Novell testing centre pushes more Linux apps into market, Apr 11, 2005

The first question that enterprises ask when considering a Linux migration is: “Will my current applications run on Linux?”

Today, with companies like Red Hat, Novell and IBM fanning the heat of the Linux competition, support for Linux is expected to improve, compared to relying on the open source community.

Red Hat has opened a new Singapore office as part of its plans to expand operations in the Asia-Pacific region, bringing the total number of offices it has in the region to 14.

To use Linux on a bigger scale, companies will need more reasons than low licence fees. Although Linux gained some acceptance last year—mainly among cash-strapped organisations and government agencies—its adoption was restricted to corporate servers.

Now 70% of the company’s servers are on Linux, while others run on Unix, Windows, and Netware. But Bossini is planning to move more of its IT infrastructure and applications to the Linux platform.

With a relatively hostile environment that has pitted proprietary software against open source as a backdrop, the Free Software Foundation, the steward of the GNU General Public License, is working on the first revamp to the license in 13 years.

A Solaris 10 that is “cheaper and faster than Red Hat Linux” was the highlight at Sun Microsystems’ quarterly launch of new products in South Asia on Oct 12.

Before Airtel deployed a voicemail application built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, its top management was understandably concerned. Like in many other enterprises in Asia, Linux was not a common operating system (OS) of choice for Airtel, and they had concerns about using it.

But since the rollout of the application—Dynamic Voicemail—to its seven million customers across the country last August, the top management’s worries have been eased.

IBM’s open-sourcing of its Cloudscape database announced earlier this month points to a deeper strategy to gain control of the middleware space at Microsoft’s expense.

Cloudscape is a 2MB embeddable full-functioned relational database which does not require a database administrator to manage. It was acquired along with IBM’s billion-dollar buyout of Informix in 2001.

Now IBM has handed over “Derby”, a copy of Cloudscape, to the Apache Software Foundation to build a community of users around it, and in the process make Cloudscape the de facto standard for embedded databases.

While questions surrounding Linux’s reliability have left some companies skittish, the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association (HKAOA) is looking the other way and is more committed than ever to the open source operating system that powers the organisation’s online information system.

Representing pilots and flight engineers employed by Cathay Pacific Airways, the HKAOA has over 1,000 members based in Hong Kong, Europe, North America and Australia, and Asia. And because of this large worldwide member base, maintaining communication is their core business objective.

In muted tones, Microsoft’s chairman warned governments and companies that open source software is not the way to go if they are in the business of creating jobs and intellectual property.

Bill Gates was on the Malaysian leg of a whirlwind Asian tour, which included a speech on his vision of “seamless computing”, when he voiced his concerns over the growing goodwill towards open source, especially in Asia.

Software giant Microsoft has fired a broadside against the attempts by several Asian governments to introduce pro-OSS procurement policies.

In Malaysia, where the government openly supports open source software (OSS) and is drafting a National Open Source Policy, Microsoft has made it clear it will oppose any guidelines that institutionalise a procurement preference for the open source platform.

A senior Microsoft executive stated that a buying regulation that favoured open source software would not be a “fair fight”.

Shortly before releasing the first version of Asia’s first and only standardised Linux OS, Oracle has announced the formation of a new business unit focused on Linux in the Asia-Pacific.

The unit, critical to its new consolidated strategy to propel the use of Linux across enterprises in the region, is headed by Leigh Warren, vice-president of Linux Business Development.

Warren has a team of about 20 “stakeholders” from Oracle’s different businesses in the region, as well as country leaders and their respective teams based in the various Asia-Pacific countries.

The growth of Linux on desktop PCs is not as strong as expected here due to lower prices for licensed software and a lack of strong government support for open source software, according to a study.

Truehits.net, a Web site that collects statistics on operating-system usage in Thailand, states that the Linux operating system has only a 0.13% stake in the operating-system market, up from 0.08% last year.

Microsoft Windows 98 still leads the field with 45.9% but is in decline, followed by Windows XP at 44.04%. Windows XP is expected to take over Windows 98 in the next few months.

Pico Peta Simputer is introducing the Amida Simputer, a made-in-India PDA aimed at retail and corporate customers.

The company hopes that its product will change the perception customers have of the Simputer.

The prototype for the Simputer—positioned as an affordable and feature-rich PDA—was first developed by Indian scientists at the IISC Bangalore in 1998, with the aim of bridging the digital divide in India by enabling mass adoption of the product.

To increase its autonomy over software products and reduce costs, Taiwan will pour US$3.4 million into the promotion of open-source software development this year and the next.

The Industrial Development Bureau, under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, as well as the government's IT think tank, the Institute for the Information Industry (III), and the Taipei Computer Association, will all work together to implement the project.

"We want to develop open-source software so we don't have to be tied down by Microsoft, and it also offers other choices for users" said Wu Lieh Neng, consultant at the Taipei Computer Association