See also: last week's Commerce page.

Linux and business

IBM Software Solutions has joined Linux International as a sponsoring corporate member.

A couple of different Wall Street analysts have upgraded their rating of Silicon Graphics' stock after a corporate meeting; both cite the support of Linux as one of the reasons for the new rating. See the releases from Merrill Lynch and BancBoston Robertson Stephens.

For some more information on SGI's Linux support, see their press release on the subject. They seem to be aiming at Linux support for the Intel-based systems, as opposed to their higher-end MIPS systems.

HP has released (free of charge) a Linux version of its "JetAdmin" software. This is a fact that will be appreciated by no end of system admins who have tried to make HP's network printers work in Linux environments. This long-awaited release was, in retrospect, almost inevitable once HP announced that they would sell Linux-based servers. It wouldn't do, after all, if their servers were not able to talk to their printers. See HP's press release for more. (Thanks to XosÉ Vázquez).

SuSE is getting into the cluster business. Here is a page (in German) on their site describing their setup; there is also a brief Heise News article about the new offering. They will present the system at the upcoming Cebit conference. (Babelfish pages: SuSE cluster page and Heise article). (Thanks to Boris Povazay).

This article in AsiaBizTech is a month old, but it's the first we have seen it, and it's interesting. When Kyoto Sangyo University needed to upgrade their computing network, they put in an order to IBM for over 600 "Netfinity" systems running Linux. The main reason for the choice of Linux seems to be that it's a cheaper way of getting a Unix workstation. "...a UNIX environment is required for students majoring in engineering and sciences for programming and for writing papers, as well as for students learning the Hebrew language."

Press Releases:

• Red Hat Software, Bob Young keynoting the "Venture '99" conference in April.
• HiTechSoft Corp, launch of www.patchlink.com, which includes Linux patches.
• Softway Systems, "plans for" 64-bit support in Interix.
• VA Research, new management team and board of directors.
• Bluesky Innovations, Power Boot 3.0.
• Tucows, Linuxberg up to 100 mirror sites.
• IDG World Expo, "significant industry news announcements" coming at LinuxWorld conference.
• Tower Technology, IONA OrbixWeb certified with TowerJ.
• Sane Solutions, NetTracker 4.0 available.
• Sybase, SQL Anywhere available for Linux.
• Silicon Graphics, Linux support on their servers.
• Inline Internet Systems, iHTML ported to Linux.
• O'Reilly, "Voices from the Open Source Revolution" book.
• Pacific HiTech, alliance with Accton Technology.
• Tzolkin Corporation, alliance with iMatrix to integrate "dynamic DNS technology" with open source "Xitami" web server.
• Vital, Inc., new version of CRiSP editor.
• Packet Engines, drivers written by Donald Becker.

Next: Announcements