See also: last week's Commerce page.

Linux and business

Genetic Programming hopes to evolve programs which are competitive with (or even better than) programs created by humans. They mention the possibility of the creation of patentable inventions as well. There is clearly some real money which has high hopes for this approach: the creation of a 1000-node cluster is not an inexpensive thing to do.

For details, see Genetic Programming Inc.'s home page, discusses their goals and includes a couple of pictures of the system. They also have a separate page describing how the 1000-node system was built.

Cheap Linux PC's in Paris. GrosBill Micro is now offering a system with many of the usual lower-end PC amenities: Celeron processor, 64MB memory, modem, and even a monitor - and with Linux-Mandrake installed. Cost is 5,990 Francs, or about $960 as of this writing.

Commercial support for Linux-Mandrake in the U.S. MandrakeSoft has entered an agreement with Bynari Systems Group wherein Bynari will provide commercial support services to Mandrake users in the U.S. Options go from per-incident through to hard-core on-site support.

IDC has announced a new study which reveals that use of Linux is increasing. "In 1997, IDC conducted a similar survey but could not report any conclusive findings about Linux because it was used by such a statistically small percentage of survey respondents. However, 13% of respondents in IDC's current study said they now use Linux."

Linux support is also growing judging from these announcements. This one from SCO describing their new "Linux Professional Services", and this one from Linux Press on the publication of a new book: The Best of Linux Distributions. From the description in the announcement, it looks like it could be a useful reference work with information on the differences between a few popular distributions.

LinuxWorld was a catalyst for a number of announcements and press releases: SGI has a video entitled 'Linux OS and Its Future. Reports from Linux World Expo, San Jose, CA August 10-11'.
Here's the press releases spawned by the "best of show" awards.

• Hewlett-Packard OpenMail - enterprise messaging and collaboration
• SourceGear Corporation AbiWord - productivity application
• GraphOn communications product
• MandrakeSoft - Linux-Mandrake - best product and best server distribution
• Imperial Software Technology X-Designer Graphical User Interface builder - editor's choice award for development environments/tool.

Press Releases:

• Cerebellum Software, Inc. released the next upgrade to Cerebellum and added Linux support.

• Compaq Computer Corporation and SuSE Holding AG announced a new release of SuSE Linux 6.1 AXP with enhanced interoperability and compatibility features between Compaq Tru64 UNIX and the SuSE Linux operating system.

• Corel is teaming up with Rebel.com to donate a whole bunch of Netwinder systems and Linux software to developing countries, via the United Nations Development Program.

• eSoft Inc. the company that develops and markets TEAM Internet, a Linux-based Internet appliance for small businesses, reported its results for the second quarter ending June 30, 1999.

• GBdirect and Planet Online announced a Linux training programme in the UK.

• Inprise announced a commitment to Linux with a CORBA solution for Linux.

• Itsutsubashi Research Co., Ltd. announced that a new company called "LASER5 Co., Ltd." is established to promote the open source business.

• LightningFAX v6.5.1 a Linux compatible product, will be available in September.

• LinuxPPC Inc. announced the availability of drivers for the ATI Rage 128 video card.

• Linux System Solution Limited and INFOMATEC - IGEL Asia LTD have announced their co-operation in the Internet device, Thin Client and Networking arena.

• Lismore Software Systems Ltd. has released Blue Label PowerEmulator version 1.5, a program that allows Macintosh users run PC applications on their computers. They say you can install Linux on a PowerMacintosh with this program.

• Lotus announced that Lotus Domino R5 for Linux/x86 is now available for download. They do require a free registration process first.

• MandrakeSoft released its beta version of DiskDrake, a complete hard-drive partitioning tool available for Linux.

• Mentor Graphics Corporation announced it has extended its industry standard deep submicron physical verification and manufactuability tool -- Calibre, to include support for Red Hat Linux.

• Oracle has unleashed a flood of press releases upon the world:
  • As had been rumored, a separate business unit, headed by a vice president, is being created to work in the Linux area. They are starting by putting out some of their XML software.

  • Oracle 8i for Linux will be packaged up and sold in retail outlets by Macmillan. Look for it next to the distribution boxed sets...

  • LinuxCare is using Oracle for their support database.

  • WebDB for Linux is now shipping, and can be downloaded from Oracle's web site.

• Rave Computer Association, Inc. announced the Rave Systems RackMount-2UAXi as a UltraSPARC-IIi server appliance operating on Linux or Solaris operating system.

• StoragePoint.Com announced that it now offers a Linux version of WebDrive, providing secure file management features.

• WholeLinux, Inc. announced the release of the WholeLinux Automatic Installer, Version 0.9-Beta, which installs RedHat 6.0 and a customized KDE desktop in less than eight minutes.

Section Editor: Jon Corbet.

Next: Announcements