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IBM strikes Linux deal with Caldera
An anonymous reader sent us an article which describes a
new agreement between IBM and Caldera.
The two companies will work together to make sure that
IBMs stuff works under Linux, as well as make sure that
Caldera's stuff screams on Big Blue's hardware. Looks interesting.
Caldera also works with Novell for NDS services. The world is not just RedHat, we really have a "Big Four" situation, with RedHat, SuSE, Caldera and TurboLinux driving things on the distribution end.
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Open mind, insert foot.
I keep seeing people looking at the barage of IBM announcements regarding support for, or partnerships with this distro or that distro as a sign that they've exclusivly allied with a given distro. Damn it people, wake up and smell the bit rot! /rant IBM supports the four major distros equally. See the official position at www.software.ibm.com/linux, from which I quote:
For some IBM accounts Linux is a viable platform in the small to medium business situation where NT is trying to compete. Even MS is saying that Linux is a threat to NT. (odds are they view that as lip service for the beneifit of the DOJ, but /.ers know better, and so does IBM.) That is exactly the market IBM is chasing with Linux on it's NetFinity machines.
If NT can capture the small-to-mid market from the likes of Sun, HP, Reliant and IBM then they'll have a foothold into the midrange computing market and leverage to try getting into the big iron that made IBM who they are today. This must not be allowed to happen.
How can anyone compete? Bundle a fast, robust, and accepted operating system onto "top of the line comodity hardware" (that isn't an oxymoron... it's a description of the NetFinity line of servers and the Intellistation line of workstations.) With the savings in OS by choosing Linux, you can afford the extra for the hardware when you're on the kind of shoestring budgets many in the small-to-mid market have.
Add to that the support and backing that IS IBM and customers will be checking the "OS upgrade to Linux (from Windows NT Server)" box on their order forms in droves... and we all know what that means: work for those who grok.
Supporting Linux in this way (at least) slows M$'s domination of the small IT departments in the world, and therefore protects IBM's assets. IBM has announced and will continue to announce new deals, partnerships, support statements, products, etc for quite a while. You need only look at the whole picture instead of any one given press release to see that this is a strategic move for IBM and it will not/can not/should not be one that happens overnight. If you think we've seen anything come out of this so far, you're in for an eye-opening surprise I suspect.
With the ill-concieved death of OS/2 commited by some clueless half wit in a suit in Poughkipsee IBM needs a midrange OS on Intel platforms, with Linux they get one that they them sleves don't own, so M$ has even less ground to screw them on license fees for Winblows than they did while OS/2 was alive. I see Linux taking the place of OS/2 as the IBM prefered OS in the small-to-mid market where they currently have NO operating system available for new deployments. I do not speak for IBM.
IBM does not speak for me.
It's better that way...
Heehee, yes :-) If you'd said something to me 20 years ago about IBM, I'd have looked at you bewildered for a couple of seconds, and then gone back to my toy cars or colouring book :-)
If someone had come to you 20 years ago and said you would be rooting for IBM someday, you would have laughed.
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
Caldera is trying to be the "business" Linux. Very easy to install, good desktop apps, consistent and reliable. Basically, you know what you are getting from a Caldera install will work correctly. I don't know that I like Caldera for server use though. Some of the things in OpenLinux 2.2 were older (than what came with RedHat 6.0) versions of programs that needed patching for security holes, etc.
IBM is actually working with RedHat, Caldera, and two other releases of Linux that I can't remember right now. Check out www.linuxreseller.com for some info. They are doing a tour to different cities in the US. It is supposed to be for people that are VARs or do a significant amount of selling systems as their job. The main idea is to get VARs to push Linux solutions and Caldera was ready to go with this seminar series.
If you get the chance, sign up for the series. The guy from IBM was one of the people that did their big Beowulf cluster showing (the one where they did the 3D rendering as fast as the Cray). He was a little miffed at some of the slashdotters comments. I talked to him and he is a really nice guy with a very good understanding of IBM's angle on Linux. They already have 'Caldera' certified Netfinity servers. The architecture on them carries over from their bigger AS/400 and RS/6000 hardware. They will have RS/6000s running Linux available. The RS/6000 clustering technology will also be used to provide Netfinity clustering solutions. They are in the process of developing RAID drivers which they will release under GPL.
Talking to the Caldera guy I asked what they were doing to differentiate themselves from other releases. He said flat out they were doing the business angle. They claim to test every part of what goes into their release to make sure it works correctly. They won't ever have a release with cutting/bleeding edge programs in it.
Why are they doing this you may ask? Profit. Everything a VAR sells has anywhere from 10-50% markup. This includes the price of the OS. With a free/cheap OS the profit margin of the sale goes up while the cost to the consumer goes down. Everybody (except M$ I'm sure) is happy. With 17% of network servers (according to an IDC study they quoted at the conference) running Linux there is an important market to be the first ones into. Therefore IBM finds the Linux release most compatible with IBM's goals. Caldera must have fit the bill.
Do really dense people warp space more than others?