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RedHat, Fujitsu Enter Into Marketing Agreement

andyring writes "According to Cnet, RedHat and Fujitsu signed a partership agreement where the companies will jointly develop and market for Fujitsu's products. Fujitsu hs a strong presence in Asia, a place Microsoft has been trying to cultivate."

137 comments

  1. is this bad for sun by Miguel+de+Icaza · · Score: 0, Insightful

    arn't fujistu supposed to be McNeally's buddies?

    --
    Before adopting WHATWG, read the moonlight.NET EULA [http://www.microsoft.com/interop/msnovellcollab/moonlight.mspx]
  2. Heh by GigsVT · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Used to be when you bought floppy disks, sometimes you could get a bonus floppy disk that had a MS entertainment pack on it.

    Imagine all hard disks coming preloaded with a self-configuring Linux distro. That would be cool. :)

    --
    I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
    1. Re:Heh by yatest5 · · Score: 1, Funny
      self-configuring Linux distro

      Man, you are too funny.

      --
      • Mod parent up! [a] by Anonymous Coward (Score:5) Thurs, June 31, @13:37
    2. Re:Heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Already happening. Someone I know got a new MB and it came with a CD OpenOffice.

    3. Re:Heh by yatest5 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Yes, because when I buy a hard disk, I *want* it to be full of shit I don't want.

      --
      • Mod parent up! [a] by Anonymous Coward (Score:5) Thurs, June 31, @13:37
    4. Re:Heh by wheany · · Score: 0

      Well maybe when you buy a pack of Hard disks, you could get a bonus harddisk that has Redhat entertainment pack on it.

      Woohoo the acme of open source entertainment: BzFlag and TuxRacer!

    5. Re:Heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      mkfs (or format C:) will not take any longer no matter how much is on the disk when you buy it.

    6. Re:Heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And when you try to install Windows to it, you it fails because the disk already has "unknown" partitions.

    7. Re:Heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here's a tip for you, as it seems you don't know shit. Reformatting is a easy way to get rid of all the shit on a hard disk.

    8. Re:Heh by yatest5 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Listen dickface, why should I have to reformat my BRAND NEW FUCKING DISK just because some virgin cockslurpers wanted to put Linux on it?

      --
      • Mod parent up! [a] by Anonymous Coward (Score:5) Thurs, June 31, @13:37
    9. Re:Heh by Nakarti · · Score: 1

      Yeah, wouldn't it be cool since it's already trivial?
      Howso? Start installing some distro that configures hardware after setting up all the software and rebooting.
      I've done it with Lindows on my laptop since I lack a hard drive, and it doesn't take much longer than subsequent boots.

    10. Re:Heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Harddisks come preformatted? LOL. right.... sure, let's see, how many microsoft formats do we have? FAT16 (probably impossible on most harddrives but if you partition right...), FAT32, NTFSv3, NTFSv4, I could probably go on and on. That doesn't even begin to count the linux partition formats. Dear poster, PLEASE THINK BEFORE YOU POST, not everyone uses Windows 3.11. -AC

    11. Re:Heh by mrmeval · · Score: 1

      Dammit I NEED a self configuring Linux distro. Not IT supervision, no user intervention it just boots, configures and works.

      I need one that works for Windows users so that it does not impact their work.

      A related article states 'I'm locking the desktop down...", well I want that too.

      --
      I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
    12. Re:Heh by shaitand · · Score: 1

      umm and this is bad how exactly... as if someone who doesn't know how to use at least one utility for removing partitions should be installing ANY OS in the first place.

    13. Re:Heh by yatest5 · · Score: 1

      Dear moron. Hard disks come formatted as FAT32. You can use this on ALL modern windows operating systems.

      --
      • Mod parent up! [a] by Anonymous Coward (Score:5) Thurs, June 31, @13:37
  3. well i by REBloomfield · · Score: 1

    only hope that fujitsu have improved their hardware choices. they were our standard platform for years before we moved to dell, on the basis that nothing would ever be recognised with the exact drivers that shipped with the system. Video cards being the worst... and we all know what linux is like with odd hardware... or is that just my mate and his new laptop. did he swear.....

    1. Re:well i by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Fujitsu has made some really decent high-end equipment, scanners and data storage equipment. Seems only natural to partner with Linux, who's becoming King of the datastore.

    2. Re:well i by Unregistered · · Score: 1

      you haven't used linux in a few years, have you. It works with everythin. Including stuff i can't find win32 drivers for. Or the win32 drivers don't work. All gold w/ linux.

    3. Re:well i by REBloomfield · · Score: 1

      actually, i've been using it for three years, on whatever hardware i've had at the time. and i can guarantee, it does *not* work on my mates new laptop. neither was it too happy with an old AST box of mine, but largely, it's been okay.

  4. this could be very good by the-dude-man · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This could be a very good for linux....it provides a very large scale devlopment enviornment for linux...and lead to more submissions, and review of code...not to mention more discoverys of bad design and security holes...

    maybe redhat will find out that by having everything tunred on by defaut, and having to work for 2 hours to turn it all off really pisses off sysadmins.

    I've been finding redhat to be a progressivly more and more annyoing linux distro, but this could be their chance to turn things around. Personally i opt for gentoo....small, secure, and works very well. With the amount of attention they will get from devlopment with this, Red hat could follow that line.

    at the very least i hope they will get rid of the "rpm hell" that people go thru when you go to upgrade major components.

    1. Re:this could be very good by Lord+Kholdan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Are you saying that as amount of Linux users increase so does the amount of people contributing to Linux? I dont buy that. Those people who are interested in messing around kernel already have Linux (or *BSD) installed, those who are the potential growth market for Linux are the people who dont know what is the difference between browser and Internet and dont really care. Now, I dont mean this in a bad way, heck, in a way I'm one of those people. That's just the way it is.

    2. Re:this could be very good by laughing_badger · · Score: 1
      at the very least i hope they will get rid of the "rpm hell" that people go thru when you go to upgrade major components.

      I agree that upgrading major components in an RPM based system can be a pain.

      However, the people that RedHat are trying to sell to usually don't want to do this. They want to buy a system that will run non-stop for five years. They realise they won't get this of course, but the most that they want to do is apply tiny incremental fixes to the versions of the packages that they started with. Once you have a system in production, doing a job, you leave it alone, except for security or stability fixes.

      --
      Help children born unable to swallow - www.tofs.org.uk
    3. Re:this could be very good by the-dude-man · · Score: 2, Interesting

      this is true, however, anyone running red hat who installed with kde 3.0 and wants to update to kde 3.1 may as well re install red hat 9.0...lord knows that that is easier than trying to get kde 3.0 out and compiling and installing 3.1 (or doing it from rpm) trust me, ports makes life much easier

    4. Re:this could be very good by adamfranco · · Score: 5, Insightful

      at the very least i hope they will get rid of the "rpm hell" that people go thru when you go to upgrade major components.

      Ahhh, RPM hell, how I've missed you since I switched to...

      ...RedHat? Apt-get and its Synaptic GUI both run on RedHat and Matthias Saou of FreshRPMs maintains a giant archive of currently 1655 packages specifically for RedHat.

      Since I went back to RedHat last November after years with Mandrake and Libranet, I have yet to install an RPM. Every week I just do an
      apt-get update
      apt-get upgrade
      and get all of the patches for security holes posted here on /.

      RedHat should really toss some coin or at least help at FreshRPMs as they make RedHat the perfect compromise for people like me who love Linux (haven't used any Microshaft product in 9 months, with the exception of using Windows to play BF1942 for 3 hours/week), but "just want it work". My flat-mate is a complete Gentoo fan and seems to actually enjoy tweeking his kernel every week or so. Well, actually, he has to keep tweeking his kernal because there always seems to be a problem with USB or Raid or some other problem. So what does he do? He comes over to my RedHat box to download photos from his camera. For me at least (a medium-grade Linux user -- I write a lot of bash scripts...) the RedHat/apt-get combo is the ideal combination of ease-of-use, prettiness, and power.

      In addition, I've found that a pretty KDE setup is one of the best ways to generate Linux converts, especially when you show the the 35seconds it takes to install DVD software (Ogle) or upgrade all the software on your system, all through the VERY pretty and simple Synaptic GUI.

      --
      "When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind." -- Bill Moyers
    5. Re:this could be very good by dsplat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually, I do buy the argument because we've been seeing it. I'm using a driver for my NIC that was developed by Intel and nVidia developed the driver for my graphics card. Because of the number of people using Linux, there is a large enough market to make it worthwhile to develop the drivers. Okay, that doesn't add knew core functionality, but it generates a virtuous cycle. New hardware is better supported now than it was a few years ago. That makes adoption of Linux even more attractive for people who don't want to hack the kernel or don't have the time because they are working on other things, like porting apps to Linux. It's the Network Effect. Some products become more useful simply because their user base grows. Communication technologies are the classic example of that.

      --
      The net will not be what we demand, but what we make it. Build it well.
    6. Re:this could be very good by mmol_6453 · · Score: 1

      Don't forget that there are a lot of potential future kernel hackers still in diapers right now, and a greater Linux marketshare will result in them being exposed to Linux sooner.

      --
      What's this Submit thingy do?
    7. Re:this could be very good by johnnyb · · Score: 1

      What's really good is that Fujitsu global services is heavily tied to EDS (at least here in Tulsa). EDS contracts support on all it's boxes to Fujitsu, so having them support RHAT is a good thing.

    8. Re:this could be very good by schotty · · Score: 1

      I agree. I got several buddies hooked on linux by giving them a copy of RedHat, and a short (as you already know) and easy 3 line install instructional on how to get apt-rpm and synaptic and how to use it. In fact you cant make it any easier. "Hmm, lets install this program here..." CLICK CLICK Waits as modem/NIC downloads the selection and all deps... Tum de dum... Finished. "Alrighty. Now off to Frozen Bubble!"

      --
      Sigs are nice guns ...
    9. Re:this could be very good by pmz · · Score: 1

      I've been finding redhat to be a progressivly more and more annyoing linux distro...

      This is because they are trying to attract people who don't find Windows annoying and want more of the same.

    10. Re:this could be very good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I swear to fscking god, when those "kernel hackers in diapers" are old enough to hack I seriously hope that we are not still using crufty kludge filled crap like Linux, windows and macintosh. Hopefully by then we will all be using embedded devices running QNX or some kind of embedded quais-JAVA. We are in the computing stone age right now and it sucks arse.

    11. Re:this could be very good by tomkins · · Score: 0

      I agree. The only concern I have over freshrpms.net is that it is solely maintained by Matthias. He does a great job but I'd feel better if I had access to a repository maintained by a Debian-like community. That's why I think Fedora may be the future. It's still immature so I'm sticking with freshrpms for now.

    12. Re:this could be very good by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 1
      ...RedHat? Apt-get and its Synaptic GUI both run on RedHat and Matthias Saou of FreshRPMs [freshrpms.net] maintains a giant archive of currently 1655 packages specifically for RedHat.

      FreshRPMs does rock yes, but 1665? Where did you get that figure from? If you at the shrike archives, I see 300 odd. Are you adding together all the redhat versions?

      The main problem with things like apt is that unless you're on a distro like Debian or Gentoo the package you want never seems to be available. Even with those distros, it's either available but out of date or not available at all.

    13. Re:this could be very good by shaitand · · Score: 1

      Although techhnically you are only "contributing to linux" if your contributing to the kernel, and I'm sure the kernel developers would appreciate a hand. what linux needs is more diverse applications, more choices. These things are often developed by individual and sometimes can only exist with masses.

      ok ok I know people gripe about too many choices. they are griping about too many choices in the wrong places, like window manager. In other areas there are far too few. For instance the only other real option for a gui dvd ripper next to dvd::rip is transcode and *gasp* dvdrip is really a gui that sits on top of transcode!!! I want to see 5 good dvdrippers that I can chose from. I want to see one decent accounting package (why doesn't this exist.. accounting is not exactly brain surgery, it mostly consists of simple math? I don't even mean corporate accounting, I mean something on par with quickbooks and peachtree for god sake!)

    14. Re:this could be very good by shaitand · · Score: 1

      I believe this is what apt is for?

    15. Re:this could be very good by adamfranco · · Score: 1

      I opened up Synaptic. At the bottom of the screen it says:

      1655 packages listed, 608 installed, 0 broken, 0 to install/upgrade, 0 to remove; 0MB will be used

      I am just assuming that the first number is the number of supported packages...

      --
      "When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind." -- Bill Moyers
  5. RedHat's Asian efforts... by jkrise · · Score: 3, Informative

    can be summarised as:
    1. Providing RHCE certfication exams, and certs.
    2. Poor or no mirrors for downloading distros.
    3. Little or no support offerings for their products.
    4. Few relationshipd with h/w vendors that matter in Asia.

    Only the last is being addressed here. Even little known firms like Turbo Linux have a huge base in Asia, by virtue of having strong support base and relationships.

    --
    If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
    1. Re:RedHat's Asian efforts... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      4. Few relationshipd with h/w vendors that matter in Asia.
      Is relationshipd also turned on in RedHat by default?
    2. Re:RedHat's Asian efforts... by arvindn · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I speak as an Indian, but I imagine the situation is similar in some other Asian countries as well.

      1. Providing RHCE certfication exams, and certs.

      Which is great, because IT graduates here are crazy about things like that.

      Poor or no mirrors for downloading distros.

      Doesn't make much of a difference, considering the bandwidth situation and that the primary method of distribution is CDs.

      Little or no support offerings for their products.

      Well, people don't even pay MS (though that's changing recently), how do you expect them to pay RH??

      Few relationshipd with h/w vendors that matter in Asia.

      This is the thing that matters most. Which is why I'm very happy about this move.

    3. Re:RedHat's Asian efforts... by bogie · · Score: 1

      "2. Poor or no mirrors for downloading distro"

      What you mean this isn't enough??

      http://www.redhat.com/download/mirror.html

      --
      If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
  6. Clever RedHat by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 3, Insightful
    It looks like little RedHat is making big powerful friends to deter SCO from even thinking of harassing them. That's pretty clever if that's the case.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    1. Re:Clever RedHat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well of course! That just simply has to be the reason behind the agreement.

    2. Re:Clever RedHat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It looks like little RedHat is making big powerful friends to deter SCO from even thinking of harassing them [com.com]. That's pretty clever if that's the case.

      Yeah. Maybe Red Hat should make friends with IBM, because nobody would ever be stupid enough to f*ck with IBM.

    3. Re:Clever RedHat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ehm? SCO went for IBM fs, if that's not powerful enough.. what could having fujiutsu as a 'friend' do?

  7. Re:Alert! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Tried it out on a RH 7.3 as well as RH 8.0 system:

    250 localhost.localdomain Hello porthos [127.0.0.1], pleased to meet you
    debug
    500 5.5.1 Command unrecognized: "debug"

    Nice try. ;-)

  8. Ambivalence by EmagGeek · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've had nothing but trouble getting linux to work on the three fujitsu laptops that I've owned.

    But, at the same time, maybe this means we'll be able to buy laptops with linux pre-installed again, which would be a wonderful wonderful thing.

    Maybe I'll have to consider fujitsu laptops again, so long as they're not still twice the price of an equivalent Compaq...

    1. Re:Ambivalence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My friend has a lifebook with linux on it. That machine is his lifebook in more ways than one. He carries it everywhere and does everything on it. It is possible, you just aren't l33t enough.

    2. Re:Ambivalence by fille · · Score: 1

      Again (see above), I own a Liteline 5133 and Redhat works like a charm on it. It recognised almost all devices out of the box. Maybe it was some time ago you tried to install linux? Newer distributions have far better hardware support, I think..

    3. Re:Ambivalence by Arjuna+Theban · · Score: 1

      I'm writing this on a Lifebook C-6630 running Slackware and having reinstalled both W2000pro and Slack on it, I can say the latter was much, much easier and smoother.

      The one and only glitch I have with it is to have to resample sound to 48k, because the sound card can't handle anything else. The crossfade plugin does this for xmms and mplayer resamples itself.

      -bm

    4. Re:Ambivalence by The-Perl-CD-Bookshel · · Score: 1

      You need a Lifebook P-Series. I have a 2120 and it runs winxp pro AND RedHat flawlessly. There is a ton of information at LEOG.net about putting Linux on the little P-Series books.

      --
      I don't keep a lid on my coffee so when I walk around I look busy -me
    5. Re:Ambivalence by Skater · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I've installed Linux on two Fujitsu laptops. Other than the winmodem in one, they both work well. My 435Dx laptop, which has a Pentium 133 MMX processor, just won't die. Over the years it has had several Slackware versions on it and one Mandrake version. (Okay, I did have to buy new batteries, a new hard drive, and more memory for it.)

      The other Fujitsu laptop I installed Linux on was a C- series, but I don't remember the exact number. It was even easier than the 435Dx.

      The next laptop I buy will definitely be a Fujitsu.

      --RJ

    6. Re:Ambivalence by EmagGeek · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I had two C340s and one C4235. On the C340s, I couldn't get X working and on the 4235, there was some bug that prevented that particular hard disk from working with that particular controller.. I spent a long horrible time trying to get things to work, but gave up.

      I never managed to get either issue resolved...

      But, on the positive side, I still use one of the C340s with linux to run my webserver (www.ie-ap.org), but it was never usable as a workstation.

    7. Re:Ambivalence by ansuz · · Score: 1

      I concure. My old man has a fujitsu (he really wanted somthing small and light.) I haven't had any problems with his hardware under Knoppix.

  9. Dosen't make sence by rinkjustice · · Score: 1, Funny

    Isn't Fujitsu the company that ruined their name with all those faulty harddrives? Why would Redhat even entertain the notion of a business agreement, so close after such a major image disaster (que harddrive/"image" pun)?

    1. Re:Dosen't make sence by ocelotbob · · Score: 2, Informative

      RTA. This isn't about consumer grade, or even professional grade products. This is about enterprise grade products. Redhat's trying to push into the six figure+ server market, a market that you need marketing agreements to get into, as such a market doesn't want their systems to go down. Ever. Fujitsu, though they're shaking off a bad rep in the drive market, still is pretty well known for their servers.

      --

      Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses

  10. Fujistu has got a past in supporting alterntive OS by OberonX · · Score: 3, Informative

    I remember Fujitsu being one the first PC companies adding BeOS to their PCs in Japan during the brief glorious of BeOS a few years back. I can't find the story now but it was quite big for the small BeOS community.

  11. Re:Alert! by REBloomfield · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    this has been fixed for years. although interestingly, cheswick and bellovin rewrote the mailer to respond to this attack, but the commands are mailed to the admin. it was released with System V, and is demonstrated in their 'berferd' incident.

  12. working with linux may help hardware consistency by feepcreature · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Fujitsu's working with linux should increase the chance of getting linux-compatible hardware in their business-centred market (it's enterprise server, after all).

    A side effect of this could well be to reduce the variability of hardware and drivers - if only because the lack of specific drivers makes linux less forgiving of random throwing together of components. They'll HAVE to try harder if they want it to work.

    --
    Paul "Say no to feeping creaturism"
  13. Asia, a place M$ has been trying to cultivate... by da5idnetlimit.com · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are we speaking of this world region where 1 licence is usually enough to cover the needs of thousands of servers ? THE Place where information, if not free, comes dirt cheap at 1$/cd ?
    And you tell me Microsoft is trying to cultivate it's business there ?

    You mean, they sold a cluster and asked themselves why they didn't get that second Advanced Server Licence Order ? 8p

    --
    It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
  14. Re:Alert! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nice try. ;-)

    Yeah and you fell for it... stop feeding the trolls ;-)

  15. Re:working with linux may help hardware consistenc by REBloomfield · · Score: 1

    either that, or we'll see a lot more drivers being developed, which is a good thing as well. But lets hope the people with the resources (ie. fujitsu) take the lead first... the OS crowd have better things to do at the mo'..

  16. Microsoft farmer 1.0 by arvindn · · Score: 2, Funny
    Fujitsu hs a strong presence in Asia, a place Microsoft has been trying to cultivate.

    In that case I must say that Microsoft has been fairly successful: the economy of several Asian countries is primarily agricultural...

  17. and EMEA by bryam · · Score: 3, Informative

    Fujitsu have strong presence in EMEA, like Fujitsu-Siemens.

  18. Samurai Wars by Hiigara · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Microsoft will never expand very well into Asia, they will be stopped by these people first. http://www.samuraiwar.com/page.php?x=2166 Microsoft's main consumer base is because they have no other option they are familiar with. In asia it's the opposite. Microsoft is Linux (The new Guy) and the Asian OSs are Microsoft. Oh my god... did I just say Microsoft was Linux?! Forgive me Linus! Forgive me! *Cuts his wrists*

  19. Alert! Software companies want to sell in Asia! by joebagodonuts · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The post says "Fujitsu hs a strong presence in Asia, a place Microsoft has been trying to cultivate."

    The article states "While Fujitsu lacks those competitors' market share, it does have a strong position in Asia, where Red Hat is trying to expand."

    The article doesn't mention Microsoft.

    Looks like someone woke up hating Microsoft today. (I know. This is shashdot. What do I expect?). This just strikes me as unneeded FUD generating bullshit. Of course, I'm a little grumpy myself. I need more coffee.

    What? Companies want to sell software? In other news, the sky is blue, the sun is hot, and sex is enjoyable.

    I know this post is against slashdot custom. It doesn't bash microsoft, and it implies that a slashdot member has gone outdoors and has even *gasp!* actually had sex! ;-)

    --
    "Give a woman two glasses of wine and some pad thai, and they'll agree to just about anything." the Sports Guy
    1. Re:Alert! Software companies want to sell in Asia! by ocelotbob · · Score: 1
      Yes, that little quip may have been a bit over the top, but your line wasn't any better. Sure it could have probably been written better, but I think the point the submitter was trying to make was that this is gearing up to be a hotly contested region in the next few years. That this wasn't just RH going after some obscure part of the country, this is RH going after one of the major players.

      it implies that a slashdot member has gone outdoors and has even *gasp!* actually had sex! ;-)

      You, know, I already know this, and I also know you should try combining the sex and the outdoors some time. Very enjoyable. Just try to stay away from the dirt bike trails ;3

      --

      Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses

    2. Re:Alert! Software companies want to sell in Asia! by nagora · · Score: 1
      The article doesn't mention Microsoft.

      So? Microsoft are trying to cultivate Asia, that's why Bill went over personally earlier this year. It's not FUD, it's a pretty well-documented fact. It's not even an anti-MS statement; what's your problem?

      TWW

      --
      "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
    3. Re:Alert! Software companies want to sell in Asia! by antiMStroll · · Score: 1

      Holding all of Slashdot to blame for Timothy submissions isn't fair or accurate. Of all the editors, he closest fits the goat/grits/Portman style. Need more examples, check out "Windows Security Through Annoyances?" and "RIAA Nightmare: Pro-level Portable Hard Disk Recorder" from the last 24 hours.

    4. Re:Alert! Software companies want to sell in Asia! by doublem · · Score: 1

      Hey, I've has sex outdoors while engaging in a sport like activity (Rock Climbing)

      Does this mean I can't read slashdot anymore?

      --
      "Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
    5. Re:Alert! Software companies want to sell in Asia! by shaitand · · Score: 1

      yes it does, now go away

  20. Localisation by rf0 · · Score: 1

    Well with any luck this will help RedHat get ever more big iron support. ATM it has support from SGI in the shape of the Altix which scales to 64 CPU's using Itaniums 2's. TBH though I'm not sure of Futitsu marketing at the high end.

    The only think I would like to see improved is RPM in being able to handel downloads and upgrades better rather than having to use apt-rpm. However good on them and good luck for the future

    Rus

    1. Re:Localisation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If RedHat wanted to run on big iron, they shouldn't have dropped their Sparc version. Nothing from intel will ever be anything but a cluster fsck of peecee parts.

  21. Fujitsu will fund Linux development by pchown · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is the more interesting part of the story. Fujitsu are going to pay for some engineers to work at RedHat offices, improving "performance, stability and the ability to run on large servers with heavy processing loads."

    I am very encouraged by the number of companies prepared to take this step, bearing in mind that the GPL forces them to make the changes available for everyone.

    I've long been puzzled as to why a company should pay for improvements to a system, if they then have to make these available to their competitors. I think perhaps there are two reasons. First, Linux is not Windows. Making Linux a better competitor to Windows helps Fujitsu more than they are hurt by having to give code away.

    Secondly, companies focus on their own area. A company that makes, for example, 8-way AMD servers would focus on that area. Their competitors would have access to the code for running well on 8-way AMD servers, but if they don't make them it doesn't help.

    1. Re:Fujitsu will fund Linux development by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Interesting
      This is the more interesting part of the story. Fujitsu are going to pay for some engineers to work at RedHat offices, improving "performance, stability and the ability to run on large servers with heavy processing loads."

      Kind of ironic since the only people who made hard drives less reliable than fujitsu's would be... dun dun dun MICROPOLIS! And we all know how their story ended.

      I know that the unreliability of fujitsu hard drives has nothing to do with anything else but I still find it amusing.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Fujitsu will fund Linux development by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 1
      I've long been puzzled as to why a company should pay for improvements to a system, if they then have to make these available to their competitors

      Because it solves their problem, and the GPL means they have to release those changes. Of course, if their problem is solved they probably don't really care what happens to the changes, the GPL just makes sure they don't seal it off simply because they can.

    3. Re:Fujitsu will fund Linux development by Quino · · Score: 1

      Is your business selling an OS or something else that happens to need an OS? I think that's all it boils down to.

      It might not make sense for Microsoft, but I'd wager it makes sense for most other computer companies.

    4. Re:Fujitsu will fund Linux development by shaitand · · Score: 1

      Because their competitors will undoubtedly make their own changes, and fujitsu will get them back.

    5. Re:Fujitsu will fund Linux development by Sri+Lumpa · · Score: 1

      "I've long been puzzled as to why a company should pay for improvements to a system, if they then have to make these available to their competitors."

      True, but the GPL doesn't play that much of a role IMHO, after all, if Fujitsu has a similar arrangment with MS the public will not get the code but MS is most likely to use whatever improvement they did for them for other hardware.

      The other reason I can think of right now is that whatever they might invest in this is not as much as what they would have to invest to create their own OS.

      Another, thing is that when the code becomes GPL'd it doesn't benefit a single competing company but all of them, with the sponsoring company having a slight advantage (it is better tuned for their hardware at first) and it doesn't benefit only Redhat but also other Linux distributions so if they develop a bad relationship with Redhat it is easier to move to another distribution, whereas with Windows... oh, wait, there are not other companies than MS doing Windows.

      --
      "The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers." Bill Gates,
  22. Re:What do I think? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dude... it's "Ka Ci".... (or so was the most recent version, anyway).

  23. Re:Asia, a place M$ has been un-cultivating.. by jkrise · · Score: 1

    " Are we speaking of this world region where 1 licence is usually enough to cover the needs of thousands of servers ?"

    Asians pay exactly what their devalued currencies permit their conscience.

    "THE Place where information, if not free, comes dirt cheap at 1$/cd ?"

    Actually, $1/cd is a bit high. About 30 cents is the current going price.

    "And you tell me Microsoft is trying to cultivate it's business there ?"
    Coupla' months ago, His Billness spent 4 days in Asia, wooing Indians to buy his 'visionary' Tablet PC... he also apparently arm-twisted a few big firms there into taking off Linux from their offerings.

    Asia is home to nearly half the World population. It's a huge market for anyone to ignore.

    --
    If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
  24. makes sense for both of them by feepcreature · · Score: 2, Insightful
    It's good for both parties (and the rest of us).

    Open Source in general can use all the (competent) help it can get - and Fujitsu seems to be contributing development resources. This will help the Red Hat distros in particular, but also linux in general.

    And Fujitsu can only benefit from supplying servers that run a reliable and cost-effective O/S. Increasing their reliability factor can only be a good thing after the disk problems you mention.

    --
    Paul "Say no to feeping creaturism"
  25. No probs with my laptop by fille · · Score: 2, Informative

    Strange, I own a laptop of Fujitsu-Siemens and Linux (Redhat 8) has no problems with the hardware. Even sound, etc works great out of the box. And it's a very cheap model (Liteline 5133 I think)..

  26. Danger! Danger! Things we dont want to know about! by madmarcel · · Score: 1, Funny

    "In other news, the sky is blue, the sun is hot, and sex is enjoyable."

    Hey! Whoa! Stop that man! What are you thinking? What are you doing! This is /. man! Geez! ;^P

    "WTF! The sky is blue??!?! Naaaaah. You're joking right... Eh? Sun? Is that this this...daystar you've been talking about? What? Sex? Wuh-min? Uh, dude I think you've spent too much time away from your monitor man. Here, have a foo-bar and some caffeine-loaded beverage."

    (Hint for moderators: No, 's not a troll, I am 'extracting the urine' :^)

  27. Re:Asia, a place M$ has been un-cultivating.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    .. into taking off Linux from their offerings.

    Take off every Linux! For great Bill!

  28. Slashdot Stories by KoolDude · · Score: 4, Insightful


    Fujitsu hs a strong presence in Asia, a place Microsoft has been trying to cultivate.

    From the Article:

    it does have a strong position in Asia, where Red Hat is trying to expand.

    I know this is Slashdot, but modification of the article line to mention Microsoft(incorrectly) in the story just for attracting readers is not doing a great deal to improve anything. I like to bash Microsoft with jokes once in a while, but notes like this one are to be criticized, IMHO.

    --
    getSexySig(); /* returns sexy signature */
    1. Re:Slashdot Stories by BESTouff · · Score: 2, Funny

      What ?!? You actually read the article ? Are you new to /. or what ?

    2. Re:Slashdot Stories by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 1

      Hmm, so? Microsoft are attempting to expand into Asia, this has been covered here many times before. As Redhat and Microsoft are competitors at present, it makes sense to mention this in the context of the story.

    3. Re:Slashdot Stories by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to mention that the line in the /. story doesn't make any fucking sense. Microsoft is trying to cultivate Asia? In what way? Microsoft may be trying to cultivate its presence in Asia, but that's a different thing entirely.

    4. Re:Slashdot Stories by ajs · · Score: 1

      No, the Slashdot take is correct. MS has been pushing VERY hard over the last couple years to expand in Asia.

      They finally clued in to the idea that all of the piracy was due to the fact that MS had so little presence and support in Asia that it wasn't worth PAYING for their products. They've launched a large campaign to change that.

    5. Re:Slashdot Stories by shaitand · · Score: 1

      Microsoft has determined that the reason they aren't successful somewhere is because their products and services suck arse... and as a resolution they've decided to improve them???? Surely you jest??? Did hell freeze last night?

      Now... "microsoft has lately been throwing asia paper bones to ensure it makes them it's monopolistic slave like everywhere else so it can suck everybody's pocketbook dry there too" that would be more like it. Let's not confuse who we are talking about here ;)

  29. "A place Microsoft has been trying to cultivate" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now that's a laugh. Microsoft does not try to cultivate. Microsoft tries to absorb all available nutrients by force, reconstituting any remaining inert materials into organic compounds if possible, and then extracting those as well.

    And it does this everywhere.

  30. Future for Linux? by salesgeek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I like what RedHat did - and what Fujitsu did even more. Looks like buyers of Fujitsu servers can expect good hardware support on Linux-based systems. I'm impressed that Fujitsu hired RedHat to do the work, and I'm equally impressed that RedHat had the brains to seek out a new revenue source.

    I'm not sure this article has much to do with the SCO situation though.

    --
    -- $G
    1. Re:Future for Linux? by adamfranco · · Score: 1

      Servers Shmervers. I'd like to see a Fujitsu laptop with RedHat pre-installed, with Fujitsu maintaining the drivers for it. That would be great.

      --
      "When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind." -- Bill Moyers
  31. Re:I would never buy Redhat or Fujitsu by gilesjuk · · Score: 1

    RedHat is also the number 1 Linux brand with partnerships with some big players.

    Yes I'm sure the desktop version does have vulnerabilities, this is probably why they also do high server products which you have to buy.

  32. Oracle 9i RAC by bryam · · Score: 1

    Maybe Fujitsu support Primecluster on RedHat Enterprise Linux AS?.

    This product is one of the Oracle RAC architecture certified but only with Solaris.

  33. Fujitsu HD's by Talisman · · Score: 1

    "Imagine all hard disks coming preloaded with a self-configuring Linux distro. That would be cool."

    Yeah, and being familiar with real-world (not claimed) MTBF rates for Fujitsu hard drives, you will get to experience that coolness over and over again.

    Talisman

    --

    "Study your math, kids. Key to the universe." -The Archangel Gabriel
  34. Not Well-Know fact re Fujitsu. by zzztkf · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Fujitsu has 128 Sparc compatible cpu / Solaris server in its line up. Hopefully, Joint effort between Fujitsu and RedHat would improve Linux capability on that front (I mean the capability to harness more CPU).
    Here is a news release to announce that they will update server line-up with new SPARC compatible 1.35 GHz CPU in an attempt to take back No1 spot of TPC-C benchmark.

    Fujitsu's CEO Mr. Akikusa has recently predicted that every chip will finally implement Linux.

    The bad thing is Fujitsu is another Japanese company struggling to come back to be profitable.
    -----

  35. Ghost by Talisman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "maybe redhat will find out that by having everything tunred on by defaut, and having to work for 2 hours to turn it all off really pisses off sysadmins."

    The same thing can be said about Windows machines, especially from Win2K forward. They are highly configurable, if you know wtf you are doing, and the MS defaults are often insecure, useless or just annoying. SP3 addresses many issues, but it still requires lots of registry tweaking and time spent using the Admin tools to get everything *just* right.

    So what I do is have one IMAGE machine that is always kept *perfectly* tweaked, with all the latest patches, bug fixes, upgrades, etc. installed, so when we get a new machine or one of the existing ones takes a dump, I just Ghost the tweaked machine and 5 minutes later, the workstation is good-to-go.

    The same can be done for Red Hat machines.

    Talisman

    --

    "Study your math, kids. Key to the universe." -The Archangel Gabriel
    1. Re:Ghost by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your quite right on this point....MS Has been getting better (by ripping on unix mostly...but thats a whole other discussion ) but Redhat is a little different...for destop redhat boxes, your absolutly right....image...rollout...your done.

      However, for servers, its not so hot. The configuration for a Radius authentication server, and a Postfix mail server, are so different, an image just isnt possible. You'd end up reconfigureing agian, to turn off all the stuff you left on, and to turn on alot of the stuff you turned off.

      Ethier way, with a good default config (everything but system turned off) life becomes easier

    2. Re:Ghost by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      The same thing can be said about Windows machines, especially from Win2K forward.

      Actually Windows server 2003 comes with most crap turned off by default. It is part of their trustworthy computing crap.

      If I remember right this was even mentioned on slashdot but all the zealots just said "their just copying OpenBSD." Fucking idiot zealots...

  36. GPL forces them to ... by oliverthered · · Score: 1

    GPL forces them to make the changes available for everyone.

    No it doesn't. If I take GPL code and use it in my company I don't have to realse it to anyone.

    --
    thank God the internet isn't a human right.
  37. RMA by Natchswing · · Score: 1

    That's a shame. In the years I worked in sales and tech support for a computer store in Florida we considered Fujitsu the RMA king because they had such a high percentage of new drives that were DOA. We eventually stopped offering Fujitsu drives.

  38. Microsoft tax by RoboOp · · Score: 1, Interesting
    Fujitsu makes great laptops. Moderately priced, light and very well built.

    They could sell far more if they allowed you to purchase them without Microsoft products on them. It would be great if this new partnership allowed them to experiment with selling machines with RedHat preinstalled.

    --
    "First you get the Linux, then you get the power, THEN you get the women"
    1. Re:Microsoft tax by molarmass192 · · Score: 1

      i'm sure there's some MS exclusive distribution kickback scheme in place to prevent that. These anti-competitive (I know, I know, it's hard to believe) schemes are the main reason why you can't walk into BestBuy and get a PC loaded with RedHat/Lindows whatever.

      --

      Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
  39. The Nature of Fujitsu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Just a little background tangent I hope might be enlightening...

    Often one gets the impression that all Japanese (mega) corporations are all alike, the monster grade zaibatsu of cyberpunk litterature. Even Western financial companies gets this wrong; I have gotten badly """researched""" prospectus from my bank on investing in Japan and have seen this many other places.

    That is not quite the case.

    Up to WWII zaibatsu (no plural "S" in Japanese...) were a damper on initiative; many thought that if X was a good idea the zaibatsu would have been doing it already; hence it had to be a bad idea. Enter the US, opening the country with the subtlety on a can-opener. One of the things they succeeded in for a long while was to break up the zaibatsu as an anti trust measure and then you got the right ecology for the new generation fast acting, innovative companies like Sony and Fujitsu.

    OK, so the parts of the zaibatsu merged, terminator 2 style (though with more subtlety) and they are more or less back...

    Anyway, Fujitsu is and remains a company that wants to cultivate innovation and actually goes so far as to say they want people outside the concensus-building norm of Japan. They have openings for foreigners and in spite of current financial climate might very well be an opportunity for sending in a job application to for non-Japanese.

    So seeing them wanting to enter the world of Linux, deep end, is then no surprise.

  40. Re:Fujistu has got a past in supporting alterntive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    s/Fujitsu/Hitachi/
    --
    AC in Japan

  41. Red. Hat. Say it with me. by Mondorescue · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    I'm not a member of the CommunistParty, I didn't vote for GeorgeBush and I am undecided on the subject of AffirmativeAction. If you're going to run words together to make NewOnes, try to do it with a SenseOfStyle.

    DeathToArmorica!

  42. Why this is the best news all week by ajs · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Linux is starting to suffer a fate that I feared was coming for a long time. It's no longer cool.

    It was, for a time, cool to run Linux because it was the only fully POSIX (depending on how rigorous your POSIX definition was) OS for home computers that had all of the usual bells and whistles (X, GNU tools, etc) that also had freely available source.

    386BSD came along at about the same time, but was really only usable a bit after Linux so Linux got a bit of a mind-share head start (otherwise we'd all be running one of the BSDs by now).

    Today, progress on Mach still continues under Darwin; HURD is moving to a new Microkernel that's much smaller and "hipper"; Open/NetBSD have adopted a very promising new VM model; and worst of all (in terms of Linux's geek appeal) Linux is a massive corporate success in dozens of large niches.

    This is a huge win for the Free Software cause, but for Linux it means that the now super-broad OS is starting to show its faults. There are very few people who currently seem to be thinking about the big picture in terms of how the whole OS works in any given incarnation. Worse, the hack-value of making the bettter diver for hardware XYZ has reduced significantly, and most of the kernel work I see happening is not on tuning older drivers for new versions so much as incorporating brand new and interesting hardware, or working on kernel-wide systems like VM, security or scheduling

    Red Hat's partnership with hardware companies like Fujitsu (maker of laptops, hard drives and more) is excellent because it brings the hardware vendors to the table to pick up some of that slack and frees Red Hat developers to focus on the big picture. Much as they've taken heat for it, RH has done a lot of good in thinking of the dekstop as a whole rather than as a potential spot to plug in vendors A, B or C (or should I say G, K or W). What they need to do now is keep moving down the chain. Standardize all of the system documentation on ONE format and convert everything to it (personally, I recommend a modified POD, which is what Perl uses, and could easily be modified to produce useful texi and Gnome SGML, while it already produces man, text and HTML). IMHO "man foo" and "info foo" and bringing up the Gnome help viewer should all give access in one, consistent (though UI-distinct) way with the same, complete documentation. Why isn't that the case? Because no one has time to work at that level (Kudos to the LFS people for taking up my challenge on that point last week, and starting to work on a port of the OpenBSD man pages to the Linux tools!)

  43. Linux and communism by ExEleven · · Score: 2, Funny

    Linux is becoming quite a communism magnet isnt it.

  44. Not many bigger than IBM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That doesn't appear to be stopping SCO.

  45. All I want from this... by mahler3 · · Score: 1
    ...is seamless linux support on the Fujitsu Lifebook P1000, including the touchscreen and button mouse. Maybe that'll happen, now.

    I don't need no stinkin' tablet PC. Give me a teeny-tiny laptop that (a) runs linux, (b) generates sufficiently little heat that I can actually put it on my lap, and (c) has easy and flexible pointing device options.

  46. What's a BSOD plant look like? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My guess is it's some kind of tree.

  47. Redhat is dying by noogle · · Score: 1

    (subject goes here)

    --

    I'm smarter than the average bear.

  48. Maybe people can make a difference... by OmniVector · · Score: 1

    I know I called fujitsu in several occasions, and I even emailed them asking for them to support Linux as an operating system with their laptops, or to at least offer a laptop for sale that doesn't provide an operating system.

    The downside is I already sold my fujitsu laptop out of frustration and bought a powerbook.

    --
    - tristan
  49. Fujitsu Notebook / RedHat Compatability by nikolaus · · Score: 1

    I have a Fujitsu P-series, and it is a d*amn sweet machine. Just installed RH9 on it, and it blows major chunks (sound broken, XFree86 broken, i8253 timer problems up the wazoo...). I'd love to see these two play better together...

    -nik