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IBM Linux Boxes
An anonymous reader sent us a link to a PCWeek
Article where you can read about
IBM and Linux.
They supposedly are going to announce Linux based Netfinity
boxes at LinuxWorld. Says they'll support Red Hat, Caldera,
SuSE, and might even be releasing their own version for the
high end mega boxes.
it's about time big blue came around
i wonder if they'll give linus one of those mega boxes? what about me?
And first comment
pppphhhbbbt!!
IBM's own Linux version? God, I can't wait
for SMIT, 6hours install times, licence manager
spitting IPX packets over my switches, it'll
make Red Hat feels like a hacker's (TM) box
I won't buy linux until Microsoft puts out their own version. I don't buy any software without
the Microsoft logo. You never know what kind of crap these other software companies are putting
out. You can always count on microsoft to put
out newer and better version with lots of new
features. Too bad my computer keeps on getting
slower... but yeah microsoft is amazing!
I sort of cannot avoid the impression that IBM is supporting alternatives to NT because they are pissed with Microsoft for fucking OS/2 up for them (the NT incompatibility business). Glad to see it. Not that I personally suffer from NT in any way.
The major failure in the 'too many distributions' argument is the fact that the different distributions aren't the same original code with additions from different companies, but rather, generally the same code, just packaged differently. It's still the same emacs, kde, netscape and so on, just with different configuration utilities and the like to manage the programs.
Are you from Saturday Night Live or Southpark?
I'd expect to see a couple of nuns talking in French with
English subtitles. There will be no actual mention of Linux,
just some vague reference to 32-bits and stability.
Well, that's how they marketed OS/2...
As the Subject says, RedHat, Caldera and Suse aren't the only distros around. Wouldn't mind seeing Debian on that list too.
And others?
--Martin Held
held@bleh.ece.orst.edu
kill the bleh for e-mail
That's odd, I don't know to many RS6000 using IPX
without purposely putting AIX connections on the box.
Are there any IBM insiders (or old OS/2 programers) that have any idea if IBM would devote programers to work on linux simmilar to the Jikes team or what RedHat is doing. GNOME could make some major evolutionary leaps with some of the workplace shell programers helping out, IMHO. Regardless if you liked OS/2 or not the WPS integration and the way you could customize it was pretty incredible.
When I first started using OS/2 (v2.1) I used the command line pretty extensively (particularly with the EMX runtimes and the GNU utils) but the more I used it the more I began to rely on the Drag and Drop features of the WPS.
anyway, my 2 cents worth
Kyle
tkeubank@yahoo.com
I'm just wondering, does anybody have opinions as to the future of AIX? Solaris (the only non-Linux *nix with which I have experience) seems to be kicking reasonably well, but can we really expect all of these Unices to survive, especially as Linux starts surpassing some of the lesser ones in terms of enterprise-level support? What will be the first to go? Irix with SGI's new NT-friendly policy? Seems like a waste to split development resources so much, especially for companies that make their real money off the hardware.
--JZ
Heck, if they're doing RS/6000 *and* desktop PCs, why not build their own CHRP-based PowerPC desktops? Ditch both parts of the Wintel duopoly at the same time and control your own destiny.
Linux on (copper/multicore/SOI/AltiVec) G4s...Hmmmm....
C'mon guys, don't you get tongue in cheek when you
see it?
Who wrote the infamous piano music? Where did it come from? And can I get it on an .mp3? =)
should make up for those hacker commercials
slashdot readers dont have humor, dont understand sarcasm, and will scream "troll!" when they read something they dont understand.
Agreed, all of these lately-announced deals with Compaq, Dell, IBM, etc., are most likely support-resell arrangements with the distribution vendors (RedHat, Caldera, etc.)
That means no Debian 'support' from the big guys.
Regardless if you liked OS/2 or not the WPS integration and the way you could customize it was pretty incredible.
Really, I used OS/2 quite a bit, and never figured out what was so "powerful" and "object oriented" about the WPS. Besides the fact it was damn ugly, it's drag-and-drop seemed worse than the MacOS.
Of course, WPS is 50% owned by Microsoft, so there's no open-source port coming.
(Although, the KDE vs Gnome vs OS/2 Living Dead flame wars would be interesting!)
I overheard someone saying:
> Really, I used OS/2 quite a bit, and never
> figured out what was so "powerful" and
> "object oriented" about the WPS. Besides the
> fact it was damn ugly, it's drag-and-drop
> seemed worse than the MacOS.
A few examples of the OO nature of the WPS.
1. You could take a few lines of REXX code to
derive children of the launchpad class and add
customizations to them at will. One of the
OS/2 rags (I can't remeber which) showed how
to do this and it was pretty intense.
2. Folders sharing a common parent with the
Desktop inherited all the stuff that made the
desktop fun. Any folder that opened could
have its own backround graphic. An extension
of this is work folders, folders that save
the state of all the objects within them. So I
open the "Project X" folder and my text editor
starts up with my source code at the line I
was at when I last stopped editing, my midi
player picks up the song I like to listen to
while working on this project, etc. etc.
3. Programming is a heck of a lot easier. Program
objects inherit all of their event handlers
from the WPS making it very easy code GUI apps.
Of course there were the downsides, like fonts
that looked like crap, little commercial software,
single event queue that locked everything when it
went belly up. All in all though, I would love to
see some of the WPS oo integration features make
its way to any Linux desktop.
Right on brother! ;)
I only wish Bill Gates would publish his personal views on who I should vote for in upcoming elections and products which I should boycott. I mean the guy is simply brilliant and knows better than me how I should live my life.
I wish we would just get over this diversity thing and conform to the mold. This way we will all be sure to fit in our spot on the M(S)othership. I never really did get what was up with that 'boat rocking' girl in Apple's 1984 commercial. Who the hell did she think she was anyway!
Maybe Bill will give us all matching outfits - Just like Star Trek.
oh heck yeah....I'd love that one! :)
*grin*
...you should send that one in to the advertising
dept.
did we see this already or am i losing my marbles?
Then you heard wrong.
Christ, get over the whole "If you mention the M-word, you are EEEEEEVIL!!!!"-thing, would you??
/. screaming "TROLL!!!!"
So the guy's a little bitter, a little suicidally-depressive... he makes a valid point and he makes it eloquently, even if he shrouds it in the one bisschen of sarcasm which suffices to have half of
Eh. That's my 2 bits worth, at any rate
-- Angry Jimmy
"I know I'm looking forward to MS-Linux (tm)"
Yeah, nice fucking post...
I click on the link, wait the necessary 5 min. before it updates and refreshes, and all I get for my effort is
"Wait and see."
Thanks a fucking lot, pal ; )
The only problem I have with AIX is that they put everything in /usr/lpp but then Sun has that /opt thing that I've never understood either. Mostly I've found AIX to be pretty easy to configure and admin and I like smit better than Sam. Smit's ugly but it works and I like that it show's you the shell command as it runs it, so that you can see what its actually doing.
A Linux-using friend who worked in IBM acquired a Tux recently. The person who made it spent ages hunting around for the correct shade of blue for his tie. I saw a photo of it later, busily controlling the NOC. I didn't see the tie, though. Maybe Tux took it off? Perhaps he's a hacker too. The picture is available at ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/linux/evil-p enguin.jpg.
hmmmmm. Workstations bundled with LinuxPPC R5.
OpenFirmware, 2M cache, low noise...hardware reference data.
as Linux is not the only solution and binary driver will not be optimized enough.
From what I have seen working with clients, most companies seem to use Solaris because the same software will run on (relatively) inexpensive single-processor desktop machines *AND* on their 32+ processor servers. Massive SMP support with good scaling is likewise IRIX's claim to fame. For some companies it will be practical to put Linux systems on employee desktops, but for others it will not until Linux demonstrates its ability to scale to at least 16 processors and show the same kind of performance advantage over Solaris that it does on the single-processor machines. I've heard great things about 2.2's SMP scalability, but has anyone tested it on an enterprise-sized SMP system? I have no doubt it will get there eventually, but I'd like to see some numbers. If Linux is already there :-) then honey bar the door, things are about to get VERY interesting!
I wonder if IBM plans to offer Linux as an option on it's PC's... It would be nice to be able to buy a desktop system with KDE or Gnome, and it would definitely help to give Linux a more stable footing in the desktop market.
- Adam Schumacher
I like the little running guy who falls flat on his face whenever the operation it's trying to do fails. It's SMIT's only redeeming feature.
Seriously, though... it wouldn't be too bad if options were kept in some sort of sensible location. I have never been able to figure out the thinking of whoever organized all the sub-menus, though.
Posted by twi:
;)
perhaps like this:
bigbluetux.xpm
Couldn't resist
1) LinuxPPC
2) Debian, or
3) RedHat.
Of the two x86 distros, the feeling was that RedHat was for ordinary joes who wouldn't ask much from the system, and Debian was/is for people who want to make the system do backflips. Of course LinuxPPC had its own crowd.
No skin off my back though -- it would be amazing if someone working on Debian didn't already run it on a Netfinity 7000 or similar. They're great machines, the kind you'd expect a Debian maintainer to be working with ;-). Heheh...
(still waiting for my copy of Solaris 7 to show up so as to run Coda on Debian, Solaris, NT, and FreeBSD boxes)
That makes me wonder -- how is IBM going to respond to Coda, seeing as to how when Coda matures it will be a Better DFS?!? That may be the really interesting question... several of the Coda clients have BSD-style licenses.
An interesting paper comparing NFS, AFS, DFS, and Coda:
Bootstrapping an Infrastructure
Remember that what's inside of you doesn't matter because nobody can see it.
AIX has a small piece of the UNIX market, but it's secure because it's tied to IBM hardware. Same situation with HP-UX and Digital Unix.
SCO, on the other hand, is probably in trouble, despite the fact that they own the UNIX brand and have a big chunk of the market. I can't think of a compeling reason for anyone to switch to SCO, and there are reasons for their existing customers to go elsewhere.
Irix is probably in trouble too. If the MIPS architecture tanks, then Irix will go with it.
TedC
Can't wait for the IBM ads for Linux...
:)
----
(Two guys sitting next to each other in cubes)
Guy one: (Shocked look) Blue screen, again?!
Guy two: (smiling) Bummer, my new desktop hasn't crashed since it came in.
Guy one: You got some kind of crash protector loaded on there?
Guy two: Oh, yeah. It's called Linux. (Walks off smiling)
(Cue standard IBM commercial piano music.)
(Screen text) Linux productivity solutions from IBM.
----
Should get people's attention.
The guy's comment was obviously a response to the fact that IBM is looking into making their own Linux distro.
At least, I thought it was obvious.
Please don't instantly and unthinkingly go into flame mode as soon as you see the word "Microsoft"; at least use some judgement.
Like I said, I thought it was pretty funny myself.
- Sean
- SeanNi
- SeanNi
- #include "standard_disclaimer.h"
I know what my next system purchase will be!
- SeanNi
- SeanNi
- #include "standard_disclaimer.h"
It's also well known that IBM has ported Solaris 7 over to the RS6000. From what I heard, when they did the initial release of AIX they dicked with 95% of the code and made it run poorly. Sun came to the rescue, but I don't think we'll ever see a real union and a chance of getting Solaris 7 on a RS6000 to us consumer types - although the idea of Solaris on a PPC box would be kick-ass.
Well, full 64-bit architecture, and if my source is correct, IBM also licenced the gigaplane bus from Sun...meaning mondo data rates.
Technique #12: Prop up unknown 'experts'. Call up your brother-in-law's college roommate and ask him what he thinks of this dumb release you gotta write a article about, so you can get back to playing solitaire.
Actually, there are people at ZD who know how to do research. The problem seems that the editorial level there doesn't know the difference between journalism and 'winging it'.
>Server vendors to date have announced support
>mainly for Red Hat Linux, which became one of
>the most widely used versions of Linux last year
>after Red Hat Software received ample funding
>from Intel Corp.
Not that it's a big deal, but why does PC Week seem to assume a causal relationship between Intel's money and Redhat's popularity amongst distributions. Redhat has been the most popular linux distribution for several years now, since right around when 4.0 came out (I'm guestimating time, but still). Intel's money, though I'm happy they Redhat got it, has little if anything to do with Redhat's popularity when compared to other distribs. *sigh* factual errors, I guess we learn to live with them.
I've only been using AIX for 6 months now, off and on, and maybe once or twice a month have to configure things. They are sufficiently different from othe *nix that I like to use SMIT to show me what the command is.
--
Infuriate left and right
Interesting points made in that article about Linux diversity. Is it good that there are several major distributions of Linux that are market dominating, or is it a problem? How will traditional businesses thread through the Linux community?
The industry analyst who thought that putting focus one more than one distribution was bad for the market came by this strange view by considering Linux as a brand. Since Linux does not represent a single commercial force, it patently doesn't deserve such a comparison. It would also be a mistake to believe that if you took all the market share of commercial Linux distributions together that it would represent a smaller share than if the various distributions were to unify. Simply, if Linux gains commonplace desktop acceptance, it will be because it has been made both easy enough and useful for the typical computer user. If that comes from one distribution or a dozen, the growth will be pretty similar.
Furthermore, there will always be room for many niche distributions. None of this weakens Linux, it strengthens it.
Since IBM woke up to the Internet, it's been recruiting the sort of people who run Linux at home, who write it. There's a lot of Linux talent in IBM today, and it's no surprise that the journos are getting a whiff of marketed Linux systems. After all, within IBM, there's already plenty of support (and therefore patentable code that runs on Linux).
I can't wait to see for their logo
a big blue penguin anybody?
i'm having nightmares already....
"This is how you ruin Linux," said Kimball Brown, an analyst at Dataquest Inc., in San Jose, Calif. "I think what Intel is doing is right--investing in one version of Linux. The more you support all the versions, the more of a mess it becomes."
I have to say that this is the first time I've heard someone who wasn't a slashdot nazi advocate the One True Distribution theory. Somebody out there must be paying Dataquest for advice like this. Glad it's not me.
Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
We just got a new Netfinity. Died less than 24 hours after firing it up for a burn in. A week later and STILL waiting for a resolution. Not the best service record I've seen by far. And since this problem *appears* to be hardware related, I can only imagine what'd be in store for any Linux/Netfinity combo. :) - -
At least the boxes LOOK nice, albeit an expensive
doorstop for our server room.
-----------------------------------------------
.. "Doesn't Barbie come with Ken?" "No, she fakes it with him."
Someday soon I will walk into a store and come out grinning from ear to ear. Cause the new IBM laptop under my arm came preloaded with Linux and all the app. I need.
It don't hurt to dream?
Who owns your data?
This is incredibly good news. The one company that has as much mind share amongst PHBs as Microsoft is IBM. I also like their multivendor plans. That will make things a much easier sell to management.
What's up with this guy? What kind of a protest was this? There wasn't marijuana at this protest was there? I don't know but this guy's been smoking something.
Guy standing in a fast food restaurant
Guy looks at menu.. Todays specials are Linux and Windows NT.
Linux - (blah blah blah.. leave it up to you to think of the great features)
Windows NT - (blah bleh.. you can think of all the crappy features)
then guy looks at price
Linux - Free
Windows NT - (enter large exuburent price here)
>
Hooray for variety. If people know they're going to have to expect their code to work on a variety of platforms with a variety of processors, then they take a bit more care with their code - or should.
:v)
This makes for less hassle when you upgrade and no doubt improves code robistness.
My 2 New Zealand cents worth anyway.
Vik
but..if Microsoft jumps on the Linux bandwagon......then Linux will cost 300 dollars!! and Bill Gates (i know he's listening) will send some freaky secret service guys out to bump off Linus, and THEN where would we be??