IBM, Oracle, Sybase and Others Fly the Flag at Linux World

Computergram International, August 10, 1999

Only six months after it was first held, the twice-yearly Linux World Conference and Exposition has become a significant event on the industry calendar. From today, Tuesday August 10 1999, industry players from plucky little Enlighten to Big Blue will be crammed into San Jose's convention center, to sit at the feet of Linux luminaries from Intel's Sean Maloney to the eponymous Linus Torvalds, and to hawk their wares. On Wednesday, the first big Linux initial public offering, that of Red Hat Software Inc, is expected to dominate gossip. There will, however, be no shortage of other news.

IBM plans a raft of announcements from almost every part of the company, reflecting the extent to which Torvalds' maverick operating system has won Big Blue hearts and minds. Sun Microsystems Inc and SGI also say they have surprises in store. Sybase is adding Linux support for Adaptive Server Enterprise 11.92, Enterprise Application Server 3.0 and Replication Server 4.0 to its existing Linux-compatible range: Adaptive Server and SQL Anywhere. Oracle Corp is poised to unveil a Linux-based software line. If even eighteen months ago, you had suggested that these companies might be out in force at a Linux event, you'd have been laughed out of the room.

On the hardware side, Motorola Computer Group (MCG) has introduced a series of Intel x86 embedded server platforms using Linux. Powered by a 450 or 500MHx Pentium III processor, the emS- ATXI could be used to run telecommunications, internet, imaging and industrial automation server applications. The machine is part of a new strategy to provide MCG's OEM and telecom customers with Linux platforms, open source software, service, support, training and integration. To that end, MCG is collaborating with Lineo Inc, formerly Caldera Thin Clients Inc, and with its parent company Caldera Systems Inc.

Caldera S has also announced that its port of OpenLinux 2.2 for Sun's SPARC and UltraSPARC-based platforms is now available for download. Caldera likes to boast that its Linux distribution is unusually portable, and this announcement lends credence to that claim. "We have long thought that Sun's hardware expertise and our OpenLinux technology would be a great fit," remarked Caldera chief executive officer Ransom Love. Not to be outdone, rival Linux distribution TurboLinux has struck a deal with Enlighten Software Solutions Inc to bundle Enlighten's workgroup systems management software for Linux with the full line of TurboLinux products. "Now our corporate customers can manage not only Linux but also their Unix and Windows machines all through our product," explained TurboLinux chief executive officer Cliff Miller.