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IBM (Offically) Launches Linux Box Clustering
Neumsy writes " IBM has offically announced that it is releasing Linux-Based Server, Software Packages. Yahoo! News has the story . According to IBM, this will expand the use of Linux. It's a good overview article. Not too much in depth, but still nice to see Linux getting out there more and more."
The commercials weren't lying about IBM selling Linux servers?!?!?!?!
;-)
Maybe I outta start believing marketing people? Nahh....
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Interestingly enough, just this morning I saw a two-page ad for IBM servers running linux. I haven't found the actual ad online, but it showed the famous "bigfoot" photo, labeled as fake, and then a penguin walking through the server room in the same pose, labeled as real. The other page of the ad was an abbreviated list of the usual Linux myths that we all know and love, with IBM-specific arguments as to why these were no longer true. This is the real fruit of the $1 billion campaign from IBM, and a great answer for your hesitant management.
IBM's main page for this, aimed at upper brass rather than engineering, is at http://www.ibm.com/linux/cio2, and the myths seemed to come from this brochure: http://www.ibm.com/linux/Demystifying_Linux_Brochu re.pdf.
Maybe this isn't entirely on-topic, but I thought it was a great example of some more of that good mindshare. And this time IBM isn't going to have to scrub off any sidewalk paint :)
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
"Linux is appealing because of its price and performance, which can be less than with a comparable Unix-based system, Quandt said."
Sounds great...oh, wait, no it doesn't.
IBM has a winner. For organizations which can use more computing muscle, particularly in scientific computing, clustering is true blessing. The real beauty is that an organization can "test the waters" without an outrageous investment in hardware. When budgets are thin, clustering allows you to start small, and then ramp up as the benefits warrant it financially. Here is a lucrative niche for which IBM's expertise is ideally suited.
What's even more fun is that Linux has now received some serious television advertising. Up until now (at least in my area) the only "advertising" Linux has received has been the mention of Linux as a possible training route at the computer schools popping up all over the place, as well as being lumped in with all the "UNIX systems that will crash at Y2K because it's so old, but you don't have to worry because nobody uses UNIX any more." -- that was said on one of the news stations here. I sent an e-mail to the channel's producers explaining to them that the use UNIX every day to run their servers (they were running Solaris), produce their graphics (they were running IRIX), and so on. I never heard back from them.
Anyway, this advertising thing is something I've been wishing I could do for a long time. It's one of the few things still really holding Linux back. I've just never had enough money to put together a campaign, and that's the major shortcoming of Linux: lack of awareness due to lack of significant cash flow. This, together with the DoJ statement that Microsoft can no longer use boot loader restrictions to leverage its monopoly position, will lead to a truly competitive desktop OS market in the near future (I say desktop OS because Linux is already taking over the servers, as evidenced by this commercial).
A solution to the problem with music today
http://access.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Releases/011018.Titan
Top500 org (http://www.top500.org) has the latest rankings out and Platinum is ranked #41 in the world with a 594 rating and Titan is at #34 with a 677 rating. These are not slow systems, but they do require a knowledgeable support staff. Both systems are IBM "out-of-the-box" clusters, running RedHat Linux versions.
I'm just glad to see linux advertised in the mainstream media. Name recognition helps.
More information is available at the main website: http://ncsa.uiuc.edu
The Internet has no garbage collection
The announcement may make it 'official', but IBM has been selling turn-key style clusters for over a year now.
How do I know, and why do I care? 'Cause I work for IBM, and design and build Linux clusters for a living.
We rack purpose-built 1U's (x330's) built for easy large-scale mangement (built-in daisy-chain KVM capabilities, integrated service processor network, cool blinky lights, etc, etc), have internally developed mangement software and system imaging solutions, and ship them to customers at a point where all they need to do is plug them in and log on.
The only real issue is almost no one has a 'standard' cluster application. Almost every one uses a different IPC mechanism, and usually an app is only validated against one very specific software image. So to get the most out of a cluster, customers still need to spend time tweaking.
Maybe someday soon, we'll all be able to 'apt-get install damned_big_cluster', but until then... <shameless>just call IBM.</shameless>
--Matthew
slashdot at sigalrm dot com