Linux Gram articles from August 2002

Linux Gram archives from August 2002

Microsoft OKs Windows Media Clone on Linux.
August 5, 2002... Well, well, well. Fancy that. In a fit of uncharacteristic liberality Microsoft's digital media people have actually countenanced a clean room implementation of their Windows Media technology that runs on Linux and Free BSD. Chalk it...

Microsoft Puts Squeeze on Intel over Linux.(Brief Article)
August 5, 2002... Microsoft ain't kidding when it publicly admits to being spooked by the "formidable challenge" Linux is posing for it in the marketplace. Insiders say that Micro-soft is exerting so much pressure on Intel that any Linux initiatives the...

IBM To Walk in Lock Step.(server group marketing chief Mark Shearer gets new position at IBM)(Brief Article)
August 5, 2002... IBM's four server operations aren't paying enough attention to their synergies. So the company has quietly seconded its server group marketing chief Mark Shearer over to a new job crafting an integrated cross-platform marketing plan. One thing...

Sun Linux Launch Set.(Sun CEO Scott McNealy to launch two-way Linux servers)(Brief Article)
August 5, 2002... Sun CEO Scott McNealy is gonna be at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco the morning of August 12 to launch the company's anticipated new edge-of-network general-purpose two-way Linux servers. That's the day before Linux-World starts and the news...

Will Itanium 2 Just Be a Next-Generation PA-RISC?(Intel's Itanium processor)(Evaluation)
August 5, 2002... Market analyst Illuminata rates Itanium 2's prospects as "mixed" because it's not strategic to any of the top-tier vendors except HP. Not Dell, certainly. It's not using it. And not IBM. Even Intel, which once claimed IPF would replace its...

Veritas Takes Linux to its Bosom.
August 5, 2002... Linux has graduated to a tier-one operating system at Veritas. The move is expected to help propel the alternate platform into the enterprise just as Solaris once stood on the key ISV's shoulders. Veritas figures it's timed its...

Egenera Jumps the Pond.
August 5, 2002... Egenera has established a beachhead in Europe ahead of schedule. The blade start-up said it activated plans early because of the multinational financial institutions that are its core customer base and are installing its systems in the...

Linux Cluster Specialist Gets Backing.(Qlusters receives $6.15 million in Series A money)
August 5, 2002... Qlusters got a pat on the back for its high-performance Linux cluster technology. The eight-month-old start-up got $6.15 million in Series A money. Benchmark Capital US and its Israeli arm and seed investor Israeli Seed Partners...

AMD To Show its Four-way Hammer Prototype.(IBM's DB2 8 ported to the 64- bit side of AMD's Opteron chip)
August 5, 2002... On Tuesday AMD, for some reason or another, admitted ahead of LinuxWorld in mid-August that IBM's DB2 8 has been ported to the 64- bit side of its newfangled hybrid Opteron chip. Of course, it wasn't much of a secret that they were going to...

Open Sourcers Forced To Eat Crow.
August 5, 2002... Stinking chunks of crow was shoved down the throats of open source advocates yesterday after loyal FreeBSD user Edwin Groothuis discovered a Trojan lurking in the source code for some popular security software called OpenSSH. The Trojan...

MandrakeSoft Cuts Losses.(Brief Article)
August 5, 2002... French Linux distribution house MandrakeSoft cut its operating losses in its fiscal third quarter ended June 30 to $780,000 from $3.08 million year-over-year. Its net losses dropped to $980,000 from $2.99 million year-over-year. ...

UniTrends Takes Another Stab at Linux Recovery.(introduces Linux Crash Recovery application)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 5, 2002... After failing to make much headway with the first iteration of its crash recovery program for Linux boxes, UniTrends Software Corporation has introduced a new version of the kit. The Myrtle Beach, South Carolina concern says its new Linux...

IBM, Opera To Build Multimodal Browser.(Brief Article)
August 5, 2002... IBM and Opera have teamed up to develop a multimodal browser based on the XHTML+Voice (X+V) specification. Multimodal technology is supposed to permit the interchangeable use of multiple forms of input and output such as voice commands,...

IBM Buys What Carly Couldn't - PwC Consulting.(PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting)
August 5, 2002... Told ya so. Told ya so. IBM said late Tuesday that it had a definitive agreement to buy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Consulting for a relatively cheap $3.5 billion in cash and stock. Funny that - and not just because...

Neoware Segments; New Box for Old IBM Users.(NeoWare Systems Eon 4300 network computer)(Product Announcement)
August 5, 2002... Little Neoware, which has been one of the few bright spots on Wall Street lately, is going to try market segmentation now that the company's business development is in the hands of long-time IBM veteran Howie Hunger. The thin client house,...

Licensing Deadline Passes; Microsoft Still Standing.(Brief Article)
August 5, 2002... That momentous day when Microsoft's licensing policies changed has come and gone and the rebels outside its gates left the palace still standing - at least for now. Somebody's got to go around and assess the damage and figure out who's still in...

Homeland Security & OpenOffice.(may use OpenOffice shareware business software)(Brief Article)
August 5, 2002... There's rumor that the federal government's new Office of Homeland Security may go with the free OpenOffice. It's supposed to be a matter of 170,000 seats.

Red Hat Said Nyet to Wal-Mart.(Microtel Computer Systems distribution)(Brief Article)
August 5, 2002... Microtel Computer Systems, the California vendor whose Linux PCs are selling on Wal-Mart's web site, says Red Hat turned it down when it approached the North Carolina company about offering its distribution through the giant retailer's web...

Newisys Breaks Cover.(developing systems based on AMD SledgeHammer)
August 12, 2002... Newisys can't hide in the bull rushes anymore hoping Intel won't notice it and, cunning devil that it is, poison the water for the rival start-up with the first-line OEMs so it dies of thirst. Newisys - and let's get its name straight -...

Red Hat Close to Hammer Deal.
August 12, 2002... At press time, Red Hat had reportedly dipped its pen in the inkwell but had not yet signed a proffered AMD contract to support AMD's counterculture 64-bit Hammer chip. Sources close to the situation were expecting the last-minute...

RLX Gets Another Round.
August 12, 2002... RLX Technologies says this blade thing is catching on. At least it has since the blade pioneer switched from Transmeta to Intel and started focusing on clusters and the bioengineering set. CEO Pat Collins says the company currently has...

Microsoft To Charge Developers To Interoperate.
August 12, 2002... This is the same story we sent out on Monday. The controversial and widely disparaged antitrust settlement worked out between Microsoft and the Justice Department in November opened a Pandora's box Monday morning when Microsoft said that it...

Tatung Starts Moving its Blades.(TUD-2016)
August 12, 2002... It seems a dog's age since Tatung and its US subsidiary Tatung Science and Technology pledged to get into the blades game on the back of Amphus Inc, the start-up that traded its Transmeta-based reference design for an Intel one with a little,...

Linuxcare To Play to IBM's Weakness.(develops Levanta software)
August 12, 2002... When Avery Lyford was brought in last year as CEO to rehabilitate Linuxcare, the now four-year-old Linux service pioneer whose image has suffered from a mess of highly publicized self-inflicted injuries, he decided that what the joint needed...

United Linux Beta Imminent.(Brief Article)
August 12, 2002... At LinuxWorld the folks behind the United Linux initiative are supposed to announce that the common Linux operating system they supposed to get behind has moved to beta. United Linux 1.0 is reportedly on schedule for a Q4 launch. United...

Is Open Source Limited?(Gartner research)(Brief Article)
August 12, 2002... Gartner researchers say it's still unclear whether the fabled open source process works higher up the food chain in areas such as high availability, clustering, systems management and transaction middleware. They say it's worked well at the...

Users Angry But Immobilized.(Yankee Group analysis)(Brief Article)
August 12, 2002... The Yankee Group says Microsoft users are more disaffected than ever, dissatisfied and resentful over its "perceived monopolistic practices, hyperbolic marketing, ongoing security woes and habitually slipping ship dates of major new product...

MySQL Fires on All Cylinders; Sees Revenues Tripling.
August 12, 2002... Who says all open source ISVs are doomed? As the IT industry reels under the worst blow it's ever taken, MySQL AB, the Swedish company behind the MySQL open source database, is gung-ho about business. MySQL CEO Marten Mickos sees...

ShaoLin To Debut Linux Compression File System.(ShaoLin Microsystems' Cogo File System)(Brief Article)
August 12, 2002... At the upcoming LinuxWorld, Hong Kong-based Linux systems and solutions provider ShaoLin Microsystems plans to launch a high- performance stackable compression file system for Linux. Dubbed the Cogo File System (CogoFS), the new product is...

Linux Sales Up Again.(IDC analysis)(Statistical Data Included)
August 12, 2002... After falling 5% to $81 million last year, Linux operating system sales, which include maintenance software patches, is projected to grow to "a little over $100 million" this year, according to new findings put together by IDC analyst Al...

Rice University To Build Linux Cluster.(Linux-based Rice Terascale Cluster)
August 12, 2002... Rice University has gotten funding from Intel and the National Science Foundation to build a Linux-based supercomputer. When fully operational next year, the Linux-based Rice Terascale Cluster (RTC) is expected to consist of at least 70...

IBM's Linux Juggernaut Pushes On.
August 12, 2002... IBM is tooting its horn that 10 new customers are moving to Linux with its assistance and that of its business partners. The new accounts include Air New Zealand, Deutsche Telekom, 7-Eleven, Wolfermans, Westport River Winery, Satellite...

Dell Beefs Up HPC Offerings.(high-performance computing)(Brief Article)
August 12, 2002... Dell plans to extend its high-performance computing capabilities by offering software from Platform Computing with its PowerEdge servers. Platform's software is supposed to enable Dell customers to distribute processing workloads more...

Red Hat & Conectiva Could Come to Blows.(Brief Article)
August 12, 2002... Not that this has anything whatsoever in any way to do with the fact that Conectiva is a member of this newfangled United Linux alliance and therefore part of what Red Hat regards as the enemy camp, but Red Hat is hinting around that it may sue...

Does Sun Have Any Friends Left?(Sun's Big Bear Linux server)(Brief Article)
August 12, 2002... People will be watching to see whether Sun's new general-purpose Linux server, supposedly code named Big Bear, is cute enough to have inspired important ISVs to come out in support of its so-called Sun Linux Red Hat-derived operating system....

IBM Sharpens its Blade.(blade servers)
August 12, 2002... Observation posts with their binoculars trained on IBM's anticipated BladeCenter reckon the thing will try to knock Egenera out of the data center as a warming-up exercise. IBM is supposed to have dual- processor blades to start the line this...

Huge Meltdown at HPQ.(Compaq's high-performance systems discontinued)
August 12, 2002... Under Hewlett-Packard's administration, Compaq's plans for two post- Marvel Alpha-based high-performance systems, the ones that were code named Avalanche and Snowball, have melted away and are now a mere puddle on the ground. Marvel is the...

Sun Laptops.(Brief Article)
August 12, 2002... We were fascinated to read in InfoWorld that Sun is going to put out a "reference architecture for Solaris on Intel-based laptops." Wonder if that's what we were hearing when we repeated widely diffused gossip about Sun maybe working on a...

Sun on the Desktop.
August 19, 2002... Told ya so. Told ya so. Three weeks ago we reported hearing a rumor that Sun was working on a Linux desktop. It appears that it's true. Sun CEO Scott McNealy and its software lieutenant Jonathan Schwartz started voluntarily...

Sun & its Red-headed Stepchild.
August 19, 2002... A commonplace Intel white box, a low-end 1U server running a repurposed version of Red Hat Linux, got an awful lot of high-level attention the other day because the 14-cent nameplate on the thing read Sun. Sun CEO Scott McNealy had to...

Red Hat's Lawyers Would Like To Have a Word with Sun.
August 19, 2002... So, how closely do this newfangled Sun Linux 5.0 and Red Hat Linux - on which it depends - resemble each other? (Gee, fancy that, 5.0, there's nothing like starting in the middle.) Well, Sun says Sun Linux has different installer functions...

'I Was Wrong' - Scott McNealy.
August 19, 2002... In a put-on sputter like it was hard for him to admit it, Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy publicly said, "I was rr-rr-rr-wrong" to drop out of the 32-bit server market in 1989-90 and focus Sun exclusively on the 64-bit Sparc market. "We...

Red Hat & AMD Do Deal.
August 19, 2002... Told ya so. Told ya so. Red Hat agreed to port its proprietary enterprise-grade Advanced Server over to AMD's upcoming x86-64 Hammer chips. They're still sorting out what to do about the free Red Hat Linux 7.3 - or its follow-on, the...

Sun's New Software Czar Plays the Market - Badly Apparently.
August 19, 2002... Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's latest Great White Hope, apparently took a little flyer in the stock market, playing with money he apparently didn't have. Lucky for him, Sun proved an indulgent employer and bailed him out, lending him $4 million to...

Xandros To Ship Linux Desktop in Q4.(Product Announcement)
August 19, 2002... Firming up its launch schedule, Canadian start-up Xandros said it plans to ship its desktop Linux distribution in October, seven months after it was officially supposed to. Xandros Desktop 1.0, built out of the Linux kernel 2.4.19, Xfree86...

Red Hat, Sun & the LSB.
August 19, 2002... Red Hat, which has had a somewhat ambivalent relationship with the Linux Standard Base specification, has just had its high-end Advanced Server certified as LSB-compliant. Red Hat 7.2 and 7.3 are not LSB-compliant and evidently won't be because...

Aduva Gets More Money.
August 19, 2002... Aduva, the three-year-old Israeli-California Linux start-up, has just gotten the last part of its C round from a new investor, UK- based Elwin Capital Partners, another $4 million to add to the $14 million it got some six months ago. Under...

Stonesoft Embraces zSeries.
August 19, 2002... Finnish ISV Stonesoft Corporation plans to put its StoneGate high- availability firewall and VPN app on IBM's zSeries mainframes in Q4. StoneGate combines a clustered, highly available firewall, virtual private network, load balancing and...

United Linux Push Seeks Supporters & Funds.(Brief Article)
August 19, 2002... The United Linux distribution is now supposed to move to a closed beta by the end of the month and the code will be available to partners of the initiative's four founders SuSE, Caldera, Turbolinux and Conectiva. Then the prospective 1.0...

Dell Debuts New Linux Services.
August 19, 2002... Dell introduced new professional services at LinuxWorld - most of them powered by its buddy Red Hat - that are aimed at accelerating Linux deployment in the enterprise and migration off of Unix, most likely Sun's. Dell and Red Hat plan to...

HP Enhances Linux Portfolio.
August 19, 2002... Posing Linux as a corporate priority, Hewlett-Packard updated the products and services its Linux portfolio. Highlights include: * A Disaster Tolerant Solution for Linux to provide disaster recovery and business continuity across...

ICS Tools Go on Itanium.(Integrated Computer Solutions Inc)(Brief Article)
August 19, 2002... Score a minor victory for the Itanium chip and Linux. Integrated Computer Solutions Inc (ICS), which does the technical support for the once famous Motif GUI under contract to the Open Group, says customer demand has persuaded it to put its...

Indian Supercomputing Agency Plumps for Linux.(Brief Article)
August 19, 2002... The Center for the Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) in India has opted to go with Linux systems from IBM for the National High- Performance Computing Laboratory it's putting together. The lab, which is supposed to develop...

Dell Hunts with the Hounds & Runs with the Hares.
August 19, 2002... In a move that warmed the cockles of the heart of the open source community, Dell, starting September 1, plans to offer corporate customers naked new n-Series OptiPlex desktops and Precision workstations without any operating system installed...

Sun Names Linux-Solaris Nabob.(Brief Article)
August 19, 2002... Sun's old chief marketing officer John Loiacono, who got sorta displaced in the company's big reorg some weeks ago, is going to manage its Solaris-Linux software under Sun software czar Jonathan Schwartz. Gee, imagine that. A spin doctor in...

Draft Embedded Spec Ready.(Brief Article)
August 19, 2002... The Embedded Linux Consortium (ELC), which is pledged to come up with an embedded Linux platform standard, says its working group has achieved consensus on a strawman specification and plans to circulate the document among member companies soon...

Oracle Betas New Clustered File System.(Brief Article)
August 19, 2002... Oracle has released the source code for a new clustered file system on Linux. The stuff is aimed at enabling Oracle9i Real Application Clusters customers to simplify the management of clustered databases. Previously database administrators...

VA Ties Up with IBM.(Brief Article)
August 19, 2002... VA Software Corporation cut its first really big deal since it stopped being a wannabe Compaq or Dell hardware vendor and said the next generation of its SourceForge Enterprise Edition collaborative software development environment would fully...

The Hammer Clock.(Brief Article)
August 19, 2002... Evidently the two-way prototype that the Newisys start-up had at LinuxWorld was running early AMD SledgeHammer chips that clocked in at 1.2GHz, a lot lower than production chips would be. Hammer's clock rates - either realized or projected -...

And, Now. . .the $199 Linux PC.
August 19, 2002... Lindows.com, whose unfinished Linux operating system is already being sold by Wal-Mart on a $299 Microtel box, claims it's got a deal on the line to turn up on a $199 PC. It won't say whose box it is, it says, because the deal's not signed, but...

BEA, Egenera Back Red Hat.(Brief Article)
August 19, 2002... Red Hat picked up a few endorsements at LinuxWorld this week. Blade start-up Egenera said it would support Advanced Server. In return Red Hat has pledged to support the virtualization services in Egenera's next-generation system. Egenera and...

Red Hat of the Desktop.(Brief Article)
August 19, 2002... Think a desktop version of the company's proprietary unfree corporate-bound Advanced Server maybe called Advanced Workstation.

The Great Linux-on-Mainframes Debate Rages On.(Brief Article)
August 19, 2002... Merrill Lynch has sent surveyors from Techtel to try to double check some of IBM's Linux-on-the-mainframe numbers and they came away with the impression that "Linux and the new low-end z800 may be bringing in first-time buyers." However, they...

Linux Chips Away at Xbox.(Brief Article)
August 19, 2002... The Xbox Linux Project has reportedly booted the Linux kernel on the Microsoft gaming console. The object is to turn the Intel-based Xbox into a full-fledged Linux workstation.

Micron PC Due with Linux Box.(NetFrame 6500)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 19, 2002... MicronPC is supposed to launch its new NetFrame 6500 Linux- compatible enterprise server later this month.

Linux Aficionados March on City Hall.(Brief Article)
August 19, 2002... Red Hat CTO Michael Tiemann and a small bunch of other open source advocates reportedly marched from the LinuxWorld conference at the Moscone Center to the San Francisco City Hall on Thursday to lobby for the newly proposed Digital Software...

Dell Reports Profit.
August 19, 2002... Dell earned $501 million net, or 19 cents a share, on revenues of $8.5 billion for its fiscal second quarter ended August 2 and forecast double-digit revenue and earnings growth for this quarter. The earnings were in line with the company...

Japanese ISV Buys Turbolinux Code for $2.1m.
August 26, 2002... The revenue-challenged Turbolinux operating system, already half- orphaned by its distribution-retreating creator, has collapsed into the arms of the big Japanese ISV Software Research Associates (SRA). There's a great deal of sensitivity...

Red Hat Sticks by its Guns.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 26, 2002... Rumors have been circulating that Red Hat has put in a thankless quarter, that it was having a problem booking revenues and that the Wall Street spending it was depending on didn't come through - and of course everybody knows independently that...

United Linux Is Love-Less.(Caldera CEO Ransom Love will not head United Linux)(Brief Article)
August 26, 2002... Well, despite widespread expectations and his own hopes, ex-Caldera CEO Ransom Love ain't gonna be running the United Linux initiative that Caldera, SuSE, Turbolinux and Conectiva have put together to level the playing field between them and...

Sun a Stranger to the LSB.(Linux Standard Base specification)(Brief Article)
August 26, 2002... At LinuxWorld, Sun Microsystems made much of the fact that its new proprietary Sun Linux distribution would cleave to the Linux Standard Base (LSB) specification - it's way of claiming it won't fragment the market. Of course, the Red Hat...

Answer to a Maiden's Prayer.(Adalio Sanchez to manage IBM server unit)(Brief Article)
August 26, 2002... IBM has brought in a veritable outsider to straighten out its wayward Unix server unit and get it singing with the Linux choir. Adalio Sanchez, formerly with IBM's storage networking and before that mobile computing units, is now the pSeries...

AIX To Go the Way of LSB.(Linux Standard Base specification )(Brief Article)
August 26, 2002... Rumor has it IBM expects to get its proprietary Unix operating system AIX certified to be compliant with the Linux Standard Base specification next year. Sun has been making similar noises about its precious Unix system, Solaris.

SWsoft Branches Out into Virtual Linux Hosting.(HSPcomplete 2.0)(Product Announcement)
August 26, 2002... So SWsoft Inc has repurposed its Virtuozzo server consolidation technology and launched into the hosting business, aiming at Ensim. It worked on the stuff for 18 months and before going GA earlier this month with its first real product,...

Open Source Demigod To Leave HP.(Bruce Perens)
August 26, 2002... Bruce Perens, the open source radical who talked his way into a job at HP 20 months ago, has basically talked his way out of one now. HP finds his politics a bit too, well, political. The straw that broke the camel's back was Perens wanting...

Start-up's Run at Linux-as-Entertainment Platform Fails.(OEone)
August 26, 2002... Stung by the lackluster response the consumer electronics companies gave its software, Canadian Linux house OEone Corporation has shifted gears and is now chasing the corporate, institutional and government markets trying to get them to use a...

Zambeel Decimated.
August 26, 2002... Glitzy storage start-up Zambeel has reportedly cut 25%-30% of its people. It is seeking another round of funding. "Their biggest challenge is in being able to raise funding," according to a source familiar with Zambeel's operations. ...

What Are the Odds?(Gartner report on Sun Microsystems' Linux foray)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 26, 2002... Feeling game, Gartner is betting that Sun's move into Linux will stem the migration from Solaris-on-Sparc to Linux-on-Intel by preventing Sun from losing a 10%-20% of its sales and give their estimate a relatively weak 0.6 probability of being...

They're Not Too Bright in Washington, Are They.(Brief Article)
August 26, 2002... The United States of America's no doubt estimable National Security Agency (NSA) has cottoned on to the fact that it may not be altogether smart to use an open source approach to develop its cyber security widgetry. See, the NSA had this here...

Outnumbered.(operating systems' market share)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 26, 2002... In July, Linux accounted for 1% of the operating systems used to access Google. The various flavors of Windows accounted for 91%, Mac 4% and the rest 4%. Within the Windows family, Windows 98 accounted for 43%, Windows 2000 20%, XP 17%, NT 7%...

Philips Debuts Linux-based Silicon System.(Royal Philips Electronics PTD2002, PTD211X, PTD2210, PTD241X systems-on-a-chip)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 26, 2002... Royal Philips Electronics has introduced a Linux-based Gateway-on-a- Chip system product for makers of SOHO broadband routers. The new system, which includes processors, software and boards, delivers data, voice, security and network...

DMOD Delivers Secure Digital Media Workflow.(WorkSpace Gateway 2.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 26, 2002... Movie and music companies' greatest fear is that upcoming content will get in the hands of pirates before their products are released to the market. DMOD Inc, a provider of software for secure digital media workflow and distribution, cites...

BayBunch Re-forms.(Linuxcare, Sytek to revive BayBunch users group)(Brief Article)
August 26, 2002... Now that it's kinda in the IBM mainframe business with its Levanta provisioning system, Linuxcare - together with long-time sponsor Sytek Systems - are trying to resuscitate the old BayBunch users group, which hasn't met in three years. See,...

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.(IT hardware demand)(Statistical Data Included)
August 26, 2002... IDC has changed its forecast and is now expecting more than a 4% decline in overall IT hardware spending this year and a 10% drop in high-end servers alone although spending on low-end servers is supposed to grow 5%. IDC originally started with...