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Fujitsu Moves Towards Linux

Posted by Hemos on from the yet-another-corporation dept.

Bernard writes "According to the announcement on the TeamWARE web site: Fujitsu corporation is taking a strategic step towards the next generation platform offerings. Mr. Maeyama, the President of Fujitsu Software Operations, says that "Fujitsu believes that new operating environments, in personal computing especially the emerging Linux alternative, is today a viable solution platform for many customers. Providing software on Linux is therefore a logical step." Note: TeamWARE is part of Fujitsu and has interesting groupware and workflow products. The first announce is about the port of their groupware (Office 5.3) to Linux. "

9 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. Selling software is a first step by coreman · · Score: 2

    offering Linux on their Lifebooks would be a better statement. Having the application suite available is a good initial step. Why not bundle it onto the hardware?

  2. Re:Straightforwards by skelly · · Score: 2

    True. It's just another corporate announcement for the platform. I will believe all thehype when I actually start seeing product.

    --
    Romanes eunt domus? People called Romanes, they go the 'ouse? It says Romans go home. No it doesn't. What's Latin fo
  3. One of Fujitsu's partners also looking at Linux by mhm23x3 · · Score: 2

    I have connections with Application Software Technologies (www.aztechcon.com), whose Embedded Systems Group in Green Bay, WI writes the innards to Fujitsu's cell phones. They are looking at all kinds of nifty ways to embed Linux, to do things like play MP3s, do e-mail, read Slashdot *g* from your cell phone. Just ideas being bounced around, but pretty neat anyway.

    --

    No sig.

  4. Riding the hype? by Gurlia · · Score: 5

    As should be expected these days, there were, there are, and there will be a lot of news like this, about companies adopting Linux, porting their software to Linux, etc.. The question is, are they merely riding the hype or do they really see the value of Linux?

    I mean, I've nothing against companies adopting Linux just because it's the "hot thing" right now. But I question where they are really going to support Open Source software, which is what Linux is really about. Seems that with all the media attention Linux is getting, people see Linux as some kind of "hero" system in a David vs. Goliath battle against MS. But how many understand Open Source, the very reason Linux exists?

    Perhaps RMS was right when he insisted on the name "GNU/Linux" as opposed to merely "Linux". I personally have always felt that RMS is a little too fanatical and nitpicky about small issues like this, but with the current trend that companies adopting Linux suddenly become "heroic" and admired by all (esp. by people like the Slashdotters), I'm beginning to think that RMS has a very good point in insisting on the name "GNU/Linux". Linux in itself means little -- it's the process behind it, ie., Open Source, that makes it so successful. Indeed, if you want to reap the benefits of Linux as a stable, robust system, doesn't that also mean that your tools and apps have to be robust and stable too? But if so, isn't Open Source the way to achieve robustness and stability in the applications that you run on your Linux kernel?

    This may sound too purist, but think about this: isn't the reason we despise MS because of their lousy products? But why don't their products "make it"? It's not a question of "we hate MS therefore let's use Open-Source", but isn't the whole reason MS products suck due to the fact that their development is closed? (Besides their goal to becoming the only software company, that is). And isn't the reason that Linux is so good because it's developed in an Open Source model? Linux is good not because it's Linux nor because the genius Linus wrote it. It's good because it's Open Source.

    Now back to my point: I have nothing against companies developing proprietary solutions for Linux. That is good to get Linux into the mainstream. However, keep in mind that for a normal user, she doesn't care if the kernel doesn't crash no matter what; if her proprietary apps continually crash and screw up her report/homework/whatever, that's bad. Worse if she's running an X server that locks up. To her, that is equivalent to a system crash, even if the kernel is still running. One bad component in the system ruins the entire image of "stable and robust" for the average user. Companies to adopt Open Source, and not merely ride on Linux hype. IMHO, a company that decides to try the Open Source model of software development ought to be bigger news than if a company merely announces, "we're porting such and such proprietary software to Linux".

    Alright. Enough of this rant. :-)

    --
    mikre he sophia he tou Mikrosophou.
    1. Re:Riding the hype? by Cironian · · Score: 2

      There will always be commercial software, but remember that even if software companies do not go open source; having a vast variety of choices for Unix desktop software can only help getting more users there. If you dont want to pay for the software you want to use, there is still lots of other good software you can use.

      Choice is good, even if one of the choices is non-GPL. After all, you dont have to pick it but others might prefer that. (No, not that I would. But I also know that some people actually feel more comfortable with payware)

    2. Re:Riding the hype? by MikeBabcock · · Score: 3

      I would love to see a "statement of Linux use" on websites for companies that supposedly promote or support Linux. I would like to know if they are putting official ressources into the promotion of, or the development of Linux itself, not just apps for them to sell on top of Linux. I know SGI and SCO at least have put real code into the kernel. There are many others that don't come to mind right now. ATI is opening some of their specs to us as well.

      I deal with PICK on a day to day basis and although they've recently ported their database system to Linux, I've yet to see them do any work on the kernel to make it any better. For instance, they've griped for ages about the 2G file size limitation; well, do they have any of their programmers trying to help with new filesystems, etc?

      This is what I want to know: are you promoting the use of Linux and/or making it a better platform, or are you just soaking it as a free platform for your products?

      --
      - Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
    3. Re:Riding the hype? by Issue9mm · · Score: 2

      Okay, I'm responding to this article a day late, so nobody's ever going to read this, but here goes anyway:

      Having worked for the Fujitsu corporation in the past, as a second level support rep, I can honestly say that I don't think they're "jumping on the bandwagon".

      I honestly believe that Fujitsu America at least (the division I worked for, laptop division), is dedicated to providing GOOD, quality support for users of their products. They have very strict quality control in their support, and better than average QA on the product itself. Now there's no reason to believe this, except that I no longer work for them, which means I'm not kissing their asses. I only left because I got a better offer, and don't have any resentment towards them whatsoever.

      Having worked as a "go-between" for first and second level support, I can honestly say that (at least as of two years ago) they are honestly trying to implement Linux solutions. They couldn't support it at the time, due to too many differing versions of Linux, and lack of support from Fujitsu Limited (or International, can't remember), who makes most of the components for Fujitsu America. (ie: They couldn't get the horizontal and vertical sync rates for their monitors, and therefore couldn't give them out to Linux callers)

      Even at a time when Linux support was virtually unheard of in the big-name hardware manufacturer arena, Linux was trying to develop partnerships with companies that could "create 'on-the'fly' video settings", or drivers that could produce the same results, so as not to damage the most expensive part of that laptop, the screen.

      Anyway, while I was working there, they WERE trying to implement support for Linux, however nominal it may seem. True, they weren't going to officially support it out of the box, but they were trying to find workarounds for the limitations of this support whenever possible.

  5. Re:So what happens to their SPARC based systems by SoftwareJanitor · · Score: 2

    I suspect that they will either change nothing with respect to their Sparc clones or essentially mimick Sun's positions there. If they are really progressive they will port the same software to Sparc Linux that they are porting to x86 Linux.

  6. Mmmm. Groupware with no PDA synching. by hatless · · Score: 2

    I suspect Teamware Office is a tough sell at the moment, what with no PDA synchronization. Show me an IT manager with a decent budget and I'll show you the Palm cradle in their office. And an IT manager's not going to buy a group calendaring/mail/planning system they can't sync to their Palm.

    At the very least, they ought to license Starfish's web-to-Palm sync software for Win32, though between the Java conduit SDK and an XML parser, cross-platform sync for web and client/server alike shouldn't be that hard for these web-groupware vendors to do.