IDG.net reports that “By early next year, paint retailer Sherwin-Williams Co. will deploy new IBM PCs running the Turbolinux operating system to replace SCO Unix-equipped systems throughout its 2,500 paint stores across North America. In an announcement today, the 136-year-old Cleveland-based paint company said it is moving to Linux and IBM to upgrade its point-of-sale and in-store operations, while minimizing its transition costs from established Unix systems.”

LinuxOrbit writes “If you have followed GNU/Linux for the last few years you know that GNOME has long been a stronghold of C, Perl and Python GUI programming. With Ximian’s work on Mono, C# seems also to be a language that will see wide use in GNOME. Sun’s involvement should also make Java applications integrate strongly with GNOME. But what about C++? I sat down with Murray Cumming, lead developer on the gtkmm and gnomemm C++ bindings for GTK+ and GNOME to get some information on the status of C++ development in GNOME.” Read the Interview“

Newsbytes has the report: “The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the First Amendment Project today asked the California Supreme Court to uphold a lower court’s decision to permit publication of the source code for DeCSS technology, which circumvents digital copy protection systems.”

From an anonymous reader: What needs to be done to promote development of Linux for Tablet PCs? Whatisnew.com opens up conversation about the progress of computer hardware and the position of Linux desktop oriented firms. “Software developers need to have Linux based or cross-platform applications ready to use! [on Tablet PCs by Fall 2002]” they assert.

Anonymous Reader writes, “From LinuxDevices.com: In a recently completed report entitled Linux’s Future in the Embedded Systems Market, Venture Development Corp. (VDC) studied the size and future growth trends of the worldwide market for Embedded Linux software solutions. In the vendor rankings that resulted from responses to VDC’s questions about which Linux distributions are being used in current embedded projects, and which are being evaluated for future use, Red Hat received the top score on both counts.”

It’s at LinuxWorld.com: “When I was first asked about Linux on the mainframe, I discovered that I’d never really thought about it at all, having, instead, taken IBM’s imprimatur at face value. When I stopped to take a closer look in Part 1 the thing that bothered me most was IBM’s reliance on very dubious third party performance claims and their refusal to provide solid cost/performance data.”

Wired.com follows up on the IBM/Sherwin-Williams Linux deal, and Linux taking a “reluctant step” toward Main Street. “It’s not quite a huge victory for Linux — Sherwin-Williams’ back office support systems isn’t part of the deal — but analysts say it could be an indication that retailers are turning to Linux as they replace their old systems.”

ESRI, the world leader in geographic information system (GIS) solutions, now offers a wide selection of GIS software that is compatible with the Linux operating system. In its continuing commitment to open systems, ESRI’s ArcIMS 4, ArcSDE 8.2, MapObjects–Java Standard Edition, and ArcExplorer 4 software are all supported on Linux.
ArcIMS 4, which began shipping on April 29, 2002, runs on Intel-compatible Red Hat Linux 7.1 in addition to Microsoft Windows, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, and HP-UX operating systems. ArcIMS is ESRI’s solution for distributing mapping and GIS data and services on the Web. It is a powerful, scalable, standards-based tool that lets you quickly design and manage Internet mapping services.

ArcSDE 8.2, which also began shipping April 29, 2002, is the GIS gateway for managing spatial data in a commercial database management system. ArcSDE serves spatial data to a wide variety of clients and is the key component in managing a multi-user spatial database. ArcSDE 8.2 for Oracle is the first ArcSDE release that supports Linux servers.

MapObjects–Java Standard Edition, which began shipping on April 1, 2002, is a suite of more than 900 Java-based GIS and mapping developer components that can be used to build custom, cross-platform GIS applications or applets. Because it is pure Java, MapObjects–Java Standard Edition can be used with Linux, Windows, and a variety of UNIX operating systems.

ArcExplorer 4–Java Edition is the newest version of ESRI’s free GIS data viewer. Because it is built with Java, ArcExplorer 4 allows users to enjoy cross-platform support including compatibility with Linux, Windows, and a number of UNIX operating systems. ArcExplorer 4 can be downloaded free of charge from www.esri.com/arcexplorer.

For more than 30 years, ESRI has been the leading developer of GIS software with more than 300,000 clients worldwide. ESRI also provides consulting, implementation, and technical support services. In addition to its headquarters in California, ESRI has regional offices throughout the United States, international distributors in more than 90 countries, and more than 1,400 business partners. ESRI’s goal is to provide users with comprehensive tools to help them quickly and efficiently manage and use geographic information to make a real difference in the world around them. ESRI can be found on the Web at www.esri.com.

ESRI, the ESRI globe logo, GIS by ESRI, ArcIMS, ArcSDE, MapObjects, ArcExplorer, www.esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.

– By Grant Gross –

If you think the argument over Linux on mainframes has cooled, think again. This week, Alexander Tormasov, the chief scientist at Linux virtualization company SWsoft, has crafted a response to Sun Microsystems chief competitive officer Shahin Khan’s response to Tormasov’s first letter that responded to Khan’s “Linux on the Mainframe — Not a Good Idea.” Tormasov’s new letter questions Sun’s business model, and suggests that’s why Khan is working so hard to discredit Linux on mainframes.
Okay, for everyone who’s confused, let’s try this again, working forward instead of backward:

• Khan publishes his Linux-on-mainframe critique Feb. 20.

• Tormasov and Linux coder Andrey Savochkine respond to Khan on March 5, in a letter endorsed by Red Hat, Turbolinux, Caldera and SuSE. Ironically, SWsoft doesn’t work with Linux on mainframes — it uses virtual machine technology pioneered on Intel-based machines.

• IBM, which helped bring Linux to the mainframe, defends itself in a letter by Mark Cathcart of the IBM Academy of Technology, IBM eServer Architecture and Design.

• Khan fires back April 9 with “Mainframes Running Linux, Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing,” taking on both the Tormasov/Savochkine and Cathcart letters. Khan defends Sun’s place in the Open Source community by saying the company’s “donation of millions of lines of code and intellectual property to the open source community over the years surely qualifies it as a member of the community.” But the letter still prompts yet another round of questions about Sun’s new-found commitment to Linux.
• Then on Tuesday, a couple of days before Sun announced Solaris 9, Tormasov writes again, offering a technical critique of Khan’s arguments while dissecting Sun’s business model.

In addition, a couple of tech analyst companies are now jumping into the fight. A week ago, ZDNet published an article featuring the conflicting views of Giga and META. “The META report says that mainframe configurations of Linux will fall out of favor as soon as 2005, by which time Unix and Intel-based Windows and Linux solutions will have enough mainframe-like features without the mainframe-like costs to make those options the better choice.”

Back to the newest Tormasov letter: The associate professor at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology lists a number of technical points where he sees Khan’s argument failing. Tormasov takes issue with Khan’s assertion that “mainframe systems still only go up to 16 CPUs, when Sun made 64-way systems five years ago and has 106-way single-cabinet systems today.”

Tormasov writes: “The ‘Amdahl law’ states that any workflow can be broken into parallelalizeable and serial (non parallelalizeable) parts. This shows that CPU number is not as important as how efficiently the server is used.”

If all that stuff is just a bit too technical for your taste, Tormasov also questions whether Khan’s objections to Linux on the mainframe are because of Sun’s own “weak” market position. “If someone like Sun says this is technically wrong, it just means that Sun is afraid of such things, because their own efforts in the area may have some problems,” he says.

From the Tormasov letter: “For years, Sun was content to dominate the market for general purpose open systems for mid-to-large enterprises. Unfortunately for Sun, Linux emerged as a formidable opponent. Linux on Intel servers are now winning in the mid-enterprise market for general purpose ‘Open Systems.’ Mainframes have long dominated the enterprise market and Linux on the mainframe suddenly turned the previously closed mainframe into the perfect ‘Open System’ for large enterprises. Customers wanting immediate access to Linux on enterprise hardware did not have to wait the three years technologists predicted it would take Intel-based servers to catch up to the mainframes high availability features. These large enterprise customers rapidly rushed to embrace Linux on the mainframe.”

He continues: “Sun’s position will continue to worsen as multi-processor Intel servers improve and new dynamic partitioning technologies like carrier-grade Virtuozzo for Linux on Intel enable Linux to beat Sparc/Solaris in both the mid enterprise and large enterprise markets. Due to its open nature, Linux already dominates in the hosting market and with rock-solid service provider solutions like HSPcomplete for Linux that enable much better cost management and hundreds of CPUs than a comparable Solaris solution … “

If all this sounds a bit self-serving (Virtuozzo and HSPcomplete are SWsoft products, after all), Tormasov and SWsoft’s PR rep admit that this pissing match with Sun doesn’t hurt their company’s profile in the Linux community and with its enterprise customers, just as it doesn’t hurt Sun among customers interested in its non-Linux enterprise products.

But Tormasov says he and SWsoft, as members of the Linux community, also have an interest in seeing Linux succeed on the whole. “We’re alerting our customers to the fact that Linux is now a viable business tool across the board, in every aspect of the data center,” says Alex Plant, SWsoft’s PR person.

Plant says SWsoft doesn’t feel like it’s carrying the torch for IBM on this issue. The latest Tormasov letter has been informally endorsed by IBM, but Plant says the inspiration for the letters has come from individual developers inside the company who’ve been offended by Sun’s position.

Asked how long this debate has legs, Tormasov chuckles and says that depends on Sun. Adds Plant: “It seems that it’s maintained a certain level of interest around this process. When that’s going to subside, I don’t know, but it doesn’t seems that all this has derived from Sun or us, but from a communal perspective. People are talking about it … and that to me is the real life of this debate.”

Any bets on how long it’ll take for Khan to respond, or when this debate will end?

NYLXS in co-operation with the City University of New York
is presenting the first GNU/Linux Free Software Business Expo at

365 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10016, near 34th Street

on Friday May 24th from 10 AM till 4 PM.
We will be demonstrating cost savings and secure small business solutions
all through the day with emphasis on what local vendors and Free Software
people can do for you. If you want to volunteer to give a demonstration,
even at this late date, contact Evan Inker at hangout@nylxs.com.

Everyone is welcome!

We encourage copying and distribution of our flyer

http://home.earthlink.net/~scoffier/demo_new.pdf
http://home.earthlink.net/~scoffier/demo_new.ps

as long as the copies are exact copies, without emendation, addition, or
subtraction. We also encourage redistribution of this notice, under the same condition
that all copies be exact.

– Mail/Web/File Servers
– Wireless LANs
– Bayonne (Computer Telephony)
– OpenOffice.org & Evolution
– Samba
– VPN and Firewall Services
– SQL Database Management
– Audio Broadcasting Tools
– X Terminal Services
– The Gimp and Graphics Manipulation
– Accounting Software
– Project Management Software

Speaking Schedule

10:00 AM – 10:30 AM

Ruben I. Safir
Opening Remarks, GNU/Linux and the Small Business

10:40 AM – 11:10 AM

Jonathan Jacobs
X Terminal Services, cross-platform interoperability, the GNU/Linux Desktop

11:30 PM – 12:00 Noon

Phil Glaser
phpGroupWare

12:30 PM – 1:00 PM

Ruben Safir
SQL Database Management, Overview of GNU/Linux Mail/Web/File Servers

1:30 PM – 2:00 PM

Marco Scoffier
Graphics and Imaging Software

2:30 PM – 3:00 PM

David Sugar
Bayonne, Internet Telephony

3:30 PM – 4:00 PM

Marco Scoffier and Brett Wynkoop
Internet Audio Broadcasting Server