on its Web site www.mii.gov.cn. more > Novell to Buy SuSE Linux for $210 Million From the company that turned away early Linux pioneers Bryan Sparks and Ransom Love Novell Inc. is completing its reinvention by buying SuSE Linux AG for $210 million. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and the resolution of shareholder agreements. It all goes well; Novell expects the transaction to close by the end of its first fiscal quarter in January 2004. more > SCO Linux Vendors Trade Shots In the latest round of shots between The SCO Group and Linux vendors SCO is filing a motion to have a suit against it dismissed Hewlett-Packard Co. is indemnifying its customers against potential copyright lawsuits that may be pressed against them and IBM Corp. is serving a new round of countercharges against SCO. more > Linux inches up corporate IT priority list The chief information officers of some major U.S. companies say more businesses are choosing the Linux operating system as they face pressure to reduce costs. Speaking on a panel at a venture capital conference here Wednesday the CIO of clothing retailer Gap and a tech executive from Bank of America said they are among the Linux converts. Topping Gap's list of priority technology projects is anything touching Linux company CIO Ken Harris said. *********** more > Microsoft still rules server OS market Despite growing competition from Linux Microsoft continues to dominate the market for server operating systems software according to research from IDC. And the software potentate looks secure to retain its lead in the worldwide market for server operating systems through 2007 Framingham Mass.-based IDC reported Wednesday. During that period shipments of both Microsoft's Windows and the open-source Linux are projected to see higher annual shipments with the overall market for server operating systems expected to grow at a rate of 9.1 percent per year. In comparison the market for client operating systems is projected to grow 7.5 percent annually. *********** more > Skills The Biggest Challenge Where Windows Linux Coexist The different skill sets required by system administrators is the top challenge for companies that are deploying both Windows and Linux according to a new report from InformationWeek Research. Just over half of respondents whose companies run both Windows and Linux say the different skills required to manage and maintain the operating systems present a challenge to their IT departments according to InformationWeek Research's Windows Interoperability report. The online survey was completed by 400 business-technology professionals 99% of whose companies use Windows servers and 50% who use Linux servers. articleID=15201551 ************ more > Microsoft Amazon partner on Web services A software application allowing access to Amazon.com Inc. products and data without a Web browser while users are working in Microsoft Corp. Office System applications will be available for free download later this quarter the companies said Tuesday. Amazon.com Research Services for Microsoft Office System will be available at http://www.office.microsoft/com/marketplace. The companies did not say specifically when the application will be ready for download. ************ more > Microsoft has no plans to change tactics to combat Linux threat Microsoft Corp.'s chief Linux strategist said this week that the company won't change its strategy one ounce in the wake of Novell's acquisition of SUSE Linux. Martin Taylor general manager of platform strategy at Microsoft said Novell's acquisition plans simply provide further evidence that Linux is going to continue to consolidate and become more and more commercial. From our perspective it means that Linux will move toward being held up to the commercial standards Taylor said. And that gives us an opportunity to look at things like cost reliability interoperability and even security for that matter on a more balanced playing field. more > Rules of the Road Most companies will spend more on IT to comply with regulations than last year according to a new InformationWeek Research survey. Can they wring any business value from it? BellSouth Corp. knows how to work in a regulated environment having had the government involved in its telecom business since its earliest days. Nevertheless meeting the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has added business-technology costs in part because the IT department supports a group of auditors who review internal financial controls for compliance. articleID=15201268 more > Update: HP to indemnify its corporate Linux users against SCO In a bold move aimed at reassuring its enterprise users that Linux is the right choice for their businesses Hewlett-Packard Co. today is announcing that it will indemnify its Linux customers against any future legal action from The SCO Group Inc. The company held a news teleconference earlier today to detail the move which is effective Oct. 1. more > HP to indemnify Linux clients against SCO Customers who buy Linux from Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) can worry a little less about The SCO Group Inc.’s threats of lawsuits. Starting Oct. 1 customers who purchase Linux systems from HP will be indemnified against any legal action relating to SCO’s intellectual property claims against Linux the company announced in a conference call on Wednesday. “Today HP becomes the first major Linux hardware vendor to offer certain Linux customers indemnification ” said Martin Fink the general manager of HP’s Linux systems division. more > Sun's Schwartz Speaks Out on Linux SCO Sun Microsystems Inc. last week announced its Java Enterprise System and its Java Desktop which will fundamentally change Sun's software pricing delivery and licensing models. After the announcement at the Sun Network conference in San Francisco Jonathan Schwartz Sun's executive vice president for software sat down with eWEEK senior editor Peter Galli. eWEEK: Given that Sun has done a bit of a dance around its position on Linux and the ability to run Solaris on x86 hardware some customers are wondering just how committed you are to this new Java product and pricing strategy and your ability to actually deliver what you are promising. more > Study: Linux Doesn't Always Make Things Cheaper Linux advocates tout the computer operating system as a smart choice for penny-pinching corporations. It's freely shared lowering the cost of hardware that runs it. But researchers at Gartner Inc. caution that a free operating system does not always add up to lower computing bills. Gartner says that while Linux is a wise choice for some central computer servers businesses might be better off keeping Windows from Microsoft Corp. on their workers' desktop machines. more > IBM Microsoft demonstrate advanced Web services specs IBM and Microsoft Corp. staged a demonstration here yesterday to show how the advanced Web services specifications they have developed will make it easier for companies with disparate systems to securely and reliably engage in electronic business transactions. At the press event Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and IBM Senior Vice President Steve Mills who heads the company's software group pledged to seek vendor and customer feedback on their advanced specifications for security reliable messaging and transactions before submitting their work to a standards body. more > Gates Mills Tout Web Services Breakthrough Bill Gates and IBM Software chief Steve Mills joined together here today to give an update on their companies' combined work in advancing Web services. In an intimate setting at the St. Regis Hotel Gates Microsoft Corp.'s chief software architect and chairman and Mills IBM Software Group's senior vice president and general manager demonstrated for the first time reliable messaging and secure authenticated transactions across a federated heterogeneous environment. more > Sun JBoss Continue to Butt Heads Over Java The battle over open source and licensing Sun Microsystems Inc.'s software continues with both Sun and the JBoss Group LLC claiming the right to refuse or attain the proper licenses for Sun's Java technology based on open-source status. Palo Alto Calif.-based Sun and Atlanta-based JBoss remain at odds over whether JBoss an open-source application server provider should be able to waive the fee for licensing the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technology which JBoss sells its services around. more > Microsoft uses benchmarks to step up Linux assault Stepping up its campaign against the Linux operating system Microsoft Corp. yesterday released file- and Web-serving benchmark results that it claims show that Linux on the mainframe lags behind Windows 2003 on Intel Corp. systems in terms of performance for the money. Microsoft ran the benchmark tests in response to what it believes were IBM's unsubstantiated claims about the benefits of running Linux on its mainframe hardware according to Microsoft's general manager of platform strategy Martin Taylor. more > The real cost of switching to Linux The jury is in. After years of experimentation with Linux in the enterprise customers analysts and vendors are starting to sing a consistent tune about where Linux makes financial sense and where it doesn’t. Although Linux is often thought of as a free alternative to established OSes such as Windows and proprietary Unix is it really cheaper when you add the costs of acquisition migration operation and support? In other words is the TCO (total cost of ownership) of Linux really lower than that of Unix or Windows? more > SCO may send Unix license invoices to corporate Linux users As it continues its Unix legal battle against IBM The SCO Group Inc. is now contemplating new ways to convince businesses to pay SCO licensing fees for using Linux. One option being considered according to Blake Stowell a spokesman for the Lindon Utah-based Unix vendor is to mail invoices to corporate Linux users identified through Internet searches and even press interviews asking the companies to pay $699 per processor for the right to run Linux. more > SCO fined for Linux claims The SCO Group Inc. has been fined $10 800 for violating a German court's ruling that SCO must cease claiming that the Linux source code violates its intellectual property the Lindon Utah company confirmed on Monday. The fine comes nearly three months after a regional court in Munich issued the court order in response to a suit brought by the non-profit Linux conference organization LinuxTag e.V. and IT consulting firm Tarent GmbH. The two groups sought the injunction to prevent SCO from making claims about intellectual property violations in Linux without presenting any evidence according to LinuxTag spokesman Andreas Gebhard. more > Linux in the Enterprise: Now What? Linux the scarcely decade-old open-source operating system looks to have reached a sort of critical mass and has entered into an awfully busy period in its development. There's a major kernel update around the corner an audacious licensing challenge with which to contend and a rush by virtually every major enterprise IT vendor not located at 1 Microsoft Way to jump on the Linux bandwagon or help take up the reins and drive its development. more > Linux rules but won’t dominate z/OS says IBM exec Linux has done wonders for the mainframe’s image but don’t ever expect it to replace z/OS as the dominant force in supercomputing. At least that is the view from the office of Kyle Van Kleek IBM’s director of zSeries products. In part-one of this Search390.com interview Van Kleek the man responsible for the development and design of all zSeries servers talks about the effect Linux has had on the marketplace and how he believes Linux will stack up going forward. He also talked about why he feels the mainframe’s role in the data center won’t evolve much over the next several years. more > Analyst report: IBM HP Linux strategies lead Research and consulting firm D.H. Brown Associates Inc. recently evaluated the Linux strategies of the four big-iron server vendors IBM HP Sun Microsystems Inc. and Dell Inc. across criteria that included: whether the vendor pursues a broad or focused Linux strategy; product line breadth; system pricing; areas of added value; services and support; and community support. “Significant support from the software and systems community fuels this increasing Linux relevance ” said report author executive vice president and research director Pierre Fricke. “Dell’s HP’s IBM’s Sun’s and Oracle’s commitment and delivery of Linux solutions all serve to make Linux a safe environment.” more > Why a SCO Win Could Be Good for Unix Guest commentary: If SCO should somehow succeed against IBM and other Linux vendors BSD Unix is a robust open-Unix alternative. There has been much hand-wringing over the legal threat posed by The SCO Group Inc.’s actions against IBM Corp. and other vendors of Linux over the past few weeks. Not only are vendors looking for ways to address the accusations but nervous systems administrators have to hope less-educated managers won’t be spooked by the brush with which Linux has been painted. more > Microsoft Is Using Linux To Protect Its Own Web Site Microsoft has made a big deal out of asserting that Linux is not fit for the enterprise. But Microsoft itself is using Linux to help protect its servers against denial-of-service attacks. According to a post on the Netcraft Web site Microsoft changed its DNS settings on Friday so that requests for www.microsoft.com no longer resolve to machines on Microsoft’s own network but instead are handled by the Akamai caching system which runs Linux. more > Linux powers Siemens Business Services global payroll Siemens Business Services the IT service provider unit of Germany’s Siemens has completed the migration of its payroll system to a platform using the open-source Linux operating system. The human resource application SAP’s mySAP HR is now running on the Linux Enterprise Server 8 software supplied by SuSE Linux. “This is the largest server farm to run a high-priority business application on Linux software ” said Christian Egle a SuSE Linux spokesman. “Until now we’ve seen companies deploy Linux for web services and file transfer but they’ve had their doubts about using the software for mission-critical applications such as payroll.” more > Linux ‘easily’ recompiled to dump SCO Vendors and users could easily recompile their Linux software to temporarily remove modules that may contain SCO copyrighted software according to tests conducted at vnunet.com’s sister title IT Week. By doing so users could avoid potential demands by SCO for royalty payments. Provided that support contracts allow it modules could be replaced by alternatives that do not infringe SCO’s copyrights ensuring that levels of functionality are maintained. more > Fujitsu may beat IBM with fastest Linux supercompu IBM has a challenger in the race to deliver the world’s fastest Linux-based supercomputer. A day after the U.S. company said it had received an order for what stands to be the fastest such machine Japan’s Fujitsu Ltd. announced an order for a faster machine that it expects to put into service at about the same time. The Fujitsu computing cluster will contain 2 048 as-yet-unidentified processors and stands to deliver a peak performance of 12.4 trillion floating point operations per second (TFLOPS) the company said in a statement today. Fujitsu received the order from Japan’s Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken) a governmental research organization that will use the computer mainly in biotechnology research. Delivery is scheduled for March 2004. more > Sun’s Linux: Not dead after all Although Sun Microsystems Inc. several months ago discontinued sales of its customized Linux distribution the company hasn’t entirely abandoned its do-it-yourself Linux strategy: In its forthcoming bundle of desktop software code-named Mad Hatter the included Linux operating system will be Sun’s own. Sun decided in April to stop marketing its Sun Linux 5.0 saying customers hadn’t shown interest in having yet another version of Linux available (see story). Several weeks later Sun partnered with leading Linux distributor Red Hat Inc. whose operating system software it now sells on its x86 server hardware (see story). more > Linux advocates doubt validity of SCO licensing sc Open source advocates on Monday blasted a Linux licensing scheme that The SCO Group is proposing to address alleged copyright violations in the Linux operating system. SCO Chief Executive Officer Darl McBride announced the licensing plan on a conference call with press and analysts earlier in the day. “SCO is prepared to offer a license for SCO’s UnixWare 7.1.3 product for use in conjunction with any Linux product ” he said. “This licensing format will assure that Linux users will be able to run Linux in full compliance with SCO’s underlying IP rights.” SCO will begin discussing the new licensing scheme with customers this week McBride said. more > Case Study: Hess Taps Linux for Profits A map of the Gulf of Mexico covers an entire wall of geophysicist John Potter’s office at Amerada Hess Corp.’s Houston-based R&D lab. It is as complex as it is large charting thousands of square miles of underwater terrain. Hand-drawn concentric circles and lines separate into hundreds of square lease units thousands of miles of ancient rock formations and subterranean cliffs available for offshore oil exploration. A much more detailed map this one digital is stored on Potter’s desktop computer. Created from sound waves and complex mathematical algorithms it measures the density and composition of bedrock located miles beneath the Gulf floor that dates back in some cases to the days when dinosaurs walked the earth. more > Linux Gets Boost From PeopleSoft NEW YORK (AP) -- In the largest release yet of commercial software for the free Linux operating system PeopleSoft Inc. will offer Linux versions of its entire portfolio of 170 enterprise software programs. more > |
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