Slashdot Mirror

cmowire writes "I didn't realize this till I was debugging a stock database and saw the PR piece, but today is the twentieth aniversary of the IBM PC. IBM has a tribute page."

ShoeHorn writes: "Here is a good article (1st of a 4 part series), that introduces you to the Ruby language. If you are currently a programmer coming from the likes of C++, Perl, or Python, you will see some strong similarities (especially to Python)."

securitas writes "ZDNet is reporting that Korean Air has decided to move its flight-crew scheduling and daily accounting systems to Linux running on an IBM mainframe, and 5000 users will access this information through their browsers starting in September. "

Sam Lantinga is the author and project lead of the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL), which was recently ported amid general acclaim to the Sony PS2. People have been curious about SDL for a long time (it's been around for a while, and used in quite a few games). He's not just a library programmer though; he also designs games (in this case, working with Lauren MacDonell) and thinks hard and lucidly about the intricacies of information display within them. Here's your chance to ask Sam directly what's on your mind about SDL, game design and more. Note -- many questions are answered within the links already given, so hit those first. One question per post, please (but as many posts as you'd like) -- we'll forward the highest-rated questions on to Sam, and post his answers soon after.

Misha writes: "In this day and age, it seems that the advertisement offers for desktop systems have slowed down in term of features. Everyone has agreed that AGP, DVD, >1GHz, etc. is what everyone will want. This does not seem to be the case with laptops. Every year, they manage to cram a bigger resolution screen, more system and graphical memory, more battery life into a less-than-two-inch thick plactic box. So, what are everyone's preferences as far as laptops go? What kind of features are most important? How does price enter the equation? Which one is best for the money? And especially, can you get a decent machine for under $1000?" I've been using the IBM Thinkpad T20 for the last year or so, and love the machine -- with the exception of the WinModem *sigh*. What else is everyone using?

Jay writes: "This article is really helpful if you're new to Linux, or even if you're not-so-new. It helps Windows users transition to Linux, but those converting from other operating systems will find useful information here as well." Personally, I'd think that learning a new OS would be worth the cost of a book (which I note is out of print - does that mean a new edition is on the way?), but if you're too cheap to buy a book, well, here's a pretty decent guide to getting started with GNU/Linux.

Paul writes "I found this useful article, over at developerWorks Linux Zone that clearly explains RSA/DSA authentication. It covers what you need to get passwordless authentication implemented using RSA and DSA authentication protocols."

Paul writes "I found this useful article, over at developerWorks Linux Zone that clearly explains RSA/DSA authentication. It covers what you need to get passwordless authentication implemented using RSA and DSA authentication protocols."

We sent 10 of your questions to IBM Linux exec Scott Handy a while back. Here are the answers. As is common with corporate types these days, a PR person had a hand in what was said, so please take that into account as you read on. But I don't think anything much was changed (I can usually tell) in this case, though.

1) Hypocrisy?
by Hobbex
How can IBM reconcile its spoken commitment to Linux and Free software software with its center-stage activity in projects like CPRM on harddisks and SDMI for music?

Handy:
I really think these are two entirely separate issues. Our support of the Open Source movement is based on the belief that with certain technologies, such as Linux, innovation can be spurred through collaboration and the free exchange of ideas. Open Source works on the basic premise of constant change, evolution and improvement of the code by the community.

On the other hand, our involvement with efforts such as CPRM and SDMI respects the right that some content providers have to protect their intellectual assets if they choose to do so. Technical protection measures are an important way to provide that protection. The content that would be protected here -- most likely music, video and other art forms -- is unlike open source code in that it was is not designed to be modified by the masses or freely distributed. (By the way, CPRM is open -- the cipher and algorithms, along with sample code -- are published.)

For us, what it comes down to is supporting the rights of all content creators to make their own choice. If you want to distribute your intellectual property openly and freely, that's great and we'll support you. As you know, not every software vendor is willing to make that commitment. And if you're an individual or organization that wants or needs to protect your digital content, we will develop solutions that work for you while offering maximum value and ease of use to consumers and helping to create an environment where all Internet content providers coexist peacefully.

2) IBM + Linux = PPC?
by Xoro
IBM makes PowerPCs. Linux runs on PowerPCs. Does IBM's commitment to Linux imply that they will take the logical step and we will finally see a commodity (non-Apple) PPC motherboard?

This project always seems to generate so much enthusiasm when presented here or in other forums that its continued non-existence is shocking. Particularly since the PPC's superior electrical characteristics have made it all the more intriguing in the current energy climate.

Handy:
Yes we are very committed to Linux and to our work with PPCs. I've gotta say, it's a bit of a stretch to say that Linux+PPC "commodity (non-Apple) PPC motherboards" is the next logical step :-). We have been working with customers on reference designs using Linux, but we don't have a board available for general use. The steps we have already taken for Linux/PPC, includes Linux support on the IBM eServer iSeries and pSeries which are both PPC based servers. The iSeries is geared toward business application systems, while the pSeries is squarely aimed at Sun and addresses the high performance UNIX market. This activity was originally supported with YellowDog in '99 and 2000, and now includes SuSE, with TL and RH coming. And, we're currently working with ISVs to support Linux on the PPC for server apps.

IBM is very active in this area and is currently the maintainer of the Linux PPC tree.

3) Linux vs AIX
by milkmandan9
I work for a fairly small computing firm which relies mainly on AIX but also has a fair number of Linux boxen around.

In the past few months, the question has come up more than once as to whether AIX or Linux is a more appropriate solution to whatever problem my company is current facing...and often times we've installed Linux on commodity hardware instead of buying a fancy RS/6000 machine and buying another copy of AIX.

My question is that as Linux grows in stability and wider corporate-level acceptance, what's IBM going to do about it? IBM has invested a good deal in the AIX system and I'm sure that they generate a fairly hefty revenue stream from it. Do you foresee any of the IBM Linux initiatives losing funding if they encroach on AIX market share?

Handy:
You're right, we've invested a great deal in AIX and Linux. We've integrated our AIX and Linux efforts into one strategy for our customers. Basically, AIX continues to be our industrial-strength, highly scalable UNIX platform, and we've taken steps to integrate Linux into our UNIX strategy. Earlier this year we announced a new version of AIX - AIX 5L, which offers an affinity for Linux, which allows Linux applications to be easily ported and recompiled on AIX. We also created a new toolkit to help Linux developers create applications that take advantage of the affinity between AIX and Linux. The bottom line is that there is a place for both AIX and Linux. There are still some applications that require the industrial strength capabilities of AIX and some that are perfect for Linux. We work closely with our customers to help them choose the best solution for their needs.

To answer your second question, no, we don't anticipate any Linux initiatives to lose any funding.

4) PR
by truthsearch
Microsoft's strength is largely in its public relations machine. When they talk, the media listens. Craig Mundie's (and therefore Microsoft's) opinion of open source and their own related plans made industry journal headlines. I'd bet many business managers have learned about MS's "shared source" plans. But there's no consistantly loud (or heard) front made against MS statements. Execs hear "open source: bad, shared source: good" from MS, but don't hear other opinions.

Does IBM plan on investing more in the image of Linux and open source? Will there be strong defensive marketing against MS statements? Do you think a closer balance can be made between pro-Microsoft and pro-Linux marketing?

Handy:
You asked if we plan on investing more in the image of Linux and open source, well, we're already investing more than a $1 billion in Linux across the corporation. We continue to talk publicly about Linux and the open source community regularly. Our execs have been featured keynote speakers at a couple of LinuxWorld Expos and smaller conferences all around the world. We've also been successful in "getting the word out" about some big Linux customer wins, which I think has been very helpful in showing the corporate community that Linux is ready for primetime.

To answer your second question about striking a balance between pro-Microsoft and pro-Linux marketing, I really can't speak to Microsoft's marketing plans. IBM looks at the Linux space mainly from the server side from a go-to-market perspective. In just a few short years, IDC named Linux as the fastest growing server operating system in the world - second only to Microsoft. To me, that's the area to watch and the area the community should be most proud of its accomplishments.

If you want to see "everything" we're doing on Linux go here: www.ibm.com/linux. It's a lot.

5) IBM Linux distro?
by ddstreet
Given that there are a wealth of Linux distributions already available in the marketplace, it seems that IBM has to choose one (or more), or create one (or more).

So, will IBM create a Linux distribution (or multiple distributions)?

If not, why? And what distributions will/has IBM choose to support/market?

If so, why? And will that/those distribution(s) compete with other distributions (i.e. be directly available) or only (or at least primarily) available as part of an IBM 'solution'?

Handy:
To answer your first question, and I get this one all the time, no, IBM has no plans to create a Linux distribution. There's no demand for IBM to create a Linux distribution. Linux is not an IBM operating system, its the community's and IBM simply supports and contributes to 1) the community development effort behind Linux and 2) enablement of our hardware, software and services around Linux.

As for which distro's, it's our intent to support our customers by partnering with Linux distribution companies that can help meet their needs. Right now the main three are Red Hat, SuSE and TurboLinux for us and they have agreements with us to provide their distributions on the entire IBM eServer line (xSeries, pSeries, iSeries and zSeries) and they all have software agreements to resell our IBM WebSphere, DB2, Lotus and/or Tivoli software. We also continue to see a variety of Linux distributions emerge to meet the needs of customers in specific geographies and IBM groups work to support opportunities there. For example we continue to partner worldwide with Caldera on our xSeries servers; Mandrake is one of the leaders in France on the client side, so the IBM ViaVoice team supports that distro; and Red Flag is emerging as a strong player in China, so our latest version of DB2 database supports Red Flag, etc. We also work with MonteVista and Lineo and are also increasing our support of Debian overall (we've actually had some level of support for them all along).

6) OS/2
by twitter
How do you approach your OS/2 users? Does IBM plan to move them to Linux platforms? Will any of the OS/2 goodies, like the presentation manager's link database, move to Linux?

Handy:
Like any other customer, we listen to the needs of our OS/2 customers, and based on those needs, we help them choose how to move forward. I'm quite well versed in these customer situations and can tell you they have a very diverse set of needs. Some lead to very different conclusions. Some of our OS/2 customers want to stay with OS/2 as long as they can, and some are ready to move off of it sooner rather than later. So with that said, if the application they are using or want to move to can be easily moved to Linux or is available on Linux, that is an excellent option. This works great if its Java-based or if it runs on our middleware (DB2, WebSphere, Lotus, Tivoli) a lot of which already works on Linux. In this scenario, a direct move works really well.

On the client, if they are ready to move, we usually find that they need to move to Windows, but Linux is sometimes a viable alternative if they can use browser based apps or use one of the many office suites available on Linux that can meet productivity app requirements. (and some of these OS/2 clients are basically fixed function intelligent "terminals" with home grown applications only - and for those apps it depends on the tools they used to create them and whether those tools are available on Linux and/or Windows).

On the server, some customers want to stay on OS/2 for a few more years, make the move to Windows 2000 or Linux, or some combination, depending on the application requirements of the customer. These are sophisticated customers who generally use OS/2 for advanced functions so their needs vary greatly.

On to goodies, some of the OS/2 goodies have moved to Linux, like the JFS we just announced as GA on June 30th, was from the OS/2 base.

Now on your one specific PM example, I've never actually heard of "presentation manager's link database" and asked some PM developers in Austin and they couldn't quite surmise what you were getting at so I'm not sure what I'm really answering there. My guess is it is a resource link (DLL) specific to PM that would not directly work easily with KDE or GNOME or it would have been done with a .SO already.

7) Linux for the 400...
by Ryan_Terry
As a customer who has been with IBM for years we are looking at retiring some of our old AS/400's. We are trying to find other uses for them, and with over 100GB of disk Linux makes an attractive option, but we are saddened to see that IBM seems to have made no effort to try to support Linux at all on the 400.

With the recent support IBM has been giving to the Linux community are there any plans to start devoting resources to the Linux on the as/400 project?

Handy:
Actually, we've already done the work on that server. Today, the IBM eServer iSeries (formerly the AS/400) runs Linux as well as OS/400 starting with models 270's and 8xx. We've seen an increased interest from our customers and Business Partners for Linux-based solutions for the iSeries -- it's a great configuration for customers who want to consolidate workloads from a variety of other servers in their shop to run on the Linux LPAR (logical partition) in their iSeries.

If you're interested in more detail, here's the Web site: www.ibm.com/eserver/iseries/linux.

8) Hard Numbers for Soft Heads
by Dr. Smeegee
I work for a very, very, very huge company that still uses quite a few MS products.

Several other like-minded folks across many of the daughter business have recently begun trying to formulate a plan of attack viz. Linux acceptance.

I assume when IBM pitches Linux to corporations you have some sort of metric that gauges linux against other os's and shows various strengths and weaknesses.

Are these metrics/comparisons available to the general public? Preferably in management friendly .ppt format? :-)

Handy:
While we have a great deal of focus on Linux, IBM supports multiple operating systems. In the IBM Software Group for instance, MQSeries runs on 35 platform - which is an amazing number. With that many OSs out in the market, I've never seen a customer chart like the one you described, showing the strengths and weaknesses between the particular OSs.

The information we use, that really resonates with customers, shows the basic market acceptance of Linux which is based on the IDC figures which place Linux as the fastest growing server operating system in the world, second only to Windows in volume, on the server. We also point to the projected growth rate of Linux being higher than Windows thru 2004.

If I had to hand management something with data points and a fancy format, I'd hand them this April/May 2001 - Linux edition of Management Directions which can be viewed/downloaded from: here (note: PDF is 2MB)

9) MS Office Filters and Lotus Notes for Linux
by Dr. Evil
In my opinion Linux has a long way to go before it can make it to the home desktop. Ease of use is one of the greatest inhibitors. However, the corporate desktop has very different requirements. Security, remote management, reliablility, simple license management and at the same time, a corporate desktop requires only a handful of very clearly defined employee responsibilities.

As I see it, the greatest limitation Linux experiences on the corporate desktop is interfacing with customers running MS Office, and secondly, Linux lacks a corporate email package. That requirement could be filled quite perfectly by Lotus Notes.

Is IBM taking steps to sell Linux on the corporate desktop as a simple and secure alternative to Microsoft's mindbogglingly complex Licensing and questionable security? If so, what is being done to address the lack of MS Office document compatability, and the lack of a client email/database package such as Lotus Notes?

Handy:
We're working to help the Linux OS on all fronts with server activity as a priority, especially in helping it scale in the enterprise. In general, we're helping on the client side (with our support of KDE and GNOME and other client oriented open source projects) and working on embedded Linux projects too.

As for development priorities of our own commercially licensed software, we're focused on where Linux's market penetration is strongest and where the opportunity for market acceptance is the highest. We see the demand most clearly on the server. Based on that feedback, our development of DB2, WebSphere, Lotus and Tivoli software is predominantly focused on the server side. Our strategy is to support browser based access from Linux desktops to our server based software (like using a browser to access WebSphere Application Server on the Server). In the case of our Lotus Domino for Linux offer, it's important to understand that browser users on the Linux desktop have full access to Lotus Webmail and can also access Domino collaborative applications from their browsers. Right now, we're not planning native ports of Lotus Notes or Lotus SmartSuite to Linux desktops since the demand from our customers just isn't there yet.

10) Open Source and Patents
by Johnath
First off, by way of disclaimer, I'm an IBM employee, but am posting this as an individual and am quite sure my manager neither knows nor cares about the contents of my question. :)

It's great to see that IBM is committing to an open approach, both in their specific funding of Linux development, but also in their more general push to use open, standard technologies like XML and Java, and to participate in the standards process. On the other hand, IBM holds more patents than any other business in the world, by a fair majority, and what's more, are quite proud of this standing. Now I am not at all knocking IBMs desire to produce patentable technology, and I do think it is indicative of their technological leadership that they have acquired them,

but...

I'm wondering how IBM's dedication to openness will interact with their commitment to producing patentable technology. Will IBM's contributions to open source projects include these patentable ideas, and will open source projects in which IBM participates be licensed to employ said ideas, even to freely distribute software based on them? If IBM is willing to do this, how will they ensure that their patented IP is not picked up and incorporated into competing products? If not, could you give us some insight into the decision making process as regards these patents, and why IBM's openness strategy does not extend to them?

Handy:
Well, there's a lot to answer in this question. First of all, we don't think open source software and intellectual property rights are mutually exclusive - for IBM, it's not an either or proposition. As you noted, we strongly support the open source movement and believe the community contributes significantly to innovation in the industry. We also believe we employ some of the best and brightest developers in the world and that our work on IP projects encourage innovation, as well. As you probably know, we work with the community on various open source projects by providing technical input, as well as code. IBM's decision to make code available to the open source community is based on interest from the community. Before we open source code, we want to make sure there will be enough support from the community to propel the technology forward. We've been active in Apache, Mozilla and JFS to name just a few.

More info here on our open source efforts and contributions: www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/.

We sent 10 of your questions to IBM Linux exec Scott Handy a while back. Here are the answers. As is common with corporate types these days, a PR person had a hand in what was said, so please take that into account as you read on. But I don't think anything much was changed (I can usually tell) in this case, though.

1) Hypocrisy?
by Hobbex
How can IBM reconcile its spoken commitment to Linux and Free software software with its center-stage activity in projects like CPRM on harddisks and SDMI for music?

Handy:
I really think these are two entirely separate issues. Our support of the Open Source movement is based on the belief that with certain technologies, such as Linux, innovation can be spurred through collaboration and the free exchange of ideas. Open Source works on the basic premise of constant change, evolution and improvement of the code by the community.

On the other hand, our involvement with efforts such as CPRM and SDMI respects the right that some content providers have to protect their intellectual assets if they choose to do so. Technical protection measures are an important way to provide that protection. The content that would be protected here -- most likely music, video and other art forms -- is unlike open source code in that it was is not designed to be modified by the masses or freely distributed. (By the way, CPRM is open -- the cipher and algorithms, along with sample code -- are published.)

For us, what it comes down to is supporting the rights of all content creators to make their own choice. If you want to distribute your intellectual property openly and freely, that's great and we'll support you. As you know, not every software vendor is willing to make that commitment. And if you're an individual or organization that wants or needs to protect your digital content, we will develop solutions that work for you while offering maximum value and ease of use to consumers and helping to create an environment where all Internet content providers coexist peacefully.

2) IBM + Linux = PPC?
by Xoro
IBM makes PowerPCs. Linux runs on PowerPCs. Does IBM's commitment to Linux imply that they will take the logical step and we will finally see a commodity (non-Apple) PPC motherboard?

This project always seems to generate so much enthusiasm when presented here or in other forums that its continued non-existence is shocking. Particularly since the PPC's superior electrical characteristics have made it all the more intriguing in the current energy climate.

Handy:
Yes we are very committed to Linux and to our work with PPCs. I've gotta say, it's a bit of a stretch to say that Linux+PPC "commodity (non-Apple) PPC motherboards" is the next logical step :-). We have been working with customers on reference designs using Linux, but we don't have a board available for general use. The steps we have already taken for Linux/PPC, includes Linux support on the IBM eServer iSeries and pSeries which are both PPC based servers. The iSeries is geared toward business application systems, while the pSeries is squarely aimed at Sun and addresses the high performance UNIX market. This activity was originally supported with YellowDog in '99 and 2000, and now includes SuSE, with TL and RH coming. And, we're currently working with ISVs to support Linux on the PPC for server apps.

IBM is very active in this area and is currently the maintainer of the Linux PPC tree.

3) Linux vs AIX
by milkmandan9
I work for a fairly small computing firm which relies mainly on AIX but also has a fair number of Linux boxen around.

In the past few months, the question has come up more than once as to whether AIX or Linux is a more appropriate solution to whatever problem my company is current facing...and often times we've installed Linux on commodity hardware instead of buying a fancy RS/6000 machine and buying another copy of AIX.

My question is that as Linux grows in stability and wider corporate-level acceptance, what's IBM going to do about it? IBM has invested a good deal in the AIX system and I'm sure that they generate a fairly hefty revenue stream from it. Do you foresee any of the IBM Linux initiatives losing funding if they encroach on AIX market share?

Handy:
You're right, we've invested a great deal in AIX and Linux. We've integrated our AIX and Linux efforts into one strategy for our customers. Basically, AIX continues to be our industrial-strength, highly scalable UNIX platform, and we've taken steps to integrate Linux into our UNIX strategy. Earlier this year we announced a new version of AIX - AIX 5L, which offers an affinity for Linux, which allows Linux applications to be easily ported and recompiled on AIX. We also created a new toolkit to help Linux developers create applications that take advantage of the affinity between AIX and Linux. The bottom line is that there is a place for both AIX and Linux. There are still some applications that require the industrial strength capabilities of AIX and some that are perfect for Linux. We work closely with our customers to help them choose the best solution for their needs.

To answer your second question, no, we don't anticipate any Linux initiatives to lose any funding.

4) PR
by truthsearch
Microsoft's strength is largely in its public relations machine. When they talk, the media listens. Craig Mundie's (and therefore Microsoft's) opinion of open source and their own related plans made industry journal headlines. I'd bet many business managers have learned about MS's "shared source" plans. But there's no consistantly loud (or heard) front made against MS statements. Execs hear "open source: bad, shared source: good" from MS, but don't hear other opinions.

Does IBM plan on investing more in the image of Linux and open source? Will there be strong defensive marketing against MS statements? Do you think a closer balance can be made between pro-Microsoft and pro-Linux marketing?

Handy:
You asked if we plan on investing more in the image of Linux and open source, well, we're already investing more than a $1 billion in Linux across the corporation. We continue to talk publicly about Linux and the open source community regularly. Our execs have been featured keynote speakers at a couple of LinuxWorld Expos and smaller conferences all around the world. We've also been successful in "getting the word out" about some big Linux customer wins, which I think has been very helpful in showing the corporate community that Linux is ready for primetime.

To answer your second question about striking a balance between pro-Microsoft and pro-Linux marketing, I really can't speak to Microsoft's marketing plans. IBM looks at the Linux space mainly from the server side from a go-to-market perspective. In just a few short years, IDC named Linux as the fastest growing server operating system in the world - second only to Microsoft. To me, that's the area to watch and the area the community should be most proud of its accomplishments.

If you want to see "everything" we're doing on Linux go here: www.ibm.com/linux. It's a lot.

5) IBM Linux distro?
by ddstreet
Given that there are a wealth of Linux distributions already available in the marketplace, it seems that IBM has to choose one (or more), or create one (or more).

So, will IBM create a Linux distribution (or multiple distributions)?

If not, why? And what distributions will/has IBM choose to support/market?

If so, why? And will that/those distribution(s) compete with other distributions (i.e. be directly available) or only (or at least primarily) available as part of an IBM 'solution'?

Handy:
To answer your first question, and I get this one all the time, no, IBM has no plans to create a Linux distribution. There's no demand for IBM to create a Linux distribution. Linux is not an IBM operating system, its the community's and IBM simply supports and contributes to 1) the community development effort behind Linux and 2) enablement of our hardware, software and services around Linux.

As for which distro's, it's our intent to support our customers by partnering with Linux distribution companies that can help meet their needs. Right now the main three are Red Hat, SuSE and TurboLinux for us and they have agreements with us to provide their distributions on the entire IBM eServer line (xSeries, pSeries, iSeries and zSeries) and they all have software agreements to resell our IBM WebSphere, DB2, Lotus and/or Tivoli software. We also continue to see a variety of Linux distributions emerge to meet the needs of customers in specific geographies and IBM groups work to support opportunities there. For example we continue to partner worldwide with Caldera on our xSeries servers; Mandrake is one of the leaders in France on the client side, so the IBM ViaVoice team supports that distro; and Red Flag is emerging as a strong player in China, so our latest version of DB2 database supports Red Flag, etc. We also work with MonteVista and Lineo and are also increasing our support of Debian overall (we've actually had some level of support for them all along).

6) OS/2
by twitter
How do you approach your OS/2 users? Does IBM plan to move them to Linux platforms? Will any of the OS/2 goodies, like the presentation manager's link database, move to Linux?

Handy:
Like any other customer, we listen to the needs of our OS/2 customers, and based on those needs, we help them choose how to move forward. I'm quite well versed in these customer situations and can tell you they have a very diverse set of needs. Some lead to very different conclusions. Some of our OS/2 customers want to stay with OS/2 as long as they can, and some are ready to move off of it sooner rather than later. So with that said, if the application they are using or want to move to can be easily moved to Linux or is available on Linux, that is an excellent option. This works great if its Java-based or if it runs on our middleware (DB2, WebSphere, Lotus, Tivoli) a lot of which already works on Linux. In this scenario, a direct move works really well.

On the client, if they are ready to move, we usually find that they need to move to Windows, but Linux is sometimes a viable alternative if they can use browser based apps or use one of the many office suites available on Linux that can meet productivity app requirements. (and some of these OS/2 clients are basically fixed function intelligent "terminals" with home grown applications only - and for those apps it depends on the tools they used to create them and whether those tools are available on Linux and/or Windows).

On the server, some customers want to stay on OS/2 for a few more years, make the move to Windows 2000 or Linux, or some combination, depending on the application requirements of the customer. These are sophisticated customers who generally use OS/2 for advanced functions so their needs vary greatly.

On to goodies, some of the OS/2 goodies have moved to Linux, like the JFS we just announced as GA on June 30th, was from the OS/2 base.

Now on your one specific PM example, I've never actually heard of "presentation manager's link database" and asked some PM developers in Austin and they couldn't quite surmise what you were getting at so I'm not sure what I'm really answering there. My guess is it is a resource link (DLL) specific to PM that would not directly work easily with KDE or GNOME or it would have been done with a .SO already.

7) Linux for the 400...
by Ryan_Terry
As a customer who has been with IBM for years we are looking at retiring some of our old AS/400's. We are trying to find other uses for them, and with over 100GB of disk Linux makes an attractive option, but we are saddened to see that IBM seems to have made no effort to try to support Linux at all on the 400.

With the recent support IBM has been giving to the Linux community are there any plans to start devoting resources to the Linux on the as/400 project?

Handy:
Actually, we've already done the work on that server. Today, the IBM eServer iSeries (formerly the AS/400) runs Linux as well as OS/400 starting with models 270's and 8xx. We've seen an increased interest from our customers and Business Partners for Linux-based solutions for the iSeries -- it's a great configuration for customers who want to consolidate workloads from a variety of other servers in their shop to run on the Linux LPAR (logical partition) in their iSeries.

If you're interested in more detail, here's the Web site: www.ibm.com/eserver/iseries/linux.

8) Hard Numbers for Soft Heads
by Dr. Smeegee
I work for a very, very, very huge company that still uses quite a few MS products.

Several other like-minded folks across many of the daughter business have recently begun trying to formulate a plan of attack viz. Linux acceptance.

I assume when IBM pitches Linux to corporations you have some sort of metric that gauges linux against other os's and shows various strengths and weaknesses.

Are these metrics/comparisons available to the general public? Preferably in management friendly .ppt format? :-)

Handy:
While we have a great deal of focus on Linux, IBM supports multiple operating systems. In the IBM Software Group for instance, MQSeries runs on 35 platform - which is an amazing number. With that many OSs out in the market, I've never seen a customer chart like the one you described, showing the strengths and weaknesses between the particular OSs.

The information we use, that really resonates with customers, shows the basic market acceptance of Linux which is based on the IDC figures which place Linux as the fastest growing server operating system in the world, second only to Windows in volume, on the server. We also point to the projected growth rate of Linux being higher than Windows thru 2004.

If I had to hand management something with data points and a fancy format, I'd hand them this April/May 2001 - Linux edition of Management Directions which can be viewed/downloaded from: here (note: PDF is 2MB)

9) MS Office Filters and Lotus Notes for Linux
by Dr. Evil
In my opinion Linux has a long way to go before it can make it to the home desktop. Ease of use is one of the greatest inhibitors. However, the corporate desktop has very different requirements. Security, remote management, reliablility, simple license management and at the same time, a corporate desktop requires only a handful of very clearly defined employee responsibilities.

As I see it, the greatest limitation Linux experiences on the corporate desktop is interfacing with customers running MS Office, and secondly, Linux lacks a corporate email package. That requirement could be filled quite perfectly by Lotus Notes.

Is IBM taking steps to sell Linux on the corporate desktop as a simple and secure alternative to Microsoft's mindbogglingly complex Licensing and questionable security? If so, what is being done to address the lack of MS Office document compatability, and the lack of a client email/database package such as Lotus Notes?

Handy:
We're working to help the Linux OS on all fronts with server activity as a priority, especially in helping it scale in the enterprise. In general, we're helping on the client side (with our support of KDE and GNOME and other client oriented open source projects) and working on embedded Linux projects too.

As for development priorities of our own commercially licensed software, we're focused on where Linux's market penetration is strongest and where the opportunity for market acceptance is the highest. We see the demand most clearly on the server. Based on that feedback, our development of DB2, WebSphere, Lotus and Tivoli software is predominantly focused on the server side. Our strategy is to support browser based access from Linux desktops to our server based software (like using a browser to access WebSphere Application Server on the Server). In the case of our Lotus Domino for Linux offer, it's important to understand that browser users on the Linux desktop have full access to Lotus Webmail and can also access Domino collaborative applications from their browsers. Right now, we're not planning native ports of Lotus Notes or Lotus SmartSuite to Linux desktops since the demand from our customers just isn't there yet.

10) Open Source and Patents
by Johnath
First off, by way of disclaimer, I'm an IBM employee, but am posting this as an individual and am quite sure my manager neither knows nor cares about the contents of my question. :)

It's great to see that IBM is committing to an open approach, both in their specific funding of Linux development, but also in their more general push to use open, standard technologies like XML and Java, and to participate in the standards process. On the other hand, IBM holds more patents than any other business in the world, by a fair majority, and what's more, are quite proud of this standing. Now I am not at all knocking IBMs desire to produce patentable technology, and I do think it is indicative of their technological leadership that they have acquired them,

but...

I'm wondering how IBM's dedication to openness will interact with their commitment to producing patentable technology. Will IBM's contributions to open source projects include these patentable ideas, and will open source projects in which IBM participates be licensed to employ said ideas, even to freely distribute software based on them? If IBM is willing to do this, how will they ensure that their patented IP is not picked up and incorporated into competing products? If not, could you give us some insight into the decision making process as regards these patents, and why IBM's openness strategy does not extend to them?

Handy:
Well, there's a lot to answer in this question. First of all, we don't think open source software and intellectual property rights are mutually exclusive - for IBM, it's not an either or proposition. As you noted, we strongly support the open source movement and believe the community contributes significantly to innovation in the industry. We also believe we employ some of the best and brightest developers in the world and that our work on IP projects encourage innovation, as well. As you probably know, we work with the community on various open source projects by providing technical input, as well as code. IBM's decision to make code available to the open source community is based on interest from the community. Before we open source code, we want to make sure there will be enough support from the community to propel the technology forward. We've been active in Apache, Mozilla and JFS to name just a few.

More info here on our open source efforts and contributions: www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/.

We sent 10 of your questions to IBM Linux exec Scott Handy a while back. Here are the answers. As is common with corporate types these days, a PR person had a hand in what was said, so please take that into account as you read on. But I don't think anything much was changed (I can usually tell) in this case, though.

1) Hypocrisy?
by Hobbex
How can IBM reconcile its spoken commitment to Linux and Free software software with its center-stage activity in projects like CPRM on harddisks and SDMI for music?

Handy:
I really think these are two entirely separate issues. Our support of the Open Source movement is based on the belief that with certain technologies, such as Linux, innovation can be spurred through collaboration and the free exchange of ideas. Open Source works on the basic premise of constant change, evolution and improvement of the code by the community.

On the other hand, our involvement with efforts such as CPRM and SDMI respects the right that some content providers have to protect their intellectual assets if they choose to do so. Technical protection measures are an important way to provide that protection. The content that would be protected here -- most likely music, video and other art forms -- is unlike open source code in that it was is not designed to be modified by the masses or freely distributed. (By the way, CPRM is open -- the cipher and algorithms, along with sample code -- are published.)

For us, what it comes down to is supporting the rights of all content creators to make their own choice. If you want to distribute your intellectual property openly and freely, that's great and we'll support you. As you know, not every software vendor is willing to make that commitment. And if you're an individual or organization that wants or needs to protect your digital content, we will develop solutions that work for you while offering maximum value and ease of use to consumers and helping to create an environment where all Internet content providers coexist peacefully.

2) IBM + Linux = PPC?
by Xoro
IBM makes PowerPCs. Linux runs on PowerPCs. Does IBM's commitment to Linux imply that they will take the logical step and we will finally see a commodity (non-Apple) PPC motherboard?

This project always seems to generate so much enthusiasm when presented here or in other forums that its continued non-existence is shocking. Particularly since the PPC's superior electrical characteristics have made it all the more intriguing in the current energy climate.

Handy:
Yes we are very committed to Linux and to our work with PPCs. I've gotta say, it's a bit of a stretch to say that Linux+PPC "commodity (non-Apple) PPC motherboards" is the next logical step :-). We have been working with customers on reference designs using Linux, but we don't have a board available for general use. The steps we have already taken for Linux/PPC, includes Linux support on the IBM eServer iSeries and pSeries which are both PPC based servers. The iSeries is geared toward business application systems, while the pSeries is squarely aimed at Sun and addresses the high performance UNIX market. This activity was originally supported with YellowDog in '99 and 2000, and now includes SuSE, with TL and RH coming. And, we're currently working with ISVs to support Linux on the PPC for server apps.

IBM is very active in this area and is currently the maintainer of the Linux PPC tree.

3) Linux vs AIX
by milkmandan9
I work for a fairly small computing firm which relies mainly on AIX but also has a fair number of Linux boxen around.

In the past few months, the question has come up more than once as to whether AIX or Linux is a more appropriate solution to whatever problem my company is current facing...and often times we've installed Linux on commodity hardware instead of buying a fancy RS/6000 machine and buying another copy of AIX.

My question is that as Linux grows in stability and wider corporate-level acceptance, what's IBM going to do about it? IBM has invested a good deal in the AIX system and I'm sure that they generate a fairly hefty revenue stream from it. Do you foresee any of the IBM Linux initiatives losing funding if they encroach on AIX market share?

Handy:
You're right, we've invested a great deal in AIX and Linux. We've integrated our AIX and Linux efforts into one strategy for our customers. Basically, AIX continues to be our industrial-strength, highly scalable UNIX platform, and we've taken steps to integrate Linux into our UNIX strategy. Earlier this year we announced a new version of AIX - AIX 5L, which offers an affinity for Linux, which allows Linux applications to be easily ported and recompiled on AIX. We also created a new toolkit to help Linux developers create applications that take advantage of the affinity between AIX and Linux. The bottom line is that there is a place for both AIX and Linux. There are still some applications that require the industrial strength capabilities of AIX and some that are perfect for Linux. We work closely with our customers to help them choose the best solution for their needs.

To answer your second question, no, we don't anticipate any Linux initiatives to lose any funding.

4) PR
by truthsearch
Microsoft's strength is largely in its public relations machine. When they talk, the media listens. Craig Mundie's (and therefore Microsoft's) opinion of open source and their own related plans made industry journal headlines. I'd bet many business managers have learned about MS's "shared source" plans. But there's no consistantly loud (or heard) front made against MS statements. Execs hear "open source: bad, shared source: good" from MS, but don't hear other opinions.

Does IBM plan on investing more in the image of Linux and open source? Will there be strong defensive marketing against MS statements? Do you think a closer balance can be made between pro-Microsoft and pro-Linux marketing?

Handy:
You asked if we plan on investing more in the image of Linux and open source, well, we're already investing more than a $1 billion in Linux across the corporation. We continue to talk publicly about Linux and the open source community regularly. Our execs have been featured keynote speakers at a couple of LinuxWorld Expos and smaller conferences all around the world. We've also been successful in "getting the word out" about some big Linux customer wins, which I think has been very helpful in showing the corporate community that Linux is ready for primetime.

To answer your second question about striking a balance between pro-Microsoft and pro-Linux marketing, I really can't speak to Microsoft's marketing plans. IBM looks at the Linux space mainly from the server side from a go-to-market perspective. In just a few short years, IDC named Linux as the fastest growing server operating system in the world - second only to Microsoft. To me, that's the area to watch and the area the community should be most proud of its accomplishments.

If you want to see "everything" we're doing on Linux go here: www.ibm.com/linux. It's a lot.

5) IBM Linux distro?
by ddstreet
Given that there are a wealth of Linux distributions already available in the marketplace, it seems that IBM has to choose one (or more), or create one (or more).

So, will IBM create a Linux distribution (or multiple distributions)?

If not, why? And what distributions will/has IBM choose to support/market?

If so, why? And will that/those distribution(s) compete with other distributions (i.e. be directly available) or only (or at least primarily) available as part of an IBM 'solution'?

Handy:
To answer your first question, and I get this one all the time, no, IBM has no plans to create a Linux distribution. There's no demand for IBM to create a Linux distribution. Linux is not an IBM operating system, its the community's and IBM simply supports and contributes to 1) the community development effort behind Linux and 2) enablement of our hardware, software and services around Linux.

As for which distro's, it's our intent to support our customers by partnering with Linux distribution companies that can help meet their needs. Right now the main three are Red Hat, SuSE and TurboLinux for us and they have agreements with us to provide their distributions on the entire IBM eServer line (xSeries, pSeries, iSeries and zSeries) and they all have software agreements to resell our IBM WebSphere, DB2, Lotus and/or Tivoli software. We also continue to see a variety of Linux distributions emerge to meet the needs of customers in specific geographies and IBM groups work to support opportunities there. For example we continue to partner worldwide with Caldera on our xSeries servers; Mandrake is one of the leaders in France on the client side, so the IBM ViaVoice team supports that distro; and Red Flag is emerging as a strong player in China, so our latest version of DB2 database supports Red Flag, etc. We also work with MonteVista and Lineo and are also increasing our support of Debian overall (we've actually had some level of support for them all along).

6) OS/2
by twitter
How do you approach your OS/2 users? Does IBM plan to move them to Linux platforms? Will any of the OS/2 goodies, like the presentation manager's link database, move to Linux?

Handy:
Like any other customer, we listen to the needs of our OS/2 customers, and based on those needs, we help them choose how to move forward. I'm quite well versed in these customer situations and can tell you they have a very diverse set of needs. Some lead to very different conclusions. Some of our OS/2 customers want to stay with OS/2 as long as they can, and some are ready to move off of it sooner rather than later. So with that said, if the application they are using or want to move to can be easily moved to Linux or is available on Linux, that is an excellent option. This works great if its Java-based or if it runs on our middleware (DB2, WebSphere, Lotus, Tivoli) a lot of which already works on Linux. In this scenario, a direct move works really well.

On the client, if they are ready to move, we usually find that they need to move to Windows, but Linux is sometimes a viable alternative if they can use browser based apps or use one of the many office suites available on Linux that can meet productivity app requirements. (and some of these OS/2 clients are basically fixed function intelligent "terminals" with home grown applications only - and for those apps it depends on the tools they used to create them and whether those tools are available on Linux and/or Windows).

On the server, some customers want to stay on OS/2 for a few more years, make the move to Windows 2000 or Linux, or some combination, depending on the application requirements of the customer. These are sophisticated customers who generally use OS/2 for advanced functions so their needs vary greatly.

On to goodies, some of the OS/2 goodies have moved to Linux, like the JFS we just announced as GA on June 30th, was from the OS/2 base.

Now on your one specific PM example, I've never actually heard of "presentation manager's link database" and asked some PM developers in Austin and they couldn't quite surmise what you were getting at so I'm not sure what I'm really answering there. My guess is it is a resource link (DLL) specific to PM that would not directly work easily with KDE or GNOME or it would have been done with a .SO already.

7) Linux for the 400...
by Ryan_Terry
As a customer who has been with IBM for years we are looking at retiring some of our old AS/400's. We are trying to find other uses for them, and with over 100GB of disk Linux makes an attractive option, but we are saddened to see that IBM seems to have made no effort to try to support Linux at all on the 400.

With the recent support IBM has been giving to the Linux community are there any plans to start devoting resources to the Linux on the as/400 project?

Handy:
Actually, we've already done the work on that server. Today, the IBM eServer iSeries (formerly the AS/400) runs Linux as well as OS/400 starting with models 270's and 8xx. We've seen an increased interest from our customers and Business Partners for Linux-based solutions for the iSeries -- it's a great configuration for customers who want to consolidate workloads from a variety of other servers in their shop to run on the Linux LPAR (logical partition) in their iSeries.

If you're interested in more detail, here's the Web site: www.ibm.com/eserver/iseries/linux.

8) Hard Numbers for Soft Heads
by Dr. Smeegee
I work for a very, very, very huge company that still uses quite a few MS products.

Several other like-minded folks across many of the daughter business have recently begun trying to formulate a plan of attack viz. Linux acceptance.

I assume when IBM pitches Linux to corporations you have some sort of metric that gauges linux against other os's and shows various strengths and weaknesses.

Are these metrics/comparisons available to the general public? Preferably in management friendly .ppt format? :-)

Handy:
While we have a great deal of focus on Linux, IBM supports multiple operating systems. In the IBM Software Group for instance, MQSeries runs on 35 platform - which is an amazing number. With that many OSs out in the market, I've never seen a customer chart like the one you described, showing the strengths and weaknesses between the particular OSs.

The information we use, that really resonates with customers, shows the basic market acceptance of Linux which is based on the IDC figures which place Linux as the fastest growing server operating system in the world, second only to Windows in volume, on the server. We also point to the projected growth rate of Linux being higher than Windows thru 2004.

If I had to hand management something with data points and a fancy format, I'd hand them this April/May 2001 - Linux edition of Management Directions which can be viewed/downloaded from: here (note: PDF is 2MB)

9) MS Office Filters and Lotus Notes for Linux
by Dr. Evil
In my opinion Linux has a long way to go before it can make it to the home desktop. Ease of use is one of the greatest inhibitors. However, the corporate desktop has very different requirements. Security, remote management, reliablility, simple license management and at the same time, a corporate desktop requires only a handful of very clearly defined employee responsibilities.

As I see it, the greatest limitation Linux experiences on the corporate desktop is interfacing with customers running MS Office, and secondly, Linux lacks a corporate email package. That requirement could be filled quite perfectly by Lotus Notes.

Is IBM taking steps to sell Linux on the corporate desktop as a simple and secure alternative to Microsoft's mindbogglingly complex Licensing and questionable security? If so, what is being done to address the lack of MS Office document compatability, and the lack of a client email/database package such as Lotus Notes?

Handy:
We're working to help the Linux OS on all fronts with server activity as a priority, especially in helping it scale in the enterprise. In general, we're helping on the client side (with our support of KDE and GNOME and other client oriented open source projects) and working on embedded Linux projects too.

As for development priorities of our own commercially licensed software, we're focused on where Linux's market penetration is strongest and where the opportunity for market acceptance is the highest. We see the demand most clearly on the server. Based on that feedback, our development of DB2, WebSphere, Lotus and Tivoli software is predominantly focused on the server side. Our strategy is to support browser based access from Linux desktops to our server based software (like using a browser to access WebSphere Application Server on the Server). In the case of our Lotus Domino for Linux offer, it's important to understand that browser users on the Linux desktop have full access to Lotus Webmail and can also access Domino collaborative applications from their browsers. Right now, we're not planning native ports of Lotus Notes or Lotus SmartSuite to Linux desktops since the demand from our customers just isn't there yet.

10) Open Source and Patents
by Johnath
First off, by way of disclaimer, I'm an IBM employee, but am posting this as an individual and am quite sure my manager neither knows nor cares about the contents of my question. :)

It's great to see that IBM is committing to an open approach, both in their specific funding of Linux development, but also in their more general push to use open, standard technologies like XML and Java, and to participate in the standards process. On the other hand, IBM holds more patents than any other business in the world, by a fair majority, and what's more, are quite proud of this standing. Now I am not at all knocking IBMs desire to produce patentable technology, and I do think it is indicative of their technological leadership that they have acquired them,

but...

I'm wondering how IBM's dedication to openness will interact with their commitment to producing patentable technology. Will IBM's contributions to open source projects include these patentable ideas, and will open source projects in which IBM participates be licensed to employ said ideas, even to freely distribute software based on them? If IBM is willing to do this, how will they ensure that their patented IP is not picked up and incorporated into competing products? If not, could you give us some insight into the decision making process as regards these patents, and why IBM's openness strategy does not extend to them?

Handy:
Well, there's a lot to answer in this question. First of all, we don't think open source software and intellectual property rights are mutually exclusive - for IBM, it's not an either or proposition. As you noted, we strongly support the open source movement and believe the community contributes significantly to innovation in the industry. We also believe we employ some of the best and brightest developers in the world and that our work on IP projects encourage innovation, as well. As you probably know, we work with the community on various open source projects by providing technical input, as well as code. IBM's decision to make code available to the open source community is based on interest from the community. Before we open source code, we want to make sure there will be enough support from the community to propel the technology forward. We've been active in Apache, Mozilla and JFS to name just a few.

More info here on our open source efforts and contributions: www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/.

We sent 10 of your questions to IBM Linux exec Scott Handy a while back. Here are the answers. As is common with corporate types these days, a PR person had a hand in what was said, so please take that into account as you read on. But I don't think anything much was changed (I can usually tell) in this case, though.

1) Hypocrisy?
by Hobbex
How can IBM reconcile its spoken commitment to Linux and Free software software with its center-stage activity in projects like CPRM on harddisks and SDMI for music?

Handy:
I really think these are two entirely separate issues. Our support of the Open Source movement is based on the belief that with certain technologies, such as Linux, innovation can be spurred through collaboration and the free exchange of ideas. Open Source works on the basic premise of constant change, evolution and improvement of the code by the community.

On the other hand, our involvement with efforts such as CPRM and SDMI respects the right that some content providers have to protect their intellectual assets if they choose to do so. Technical protection measures are an important way to provide that protection. The content that would be protected here -- most likely music, video and other art forms -- is unlike open source code in that it was is not designed to be modified by the masses or freely distributed. (By the way, CPRM is open -- the cipher and algorithms, along with sample code -- are published.)

For us, what it comes down to is supporting the rights of all content creators to make their own choice. If you want to distribute your intellectual property openly and freely, that's great and we'll support you. As you know, not every software vendor is willing to make that commitment. And if you're an individual or organization that wants or needs to protect your digital content, we will develop solutions that work for you while offering maximum value and ease of use to consumers and helping to create an environment where all Internet content providers coexist peacefully.

2) IBM + Linux = PPC?
by Xoro
IBM makes PowerPCs. Linux runs on PowerPCs. Does IBM's commitment to Linux imply that they will take the logical step and we will finally see a commodity (non-Apple) PPC motherboard?

This project always seems to generate so much enthusiasm when presented here or in other forums that its continued non-existence is shocking. Particularly since the PPC's superior electrical characteristics have made it all the more intriguing in the current energy climate.

Handy:
Yes we are very committed to Linux and to our work with PPCs. I've gotta say, it's a bit of a stretch to say that Linux+PPC "commodity (non-Apple) PPC motherboards" is the next logical step :-). We have been working with customers on reference designs using Linux, but we don't have a board available for general use. The steps we have already taken for Linux/PPC, includes Linux support on the IBM eServer iSeries and pSeries which are both PPC based servers. The iSeries is geared toward business application systems, while the pSeries is squarely aimed at Sun and addresses the high performance UNIX market. This activity was originally supported with YellowDog in '99 and 2000, and now includes SuSE, with TL and RH coming. And, we're currently working with ISVs to support Linux on the PPC for server apps.

IBM is very active in this area and is currently the maintainer of the Linux PPC tree.

3) Linux vs AIX
by milkmandan9
I work for a fairly small computing firm which relies mainly on AIX but also has a fair number of Linux boxen around.

In the past few months, the question has come up more than once as to whether AIX or Linux is a more appropriate solution to whatever problem my company is current facing...and often times we've installed Linux on commodity hardware instead of buying a fancy RS/6000 machine and buying another copy of AIX.

My question is that as Linux grows in stability and wider corporate-level acceptance, what's IBM going to do about it? IBM has invested a good deal in the AIX system and I'm sure that they generate a fairly hefty revenue stream from it. Do you foresee any of the IBM Linux initiatives losing funding if they encroach on AIX market share?

Handy:
You're right, we've invested a great deal in AIX and Linux. We've integrated our AIX and Linux efforts into one strategy for our customers. Basically, AIX continues to be our industrial-strength, highly scalable UNIX platform, and we've taken steps to integrate Linux into our UNIX strategy. Earlier this year we announced a new version of AIX - AIX 5L, which offers an affinity for Linux, which allows Linux applications to be easily ported and recompiled on AIX. We also created a new toolkit to help Linux developers create applications that take advantage of the affinity between AIX and Linux. The bottom line is that there is a place for both AIX and Linux. There are still some applications that require the industrial strength capabilities of AIX and some that are perfect for Linux. We work closely with our customers to help them choose the best solution for their needs.

To answer your second question, no, we don't anticipate any Linux initiatives to lose any funding.

4) PR
by truthsearch
Microsoft's strength is largely in its public relations machine. When they talk, the media listens. Craig Mundie's (and therefore Microsoft's) opinion of open source and their own related plans made industry journal headlines. I'd bet many business managers have learned about MS's "shared source" plans. But there's no consistantly loud (or heard) front made against MS statements. Execs hear "open source: bad, shared source: good" from MS, but don't hear other opinions.

Does IBM plan on investing more in the image of Linux and open source? Will there be strong defensive marketing against MS statements? Do you think a closer balance can be made between pro-Microsoft and pro-Linux marketing?

Handy:
You asked if we plan on investing more in the image of Linux and open source, well, we're already investing more than a $1 billion in Linux across the corporation. We continue to talk publicly about Linux and the open source community regularly. Our execs have been featured keynote speakers at a couple of LinuxWorld Expos and smaller conferences all around the world. We've also been successful in "getting the word out" about some big Linux customer wins, which I think has been very helpful in showing the corporate community that Linux is ready for primetime.

To answer your second question about striking a balance between pro-Microsoft and pro-Linux marketing, I really can't speak to Microsoft's marketing plans. IBM looks at the Linux space mainly from the server side from a go-to-market perspective. In just a few short years, IDC named Linux as the fastest growing server operating system in the world - second only to Microsoft. To me, that's the area to watch and the area the community should be most proud of its accomplishments.

If you want to see "everything" we're doing on Linux go here: www.ibm.com/linux. It's a lot.

5) IBM Linux distro?
by ddstreet
Given that there are a wealth of Linux distributions already available in the marketplace, it seems that IBM has to choose one (or more), or create one (or more).

So, will IBM create a Linux distribution (or multiple distributions)?

If not, why? And what distributions will/has IBM choose to support/market?

If so, why? And will that/those distribution(s) compete with other distributions (i.e. be directly available) or only (or at least primarily) available as part of an IBM 'solution'?

Handy:
To answer your first question, and I get this one all the time, no, IBM has no plans to create a Linux distribution. There's no demand for IBM to create a Linux distribution. Linux is not an IBM operating system, its the community's and IBM simply supports and contributes to 1) the community development effort behind Linux and 2) enablement of our hardware, software and services around Linux.

As for which distro's, it's our intent to support our customers by partnering with Linux distribution companies that can help meet their needs. Right now the main three are Red Hat, SuSE and TurboLinux for us and they have agreements with us to provide their distributions on the entire IBM eServer line (xSeries, pSeries, iSeries and zSeries) and they all have software agreements to resell our IBM WebSphere, DB2, Lotus and/or Tivoli software. We also continue to see a variety of Linux distributions emerge to meet the needs of customers in specific geographies and IBM groups work to support opportunities there. For example we continue to partner worldwide with Caldera on our xSeries servers; Mandrake is one of the leaders in France on the client side, so the IBM ViaVoice team supports that distro; and Red Flag is emerging as a strong player in China, so our latest version of DB2 database supports Red Flag, etc. We also work with MonteVista and Lineo and are also increasing our support of Debian overall (we've actually had some level of support for them all along).

6) OS/2
by twitter
How do you approach your OS/2 users? Does IBM plan to move them to Linux platforms? Will any of the OS/2 goodies, like the presentation manager's link database, move to Linux?

Handy:
Like any other customer, we listen to the needs of our OS/2 customers, and based on those needs, we help them choose how to move forward. I'm quite well versed in these customer situations and can tell you they have a very diverse set of needs. Some lead to very different conclusions. Some of our OS/2 customers want to stay with OS/2 as long as they can, and some are ready to move off of it sooner rather than later. So with that said, if the application they are using or want to move to can be easily moved to Linux or is available on Linux, that is an excellent option. This works great if its Java-based or if it runs on our middleware (DB2, WebSphere, Lotus, Tivoli) a lot of which already works on Linux. In this scenario, a direct move works really well.

On the client, if they are ready to move, we usually find that they need to move to Windows, but Linux is sometimes a viable alternative if they can use browser based apps or use one of the many office suites available on Linux that can meet productivity app requirements. (and some of these OS/2 clients are basically fixed function intelligent "terminals" with home grown applications only - and for those apps it depends on the tools they used to create them and whether those tools are available on Linux and/or Windows).

On the server, some customers want to stay on OS/2 for a few more years, make the move to Windows 2000 or Linux, or some combination, depending on the application requirements of the customer. These are sophisticated customers who generally use OS/2 for advanced functions so their needs vary greatly.

On to goodies, some of the OS/2 goodies have moved to Linux, like the JFS we just announced as GA on June 30th, was from the OS/2 base.

Now on your one specific PM example, I've never actually heard of "presentation manager's link database" and asked some PM developers in Austin and they couldn't quite surmise what you were getting at so I'm not sure what I'm really answering there. My guess is it is a resource link (DLL) specific to PM that would not directly work easily with KDE or GNOME or it would have been done with a .SO already.

7) Linux for the 400...
by Ryan_Terry
As a customer who has been with IBM for years we are looking at retiring some of our old AS/400's. We are trying to find other uses for them, and with over 100GB of disk Linux makes an attractive option, but we are saddened to see that IBM seems to have made no effort to try to support Linux at all on the 400.

With the recent support IBM has been giving to the Linux community are there any plans to start devoting resources to the Linux on the as/400 project?

Handy:
Actually, we've already done the work on that server. Today, the IBM eServer iSeries (formerly the AS/400) runs Linux as well as OS/400 starting with models 270's and 8xx. We've seen an increased interest from our customers and Business Partners for Linux-based solutions for the iSeries -- it's a great configuration for customers who want to consolidate workloads from a variety of other servers in their shop to run on the Linux LPAR (logical partition) in their iSeries.

If you're interested in more detail, here's the Web site: www.ibm.com/eserver/iseries/linux.

8) Hard Numbers for Soft Heads
by Dr. Smeegee
I work for a very, very, very huge company that still uses quite a few MS products.

Several other like-minded folks across many of the daughter business have recently begun trying to formulate a plan of attack viz. Linux acceptance.

I assume when IBM pitches Linux to corporations you have some sort of metric that gauges linux against other os's and shows various strengths and weaknesses.

Are these metrics/comparisons available to the general public? Preferably in management friendly .ppt format? :-)

Handy:
While we have a great deal of focus on Linux, IBM supports multiple operating systems. In the IBM Software Group for instance, MQSeries runs on 35 platform - which is an amazing number. With that many OSs out in the market, I've never seen a customer chart like the one you described, showing the strengths and weaknesses between the particular OSs.

The information we use, that really resonates with customers, shows the basic market acceptance of Linux which is based on the IDC figures which place Linux as the fastest growing server operating system in the world, second only to Windows in volume, on the server. We also point to the projected growth rate of Linux being higher than Windows thru 2004.

If I had to hand management something with data points and a fancy format, I'd hand them this April/May 2001 - Linux edition of Management Directions which can be viewed/downloaded from: here (note: PDF is 2MB)

9) MS Office Filters and Lotus Notes for Linux
by Dr. Evil
In my opinion Linux has a long way to go before it can make it to the home desktop. Ease of use is one of the greatest inhibitors. However, the corporate desktop has very different requirements. Security, remote management, reliablility, simple license management and at the same time, a corporate desktop requires only a handful of very clearly defined employee responsibilities.

As I see it, the greatest limitation Linux experiences on the corporate desktop is interfacing with customers running MS Office, and secondly, Linux lacks a corporate email package. That requirement could be filled quite perfectly by Lotus Notes.

Is IBM taking steps to sell Linux on the corporate desktop as a simple and secure alternative to Microsoft's mindbogglingly complex Licensing and questionable security? If so, what is being done to address the lack of MS Office document compatability, and the lack of a client email/database package such as Lotus Notes?

Handy:
We're working to help the Linux OS on all fronts with server activity as a priority, especially in helping it scale in the enterprise. In general, we're helping on the client side (with our support of KDE and GNOME and other client oriented open source projects) and working on embedded Linux projects too.

As for development priorities of our own commercially licensed software, we're focused on where Linux's market penetration is strongest and where the opportunity for market acceptance is the highest. We see the demand most clearly on the server. Based on that feedback, our development of DB2, WebSphere, Lotus and Tivoli software is predominantly focused on the server side. Our strategy is to support browser based access from Linux desktops to our server based software (like using a browser to access WebSphere Application Server on the Server). In the case of our Lotus Domino for Linux offer, it's important to understand that browser users on the Linux desktop have full access to Lotus Webmail and can also access Domino collaborative applications from their browsers. Right now, we're not planning native ports of Lotus Notes or Lotus SmartSuite to Linux desktops since the demand from our customers just isn't there yet.

10) Open Source and Patents
by Johnath
First off, by way of disclaimer, I'm an IBM employee, but am posting this as an individual and am quite sure my manager neither knows nor cares about the contents of my question. :)

It's great to see that IBM is committing to an open approach, both in their specific funding of Linux development, but also in their more general push to use open, standard technologies like XML and Java, and to participate in the standards process. On the other hand, IBM holds more patents than any other business in the world, by a fair majority, and what's more, are quite proud of this standing. Now I am not at all knocking IBMs desire to produce patentable technology, and I do think it is indicative of their technological leadership that they have acquired them,

but...

I'm wondering how IBM's dedication to openness will interact with their commitment to producing patentable technology. Will IBM's contributions to open source projects include these patentable ideas, and will open source projects in which IBM participates be licensed to employ said ideas, even to freely distribute software based on them? If IBM is willing to do this, how will they ensure that their patented IP is not picked up and incorporated into competing products? If not, could you give us some insight into the decision making process as regards these patents, and why IBM's openness strategy does not extend to them?

Handy:
Well, there's a lot to answer in this question. First of all, we don't think open source software and intellectual property rights are mutually exclusive - for IBM, it's not an either or proposition. As you noted, we strongly support the open source movement and believe the community contributes significantly to innovation in the industry. We also believe we employ some of the best and brightest developers in the world and that our work on IP projects encourage innovation, as well. As you probably know, we work with the community on various open source projects by providing technical input, as well as code. IBM's decision to make code available to the open source community is based on interest from the community. Before we open source code, we want to make sure there will be enough support from the community to propel the technology forward. We've been active in Apache, Mozilla and JFS to name just a few.

More info here on our open source efforts and contributions: www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/.

Several people sent in notes about this:"IBM research announced that it developed a wireless security auditor running on a Compaq iPAQ with Linux. The pictures on the IBM web page are much more revealing than the press release. Apparently the auditor can handle GPS input (correlate access points with GPS coordinates?) and associate with access points on demand." The main product webpage has more information about the capabilities, and notes that IBM hasn't decided yet whether to release it as a commercial product or a free tool.

Several people sent in notes about this:"IBM research announced that it developed a wireless security auditor running on a Compaq iPAQ with Linux. The pictures on the IBM web page are much more revealing than the press release. Apparently the auditor can handle GPS input (correlate access points with GPS coordinates?) and associate with access points on demand." The main product webpage has more information about the capabilities, and notes that IBM hasn't decided yet whether to release it as a commercial product or a free tool.

jd writes "IBM's Journaled Filing System becomes the second commercial filing system for Linux to reach the exalted 1.0 status! It also follows close on the heels of another of IBM offering, the PThreads Next Generation project, which also hit 1.0 today." Check out this LWN story on it as well. It's worth noting that this is a free as in open source version - GPLed. There will be another commericial version as well.

jd writes "IBM's Journaled Filing System becomes the second commercial filing system for Linux to reach the exalted 1.0 status! It also follows close on the heels of another of IBM offering, the PThreads Next Generation project, which also hit 1.0 today." Check out this LWN story on it as well. It's worth noting that this is a free as in open source version - GPLed. There will be another commericial version as well.

jd writes "IBM's Journaled Filing System becomes the second commercial filing system for Linux to reach the exalted 1.0 status! It also follows close on the heels of another of IBM offering, the PThreads Next Generation project, which also hit 1.0 today." Check out this LWN story on it as well. It's worth noting that this is a free as in open source version - GPLed. There will be another commericial version as well.

Uche writes "IBM developerWorks recently published my article series on how to develop XPCOM components using Python. PyXPCOM gives, say Mozilla hackers, a nice option for development, since, of course, Python is the crown prince of all languages. See part 1, part 2 and part 3."

Uche writes "IBM developerWorks recently published my article series on how to develop XPCOM components using Python. PyXPCOM gives, say Mozilla hackers, a nice option for development, since, of course, Python is the crown prince of all languages. See part 1, part 2 and part 3."

Uche writes "IBM developerWorks recently published my article series on how to develop XPCOM components using Python. PyXPCOM gives, say Mozilla hackers, a nice option for development, since, of course, Python is the crown prince of all languages. See part 1, part 2 and part 3."

Homer Simpson writes: "IBM will announce on Monday that it has developed the world's fastest silicon transistor. They claim to have refined their silicon-germanium chip-manufacturing technology to produce transistors that are far thinner than existing ones. This will allow information to travel faster while using a lot less power. The new transistor can operate at 210Ghz (yikes!) using a measly milliamp of electrical current (80% faster than todays technology while using half the power)." Reader Geheimnis points out an announcement on IBM's site about this as well.

Homer Simpson writes: "IBM will announce on Monday that it has developed the world's fastest silicon transistor. They claim to have refined their silicon-germanium chip-manufacturing technology to produce transistors that are far thinner than existing ones. This will allow information to travel faster while using a lot less power. The new transistor can operate at 210Ghz (yikes!) using a measly milliamp of electrical current (80% faster than todays technology while using half the power)." Reader Geheimnis points out an announcement on IBM's site about this as well.

Homer Simpson writes: "IBM will announce on Monday that it has developed the world's fastest silicon transistor. They claim to have refined their silicon-germanium chip-manufacturing technology to produce transistors that are far thinner than existing ones. This will allow information to travel faster while using a lot less power. The new transistor can operate at 210Ghz (yikes!) using a measly milliamp of electrical current (80% faster than todays technology while using half the power)." Reader Geheimnis points out an announcement on IBM's site about this as well.

ShellDawg writes "IBM had this really nice article article which showcases their new pervasive computing technologies lab in Austin, Texas. Gadgets which let you control everything in a room from light bulbs (which have assigned URL's )to smart kitchen-tops to a wireless enabled car. There's even a refrigerator that has a display which projects an image of whats inside without opening the doors." I for one am the first to sign up for this. I'm tired of opening the door just to realize that I'm out of everything except baking soda and butter. Mmmm. Butter.

seebs writes: "I wrote an article about Unix as a component architecture for the components 'zone' at IBM's developerWorks. They ran it. Here's an article (part four of a series) looking at how Unix has delivered on the promises of the object modules and component architectures that are so popular these days." This reminds me a lot of the book The Unix Philosophy.

emcc writes: "Hey there, I'm the editor for IBM's Think Research web zine and just published an article Slashdot readers may find interesting. The article goes into a bit of the philosophy and science behind Cellular Architecture -- that's the memory architecture that enables massively parallel operation in the latest deep-computing machines like Blue Gene."

emcc writes: "Hey there, I'm the editor for IBM's Think Research web zine and just published an article Slashdot readers may find interesting. The article goes into a bit of the philosophy and science behind Cellular Architecture -- that's the memory architecture that enables massively parallel operation in the latest deep-computing machines like Blue Gene."

emcc writes: "Hey there, I'm the editor for IBM's Think Research web zine and just published an article Slashdot readers may find interesting. The article goes into a bit of the philosophy and science behind Cellular Architecture -- that's the memory architecture that enables massively parallel operation in the latest deep-computing machines like Blue Gene."

byrd77 writes: "IBM is touting new 'strained' silicon as being up to 35 percent faster while reducing power requirements. Let's hope this is more than just an exercise in straining credulity..." See also their press release.

eeex writes: "The SmarTruck, built by the US army, is the ultimate Bond car, able to spill oil and tacks behind itself, equipped with bulletproof glass, a built-in grenade launcher and laser gun, electrified door handles, night vision devices, and more." And on a more civilian note, Irish writes: "alphaWorks is making some sort of car, a 2002 Ford Explorer called the TechMobile, that incorporates a funky combinations of technologies including communication middleware, voice recognitions car controls, and Bluetooth PAN." (Read more below.)

"The Bluetooth PAN will be created using BlueDrekar and Bluetooth Ethernet Emulator. You will be able to inter-connect PDA, cellphones, and a laptops to play games, exchange data, and control things like the doors, lights of the car, and stereo. TSpaces will be the backbone communication middleware for accessing and controlling the electrical functions of the car. They are going to use Blue Eyes, a user interface that detects a person's eyeballs and responds to blinking commands to turn on/off the lights and doors of the car. ViaVoice will perform voice recognition email management, voice-activated control of air conditioning in the car, as well as voice-enabled access to MP3 files through the car stereo system. The car will debut at a conference in San Francisco."

eeex writes: "The SmarTruck, built by the US army, is the ultimate Bond car, able to spill oil and tacks behind itself, equipped with bulletproof glass, a built-in grenade launcher and laser gun, electrified door handles, night vision devices, and more." And on a more civilian note, Irish writes: "alphaWorks is making some sort of car, a 2002 Ford Explorer called the TechMobile, that incorporates a funky combinations of technologies including communication middleware, voice recognitions car controls, and Bluetooth PAN." (Read more below.)

"The Bluetooth PAN will be created using BlueDrekar and Bluetooth Ethernet Emulator. You will be able to inter-connect PDA, cellphones, and a laptops to play games, exchange data, and control things like the doors, lights of the car, and stereo. TSpaces will be the backbone communication middleware for accessing and controlling the electrical functions of the car. They are going to use Blue Eyes, a user interface that detects a person's eyeballs and responds to blinking commands to turn on/off the lights and doors of the car. ViaVoice will perform voice recognition email management, voice-activated control of air conditioning in the car, as well as voice-enabled access to MP3 files through the car stereo system. The car will debut at a conference in San Francisco."

Frank writes: "Here's an article about encryption with Stunnel, which is a program that allows both programmers and system administrators to easily add encryption to arbitrary TCP sessions. You can SSL-enable clients and servers with ease -- and you can do so without interfering with program source."

Frank writes: "Here's an article about encryption with Stunnel, which is a program that allows both programmers and system administrators to easily add encryption to arbitrary TCP sessions. You can SSL-enable clients and servers with ease -- and you can do so without interfering with program source."

Alowishus writes: "IBM is going to make one of its high-end zServer mainframes available for free to the public for development and testing of Linux applications. It has 10 CPUs and 2.1TB of storage, and will offer TurboLinux or SuSE distributions set up as virtual servers. It's expected to support about 1,000 simultaneous users." However, hold your horses just a bit: Registration is not yet open, the accounts are good only for a limited time, and the site lists other conditions details, though none sound onerous. Among other things, "once a user is registered and approved to access a LCDS system, a user is required to have direct Internet connection, via a Telnet and SSH client." Though there have been other free sandbox accounts, having an account on an S/390 would be sweet, eh?

CelestialWizard writes "Linuxworld have this story regarding the IBM employee that has been ordered to perform 30 days community service for spray painting "Peace, Love and Linux" ads on Chicago sidewalks. See the older story."

An Anonymous Coward writes: "Linux 2.4.3 now holds the world record by performance with IBM's DB2 in TPC-H. TPC-H is a decision support benchmark consisting of a suite of business oriented and ad-hoc queries and concurrent data modifications. This is way cool as the world record was held by SQL Server 2000 on Windows 2000 before." Caveats: this is only in the 100GB (smallest) category, and all but 2 of the other entries are several months old. Even so;)

Thought the GPL was a nice license for your software project, one that fit with your thoughts about software freedom? Perhaps the BSD license was more to your taste? Well, even if you confine yourself to the ones approved by the Open Source Initiative, you can now choose from a grand total of 23 different licenses. Two new licenses have been blessed by the OSI: IBM's Common Public License Version 0.5, and the Apple Public Source License 1.2. Both may fit the OSI's definition of Open Source, but Free? Neither one uses that word. Richard Stallman isn't kidding when he says Open Source is not synonymous with Free Software. Clearly, there is nothing to stop every software company in the world from writing its own Open Source license. So here we are with at least 23, and rising.

DonJ writes: "This is a good article that explains a lot about how Perl can play a big part in developing Web Services. It will show you a no-nonsense approach to using SOAP::Lite, Perl's window into SOAP Web services. The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is the basic messaging protocol for Web services, so this is a need to know."

Bushwacker writes: "Just when everyone thought IBM's OS/2 Warp Operating System was finally dying, the fabled 'licensed-out' 'Warp 5.0' is now in version 1.0.0. Called eComStation, the operating system's developer, Mensys BV promises all of the features and stability of IBM's Warp 4.0, plus many updates, enhancements, and new features, such as efficient SMP support for up to 64 processors as well as easy network integration between client and server versions. eComStation has modest system requirements and should be able to work well on most PCs or x86 based servers without much trouble. But then again there's the age old issue of OS/2 driver support (sigh)... Currently, a preview version is available, with a final release 'coming soon.' The eComStation OS is available in Standard and Pro versions from Indelible Blue." Update: 05/08 11am by C :You can get more information and screenshots from the the .com version of the website.

Bushwacker writes: "Just when everyone thought IBM's OS/2 Warp Operating System was finally dying, the fabled 'licensed-out' 'Warp 5.0' is now in version 1.0.0. Called eComStation, the operating system's developer, Mensys BV promises all of the features and stability of IBM's Warp 4.0, plus many updates, enhancements, and new features, such as efficient SMP support for up to 64 processors as well as easy network integration between client and server versions. eComStation has modest system requirements and should be able to work well on most PCs or x86 based servers without much trouble. But then again there's the age old issue of OS/2 driver support (sigh)... Currently, a preview version is available, with a final release 'coming soon.' The eComStation OS is available in Standard and Pro versions from Indelible Blue." Update: 05/08 11am by C :You can get more information and screenshots from the the .com version of the website.

Bushwacker writes: "Just when everyone thought IBM's OS/2 Warp Operating System was finally dying, the fabled 'licensed-out' 'Warp 5.0' is now in version 1.0.0. Called eComStation, the operating system's developer, Mensys BV promises all of the features and stability of IBM's Warp 4.0, plus many updates, enhancements, and new features, such as efficient SMP support for up to 64 processors as well as easy network integration between client and server versions. eComStation has modest system requirements and should be able to work well on most PCs or x86 based servers without much trouble. But then again there's the age old issue of OS/2 driver support (sigh)... Currently, a preview version is available, with a final release 'coming soon.' The eComStation OS is available in Standard and Pro versions from Indelible Blue." Update: 05/08 11am by C :You can get more information and screenshots from the the .com version of the website.

David writes "I took a look at the new developerWorks Wireless resources section and found this very cool article that shows you how to design a JavaBean that works with SAX, reads in XML data, and puts WBMP (Wireless BitMap) drawing on mobile devices. It uses JSP to generates WML cards that displays WBMP graphs on the screen of a WAP device."

David writes "I took a look at the new developerWorks Wireless resources section and found this very cool article that shows you how to design a JavaBean that works with SAX, reads in XML data, and puts WBMP (Wireless BitMap) drawing on mobile devices. It uses JSP to generates WML cards that displays WBMP graphs on the screen of a WAP device."

CarrotLord asks: "Looking at the recent release of IBM's Small Business Suite for Linux got me wondering about distribution compatibility and standards. Personally, I run Debian, and am considering a move to Progeny. However, I am concerned by the fact that many products (particularly commercial ones) are available for only a particular subset of distributions (usually RedHat, Mandrake, SuSE, TurboLinux and Caldera, but rarely Debian-based distributions or the BSDs). What is the current state of play, particularly in regards to tools for developers to enable them to create and test installation packages for various distributions?" Such a tool would go a long way in removing the force behind the "Linux fragmentation" argument that most of Linux's detractors often refer to.

"How are the LSB and the FSSTND affecting consistency between distros? What about RPM and APT? What tools are there available for developers of software to ensure that their software runs on the widest variety of systems? Is there some software development or packaging tool to assist developers in making distribution-independant software, so they can create files in dpkg, RPM and tgz formats for any distribution without much additional effort on their part? What about tools to test their software installation on individual distributions, and assist with the resolution of problems? Should this be up to the individual distributions, or should be have a unified approach?"

CarrotLord asks: "Looking at the recent release of IBM's Small Business Suite for Linux got me wondering about distribution compatibility and standards. Personally, I run Debian, and am considering a move to Progeny. However, I am concerned by the fact that many products (particularly commercial ones) are available for only a particular subset of distributions (usually RedHat, Mandrake, SuSE, TurboLinux and Caldera, but rarely Debian-based distributions or the BSDs). What is the current state of play, particularly in regards to tools for developers to enable them to create and test installation packages for various distributions?" Such a tool would go a long way in removing the force behind the "Linux fragmentation" argument that most of Linux's detractors often refer to.

"How are the LSB and the FSSTND affecting consistency between distros? What about RPM and APT? What tools are there available for developers of software to ensure that their software runs on the widest variety of systems? Is there some software development or packaging tool to assist developers in making distribution-independant software, so they can create files in dpkg, RPM and tgz formats for any distribution without much additional effort on their part? What about tools to test their software installation on individual distributions, and assist with the resolution of problems? Should this be up to the individual distributions, or should be have a unified approach?"

nublord writes "IBM has an article up on their website that really caught my attention. They've managed to solve the most troblesome problem when manufacturing LCD monitors: getting the liquid crystals to line up correctly. The old process was invented 95 years ago and required a velvet cloth to line up the crystals - a very error prone process. The new process uses a beam of ions to create atomic-scale channels that the liquid crystals connect to easily. IBM states that this will save LCD makers millions of dollars each year - and give us more LCD monitors of better qualtiy at much lower prices. Maybe I can finally have a wall of LCD monitors without having to rob a bank!"

pjones writes: "This just in! Open Source is bad for companies and countries too. In a New York Times article (registration required), John Markoff reports that: "In a speech defending Microsoft's business model, to be given on Thursday at the Stern School of Business at New York University, Craig Mundie, a senior vice president at Microsoft and one of its software strategists, will argue that the company already follows the best attributes of the open-source model by sharing the original programmer's instructions, or source code, more widely than is generally realized." Singled out for particular rebuke and scorn are IBM and the famous GPL and its author Richard Stallman. Who will be there to cheer Craig on?" See also ESR's dispatch on same. (Read below for update with time and place.)

Update: 05/03 01:55 PM by T : cananian points to this announcement on time and place. The upshot: from noon to 1:30 p.m, in room 1-70 of NYU's Kaufman Management Center (KMEC), 44 West 4th Street.

1010011010 writes: "IBM has tested the syscall speed of Linux 2.2.16, 2.4.2 and Windows 2000. As it turns out, Linux is a little more than twice as fast. This may be interesting to people who have been reading the LKML recently, as a debate has been doing on about syscall speed. Also, a method ("magic page") for further improving syscall speed is being developed by the kernel developers. The rate at which all aspects of Linux is improving -- kernel, GUIs, etc. -- is phenominal. I think Linux is pretty cool now; I can't wait to see it in 18 months."

JoeT-Bone writes "Found this at LinuxToday, It's a UnixReviw.com review of the of the IBM Small Business Suite for Linux. " Part of Big Blue's continuing move to porting to programs to Linux - anyone had experience with this? Good, Bad? Post below!

BillyBob writes: "I Came accross this cool article about Functional programming in Python that demonstrates several intermediate and advanced FP concepts. The author uses Bryn Keller's 'Xoltar Toolkit' which provide valuable assistance. Keller has collected many of the strengths of FP into a nice little module containing pure Python implementations of the techniques. This is definitely worth examining for a Python programmer seeking to continue the exploration of functional paradigms."