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Linux and business


Cobalt Networks went public this week. The stock, which had been repriced up to $22 per share, began public trading at $130. In terms of percentage increase, this IPO was the third biggest ever on NASDAQ. The price has since settled to around $120, leaving Cobalt with a market capitalization of about $3.3 billion. It seems there was some demand there.

These events bode well, of course, for the other companies which are putting together their public offerings. As long as this current market persists, it seems there is money to be made in taking Linux companies public. Expect to see a lot of activity in this area over the coming year.

Cobalt Networks (stock symbol COBT) will join the LWN Linux Stock Index on Thursday, November 11.

SAP benchmark results posted Dan Kegel has collected and posted a collection of SAP "sales and distribution" benchmark results on both NT and Linux. This appears to be the first time that nearly identical benchmarks (i.e. with the same version of SAP) have been pulled together in this way. The results are nearly identical for both systems, even on eight-processor hosts.

SGI position paper on open source SGI has published a position paper entitled SGI and Linux/Open Source Market-like Computational Ecologies on its web site. This paper sets out to establish that SGI has been an open source supporter for a long time, and discusses the (many) projects the company has going now in the Linux/open source realm. "SGI's engineers have been contributing to the realization and implementation of the Open Source philosophy and community since at least 1992. As of August 1999 the SGI/Open Source relationship is solid, productive, and accelerating." It's an interesting read. (Thanks to Alberto Schiavon).

Rumor: Red Hat is buying Cygnus? The rumor is widespread and, as yet, unconfirmed. So all of the following is hypothetical, and should be treated as such.

Why would Red Hat buy Cygnus? Red Hat, of course, has a big wad of IPO cash burning a hole in its pocket - and a pile of high-priced shares as well. These resources need to be turned into revenue before the stockholders start to get nervous. Cygnus is a successful free software company which can bring some nice, positive cash flow.

Then there is the matter of the C compiler. Cygnus does not own gcc, of course, but much of the development on the compiler has been centered there for some time. Owning Cygnus would give Red Hat control over a crucial piece of its infrastructure, and would allow Red Hat to perhaps direct more effort toward making it work better with Linux.

Perhaps most important, however, is Cygnus' large role in embedded systems. The consensus appears to be that Linux will be a large force in the embedded arena, and a number of companies (Lineo, Montavista, Prosa) have been developing and pushing embedded Linux distributions. Red Hat, thus far, has not been active in embedded systems. What better way to leapfrog everybody than to buy the dominant open source embedded systems business?

Remember that the above is guesswork at this time; watch the LWN daily updates page for current information.

New antenna designed with a Beowulf cluster. Endgate Corporation has announced a new "customer premises antenna." The press release is mostly about the Linux cluster that was used to design the antenna, however. "The company's Beowulf system, which was developed using off-the-shelf components purchased from a local electronics store, uses 20 Intel Pentium III processors to provide performance equivalent to a nine GHz. computer.... By processing a large number of antenna parameter scenarios in parallel, the Beowulf computer was able to reduce the optimization time for the Toshiba antenna from two months to two days."

Press Releases:

    Products for Linux:

  • Alta Technology announced a new Linux-based cluster system based on rack-mount modules. The systems are available with Intel, AMD, or Compaq (Alpha) processors.

  • Bynari Inc. announced the release of its helpdesk software under the GPL.

  • Central Command and Kaspersky Lab announced AntiViral ToolKit Pro for Linux, a complete virus protection suite.

  • Centura Software Corporation announced its Raima Database Manager 5.0 and upcoming versions of Velocis Database Server (Velocis) will be available for Red Hat Linux.

  • Datalux unveiled a network-computing device for the healthcare industry, which runs on Linux.

  • Eicon Technology announced the certification of its DIVA 2.01 PCI ISDN adapter running on Linux.

  • Enhanced Software Technologies, Inc. announced BRU 15.1, with support for Hewlett-Packard's One-Button Disaster Recovery (OBDR) tape drive capability.

  • Merlin Software Technologies Inc. announced PerfectBACKUP+ 6.1 will be released later this week.

  • PegaSoft announced the release of System Manager in a Box (SMiaB) v1.0, a multipurpose system administration tool.

  • Penguin Computing announced the "Blackfoot 2500," a new rackmount server system.

  • PlugSys International announced Max for Linux, a new product for compiling and running Xbase code on Linux-based computers.

  • Tridia Corporation announced the release of DoubleVision for Linux, remote control software.

  • VA Linux Systems announced a new rackmount server system "optimized for Linux server applications ranging from Apache Web serving to Beowulf clustering."

    New Books:

  • Coriolis announced the publication of its "Exam Cram" book for the Red Hat Certified Engineer examination.

  • OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, has designated O'Reillys "DocBook: the Definitive Guide", as the official documentation of the DocBook DTD.

  • O'Reilly and Associates announced the release of "Java Foundation Classes in a Nutshell", by David Flanagan.

    Also Comes in Linux:

  • Control Data Systems, Inc. announced the "InterHost Server," a mail and related server for large organizations. And they do mean large: "InterHost is $0.96 per seat starting at 100,000 users; per user pricing drops as numbers of users increase." CDC does not make a big deal out of it, but InterHost is available for Linux.

  • Extensibility Inc. announced XML Authority 1.1.

  • Inovie Software, Inc. announced the availability of TeamCenter 3.0, an Enterprise Team Portal for Internet-based work teams.

  • LinuxOne, Inc. announced the release of LinuxMac, a software application that enables the reading and writing of Apple Macintosh format disks and CDs.

  • Novell, Inc. announced the worldwide release of the public beta of NetWare 5.1.

  • ParaSoft Corporation released SiteRuler 1.1, an Internet tool that finds and fixes errors in corporate Web sites.

  • Smith Micro Software, Inc. announced the release of WebCatalog for UNIX.

    Partnerships, Investments and Acquisitions:

  • BeOpen.com announced that it has acquired LinuxDev.Net, a Linux developer and Open Source website.

  • Linuxcare announced a deal with IBM Global Services to provide support for IBM's Linux customers.

  • Oracle Corp. and Red Hat unveiled a new version of the Red Hat Linux OS which will be optimized to meet the increasing high availability, clustering and Java support demands of today's emerging e-businesses.

  • Penguin Computing has announced an "exclusive" deal to sell its advertising posters through the Linux Mall.

  • Quantified Systems, Inc. and Nettaxi, Inc. announced the successful deployment of Urchin Enterprise across the entire Nettaxi network.

    Other:

  • eSoft Inc., developer and marketer of Linux software, announced its Easy Pay leasing program which will offer eSoft resellers the ability to extend lease terms to their customers.

  • FreeCheck is a free-to-use e-mail Internet service that runs on a Linux PC.

  • LinuxToday.com will be broadcasting live radio from the floor of the Linux Business Expo/Comdex '99.

  • MontaVista Software, Inc., maker of Hard Hat Linux, named Kevin Morgan as vice president of engineering and Brian Grega as vice president of sales and marketing.

  • Red Hat, Inc. announced that all the streaming activities of NetAid, the largest streaming video event in Web history, were powered by Red Hat Linux solutions and support.

  • Sun claims that more than one million copies of StarOffice have been downloaded in the last two months.

Section Editor: Jon Corbet.


November 11, 1999

 

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