See also: last week's Commerce page.

Linux and Business

Red Hat Acquires Planning Technologies. Red Hat has made another acquisition, this time professional consulting services firm Planning Technologies, Inc. (PTI). PTI specializes in complex global network consulting. Their current clients are mostly service providers and large enterprise clients. The company began its professional services business in 1997 and has since grown to over 200 employees, including more than 180 professional engineers and consultants. The acquisition of PTI was made through a stock for stock exchange valued at $47 million and accounted for as a pooling of interests.

Red Hat's business strategy is to offer a complete open source solution for software, from devices to mainframes, and a full range of global services with Red Hat Network as the backbone for deployment and management. PTI's expertise will be used to help Red Hat Network grow and evolve. In turn, PTI gains open source expertise through Red Hat which it can pass on to its existing and future clients. All in all, the arrangement does seem to be mutually beneficial.

Caldera Quarterly Results. Caldera has issued their quarterly financial report for the period ended January 31st, 2001. Highlights include a 90% increase in revenue over the same period last year and a one time charge relating to the SCO acquisition. Note, however, that revenue decreased 10% compared to the prior quarter ending October 31st, 2000.

O'Reilly releases peer-to-peer book. O'Reilly has announced the release of Peer-to-Peer: Harnessing the Power of Disruptive Technologies, a collection of essays on the whole peer-to-peer thing.

Softimage Certifies AMD Athlon Workstations. Softimage Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc., has announced that it has certified AMD Athlon workstations from AMD for use with its SOFTIMAGE|3D and XSI animation software. According to the press release, "Softimage has successfully developed an AMD Athlon certified, production ready Linux platform, the emerging platform of choice for many in the digital production industry."

O'Reilly Network Launches Independent Java Web Site. O'Reilly has launched a new Java Web site that it claims it "will be an advocate for open source software development in the Java community. The site will also cover open source Sun initiatives like the Jakarta and JXTA projects under the Apache open source license."

MaximumLinux resurrected - .org style. It looks as though the MaximumLinux site won't quite die, at least not in the .org world. According to the press release, the site has been resurrected by users and readers, though the site itself doesn't make that point clear just yet.

Linux is Poised for a Breakout Year At the Checkout in 2001. According to this press release, IHL Consulting is predicting a 300%-400% increase in Linux shipments in 2001. "According to the study, the segments most likely to adopt a Linux approach to POS are large department stores and specialty hard goods retailers. These retailers tend to have a large number of POS terminals and an IT staff large enough to handle the development of their own POS system."

Linux Stock Index for February 22 to February 28, 2001.

LSI at closing on February 22, 2001 ... 34.32
LSI at closing on February 28, 2001 ... 32.01

The high for the week was 34.32
The low for the week was 32.01

Press Releases:

Open Source Products

• AbriaSoft (FREMONT, CA) announced the release of its Apache powered Lancelot server,a secure commercial grade SSL web server for Windows and Linux platforms.

• ANNEXIA.ORG (London, UK) announced immediate availability of Net::FTPServer version 1.0, a secure, extensible and featureful FTP server released under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

• Crystal Space is an open source game development platform. It is still in beta v0.18r001, but should be reasonably stable.

• Endeavors Technology (IRVINE, Calif. & READING, England) has developed a highly optimized, open source port of Python to the Palm OS platform.

• OpenInteract is an extensible application server using Apache and mod_perl. Now in v1.05, OpenInteract is built for developers but is also manageable almost entirely via the web browser.

Proprietary Products for Linux

• Magic Software Enterprises (IRVINE, CA) launched its new Web development tool, Magic eDeveloper. Magic eDeveloper is part of the Magic eBusiness Platform.

• Quintalinux Limited (KOWLOON BAY, Hong Kong) announced the release of a new English-language version 2.4 of iOffice2000, a Web-based groupware application suite.

• Solsoft, Inc. (MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.) announced a number of enhancements to its free security management solution Solsoft NP-Lite 4.1.

Products and Services Using Linux

• MontaVista Software, Inc. (SUNNYVALE, Calif.) announced that it had recently demonstrated Hard Hat Linux on the Intel XScale microarchitecture.

• MSC.Software (COSTA MESA, Calif.) announced it has launched MSC.SuperForge on its online SimulationCenter.

• Object Design (BURLINGTON, Mass.) announced that its ObjectStore 6.0 for Linux i386 object database management software is now shipping.

Servers

• IBM (NEW YORK) announced a new rack-mounted computer workstation and flat-panel monitor. The IBM IntelliStation R Pro uses Intel processors and, of course, it can run Linux.

• Penguin Computing (SAN FRANCISCO) announced the availability of the Relion 220 2U rackmount server.

Products with Linux Versions

• Brightware (SAN RAFAEL, Calif.) announced that its Brightware 2001 suite of eCustomer Assistance software now supports Sun Solaris and Red Hat Linux.

• Cirrus Logic Inc. (AUSTIN, Texas) announced new Linux drivers to support all Cirrus Logic, Inc. computer audio solutions.

• Fourthought, Inc. (BOULDER, CO) announced the release of Version 0.10.2 of its commercial XML (eXtensible Markup Language) Data Server, 4Suite Server.

• Freshwater Software (BOULDER, Colo.) announced the release of SiteScope, version 5.5, an eBusiness monitoring solution.

• Lyris Inc. (BERKELEY, CA) announced the release of Lyris MailEngine 1.0, a high-performance mailer that can replace several common mail delivery applications, including sendmail and qmail.

• Sanchez Computer Associates (MALVERN, Pa.) announced the launch of a new Web site for its database technology. The site is located at http://www.sanchez-gtm.com

• Seebex Inc. announced NeoSession, a new technology to build Presence and Instant Messaging applications.

Books and Training

• Magellan University (TUCSON, Ariz.) announced new online courses, including a Linux course.

• O'Reilly (Sebastopol, CA) announced SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide, by Daniel J. Barrett and Richard Silverman.

Partnerships

• IBM (ATLANTA, GA) announced a series of new Linux initiatives within the IBM PartnerWorld program in response to the growing demand for Linux-based solutions.

• Informix Software and SAP (MENLO PARK, Calif. & WALLDORF, Germany) announced an extension of their global reseller agreement. SAP will resell Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) licenses with the mySAP.com e-business platform. Also Informix Software will make IDS available on the Linux IA64 platform.

• OpenReach, Inc. and Penguin Computing Inc. (SAN JOSE, Calif.) announced a strategic OEM agreement to co-develop an appliance solution that will enable businesses to outsource the deployment and management of secure virtual private networks.

• Red Hat, Inc. and Ubicom, Inc.(Mountain View, Calif. and Research Triangle Park, NC) announced that they will work together to develop a port of the Red Hat GNUPro embedded development tools to the Ubicom IP2000 family of Internet Processors.

• Spatial and Tech Soft America (BOULDER, Colo.) announced that they have agreed to enter into an OEM visualization technology partnership and joint reseller agreement. Integrating TSA's HOOPS 3D Application Framework and Spatial's ACIS 3D Geometric Modeler, Spatial will OEM the ACIS/HOOPS integration. This product runs on several different OS, including Linux.

• Teamware Group and The FIEN Group signed a partner agreement according to which The FIEN group will sell Teamware Office 5.3 for Linux groupware to customers across the USA.

Financial Results

• EBIZ Enterprises Inc. (SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.) announced a 40 percent increase in revenues of $894,702, from $2,264,949 to $3,159,651, during the second fiscal quarter this year vs. the same period last year.

Personnel

• RidgeRun, Inc. (Boise, Idaho) announced the opening of RidgeRun K.K.'s sales and support office in Osaka, Japan, and the appointment of Mr. Max (Masami) Yamashita as President and Managing Director. Mr. Yamashita and team will work with OEM's in Japan to customize the company's DSPLinux product including a full suite of embedded Linux development tools for a manufacturers specific wireless appliance.

• VA Linux Systems (FREMONT, Calif.) announced that Greg Orzech has been promoted to senior vice president of worldwide sales. Mr. Orzech previously served as VA Linux Systems' vice president of North American sales.

Other

• SYS-CON Media (MONTVALE, N.J.) announced the third annual JDJ Readers' Choice Awards poll to select the best Java, XML, Wireless and Linux products in 23 different award categories.

Section Editor: Rebecca Sobol.

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