“IBM this week will continue its campaign to win over the hearts
and wallets of ISPs when it launches both a software strategy
enabling applications to run on the IBM AIX, Monterey, and Linux
operating systems and an RS/6000 server aimed in part at ISPs.
The company will announce its Linux Application Execution
Environment, a set of compilers that allow corporate and
third-party developers to run Linux applications on AIX and
Monterey.
The compilers, expected to be available early next year, are
being worked on jointly by IBM’s AIX group, IBM Research, and
Ulrich Drepper, a noted Linux programmer. The compilers are
expected to be open-source, which is unprecedented for
IBM development tools.”
” ‘If you are a Linux ISV, you can look at this [announcement]
as a way to significantly expand your market opportunities for
selling,’ a source close to IBM said. ‘This should give us a leg up
on Sun, which hasn’t made a move like this for Linux.’ “
“Backing up the software announcements, IBM will take the wraps
off the RS/6000 Model S80, which the company will boldly bill as
the “world’s fastest Web server.” During this week’s announcement,
IBM will claim the PowerPC-based system will outperform Sun’s Star
Fire and Hewlett Packard’s 9000 N-Class server.”