Delivers Three Linux-Support Firsts, Breaks New Ground on the Mainframe

SOMERS, NY — December 8, 2000 — IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new e-infrastructure software for Linux.* The announcement is IBM’s latest initiative to support Linux throughout its portfolio of e-business software, servers and services and gives IBM the broadest database Linux support in the industry, from handheld devices to the mainframe.The company is also delivering three Linux-support firsts, including:

• The availability of DB2 Universal Database** for Linux on Intel-based clusters;
  
• The only commercial database software available for Linux on the mainframe; and
  
• The only Web application server software, WebSphere,** available for Linux on the mainframe

According to IDC, Linux became the number two operating system in 1999 in new server shipments with 1.3 million licenses. IDC anticipates Linux to remain the fastest growing server operating system through 2004, with a compound annual growth rate of 28 percent from 2000 to 2004. The market opportunity for software on Linux is expected to grow even faster, with relational database servers expected to increase from $30 million in 2000 to $3.4 billion in 2004, a compound annual growth rate of 226 percent.

“Linux is seeing increasing usage as a part of basic IT infrastructure at many organizations,” said Dan Kusnetzky, Vice President of System Software Research at IDC in Framingham, Mass. “Over half of the respondents in one of IDC’s demand-side studies indicated that they considered their Linux applications to be ‘major’ applications. IBM has positioned itself well to be considered one of the leading suppliers in this emerging market.”

Today’s news follows on the heels of the first major commercial Linux installation in Europe. Telia, Scandanavia’s largest telecommunications and Internet service provider, announced it will replace 70 existing Web-hosting Unix servers with a single IBM S/390 server. The company will also move its current storage servers to a 11.4 terabyte Enterprise Storage Server (Shark) and replace its existing customer billing system based on an Oracle database.

IBM is delivering the following additions to its Linux software portfolio. DB2 and WebSphere products for Linux are available as integrated solutions for companies wishing to develop Web applications on top of a database server.

DB2 Enterprise-Extended Edition (EEE), the industry’s first offering for Intel-based clusters on Linux, a solution for multi-terabyte databases supporting multiple processors through server clustering. DB2 Enterprise Edition (EE), the industry’s only Linux database offering on the IBM zSeries** and S/390 platforms. DB2 Connect, the industry’s first solution to their DB2 data on the mainframe directly from Web connected applications using DB2 on Linux on the same server. WebSphere Application Server, Advanced Edition, Version 3.5, which supports high-performance, scalable Web sites, is the industry’s only Linux Web application server software offering for the zSeries and S/390 servers; this software is also being delivered for Linux running on Intel-based servers. WebSphere Application Server, Standard Edition, Version 3.5 for Linux running on Intel servers, which helps developers quickly transform static Web sites into vital sources of dynamic Web content.

According to a recent Zona Research study, 80 percent of respondents found operating stability and reliability to be the most important attributes for customers choosing Linux. IBM is also providing customers with a cost-effective alternative for deployment as their business grows with support for both Intel-based servers and the ability to scale to multiple Linux images with Linux for zSeries and S/390 servers.

By deploying DB2 and WebSphere on Linux, developers can benefit from increased productivity by taking advantage of a write-once development code. For example, a customer deploying DB2 for Linux on an Intel-based server such as eServer xSeries can easily upgrade to a zSeries server without the need to develop new Linux code to support the upgrade. With support for the zSeries and S/390 servers, customers benefit from the unmatched reliability and scalability of DB2 and WebSphere and can benefit from reduced costs by consolidating multiple Linux servers onto one server platform.

Distributor Support

Today’s announcements are supported by the world’s leading Linux distributors including Red Hat, SuSE and TurboLinux, who have long supported IBM’s Linux-based hardware and software portfolio. Additionally, IBM’s DB2 and WebSphere have been chosen by all three distributors as their standard infrastructure software. Unlike other databases, all three vendors bundle DB2 with their packaged Linux solutions. Red Hat also features IBM’s WebSphere Application Server as part of a packaged Linux solution.

IBM Software For Linux

Today’s news follows on the heels of recent new offerings from IBM including IBM’s Small Business Suite for Linux, which includes DB2, WebSphere Application Server and Lotus Domino. IBM also recently introduced the availability of DB2 Everyplace and WebSphere Commerce Suite for Linux providing customers with an unlimited choice of solutions.

Customers can now take advantage of the reliability of Linux on the highly scalable zSeries and S/390 platforms coupled with the scalability and reliability of DB2 and WebSphere software. Grede Foundries, an iron and steel castings manufacturer, is successfully using DB2 Connect for Linux on the mainframe to consolidate a large collection of servers into one, thereby decreasing administration costs and connectivity issues.

Additionally, legacy IMS data can now easily be accessed from applications deployed on the Linux platform with the recently released connectivity tool, IMS Connect. This technology provides customers with transmission rates in excess of 4000 transactions per second and extends the IMS High Availability Large Database solution for multi-terabyte databases to the world of Linux applications. Also, IBM is introducing a new release of the CICS Transaction Gateway software product for Linux, which becomes available later this month. The software facilitates the connection of the Web to CICS transactions, via WebSphere running on Linux on the mainframe.

Availability

The new product offerings for DB2 Universal Database for Linux will be generally available on December 15, 2000. The new product offerings for WebSphere for Linux on Intel will be generally available December 22, 2000 and WebSphere for the zSeries servers will be generally available on January 26, 2001.

About IBM

IBM is the world’s largest information technology company, with more than 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM Software offers the widest range of applications, middleware and operating systems for all types of computing platforms, allowing customers to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. For more information about IBM software, see the home page at http://www.software.ibm.com.

For additional information about IBM’s Linux initiatives: http://ibm.com/linux

For additional information on IBM’s data management solutions, please visit http://www.software.ibm.com/data. More information about the WebSphere software platform is on the Web at http://www.ibm.com/websphere.

*Indicates trademark or registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

** Indicates trademark or registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation or its subsidiaries. The IBM eServer brand consists of the established IBM e-business logo with the following descriptive term “server” following it. All other trademarks are properties of their respective companies.

Lori Bosio
IBM Media Relations
(914) 766-1408, FAX (914) 766-8188
pager: 888-661-3745
email: bosiol@us.ibm.com

UpsideToday talks with VA Linux’s John T. Hall about the creation of SourceForge, and takes a look at the company’s past and possible future (Disclosure: VA Linux owns NewsForge).

– By Grant Gross –

An Internet voting project at the the free software group FreeDevelopers.net is changing directions over an argument about when to release the source code for the project’s major building block, but organizers are already moving on.

Marilyn Davis, developer of the Clerk software module that FreeDevelopers.net was basing its eVote project on, has resigned as leader of the project because, she said earlier this week, “clearly this list has turned into a lynch mob, unhappy that they were not able to make me release the code” despite an agreement from FreeDevelopers to start the project without releasing the code. Davis had concerns that an early release of the code to the GNU General Public License could allow nefarious people to manipulate votes.

While discussion was heated earlier in the week, Davis ultimately decided to remain on the eVote project’s discussion list, and she expressed hope that her project, back to being hosted at deliberate.com, can be merged with the FreeDevelopers.net project sometime in the future. “You can still believe me that a network layer will release the [Clerk’s] source out of beta and then
FreeDev can … improve each and every corner of what I’ve done,” she wrote to the list Thursday evening. “As the Clerk’s mama, I just need to bring forth the whole infant, no preemies … The folks here don’t want the FreeDev name on unreleased source.That’s fair. And I don’t want responsibility for non-Clerk projects. That’s fair.”

In the meantime, coders on the FreeDevelopers.net discussion list are turning to deciding who can vote on what to do next in FreeDev’s democratic model, and how to distinguish interested developers from what some on the list have called the “enemy,” those who might try to sidetrack the project and from those those reading the discussion list for entertainment or news value. The group continues to discuss working with FREE (Free Referenda & Elections Electronically), a Java-based free software project.

Tony Stanco, founder of FreeDevelopers.net, says he’s not sure what the project’s next move is, as FreeDev’s democratic wheels turn, but he emphasizes that the eVote project is not a strategic part of FreeDev’s success. “It is a little like watching a school of fish,” he writes, adding a smiley wink. “They go where they want to go … However, I do think that if I get them a real voting project to work on it will focus their minds. And I was talking to someone on Capitol Hill
about it last night, but I also have to make sure that they can work as a team first, before I start making promises to people on the Hill.

“Seriously, I think we are doing fine, we just have to let this tree mature a little longer before we try to harvest the fruit,” he adds.

The argument over releasing the Clerk’s code resurfaced earlier this week after a flare up in November. Amid calls to release the code, Stanco tried to broker a compromise, which he defended as reasonable. But Davis again declined to release the voting system’s code before she could add a network layer to it.

During the heat of the debate, one list member wrote: “In spite of repeated requests [Davis] failed to make the code of Clerk GPL. She has not so far seriously discussed the design and architecture of the Clerk.”

Stanco wrote to the list during the heat of the argument that he’s learned one lesson: “This is the first and last time I will ever compromise on the GPL. If that means we have to re-write every line of proprietary code, so be it.”

But later in the week, he echoed Davis’ desire to keep working together. “We do want her to continue to help bring free democracy software to the world,’ he says. “I get the feeling that she really wants us to use eVote, but that she needs help in ‘leading’ the project. But the ‘project
leader’ title was always a misnomer because we are a democracy and leading is leading by ideas, not by hierarchy, if you know what I mean.”

Davis says she’ll continue working on eVote with the several volunteers who have a history with the project. She’s finishing a paper on eVote for a Linux magazine during the deliberate.com banner. “It’s my hobby. It’s a lifelong project. I’m not by myself.”

NewsForge editors read and respond to comments posted on our discussion page.

From the current issue of LinuxJournal: “Some of us just can’t seem to get enough. Whether it be food, drink, and um, or, you know…stuff. For some people, that’s true of their desktops. It is with this
rather fumbled introduction that I welcome you, one and all, to yet another week of gratuitous window dressing here at the ‘SysAdmin’s Corner’, where too much of
a good thing is just about right.”

Michael Hall at LinuxPlanet writes: “Last week LinuxPlanet editor Kevin Reichard wrote a hotly debated note on the underlying issues behind
the dearth of commercial applications for Linux. At the root of his argument is an understanding shared
by a lot of Linux observers: the confusion between free software and free beer, and how little many
commercial vendors feel they can trust our community to do the right thing given the opportunity to
just take something.”

ZDCOUK reports that fans of rock band Rage Against The Machine began reporting
that they were banned from Napster early Thursday morning. As
was the case with people trading Metallica and Dr. Dre songs,
Napster members were blocked from logging on and sent instead
to a Web page saying they had been identified as probable
copyright infringers.

Newsforge reader Rikard Anglerud writes: “We here at rawmeat.org have reviewed all the cd players we could find for linux. With all the players that exist we hope that this will make it easier for you to find one that you like (and one that’s better than the players shipped with kde or gnome).”

From ZDCOUK: “After admitting that it “missed the boat” in adopting recordable CD
technology for its hardware, Apple is reportedly looking at options
for incorporating CD-ReWritable drives into the next crop of
Macs.”

Hoping to catch the Net’s latest technology trend, Sun
Microsystems is quietly creating a team of engineers with
hopes of merging Java and the file-swapping technology that
brought Napster to the music-loving masses, reports ZDCOUK.

“The aim of this document is to help you have a working webcam in just a few hours. This … involves re-compiling your kernel. This isn’t nearly as hard as it sounds. If you’re kind of uncomfortable with the idea yet, read either the Kernel Compiling NHF or the Kernel-HOWTO. In my case I was forced to use the 2.2.17 backport, due to the fact that 2.4.0-test9 broke a lot of USB serial stuff (I need *working* USB for my Handspring Visor to sync via USB in Linux.) and at the time of this writing namesys hadn’t released a patch for ReiserFS for 2.4.0-test10.” Check it out at Linuxnewbie.org. –Sensei