Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

IBM Promoting POWER Systems

Posted by Hemos on from the looking-under-the-hood dept.

A reader writes:"IBM has launched a Open Power Project to increase awareness around its Open Power product line for Linux.. The site includes technical information, forums and provides the ability to tinker w/ Open Power platforms at the University of Augsburg and Peking University. Both Universities are hosting POWER5-based servers and are providing free SSH account access to the Open Source development community. There are rumors of additional Universities to come. They are also hosting special showings of the War of the Worlds in San Francisco and NYC. Looks like there are a couple of hundred pairs of free tickets to each showing on a first come first served basis to those that register."

11 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. REALLY?!? by Gherald · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Other suggested article titles:

    "Intel promoting Pentium Systems"
    "AMD Promoting Athlon Systems"
    "Microsoft promoting Windows"

    Now,

    "IBM Promoting POWER Systems" ... film at 11 !!

    --
    The unofficial /. digest
    1. Re:REALLY?!? by njcoder · · Score: 3, Insightful
      "Not quite that obvious. OpenPower refers to a line of servers specifically designed to run Linux (hence the "Open") part. This is a small, very small, part of the IBM lineup (which includes some serious heavy metal)."

      Hate the name. Running linux doesn't make the architecture "Open". For an affordable power based workstation look here. It runs a few different distros of linux and other os's and more are in the works.

      I don't really agree with all the hype around IBM's open source moves. Seems like a lot of what they are doing is using open source as a way to get salespeople in the door to sell proprietary IBM solutions. That's not necessarily a bad thing depending on how it's done. Look at some of the Apache projects, things like Jetty where IBM was a big supporter until they decided it was good enough to fork it internally for WebSphere Portal. That's not so bad, the license allows it but it's still a bit messed up in my opinion.

      But other things like Derby and Geronimo are different all together. Take a look at the IBM Cloudscape pages. Cloudscape is not open source. It's "open source-based". They released the code as the Apache Derby project, but Cloudscape is not an open source project. The download link says "trials and betas". It may be free now but it has the potential of not being free when IBM senses it can charge for more than just support. Why would IBM release this? It's not because there weren't other open source java based RDBMS's out there. Hypersonic and Mckoi were already quite popular in that space and there are more. The difference is, Cloudscape has been designed to be a stepping stone to DB2. The java rdbms's have a niche market. One segment of which is users that want an easy portable system to develop on with little administrative requirements. These types generally outgrow the capabilities of such database systems and the user needs to migrate. If you're already using Cloudscape, the logical migration path is DB2. Which definately isn't free.

      Also look at their recent acquisition of Gluecode. This gives them the developers of the Geronimo project. It's going to turn into Websphere-Lite. Same type of deal with Cloudscape. Both of these will be at the expense of open source software that is trying to be real open source, not just a carrot on a stick. Hopefully people see this and projects like Jonas and JBoss continue to grow.

      I feel IBM is abusing the phrase "Open Source" in it's marketting where it's not appropriate. Like a couple of days ago when they announced they were moving to a more open source type of development for all their projects. They didn't say they were open sourcing all their projects, just that they will be using open source methodologies within IBM. I guess you could call it the Bazaar in the Cathedral. Yet so many mistakenly took the news to mean that ibm was doing more with open source and releasing more products via open source.

      To me it looks like IBM is turning Open Source into shareware. They have their free versions to tinker around with but when you're ready for the real thing, a non crippled version, you have to pay for it. From Jonathan Schwartz's Weblog we have this quote:

      "Jonas (Red Hat's app server) is just a toy, it's just for the low end" said IBM's exec at the Smith Barney Tech Conference I just attended in NYC.

      A similar message is presented (though a little less harshly) when IBM compares AIX to Linix

      Also look at Eclipse. It's used as an IDE but in many respects it is crippled in that regard, it's real purpose is as a tools platform. To get real productivity out of it you need to purchase plug-ins or upgrade to professional tools based on Eclipse like WebSphere Studio. The Eclipse Foundation is working on a number of open sourc

      --
      Open Source Java DAO Generator
  2. How slow will this be? by Jason1729 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Both Universities are hosting POWER5-based servers and are providing free SSH account access to the Open Source development community.

    The servers at my school ran painfully slow with a few dozen people connected through SSH and compiling assignments.

    Imagine the whole Open Source community logged in compiling code.

  3. Tinkering by Donny+Smith · · Score: 2, Insightful

    >provides the ability to tinker w/ Open Power platforms at the University of Augsburg and Peking University.

    I prefer to tinker with my x86 box at home.

  4. "Open" Power? by chathamhouse · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You can buy power from... IBM. And it's not cheap. And it doesn't run AIX, only Linux. Sort of. Many applications require some porting love, as per the bounties on http://www.linuxonpower.com/

    I generally like what IBM does, and use their x86 servers, storage, and software.

    But "Open" is pushing it here.

    I'd never be able to justify a recommendation to buy Open Power, that is, unless the sales guy left a flashy car in my parking spot...

    Jonathan Schwartz (Sun CTO) had it right when he noted that that was as silly as them shipping Open Sparc boxes. Mind you, there are Fujitsu SPARC64 chips, and OEM sparc-based system builders.

    Of course, IBM is just loving Solaris, particularly Solaris 10. Some assistance in your Solaris to Linux on Power migration? http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/librar y/l-pow-portsolaris/
    (Though it is a well written piece - good quick guide to Linux and Solaris system calls, signals.)

    1. Re:"Open" Power? by delcielo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      We have 4 of these boxes (2 running single RedHat images, and 2 running LPARS with SuSE, and quite frankly, they rock. So, if your software is supported why not put it on the platform that performs best? And by the way, the cost might seem high if you do the pricing on their website; but nobody buys direct from IBM at retail unless they're a fool. Get with a business partner who will use the discount list to get you a deal.

      You're right that it doesn't run AIX; but that's the whole point of the OpenPower. If you want AIX, buy a p550, it's the OP720 without the Linux-only tweaks.

      In all, for the performance we get, our OP720's are cheaper than comparable Compaq boxes.

      --
      Hot Damn! It's the Soggy Bottom Boys!
  5. i dunno by ed__ · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have doubts about any effort like this working if people can't get their hands on systems of their own. A login with strings attached just isn't all that compelling. With Apple switching to Intel, the prospect of the continued availibility of only-a-little-overpriced, mass-market PPC (ie POWER-ish) systems is fading. Mac systems will be available for some time now, but Apple's Switch casts a pall over the whole affair.

    If IBM wants to push their system they may do well to subsidize cheap PPC systems to this particular niche to gain mindshare, familiarity, and visibility with people who may be in a position to drive iseries server purchases later on.

    I know they have eval systems, does anyone know what the costs are?

    Or maybe it wouldn't help; it'd still be nice.

  6. Re:PowerPC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    PowerPC is dead, in the end it turned out Altivec was the inferior technology holding the complete line back and couldn't scale at all in clock frequency. Power don't have Altivec and scale like there is no tomorrow. PowerPC was a bad and embarrasing move for IBM. Now they are back on track.

  7. Not just a promotion of IBM hardware... by CatsupBoy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But an attempt to get some applications ported to Linux for the power series.

    I've been evaluating Linux at my present employment, and what was lacking most in the IBM solution was available software for the POWER series Linux OS.

    At the moment, many large enterprise, infrastructer applications have been ported to linux for Intel (most even come with RedHat and SuSE packages), but of the 5 applications we require, only TSM backup was offered for Linux on power arch. This list includes BMC, EMC, and BindView.

    IBM is in a pretty good position to market Linux, because they support both RedHat and SuSE on the very same hardware that AIX runs on, and you can use some of the advanced features like dynamic LPAR and virtulization.

    But I think in the long run, its just too much trouble for companies to port to yet another linux distribution.

  8. PowerPC to the people by rbanffy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Without entry-level, inexpensive and interesting (i.e. "Xenon-based" or dual-core FreeScale G4s), PPC Linux will starve to death.

    Nobody will pay more than what a entry-level x86 costs for an entry-level PPC system.

    IBM and FreeScale (the current most affected by Apple's switch) should think about getting simple Linux based PPC desktops at rock-bottom prices in the hands of developers, even if it means selling them at a loss.

    When developers lose interest in a platform, it is doomed.

    --
    http://www.dieblinkenlights.com
  9. IBM prices by charlieo88 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If IBM was really serious about this, they'd make a system that you could buy for a couple hundred bucks.

    I'd buy a PowerPC motherboard that had standard ATX power connections, IDE/SATA, maybe some PCI slots, maybe SMP. But I'm not going to spend >$3k thank you very much. I, and I'm sure others, would love to tinker with PowerPC chips if it wasn't cheaper to buy a Mac instead.