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Lufthansa Systems Chooses Linux
Nice2Cats writes "Remember all of the jokes about operating systems as airlines? Well, Heise is reporting that Linux is just going to take over the computer systems of Germany's airline Lufthansa instead. SuSE and Lufthansa Systems have a joint press release (in German, it should appear here when it comes out in English) out where Karlheinz Natt from Lufthansa Systems gushes (my translation): 'We are registering a steadily increasing demand for Linux-based solutions from our customers.' "
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Tickets will be upwards of $1000 because SCO's licensing fees will be built in to the price.
In the German press release it says that they will offer Linux as Operating System for their customers because "Customers are asking for linux based solutions"p r02009.html
Aren't they using Netware? http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/2002/01/
I realize and agree that linux, in the long run, can save tremendous amounts of money for a corporation, but there has to be a huge upfront fee to overhaul and implement an entirely new OS and set of apps. I'm neither a guru in the computer industry, nor the airlines (though I keep high level tabs on both), but the timing seems odd, given that the airlines are all hemmoraging money right now...
This is an agreement between Suse and Lufthansa Systems, which is the IT consulting branch of Lufthansa. This does not mean that Lufthansa itself will switch to Linux. It means that Lufthansa Systems sees a higher demand of Linux by its customers...
"Lufthansa Systems" is a spin-off company from "Lufthansa" the airline. They provide IT to many companies, airlines (e.g. Lufthansa") and others. This does _not_ mean, that Lufthansa (the airline) will switch to linux. "Lufthansa systems" has provided Linux support for quite a while to customers who request this. This means that the number of customers is increasing beyond the limit where "LH Systemes" can satisfy the demand on their own, and/or that they are not (yet?) willing to enlarge their linux department.
Cheers
KdenLive/PIAVE - non-linear video editing
See various clarification posts. It's "LH Systems" an IT-Consulting spin-off from the airline.
KdenLive/PIAVE - non-linear video editing
reduce the glare when trying to watch an in-flight movie?
Actually, using open source software is probably a good idea for ANY govt., since it not only gives them the opportunity to inspect the code, but also make changes. As long as the govt. doesn't get into the distribution business, it doesn't even have to put their changes back into the pool, although it would be a good idea for most code.
Another benefit is you don't have to worry about the vendor of the OS 'buying off' govt. officials to use their operating system. Since their is no one company that produces linux, it means they always have choices.
The other benefits are price. its not that linux is free, price wise, because its really not considering you usually need support as you would with any OS. But you can choose from more companies for support, different flavors of Linux for different projects (and still have it being compatable) Also, since it is an open standard it is cheaper to maintain. Since governments pay for all this software with their citizens taxes, a system that has the potential to save millions means more money in taxpayers pockets, or at least being spent on other projects.
Microsoft or no Microsoft, do YOU feel comfortable with your government having only ONE vendor and source for operating systems for critical services?
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
I consult to company in the Chicago area who hosts their US website. I was contracted to build their webfarm!
I am normally a Redhat fan, but they insisted I use SuSE 7 (the latest at the time) running on a cluster of 10 Compaq DL380's, using a cool content-based traffic load-balancing switch to make the individual servers into a _non-beowulf_ cluster!
I got the whole thing up and running, then web-hardened the servers, and then let the boys from Munich do their customization and configuration.
It was a fun project, one I'm proud of...
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
landing-gear.so not found.
Did you forget to run ldconfig?
Lufthansa Systems belongs to the worldwide leading IT-serviceproviders for the airlines.
This means that the customers are the airlines not the passengers. I would have thought this was pretty clear from context. But perhaps you do not know how the airline industry works. They typically split up different activities up in companies so you have "Airline AAA catering" "Airline AAA maintenance" "Airline AAA luggage losing". Then it is not unusual for these sub companies to provide services for other airlines. After all if you have 1 line flying into a destination it makes more sense to use the services of a rival then to setup youre own company.
So anyway this is just a normal line said by almost all big IT suppliers. That more and more customers are asking about solutions that include linux as opposed to the other Unixes and Windows.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
So this deal really doesn't have a lot to do with Lufthansa itself. They're only now starting to offer linux solutions which previously they didnt.
Of those to whom much is given, much is required.
pay us 700$ if you want to land(sounds better in the "Come with me if you want to live" tone).
Maybe now someone will be able to change the scrolling text on the gate screens at Munich when a flight is boarding.
"Your flight is ready. Thank you, and Goodbye."
"Goodbye" is not a good word to use in conjunction with boarding an aircraft.
So I guess this should shut up, once and for all, the people who still claim penguins can't fly :)
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
So lately there's been a couple stories about SuSE and German institutions hooking up, and also the perennial outsourcing development to 2nd-world countries discussion. On a gut instinct level, I'm for the former (down with The Man!) and against the latter (wait! I want that job!). However, my feelings about both are a bit more complicated.
You see, it's hard not to see that SuSE stuff as largely influenced by nationalism. This is not to day it's a bad choice, presumably the clients like the fact that the SuSE folks speak fluent German, which you probably can't say for Mandrake, RedHat, or Redflag. But, you know, it still has that aura of "help our boys, damn those 3v1l feriners."
The outsourcing development to 2nd-world companies is, OTOH, a-nationalistic. Much of the debate about it is full of people wrapping themselves in the flag and the like. Very much like labor unions when manufacturing jobs go overseas. The fact of the matter, however, is that those folks in India need that job much more than you do. You wouldn't think of doing the job for $4k/year, whereas they'll jump at the opportunity. And if you're a 1st worlder whose job has *not* been shipped overseas, you directly benefit from this, as development costs are (allegedly) lower.
So, the economist in me is like "Hoo-ah! Ship those jobs overseas. I can always get a job as a plumber (probably making more than I am now)." But, of course, it's not that simple. First off, you really need to be a big corp to start outsourcing overseas. You need a certain amount of infrastructure &c. Also note that due to increasing returns to investment and the like, big commercial software firms tend to become monopolies. This is much worse for the consumer than subsidizing overpriced, lazy 1st world developers. So to a large extent, buying from the local business is a sound economic decision, as it prevents you from getting locked in to a monopolist. This is especially true for organizations like governments, who have an obligation to protect their citizens from failures in the market.
So I come to my concluding paragraph with no conclusion. I'm still of two minds on the whole economic nationalism thing. If perfect competition could be insured, a policy of buying locally would be folly. However, power laws create huge distortions of market economics. Hard to say, at least for me.
Quote:
At the time many analysts speculated that SCO's behaviour might deter enterprise companies from using Linux. However, this has not happened to date, at least in respect of their internet visible web sites. In the last two months Linux has made a net gain of over 100 enterprise sites; sites which have migrated to Linux including Royal Sun Alliance, Deutsche Bank, SunGard,T-online and most noteworthy, Schwab
Help fight continental drift.
the timing seems odd, given that the airlines are all hemmoraging money right now...
On the contrary, these are exactly the economic conditions under which an up-front investment to reduce long-term operating costs make more sense than ever. It's only during the fat times that gross inefficiencies from, say, excessive downtime or wasteful license audits, can go unnoticed and uncorrected.
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
Lufthansa Systems GmbH, a subsidiary of Lufthansa Airlines AG, is an IT service provider focused on the airline industry (as opposed to an IT devision focused exclusively on the parent company's IT needs.)
The press release announces that Lufthansa Systems will be offering Linux solutions due to customer demand. It does *not* state which of its customers are demanding Linux. In particular, one would expect that if the parent company were planning to deploy Linux in its airline operations, this fact should have been mentioned in the press release.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the War Room!
However these days they have signed up other customers like Deka Bank (a traditional German Bank).
When you are looking at systems that have a relatively narrowly defined functionality, you don't want to have XP licenses everywhere. Much of their front end could easily be done by a minimalist PC with Linux, better than loading it with XP. For the backend, they work with big databases, but they still want ways of flexibly adding and removing backend capacity to suit their customer's changing needs. Windows licensing for servers, frankly, sucks. The moment you start to add capacity, you must also add lots of licenses and then follow th MS led upgrade dance.
Frankly we are not talking about computers, we are talking about functional black boxes marked with labels like "Reservation System". This is very attractive to their customer base as they can buy a cheap solution.