A nail in the MS coffin?

Germany makes deal with IBM/SuSe

[Nick_W]

The German government has signed a deal with IBM and Linux company SuSE that makes it easier for government offices to use the open-source operating system, a move that addresses concerns about relying too heavily on Microsoft products.

story from: news.com

Wer're starting to see much more of this stuff recently, in can only bode well for better computing ;)

Nick

[lorax]

IBM has jumped on board with the Linux platform as near as I can tell. You can find IBM servers with Linux pre-installed now and their development division is providing SDKs for the Linux platform as well. This seems to be working for Big Blue and I suspect will give MS a few headaches.

[www-1.ibm.com...]

[backus]

That's strange that IBM is going down that road. What about their own OS, AIX?

[Nick_W]

What about it? :: Precisely ;)

Seriously though, never even heard of it?

Nick

[lorax]

I can't tell for sure but it appears to me that IBM has realized that the Linux platform has a dedicated following - read: dedicated developers willing to work for free to see it succeed (if only to knock MS down a notch or two). And since MS turns its nose up at it, plus charges handsomely for workstations that use MS OSs, it couldn't hurt IBM to help nurture the Linux community. They may, after all, find their efforts are well rewarded through vastly improved Workstation GUIs that support IBM software and services. They can still work on and sell their top of the line OSs while seeding Linux development. I think it's a smart move on their part.

[backus]

AIX is IBM's version of UNIX. It is used by Tesco Stores here in the Czech Republic. It's a good little system but very expensive. Oracle runs nicely on it. I built up a large Business Objects datawarehouse on AIX.

[littleman]

In the Bay Area IBM is running billboards featuring Tux, the Linux penguin. The billboards have cartoons with the theme "Peace, Love and Linux", sort of silly in a way considering it is IBM.

[JamesR]

>Tesco Stores

ah, the memories! great place to buy souvenirs.

So glad there are other big corps after Microsoft. Now only hope the competition will be healthy for the rest of us.

[toadhall]

>"Peace, Love and Linux"
Hadn't IBM left this imprint on the sidewalks of New York some time last year?
And received a slap on the hands for their effort?

[Nick_W]

I love that they use the 'now running linux' commercials over here in .dk

All of a sudden my clients and freinds don't think I'm quite so weird and just maybe there is somthing to all the 'linux stuff'

Nick

[scotty]

I think it makes sense for IBM to support Linux. I mean, IBM is a *big* company, and even between the divisions there is conflict of interests. I used to use OS/2 as my main platform, 6-7 years ago, and even though Lotus is part of IBM, its own SmartSuite runs much better on Windows than OS/2 -- because that's where the money is. At the same time, IBM has lots of platforms, from big irons like OS/390 on zServer (??), AS/400, RS/6000 with AIX, and also their Intel/PC-based servers. However, there is one OS that rules them all (actually, not sure about AS/400), and that's Linux.

Imagine yourself as IBM, and you spend millions of dollars on software development. What would you prefer? Something that works on only a specific platform, and another million bucks to have it ported to other systems. Or something works on the beefy 64-CPU mainframes, high-end PowerPC workstations, as well as cheap Intel servers (plus thousands of other developers worldwide working voluntarily at the same time)...

[backus]

>Tesco Stores
ah, the memories! great place to buy souvenirs.

What do you mean?