I can validate that the announcement was not to indicate that X server support would allow the DISPLAY to be set, but rather that the boot code has been modified so that the Linux kernel has been ported and tested on the NC. Perhaps IBM doesn't give a shit about Open Source but they do care when customers ask for Linux and it makes sense to deliver on the platform. IBM has been considering moving the NCs to Linux for at least 2 years, but until the lawyers finally got out of the way there could be no move towards Linux.
The NCs - clients themselves - will now run Linux; as mentioned in other followups it has been possible to boot from them, but no images are shipped for Linux specifically. However, there is no Linux NCs being shipped currently; the server images might be made available to some customers, but i'd believe this would be a limited set for some time yet. Running on Linux is actually is a fairly easy transition since the current OS is actually NetBSD. Tiny is probably not the word for either system, but there is work being done on it.
The current incarnations of NetStations are not just X-terminals - in fact - as mentioned elsewhere they are running NetBSD. So theoretically an externally developed program can be run on the box. The point is that the model of an open NC is not really supported at this time - at least in policy if not in practice. This seems to be changing, but the fact that Linux is now on the box doesn't really change the situation greatly.
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I can validate that the announcement was not to indicate that X server support would allow the DISPLAY to be set, but rather that the boot code has been modified so that the Linux kernel has been ported and tested on the NC. Perhaps IBM doesn't give a shit about Open Source but they do care when customers ask for Linux and it makes sense to deliver on the platform. IBM has been considering moving the NCs to Linux for at least 2 years, but until the lawyers finally got out of the way there could be no move towards Linux.
The NCs - clients themselves - will now run Linux; as mentioned in other followups it has been possible to boot from them, but no images are shipped for Linux specifically. However, there is no Linux NCs being shipped currently; the server images might be made available to some customers, but i'd believe this would be a limited set for some time yet. Running on Linux is actually is a fairly easy transition since the current OS is actually NetBSD. Tiny is probably not the word for either system, but there is work being done on it.
The current incarnations of NetStations are not just X-terminals - in fact - as mentioned elsewhere they are running NetBSD. So theoretically an externally developed program can be run on the box. The point is that the model of an open NC is not really supported at this time - at least in policy if not in practice. This seems to be changing, but the fact that Linux is now on the box doesn't really change the situation greatly.