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Linux and business

HP has optimized its "Kayak PC" series of workstations to run Linux, according to this press release. This work seems to have been done in response to the needs of a project at CERN which uses a cluster of 30 dual-processor systems to crank through its data. "This cluster has been in service since late spring 1998, and operates around-the-clock (7x24) to process the more than 30 terabytes of physics data required by the experiment. Since the beginning of the collaboration, not a single hardware or Linux-related failure has been observed, further validating the reliability of the HP Kayak PC Workstations running the Linux operating system."

The folks who publish NTools E-NewsFlash (a newsletter for Windows NT users) have published the results of a survey of their readers which included some questions on adoption of Linux. The result: Linux has already worked its way deeply into NT shops. Worth a read. See also their writeup of the survey, which gives their impressions and talks a bit about their methodology. (Thanks to Scott Turton).

VA Research announces new systems. In keeping with their general strategy, this announcement describes some new high-end systems, these based on the new Pentium III Xeon processors. Now if only we had one of those...

Intershop has announced support for their electronic commerce products under Linux. "The company expects the Linux offering to especially benefit small and mid-tier Internet and Commerce Service Providers who already use Linux for their shared and dedicated hosting services." They will be working with Red Hat in particular.

Linux Canada has announced the release of their "LinuxPOS" point of sale and "LinuxRETAIL" inventory control systems in source form. Note this is not "open source" form - see the license for the details there. Nonetheless, this should prove to be a useful package for a lot of environments.

A new vendor of Linux-installed systems has popped up. Check out HotLinux Systems the next time the urge to shop hits...

Siemens has put up a Linux solutions page describing their "PRIMERGY" servers that will be displayed at CEBIT. These servers, of course, are Linux boxes set up to run SAP's R/3 ERP system. This is an important piece of corporate software. And the page even has a dancing penguin... (Just be sure to notice the little "next" link on the right once you've seen enough). (Found in LinuxToday).

The Indian company HCL Infosystems has decided to support Linux, according to this Times of India article. "...HCL's initiative, Linuxpertise, would extend a host of support services, including e-mail support, telesupport and on-site support. The telesupport service, to be launched shortly, will be offered in the four metros and other major cities like Bangalore, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad." (Thanks to Radha Krishna Pagadala).

Indelible Blue has jumped into the Linux support business. Their current offering appears to be 9-5 (U.S. eastern time) phone support on a per-incident or hourly basis. See their press release for more.

Press Releases:

Lexmark, support for Markvision (printer manager software) under Linux.
ALPNET, doing German localization work for Red Hat 6.0.
NetGem, building Linux-based TV set-top boxes.
Distributed Processing Technology, Linux support for their RAID products.
Acer America Corp., new Pentium III Xeon systems, "...provide a solid platform for Linux..."
Vista Technology, Linux support in their industry-specific packages.
Brace, "Thinworks E51" Linux-based thin client system.
AIIM, Linus Torvalds to speak at AIIM show and conference in April.
Innosoft, IDS LDAP server.
Collective Technologies, "regional discussion series" for IT managers about Linux.
RPK Security, Encryptonite toolkit v3.1.
O'Reilly, new edition of their Apache book.
Xi Graphics, AcceleratedX version 5.

Section Editor: Jon Corbet.

March 18, 1999

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