“The featuring of the Linux watch at this conference was an
indication that IBM now has a Linux story to tell and the Linux
watch is just the smallest part of it. It was not presented as a PR
gimmick, but as evidence that IBM can tailor Linux to suit the
small environment. IBM is now able to demonstrate a commitment
to Linux across the range, which no other hardware vendor can
currently match or even comes close to. Linux runs on every
box in IBM’s rebranded eServer range. As you would expect, its
Intel boxes (previously known as NetFinity, but now rebranded as
the xSeries), will run it. But so will its Unix boxes (previously
known as RS/6000 be recently rebranded as pSeries), its iSeries
(previously AS/400) and its zSeries (the system 390 mainframe by
another name). In addition to this hardware support, it has donated
code from AIX and OS/2 to the Linux open source pool and has
partnerships with SuSE, in Europe and Red Hat, Caldera and
TurboLinux in the US.”
“Dirk Hohndel, the CTO of the German Linux vendor, SuSE
was also present at the event. He claimed that Linux was making
very strong in-roads in Germany. He noted that Linux now had a
44 percent share of the web server market in Germany whereas
elsewhere the figure was around 28 percent. He also noted that
there was now strong enthusiasm for Linux in the corporations,
being led by the telcos and the banks. He even referred to one bank
that had deployed Linux in its dealing rooms as a desktop. Other
straws in the wind included SAP R3 achieving its top benchmark on a
4 way machine on Linux. He was bullish about the future claiming
that he expected the coming 2.4 version of Linux to offer very good
SMP performance on 8 way and 16 way machines.”
“All of this adds up to one simple fact, the Linux
juggernaut is still rolling.”