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David S. Miller was the first to write in to say that SGI has updated their web pages to announce the release of their new Visual Workstations. The page proudly proclaims "For Windows NT". The rumors are flying that these things will soon officially support Linux, so Cross your fingers and wait. Wonderful hardware. Seems like a shame to cripple it.

David S. Miller sent us a self proclaiming Shameless plug- it's about what Cobalt is doing now that everyone adores their MicroServers. He says "The new product lines coming up should prove interesting for a lot of folks out there. And this story talks about what we are saying publicly about it so far. Most failed startups can't see past their first product, and we are trying to show everyone early on that this is not the case. "Cobalt: More than just a pretty blue box." 8-) "

Eureka sent us a press release from Cobalt, maker of those very cool server cubes we saw at LinuxExpo. They are joining RedHat, Corel, Netscape, Caldera and the rest of the usual suspects endorsing the open source model. They are now officially releasing a MIPs port of Linux to their FTP site, and have officially scored a couple of Cool Points in my book.

COBALT ENDORSES OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE MODEL

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 1, 1998--Cobalt Microserver today announced its complete support of the open source software model. Cobalt has released to the public its port of the Linux operating system to the MIPS processor, used in the Cobalt Qube family of products. Cobalt joins a long list of companies -- including Netscape, Corel Computer Corporation, Caldera, and Red Hat Software -- who have also announced their support for the open-source model. Cobalt's software is available at their ftp site

"Cobalt promotes and supports open standards and the cooperative software development model," said Stephen DeWitt, president and CEO of Cobalt. "By distributing the Linux portion of the Cobalt Qube operating system, Cobalt will help developers who wish to enhance and customize the software to fit their own specific needs. Moreover, by selecting Linux for the Qube's operating system and committing to the open source software model, Cobalt is providing value-added and cost-effective solutions to our customers."

Cobalt Qube's operating system is based on Linux code to provide a flexible, high performance and secure platform. As an open and free operating system, Linux will help Cobalt provide faster product development cycles, more reliable and cost-effective offerings and a closer relationship with customers. Linux itself carries many benefits including low maintenance,high reliability, immediate free access to upgrades and the ability to handle heavy loads without limits on the number of network users.

About Cobalt Microserver

Cobalt Microserver Inc. manufactures the Cobalt Qube family of products -- elegantly simple network server solutions that make it easy to collaborate, share data and communicate. The low-cost Qube allows anyone, such as small businesses, enterprise workgroups, teachers and students, to have access to the World Wide Web, email, and file services. In addition, the Cobalt Qube provides application developers and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with an affordable, simple way to deliver turnkey network applications to their customers. With prices starting below $1,250 (SRP), the Cobalt Qube is distributed by major global distributors, and can also be ordered directly off the Cobalt web site at www.cobaltmicro.com. Cobalt Microserver Inc., based in Mountain View, Calif., is a privately held company and can be reached at (650) 930-2500 or at www.cobaltmicro.com

NOTE TO EDITORS: Cobalt Microserver and Cobalt Qube are trademarks of Cobalt Microserver Inc. All other product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

Eureka sent us a press release from Cobalt, maker of those very cool server cubes we saw at LinuxExpo. They are joining RedHat, Corel, Netscape, Caldera and the rest of the usual suspects endorsing the open source model. They are now officially releasing a MIPs port of Linux to their FTP site, and have officially scored a couple of Cool Points in my book.

COBALT ENDORSES OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE MODEL

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 1, 1998--Cobalt Microserver today announced its complete support of the open source software model. Cobalt has released to the public its port of the Linux operating system to the MIPS processor, used in the Cobalt Qube family of products. Cobalt joins a long list of companies -- including Netscape, Corel Computer Corporation, Caldera, and Red Hat Software -- who have also announced their support for the open-source model. Cobalt's software is available at their ftp site

"Cobalt promotes and supports open standards and the cooperative software development model," said Stephen DeWitt, president and CEO of Cobalt. "By distributing the Linux portion of the Cobalt Qube operating system, Cobalt will help developers who wish to enhance and customize the software to fit their own specific needs. Moreover, by selecting Linux for the Qube's operating system and committing to the open source software model, Cobalt is providing value-added and cost-effective solutions to our customers."

Cobalt Qube's operating system is based on Linux code to provide a flexible, high performance and secure platform. As an open and free operating system, Linux will help Cobalt provide faster product development cycles, more reliable and cost-effective offerings and a closer relationship with customers. Linux itself carries many benefits including low maintenance,high reliability, immediate free access to upgrades and the ability to handle heavy loads without limits on the number of network users.

About Cobalt Microserver

Cobalt Microserver Inc. manufactures the Cobalt Qube family of products -- elegantly simple network server solutions that make it easy to collaborate, share data and communicate. The low-cost Qube allows anyone, such as small businesses, enterprise workgroups, teachers and students, to have access to the World Wide Web, email, and file services. In addition, the Cobalt Qube provides application developers and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with an affordable, simple way to deliver turnkey network applications to their customers. With prices starting below $1,250 (SRP), the Cobalt Qube is distributed by major global distributors, and can also be ordered directly off the Cobalt web site at www.cobaltmicro.com. Cobalt Microserver Inc., based in Mountain View, Calif., is a privately held company and can be reached at (650) 930-2500 or at www.cobaltmicro.com

NOTE TO EDITORS: Cobalt Microserver and Cobalt Qube are trademarks of Cobalt Microserver Inc. All other product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

Cool stuff here folks... tons of cool people to chat with and cool toys to look at. Very much fun. The Corel folks are here showing off their NetWinder NC. It's so cute... seeing one only confirms my intsense desire to own one. Cobalt Micro is also here showing off their tiny little server. Yet another small monitorless computer that I really would like to own. By far the coolest machine is the various XTreme boxes. Paralogic has em From $6k to $60k, these bad boys run Linux, are the size of a refrigerator and, and clock in at up to 445 SPECint95's. Mommy? Can I have a super computer for christmas?

Simon Janes wrote in with a very interesting editorial for us to read. This marks the first time that someone besides me has had an Editorial posted on Slashdot, but this piece is so worth reading that I just had to post it. Simon writes about the hardware and software industry, and specifically Sun. His conclusions are "out there" but each time I read this thing, I think he's more and more right. Pay attention guys because this is a big one. Everything after this point is written by Simon Janes.

After reading The Washington Post today (" Sun's Lonely Battle", 8 Feb 1998 H1, H15), it struck home to me that Sun needs to be given hope against Microsoft and we all need some kind of hope for a good machine architecture in return. First look at what has happened to other processor architectures in the last 12 months:

Alpha Compaq has stated nothing about what it plans to do with Digital's Alpha making everyone wildly speculate about what is is going to do with it. Some do not like how Compaq has made its hardware very Windows specific or hard to administer at the bare-metal level (no BIOS? you mean I need a floppy disk with Compaq tools? how INCONVENIENT!)

PowerPC Motorola is retargetting PowerPC towards embedded applications because of Apple's monopolistic intents. Personally, I think Steve Jobs has a deeper plan of revenge against Apple, and is running it into the ground under the guise of being a saviour. Motorola was *just* about to come out with a line of G3 based PC's and Apple ruined it. I can imagine a lot of people at PowerComputing are so agry with Steve Jobs, that they would surely create an instant medical condition if they met Steve on sight. Motorola ate a $100M loss because of it-- which was really immature (the "we won't play your game anymore" game), Motorola & IBM should have sued the collective pants off of Apple for turning over the PowerPC apple-cart (the "we won't play your game anymore" game played the CORRECT way).

Intel Intel's offerings are increasingly getting proprietary, and proprietary means expensive. When and if the Merced processor based on IA-64 comes out, it will require a massive compiler re-engineering on the hands of the Free Software Foundation/Cygnus/LDC. On top of that Intel is targetting the Merced for "mainframes". Once you append the word mainframe to a computer, the price of that computer multiplys by several hundred percent. AMD and Cyrix are working hard to present alternatives to Intel, but in a market dominated by Intel and Microsoft, I fear that they will have limited sucess in this arena.

StrongARM A majority of the StrongARM design team have left their posts rather than work for Intel, who apparently now owns the rights to StrongARM. Granted, the StrongARM isn't your super-duper high performance server-class type of microprocessor, but I felt that it would have made for an excellent base for laptop computers.

MIPS MIPS machines sit there in the background. Acer at one time had a MIPS machine you could buy, but that disappeared into the chasm of Wintel. Cobalt Microservers is a start-up who could potentially turn MIPS around. Silicon Graphics is constantly in trouble with shareholder lawsuits so therefore has a cloud over its future.

Where is the hope then? I feel that it is with Sun. The SPARC and UltraSPARC have not had this kind of mayhem perpetuated on them. They are open specifications of which many other companies have implemented and sell-- however Sun is the largest, and most recognizable of them. Much of the hardware Sun has produced is still usable today so except for volume, Sun hardware has a similar history to that of Intel-based hardware (starting from the 386).

Sun needs help for this lonely fight, and it has one excellent place to turn to for it: The Linux Developer Community. Sun needs to follow the two-step method of world domination:

1. Officially support the Linux developer community (LDC) to support all grades of Sun hardware, from the low end (which are already pretty well supported) to the higher end (which are hard for the LDC to support because of lack of access and documentation. Sun needs to recognize that even though its Solaris is good, people love to have choices when it comes to what they run on their hardware. Sun, when it takes this first step, which Digital has already taken, must follow it with the step Digital has not taken--
2. Recognize and promote Linux as an alternative operating system for workstations and servers and ship it as a preinstalled option. I followed a banner advertisement yesterday from Wired news to Digital's little press story on the Titanic being rendered on Alpha hardware. Linux was not even mentioned ONCE in this press statement from Digital. This is not support of Linux on Digital's part, this is a cover-up. (If you go to Digital's Sucess Stories site to find customers who use Digital hardware, you will not even find Linux listed as an operating system option. Another coincidence?) When and if Sun takes the first step of supporting the LDC, it must also follow with the second step-- Promoting of the alternatives as well.

Sun is fighting a lonely battle indeed, but the Linux Developer Cavalry is there, waiting in the woods for Sun's call. Sun, are you listening? Victory is two years away, shine in the next millenium.

Ok, now I'm (Rob) back with a few closing remarks. I think that RedHat has proven that you can take the Linux OS, treat the Linux Community good (RPM, RHAD) and produce a quality product that you can sell. Sun is in a similiar position- they control the hardware, but if they were to openly support and port to Linux, they could take advantage of the amazing power of the Linux Community. Then Sun could concentrate on the 'value added' stuff that makes their platform special. Sure, it means ditching Solaris, but it allows Sun to focus programmers on stuff that isn't already being done better, elsewhere. I'm sure a handful of specialists devoted to Sparc/Linux would produce an amazingly optimized Linux Kernel. This would produce the fastest possible Linux platform, and it woudl make the rapidly growing Linux Population buy Sun hardware instead of Digital.

It wouldn't be easy, but I suspect it could be done. What do you guys think?

Joe Vigneau and Bill Broadley sent us info about Cobalt Microserver's brand new workgroup server. It's a 133mhz RISC box that runs Linux, has all the normal servers (www, email etc), and costs under $1000. And it supposedly fits in a 7" cube!

Joe Vigneau and Bill Broadley sent us info about Cobalt Microserver's brand new workgroup server. It's a 133mhz RISC box that runs Linux, has all the normal servers (www, email etc), and costs under $1000. And it supposedly fits in a 7" cube!