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LinuxCare Resurfaces as Linux Device Vendor
An anonymous reader submits "LinuxCare, famous employer of Rasmus, Tridge, and others during the go-go-90's Linux start-up days, has resurfaced as a Linux device vendor. The company, now known as Levanta, is shipping its first hardware product, which it says is the 'world's first Linux management appliance.' At nearly $8K, it's pretty expensive, but the Integra M does appear to bring some of the cool sysadmin features long available on the Windows side over to Linux IT types."
From Levantas frontpage:
"For Us, Levanta is the next best thing to cloning our system administrator."
- Joe Poole, Boscov's Tedhinical Support Manager
Levanta is right in that the most crucial aspect of running a Linux network is having the manpower available to handle all the issues that arise. They solve this by introducing their hardware/software combination that makes such administration easier and more automated than before.
But you'd never know it by skimming their site. Like many tech wizards, they get bogged down with technical details and fail to clearly present their product in a coherent manner.
For all the slick web designing that went into their site, someone could have had the decency to tell them to "dumb it down" for the CIOs out there who haven't got the time to dig into their literature.
After reading the site, I'm still not clear on what the name of the administrative tool is, nor the limitations as to the number of nodes I can attach to the admin machine.
There are some very keen concepts that seem to mimic the concept of a system emulator, where the administrator can deploy experimentally and see the results of those deployments without causing system-wide disaster.
I just wish it were better presented.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
So, it was the 90ies, and things did get out of hand, but the basic idea of doing Linux services - tech support, consulting, training - was a good one, and many companies continue to pursue these businesses quite successfully. The things that really sunk that company were two of the nitwits that they hired:
Fernand Serrat - CEO
Doug Nassaur - CIO
The second one managed to spend a metric shitload of money on equipment that there were no plans to even use, and, indeed, if you follow his career around, you see him getting turfed out of pretty much everywhere he goes. The sad thing is that, he comes in at such a high level that instead of just being fired like you or I, he gets a big severance package, and no one says anything bad about him anywhere.
It is curious to me to see the frequency that the Linux/Unix enthusiasts complain about the lack of robust/commercial offerings of Linux hosted/compatible systems in various areas compared to those that are Windows hosted/compatible.
We should be supportive of companies and individuals that are attempting to establish a broader base of Linux/Unix hosted/compatible systems since it can only benefit the industry.
If a system truly is a piece of crap, then many will hopefully learn from the experience - even folks not part of the effort. Many great products started as a POS and grew into respectable offerings.
Although I understand people taking the opportunity to thrash this system (it can be fun), I wish that the general attitude of the vocal members of the community was just a little more positive.
KK4SFV
Because now the CIO's can pay a few $1000 more for the same product.
Realistically, I think the major benefit is that this box comes completely preconfigured, working and plug-and-playable. Spending a few thousand dollars extra on this might be less expensive than having a person do the same thing on another box. And how about support? Software not working on vendors' box; Vendors' problem, software not working on your own box; your own problem. $8000 may seem like a lot, but compare it to payed labour and it may be cheaper.
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Big deal. It cant be more beautiful than Windows, which gives me map of kernel daily, that too on blue screen.
hilarious
I am really interested, since I've spent the last two years of my life for creating a sysadmin tool, i hope much better than fai, but sort of similar.
Now they come, and create this buzz with only marketing bullshit on their site. I have filled in the form with all my data (curios that they did not ask my mothers maiden name...), and got the chance to download the whitepapers with such a huge amount of marketing stuff in it, that I still don't know how this system works.
So:
- I don't care about cost graphicons
- I don't care about stories
- I don't care about anything, but
could anybody please tell me what the architecture is, what is the way it installs/maintains servers, so how does it work?
"Dennis says that porting the Levanta software to an appliance form-factor was "a very smooth operation," which he credits to the maturity of Levanta software as a standalone product.
In related news Microsoft reports they have successfully ported Windows from Intel Desktop ATX platform to VIAs mini-ITX platform