[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

IBM adopting Linux?




I dithered down a long thread from the svlug list, hope you find it
interesting, and maybe parts of it funny too :-)

-- 
Ira Abramov    <ira(a)scso.com>     whois: IA58   (a linux enthusiast)

She sells cshs by the cshore.       - Rob Malda

-- BEGIN included message


I keep hearing interesting stories and rumours about IBM,
who said bye-bye to most of the software markets we're 
familiar with, a couple of years ago, when Lou Gerstner
retired and IBM refocussed on targeted markets, instead of
general PC & LAN computing.

ITEM:  IBM "has completed 90 percent of its DB2 database port 
to Linux in its laboratories, is still waiting to see how the 
market progresses before deciding whether to release a product."

ITEM:  A rumour from an IBM employee of "a succesful lab-internal 
port of Linux to S/390, which is our biggest machine (mainframe 
rules!)."

ITEM:  Jikes, an IBM Java compiler written in C++, is now
available gratis for Linux (libc6 and libc5), and open source
release is under discussion.   The Jikes developers credited a
staggeringly huge number of hits from a Slashdot link with
getting them support for these moves with management.  (A post
cited 10,000+ hits.  Make of that improbable number whatever 
you will.) 

ITEM:  IBM has released Object Rexx binaries for Linux, gratis.

ITEM:  IBM has not only officially adopted Apache, but also IBM
agreed to contribute back their current and future improvements,
and an IBM employee reports that "our upper management has posted a
request for *ALL* IBM employees to donate any code they may have 
written for Apache to the *very important* internal Apache group 
in order for them to collect and submit to the external Apache 
group.  Before this announcement, we would have been legally 
restricted from donating code to the Apache project, so now you 
have tens of thousands of new Apache developers."

ITEM:  IBM Marketing is said to be "very interested in the number 
of people who would be interested in" buying a Linux port of VisualAge 
for Java.  Petition at http://java.magelang.com/~thetick/visualage/

What next?  Lotus Notes for Linux?  Lotus SmartSuite for Linux?
WorkPlace Shell for Linux?  Lotus Organizer for Linux?

Probably, there are some folks reading this list who know, but 
can't say.  ;->

-- 
Cheers,               I am the very model of a modern Unix sysadmin,
Rick Moen             I've information relevant to programs in slash usr bin,
rick@hugin.imat.com   I know the tricks of emacs and the vi bugs historical,
                      From a to ZZ upper case, in order categorical.
                                -- Harley Hahn, The Unix Sysadmin Song



--
echo "unsubscribe svlug" | mail majordomo@svlug.org
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ to unsubscribe

-- END included message

-- BEGIN included message


hiya Rick

> ITEM:  IBM "has completed 90 percent of its DB2 database port 
> to Linux in its laboratories, is still waiting to see how the 
> market progresses before deciding whether to release a product."

that's cool....

> ITEM:  A rumour from an IBM employee of "a succesful lab-internal 
> port of Linux to S/390, which is our biggest machine (mainframe 
> rules!)."

cost too much for *linux*... hehehehe

> What next?  Lotus Notes for Linux?  Lotus SmartSuite for Linux?
> WorkPlace Shell for Linux?  Lotus Organizer for Linux?

those  will *kill* linux.... those are dead itty-bitty products...
like sco ...dead... don't drag dead animals back into a new baby...

a cool/project is to port cae development/simulation to linux...and
beat the pants off cadence/synopsis...
	- nothing like moving hundreds of terabytes of data in 24hrs...
	- kills the little sun "super-servers"... would be nice to see
	- if linux can be tweeked like/better than sgi challenge/origin machines

heheeheh
have fun
alvin


--
echo "unsubscribe svlug" | mail majordomo@svlug.org
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ to unsubscribe

-- END included message

-- BEGIN included message


> Whether you and I ever use Notes on Linux, let alone think it's good,
> is not the point.  The point is that the press is still balking at
> portraying Linux as a real choice -- even the best of them (except 
> for Petreley, of course).

    You think that is by chance?  No, it is by design.  There is little
money to be made touting a free operating system with few applications or
OS-specific peripherals.

    Run an article on Win98 and modems, and two or three modem
manufacturers will vie over who gets their ad next to it.  Win98 and
notebooks?  Same thing! 

    Run an article on a minority product with no specific add-on vendors,
and you have kissed those positioning fees good by!  Editors, while they
do need to print news, do need money to print the news.  If they start
disappointing ad space buyers, they will hear about it from the general
manager.  Time and again, heavy advertisers will threaten to pull ads and
go to other publications if they perceive a publication's article mix or
editorial slant starts impacting their bottom line.

    Let us face it, Linux has the image of the self sufficient Marlboro
Man and his horse, when everyone is vying to sell you a snazzy new low
slung sports car with extra horns, a quarter of a ton of free chrome, and
a gold plated spoiler out back, all designed to Impress!  What we have as
an image, is anti-business hacks giving home made horse saddles away free,
and asking folks to take the trail up the hill that would rip the oil pan
off the sports car and leave it an expensive wreak.

    Lotus Notes, Oracle, and now IBM are telling the business world that
Linux isn't a horse, it is a hefty four wheel drive pickup truck; the
horse they heard of went away years ago!  And by the way, that so-called
mountain trail?  It's where you guys have to go next, cause you have been
racing your snazzy sports cars safely around the office parking lot too
long.  There is a whole world out there, and guess what!  Those wonzoid
sports cars can't go there!

    Well, folks, make sure Linux is on your resume, as in about 90 to 180
days, Linux will be a hot word amongst the corporate incognosii and
ignoramii.  As Dilbert's boss will say, "We need to know about this Linux
thing, get me someone who knows about it." 

- javilk@mall-net.com ---------------------------
MS asks "Where do you want to go?"
Linux asks "What do you want to do?"
It is doers, not goers, who built this world!
Member: http://www.svlug.org/


  


--
echo "unsubscribe svlug" | mail majordomo@svlug.org
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ to unsubscribe

-- END included message

-- BEGIN included message


><snip>
>then IBM is one step closer to embracing Linux
>as their next OS/2.
></snip>
>
>uh- reality check here, boys... OS/2 didn't exactly meet with a pretty
>fate!  I mean I'd hate for a similar outcome to befall Linux!  Secondly,
>this was only a rumor.

Amy,
you're missing the point. IBM was fanatical about their commitment to OS/2.
We know that Linux will not suffer the same fate as OS/2. But, can you
imagine if IBM starts to ship their Thinkpads with dual-boot Linux/WinXX?
Of course, we're talking 2 years for that to happen, but in 2 years imagine
what Linux will be like. It's going to have App support, it's going to have
a kick-ass Windows manager (perhaps Apple will wake up and get their
Interface designers to come up with another miracle). Linux is going to be
running on most Web servers in the world. And IBM will promote the 2000
Olympics by saying that the Olympics Web server is powered by Linux, Apache
and IBM Web commerce solutions...

Think Deep-Blue on Linux.... ;)

In the meantime we need to think about developer support for Linux, and
getting as many apps as possible ported over. Perhaps a poll on our site,
asking people to vote on which apps they would actually pay for if they
were ported to Linux, would help the cause.

-
Hans Cathcart ________________________ http://www.itavera.com/~hans/
Are you an IT System Administrator? ____ http://zork.net/fed-up.html
________ Linux - The Operating System for the 21st Century _________



--
echo "unsubscribe svlug" | mail majordomo@svlug.org
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ to unsubscribe

-- END included message

-- BEGIN included message


Amy Abascal wrote:
> 
> I know that it's silly to even say this but...
> YOU GUYS ARE ALL SUCH GEEKS!!!
> You get a rumor of linux on a maniframe and it soounds as if someone had
> given you the opportunity to have your own private lapdance by Pamela
> Anderson!

Mainframes are faster than Pame.... No, wait a minute.
Mainframes have had more engineering work than P.... Hang on.
Mainframes are more expensive th.... Um, no.
Mainframes are harder to maintain....

Okay, got it.

A mainframe running Linux will not go down =nearly= as often....

 - Bob

--
echo "unsubscribe svlug" | mail majordomo@svlug.org
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ to unsubscribe

-- END included message