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Intel invests in VA Research
KaHa writes sent us a link to an article over at Yahoo saying
that
Intel is investing in VA.
Larry Augustin is quoted as saying "I can't confirm or deny anything"
in the little blurb. It also says that this will officially be
announced tomorrow.
Sorry, I just can't get too excited about a company that hates users getting involved with a Linux vendor. One of their top security people recently said, "The actual user of the PC -- someone who can do anything they want -- is the enemy." I don't see how this attitude can be any good for Free Software or Open Source.
Posted by Talancc:
Intel buys into VA...
MS has strict contract over the pc market...
Is this just a way of trying to break up the oncoming linux movement?????????
I don't know about others but I would start to worry.
I hope this ends up being good for VA. I think they're a good company.
--
-- Knowledge shared is power lost. -- Aleister Crowley
That domain name purchase should help maintain the view of Linux as an OS primarily for Intel processors, when there are so many other and better platforms to run it on. Hmpf.
--Joakim Ziegler
This deal could be good and could be bad.
At any rate good companies are getting support from Intel. I do thank intel for the time and money they are giving to redhat, BeOS, and now VA. At least in one way or another they are helping other companies even if they are in it for their own motiffs (money, processor market growth, whatever) I love the fact that they are helping get every little bit out of performance for Be, 'Redhat too?' im sure if AMD offered to help someone else out in this way, others would accept also.
Hmm, sounds to me like Intel is making a bid for the (growing) linux market, since it is failing in the other (cheap pc) growing market. What with this, and the promise of help for Cygnus. Sure makes you wonder.
Great article you mentioned. I loved the quote "Security Enforces Trust." Where is the trust if there needs to be security? I think what he really meant is that security replaces trust.
And why do we even bother with companies who dont trust their consumers? Where does intel get off telling me that they think that they need to keep an eye on me. What do they think they are, some sort of government agency. They sell computer chips. Am I supposed to do grovel at their feet and let them watch what I do with MY PC in MY own home? What's next, Ford installing cameras in my car to make sure that I wont use it in a bank robbery? Lets hope that there are enough people with a clue who will resist this corporate surveliance in our lives. As an early 20's hardware geek who will buy RAM instead of bread, this quote alone makes me sure that my next (several) boxes wont have intel inside.
-Intel public enemy #8923549784672378
I wish the best for VA research, but I won't be buying a PIII or another intel processor for that matter. I don't want intel to be able to figure out who I am even though I post as an anonymous coward. :-) It seems like intel said that freedom is the enemy when that guy said "The actual user of the PC -- someone who can do anything they want -- is the enemy."
:-)
take care,
someone who can do anything they want
Windows, the biggest seller of Intel processors.
Intel invests in Linux based companies (RH, now VA).
Microsoft says little publicaly, only some internal second hand murmurs about their discontent...
Intel includes ID 64 bit serialization within PIII's and quotes... "The average person that can do whatever they want is the enemy"... hmm, isn't that what linux is all about?
Why would a company with that attitude invest in exactly a market that represents their classifications of an enemy...
What's next? Microsoft invests in Linux based companies? or may be, they simply can afford to do it directly.
Call me paranoid but this combination of events is strange. I'm all for big companies investing and spreading commercial dollars, as long as "we get to do whatever we want".
I'm very happy with my AMD and Alpha processors. Hopefully Compaq will capitalize on their new technology in the correct direction.
Nice but where is there a gnu compiler to
produce proprietary 64bit intel instructions?
Or is Intel going to release their compiler
under GPL for Merced?
VA used to have Alpha server but now all they sell is Intel. That really bothers me, esp. in light of these investments.
And how about k6-3, on low-end servers and workstations at least? Not everybody needs a dual Xeon.
intel probably knows that linux users are not just anti-MS but also anti-intel (especially the whole PIII thing). So they're doing everything to be good to linux. Eventually, linux will be intel only and the stuff on alphas and ppc's won't be as good
---
VA Research is privately held right? why is it that these companies ( RedHat , VA Research) allow themselves to be bought up by other big companies and not allow linux enthusiasts invest. When are companies like this going to go public and show the tech industry what it really is about. screw yahoo... linux stocks will rule.
I think you misunderstand. What he said is actually fairly common in the security world. For a long time the model used in security was that the computers on each end were safe, but the network in the middle was insecure. This model has caused such things as public key crypto, and other good advances.
However, what happens if the user of an end system decides to try and break the system? Tech has advanced enough that a well designed system can cope with an insecure network. But for example. the BAN logic specifically states that it assumes all players are playing fair. What happens when a user starts maliciously sending the wrong data to a protocol? What happens when Charlie forwards Alice's message along to Bob (at the heart of the man in the middle attack on Needham-Schroder, which has been verified in the BAN logic)? The actual user of the system has much more power than the one who controls the network, its the next step up in security. What happens when the user can trap any instruction and replace the results with whatever he wants? For one it breaks the Intel CPUID, as I'm sure this researcher could tell you.
So yes, it is a valid security model he is talking about, even if he phrased it poorly. It is also a VERY hard one to beat.
Why does this bother you? They sell Intel stuff, and now Intel funds them. Logical.
If you want Alpha, you know where to find it. (to paraphrase Dennis Ritchie).
Seriously, if VA Research doesn't sell your preferred platform, simply take your business elsewhere. Aspen Systems, Apache Digital and DCG all sell Alpha (and Sparc)-based linux boxes. Where is it written that a good Linux vendor has to sell all flavors of processors?
-Erik
There are always four sides to every story: your side, their side, the truth, and what really happened.
How can Cygnus write a 64bit compiler on a
32bit PII? Something just dosn't make sense
here. I mean you have to have a good 64bit
compiler to produce a good 64bit Linux version
on the Merced which I see no indication that
Cygnus is doing on their web site. Anybody
have real information not just hear say?
woo go VAresearch!
--
scott miga
It's very difficult, if not impossible, legally for a private person to invest in a non-public company. SEC rules.
Polywell will sell you an AMD or Intel or Alpha with Linux :)
We'll sell you one :-).
As for the K6, I suspect their reasons for not doing the K6 are similar to ours -- it just wasn't cost-effective. My estimate is that we can sell a K6-based machine for around $75 less than an equivalent Celeron-based machine -- and for that $75 cost savings we'd have to stock yet another motherboard, yet another set of processors...
We just don't sell enough low-end machines to justify that. Compaq does, obviously, but a VA Research or Linux Hardware Solutions doesn't have the volume needed to match Compaq's prices on consumer hardware. (Servers, on the other hand, are a different story -- we can whup Compaq's rear there).
-- Eric
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
congrats to VA research, but I really dont like the whole buying into of a company to try and increase market share. I'll admit it, i'm very prejudice towards alpha, but have u ever seen 64 bit linux run like that? ooohh.... anyway, its just isn't cool to see another vendor stop making the alpha boxes.