QCD 'Makes Linux Look Like Windows', Apr 19, 2005

QCD Microsystems Inc, a little five-year-old company in New York, has made Linux look like Windows so it's easier to administer. The reaction of folks that have seen it has reportedly been "Wow."

A stealth start-up in Athens, Ohio whose name is Spliced Networks LLC is on the threshold of announcing a new Linux distribution that its young CTO John Buswell describes as "unlike anything currently on the market."

Mandrakesoft returned to profitability in its fiscal year ended September 30.

After going public, VA couldn't sustain its hardware business and morphed into VA Software, a pitiful thing now worth a mere $1.96 a share, down from $300.

The French Ministry of Defense, such as it is, will be shelling out seven million euros over the next three years to underwrite the development of a multi-level-secure Linux system that meets highfalutin CC-EAL5 certification.

SCO's abject failure to threaten, cajole or persuade practically anybody to buy its so-called Linux licenses without a court-loaded shotgun - coupled with the small fortune it's been spending on lawyers to get that shotgun loaded in the face of IBM's slippery resistance - has forced it into cutting a new deal with its legal counsel that puts a cap on their bills.

Meanwhile - with its stock in the tank - SCO has also swallowed a poison pill meant to defend it against "any potential undervalued takeover attempts." It claims it knows of none, but it's playing it safe anyhow.

Well, if we do find little green men on Mars, it'll be thanks to SGI and Intel.

NASA has decided to base Project Columbia, which will boost its computing capacity tenfold, on SGI's Linux-based Altix machines and integrate 20 512-processor Altix systems with 500TB of SGI's InfiniteStorage to create the Space Exploration Simulator.

At 10,240 Itanium 2 chips, the thing will be among the biggest Linux supercomputers in the world.

Credit Suisse First Boston believes Microsoft's reticence on Longhorn may suggest delays are in store. Longhorn continues to slip, says the broker, suggesting that management doesn't want investors to associate it too greatly with the company's growth. CSFB says if Longhorn, nominally due in 2006, slips to 2007 - which is what the smart money currently thinks - then Microsoft "becomes less interesting as part of an investment thesis" because of Linux.

SCO CEO Darl McBride, the most hated man in the computer industry, says he's reached for an analogy to describe SCO's experience since suing IBM. "This is like...," he's said to himself, groping for an elucidating comparison, only to conclude, "Nothing...Nothing compares to what's happened in the last year."

What happened in the last few days proves his point.

Linux is going to be handling a third of all travel bookings in the world now that IBM has persuaded Cendant Corporation to switch its Galileo 360 eFares engine to Linux-based xServers. Cendant is supposed to save a massive 90% over three years. The Cendant system processes 300-400 transactions a second from 500 airlines to deliver fare information to both consumers and travel/airline agents. The new system, which links with mainframes, saves hours of pre-processing to post new fares quicker.