IBM sees growing Linux programmer community, Nov 18, 2003

This month, IBM's Linux efforts will reach a milestone as it registers the 100,000th developer working with IBM software to create Linux-based applications, Big Blue's Software Development Group announced.

Every month IBM tracks an average of 2,000 developers who register to build applications for the software. And, on a monthly basis, those developers create an estimated 750 new Linux-based applications that run on IBM software.

Linux is a rising star in the geeky, back office of computing. Its gains have come as an operating system for the data-serving computers that run corporate PC networks and serve up Web pages. On the desktop, Microsoft’s Windows, which is perceived by many as easier to use, still reigns supreme.

But IBM and the Open Source Development Lab, whose membership includes Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Intel, are beginning a drive to promote Linux as an alternative to Windows on the desktop.

One indication of their more aggressive approach came last week when an IBM executive, Samuel J. Docknevich, delivered a speech at a technology conference outside Boston titled "The Time is Now for Linux on the Desktop."

Linux is a rising star in the geeky back office of computing. Its gains have come as an operating system for the data-serving computers that run corporate networks and serve up Web pages. On the desktop, Microsoft's Windows still reigns supreme.

But I.B.M. and the Open Source Development Lab, whose membership includes Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Intel, are beginning a drive to promote Linux as an alternative to Windows on the desktop.

One indication of their more aggressive approach came yesterday when an I.B.M. executive, Samuel J. Docknevich, delivered a speech at a technology conference outside Boston titled "The Time Is Now for Linux on the Desktop."

IBM's other Linux shoe could drop Monday, as Big Blue is expected to endorse the idea of Linux on desktop computers at a conference.

Big Blue has heavily promoted the open-source operating system for use on servers, but Sam Docknevich of IBM's Global Services group plans to discuss how Linux's popularity now has spilled over into the desktop market, according to the agenda for the Desktop Linux Conference in Boston.

An IBM executive here in Berlin said in a roundtable about Linux and the challenges it faces that the rise of Open Source and Linux is unstoppable.

Deborah Magid, who works in the software division of IBM and liases with venture capitalists, said: "I’ve watched our use of open source grow and I agree it’s totally unstoppable. A lot of people wonder why we feel that way about open source, but in 1995 we shed our proprietary mindset. We supported Java because it was a portable platform, and Linux was attractive to us for the same reason". And, she said, the use of Linux is growing.

The move in industry and governments is enormous, with China, with Russia, with the UK government, with companies like Morgan Stanley. About a dozen countries are now looking at Linux on the desktop, she said.

IBM is teaming up with the government of Brazil to develop the country's expertise in open-source software such as Linux, the technology giant announced Friday.

Big Blue signed a letter of intent with the South American country, stating a shared vision of developing technology that's based on open-source software and open standards, according to a statement released by IBM.

IBM is the first vendor to offer businesses a choice of Intel-based, Unix-based, or Linux-based server processing and network capacity delivered on demand. IBM became the first computer company to offer remotely-delivered virtual server capacity when it introduced Linux virtual services on eServer zSeries® mainframe systems in July of 2002.

With access to virtual server solutions on every IBM eServer™ platform, businesses now have the potential to achieve from 15 to 30 percent cost savings over deploying solutions in-house.

At an "infrastructure simplification" briefing held in Somers, New York, Tuesday, IBM executives pointed out how more than 1,000 of its customers are using IBM technologies to more effectively provision processing-intensive applications from mainframes to clusters of Linux-based blade servers -- such as seismic calculations for petrochemical companies and derivatives calculations at Wall St. securities firms.

Looking to make inroads in the Chinese marketplace, IBM on Wednesday launched its IBM DB2 Linux Mobilization Program, to accelerate use of the DB2 database in that country.

Webmaster's note: This is not news per se, but a visitor was nice enough to let us know about links to viewing IBM's Linux commerical being aired in the United States. With Linux, you can see the spot via RealPlayer, mplayer and xine.

IBM has put its money where its mouth is and created a big-budget ad to get across to Average Joe just why Linux is so great.

The American ad will be shown for the first time during the US Open Men's tennis finals next week - which is clever cause Linux is "open" source. It will also be shown in IBM's very pricey slot at the start of the American Football season.

The slogan is "Linux. The Future is Open. IBM." And the ad itself will feature a young blond boy with blue eyes of around Linux's age (i.e. nine or ten) who sits quietly while assorted experts educate him - a football player (in the British sense), an architect, musician, exec, pilot, poet, astronomer and so on will pop up with words of wisdom.

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I.B.M. is intensifying its battle with Microsoft over the increasingly popular Linux operating system with a big campaign to begin tomorrow, intended to burnish the image of Linux rather than sell I.B.M. products and services.

The centerpiece of the campaign is a 90-second television commercial, directed by Joe Pytka, with an ethereal style, uncharacteristic of I.B.M., that is reminiscent of the film "2001: A Space Odyssey."

IBM Wednesday aired its latest Linux-oriented win when it announced that the University of Washington, Rutgers Universities Libraries, and the Georgia Institute of Technology Interactive Media Technology Center have opted to run Linux on Power4 chip architecture to build an online catalog of film, television and digital video for the Library of Congress.

Sales of servers using the Linux operating system increased 40 percent to $650 million, with HP holding 28.9 percent of that market, Dell at 20.5 percent and IBM at 19.4 percent, IDC said.

The legal challenge the SCO Group has mounted against Linux eventually will become a forgotten chapter in the operating system's history, an IBM executive told attendees of a Linux trade show on Wednesday.

Webmaster's note: Somewhat misleading title. It is not pointed out in the article where they have said they "refuse". It has always been a given that Linux is provided with no warrantees.

IBM is making a lot of noise at the LinuxWorld trade show in San Francisco this week. The computer giant is announcing new customers using the Linux operating system, a cheaper alternative to traditional operating systems like UNIX and Microsoft's Windows. IBM will also announce new Linux products, new Linux reseller programs, and an expansion of IBM's Linux services practice to include 3,000 certified Linux techies, a ten-fold gain from two years ago.

IBM will highlight five new customers using the Linux operating system later today at the LinuxWorld conference, as well as announce an expanded Linux practice.

The Japanese unit of IBM said it has received a contract to build the world's largest Linux-based supercomputer, which would be based on Advanced Micro Devices Inc's next-generation Opteron chip.

IBM and Threshold plan to challenge Pixar Animation Studios, creator of Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and Toy Story. Pixar, run by Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs, has reigned as the undisputed king of computer-generated (CG) films.

IBM's system at Threshold will also run Linux, throwing yet more weight behind Linux's position in Hollywood, at the expense of Sun and Microsoft. Threshold used to run on Microsoft's Windows.

In a quest for a bigger piece of the entry-level server market, IBM Corp. has drawn up a three-year plan for producing and marketing systems that pair Linux and IBM's own 64-bit PowerPC family of processors, sources report.

According to sources, the Armonk, N.Y., company plans to take on Sun Microsystems Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. with Linux servers priced at the "enterprise entry level," which IBM defines as less than $25,000. Although the current share of Linux servers running on Power processors is marginal, IBM reportedly projects nearly a 20-fold increase—to almost half-a-million units—by 2006.

IBM has put more muscle behind its effort to improve Linux for its Power family of processors, adding dozens of programmers to Big Blue's Linux Technology Center with plans to hire more.

IBM plans to discontinue its line of Windows-based network-attached storage (NAS) devices in order to focus on higher-end products, including an upcoming file server that will run Linux, sources said this week.

At a press conference in Berlin on Thursday, IBM executives announced the six new Linux customers, which include Brussels-based Union des Classes Moyennes (UCM), a government agency that calculates salaries for doctors and dentists; Finland-based Kela, one of the country's major pension providers; the French Ministry of Education; the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, in Germany; Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria, a public tax agency for the Spanish Ministry of Finance; and the West Yorkshire Police force.

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Moreover, Mr. Torvalds made the case that open-source software projects like Linux - where code is shared and openly published for all to see - provide more visibility and accountability than the more closed realm of traditional propriety software, where source code is a closely guarded trade secret. So, he added, if there are intellectual property transgressions, they are easier to track.

"Me, I prefer the open approach," Mr. Torvalds explained. "Does it guarantee that everybody is honest? No. But it, fundamentally, makes it much more likely that people are honest, and the transparency in the process also means that if dishonesty happens, you can go back and see what went on."

IBM is combining two popular concepts in computing--Linux clusters and blade servers--into a standard system for businesses and research institutions.

IBM has denied SCO Group's allegations that it misappropriated Unix trade secrets, but Big Blue isn't giving hints about what its eventual strategy will be for battling the lawsuit.

IBM has added several new centers worldwide devoted to Linux specialties in energy, government and mainframes, part of its years-long effort to spread the operating system as widely as possible.

There are apparent paradoxes for all major vendors in the Linux market. Microsoft, of course, has no interest and will only port to Linux in the event that it sees its applications market dissolving. By championing Linux, both Oracle and IBM have the effect of marginalising Microsoft's SQL Server database and many of its other products. However, there are several open source databases - the most prominent product being MySQL. One day the customers are going to ask "If an open source OS is so good, why not an open source database?"

IBM next month will extend the reach of its Directory Server and Directory Integrator across additional Linux hardware platforms when it adds versions for the IBM i-Series and p-Series servers.

According to Gartner Group, 45 percent of midsized businesses are using or experimenting with Linux. IBM officials said these midmarket companies tend to view Linux as a "reliable and cost-effective operating system." And the growing support for Linux presents a major opportunity for developers to create Linux-based business applications for these customers, Jollans said.

The biggest beneficiary of the bunch is IBM, which bagged $1 billion in Linux-based revenues in 2002 -- more than double what it got in 2001. Big Blue won't break out profits on that part of its business, but it boasts that its Linux operations are in the black. One step behind is HP. In the past four years, Carly Fiorina's troops have generated $2 billion in Linux revenue from sales of hardware, software, and consulting. By comparison, gross sales at Red Hat have yet to crack $90 million a year.

IBM, three years into its embrace of Linux, will continue its evangelist effort this week by putting on display Unilever and several other new customers using the operating system.

In a significant boost for smaller development companies, a start-up will provide the disk drive management software for the next Linux kernel

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