Virgin America migrates to Red Hat Linux, Aug 18, 2007

New US airline Virgin America has migrated to Red Hat Linux to host its website.

Gartner is urging businesses to put pressure on Microsoft to provide “commercially reasonable” support for all enterprise licensees running virtual machines (VMs), not just Premier subscribers.

ISP Host Europe, which supports firms in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, is using systems from Red Hat.

Kingfisher Group has migrated its 240 Castorama and Brico Dépôt stores on the continent to Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Oracle databases.

Around 25% of enterprises will be running mission-critical business application on Linux platforms by 2009.

Red Hat users should carry out compatibility tests of Oracle’s Linux set-up because it offers a “more complete” support package, analyst firm Gartner has urged.

Citrix says it has no interest in delivering native Linux support in its products, and that it will continue to rely on the Windows platform.

Developers are being urged to join the new Linux Standard Base (LSB) Developer Network, a developers’ website designed to rival the Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN).

The next version of Windows Server – codenamed Longhorn – will include virtualisation technology that is interoperable with the open source Linux operating system.

Kent Police has cut the cost of running its major criminal investigations system by 90% using Novell Open Enterprise Server, the company's version of SuSE Linux.

Motoring organisation the AA is to implement an identity and access management solution running on Novell's SuSE Linux to automate the management of digital identities for around 6,000 staff.

Novell has unveiled a SUSE Linux Enterprise training course contained on a portable USB drive, which it says is an industry first.

Mono is an initiative to develop an open source version of Microsoft .net that can be used to develop applications for Unix, Linux and other platforms, including Windows. The intention is that, for example, ASP.net applications could be developed.

Another turbulent period of change is facing organisations over the next two years. Desktop roll-outs are one of the biggest and costliest headaches for any enterprise, and the prospect of another version of Windows is daunting.

Oracle has now made its low-end, free-of-charge Oracle Database 10g Express Edition generally available to the public.

IBM has extended the work it is doing with Red Hat and Novell in a bid to make Linux and open source software a more compelling option for IT directors.

Panasonic is ending development of GSM mobile phones and will concentrate instead on 3G Linux-based phones, which are already popular in Asia.

Although Linux-driven servers increased 34% in the quarter year-on-year, the growth was less than the previous quarter. Unix servers accounted for 0.5% less sales in the third quarter.

Linux has moved closer to maturity as a robust datacentre platform, with the release of a major refresh of the kernel software.

Without ballyhoo or headlines, open source is eating away at the enterprise computing core and moving steadily outwards.