– By Jack Bryar –

If people were worried about the influence of private companies on the Open Source movement, they should become petrified. As of today, the largest Open Source company in the world does $85 billion in sales and has a workforce almost as large as the
population of Cincinnati, Ohio. Sam Palmisano is taking over at IBM and he’s riding in
on a lot of promises about how Big Blue and Linux can make billions
together.

This week Lou Gerstner finally announced what everyone has known for
months: Palmisano will take over as CEO of Big Blue in five weeks.
Following the news, IBM stock tanked by nearly four dollars.

It shouldn’t have. For the change in leadership occurred some time
ago. Samuel J. Palmisano has been the power at IBM for more than 18
months. Palmisano has been the in-house geek-in-a-suit who has driven IBM’s
embrace of Linux for the last two years. In many ways, Linux was the platform
Palmisano ran on to get his new job.

Now 50 years old, Palmisano is an IBM lifer, having joined the
company right out of college. He was quickly identified as management material,
and was on the company’s short list of would-be CEOs as far back as
back in 1993. Unfortunately, at the time, the company was hemorrhaging. It
lost $8 billion in 1993. The board of directors wanted a finance guy, a
seasoned suit who could calm the investment community and who might be able to
tame the factional infighting that had completely balkanized the company
into a series of fiefdoms. So, for the time being, the job was handed off to
RJR’s Lou Gerstner.

No fool, Gerstner quickly used Palmisano as a sounding board and
confidant (he had been the assistant to former IBM CEO John Akers). In return,
Gerstner gave Palmisano a job — and a big one at that. He was told to revitalize
ISSC, IBM’s old consulting and services unit.

Given that IBM’s products were incredibly difficult to manage, most
IBM customers didn’t need much encouragement to buy services to help
them cope. Palmisano grew the consulting and services business back to the
dominating force it had been years before. After growing the business by
approximately 30%, the renamed IBM Global Services unit was the biggest division in
the company. While running the division, Palmisano had become aware of the
potential for Linux to become a truly “disruptive” force, possibly the
next big thing in IT.

Like nearly everyone in the technology business, he watched Red Hat
and VA Linux launch explosive IPOs. Red Hat promised big profits bundling
services with Linux. VA (now VA Software, NewsForge’s corporate parent) hoped to do the same by combining Linux and server equipment.

IBM veterans like Irving Wladawsky-Berger became Linux evangelists,
arguing that if Linux was the future of the market, IBM could enter it
with some unique strengths.

Unlike Red Hat, IBM Global Services had a stable of marquee clients.
It had a global reputation that it didn’t have to build from the ground
up. It had a sales force who could talk about operating systems and IT
issues from a business solutions perspective rather than just babble
about technology. If there was a Linux-based services business to be had,
IBM was positioned to dominate.

IBM’s hardware business was both an opportunity and a challenge. Unlike VA, IBM already made its own equipment, with a range of product that reached from the desktop to the server farm. What Linux gave IBM was something that its hardware division desperately needed — a standard platform, on the cheap. As Palmisano admitted in 1991, the cost of development on IBM’s varied hardware platforms was becoming non-competitive. By extending Linux to run on some of IBM’s oldest and most proprietary
hardware platforms, IBM might be able to revitalize a server business that was
becoming a costly embarrassment.

Palmisano brought
together Wladawsky-Berger and an assortment of “old blue” hardware
and software veterans to take a hard look at the potential for Linux.
Wladawsky-Berger’s Linux strategy was a high-profile, high-risk option that quickly
evolved into Palmisano’s final examination for the corner office job. In
January 2000, Palmisano wrote, “we will embrace Linux” and declared that
the company would extend much of its proprietary software to run on
Linux. The memo generated speculation that Palmisano wanted to extend Linux to
re-inject some excitement into its motley assortment of midrange server
platforms, such as the RS6000 and AS400.

Last year, when other vendors were beginning to shy away from their
earlier enthusiasm for Linux, Palmisano continued to champion the
platform, more aggressively than ever. Last year he acted as
keynote speaker of LinuxWorld, joking that “when I looked over
at the Penguin and saw he was wearing a [IBM-style] blue tie,” he
knew that IBM and Linux were ready to do business together.

They have.

Linux was the bridge that allowed the company to redevelop and
reposition its server line into a force to be reckoned with, gathering market
share even as the global market for servers declined. The company has
promised billions of dollars to further develop Linux products and services. To date, the
company has spent tens of millions in marketing and advertising Linux equipment
and services. It has engaged its R&D arm to find new ways to extend
the code base and apply it to a bewildering array of new products.

Today, the extent to which IBM has gone to embed Linux cannot be
over estimated. IBM hasn’t put Linux into a toaster or refrigerator yet,
but it has put it into
a watch. It experimented with Linux-based cash registers. It is showing a Linux-based vending machine at this week’s LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. Today, Linux is at the center
of the company’s newest mainframe. More is coming soon.

It is far from certain whether IBM will be able to generate big
profits from Linux. The company has missed its most recent revenue projections.
Both the services unit and the hardware division slowed sharply, pushing total revenue down by more than 10%. However, Palmisano has ridden the Linux wave this far, and it is unlikely that the company will back off, at least in the short term. So, for now, one of the biggest companies in the world is a Linux company. It could get interesting.

IntnsRed writes, “According to this CNET article, IBM has nearly recouped the $1 billion its spent on GNU/Linux during 2001.”

Anonymous Reader writes, “eDonkey2000 has become an unlikely hero in the P2P world. Few anticipated this once humble network would achieve a userbase in excess of 100,000 users. eDonkey has been able to grow at a substantial rate and avoid legal wranglings with the RIAA due to its unique, OpenNap/DirectConnect style network.”

http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2002/eDonkey.html

OpenLinux 3.1.1 is here. MozillaQuest Magazine (mozillaquest.com) reports: “Caldera International released minor, yet important, upgrades to its OpenLinux Workstation 3.1 and OpenLinux Server 3.1 today. The upgrades are OpenLinux Workstation 3.1.1 and OpenLinux Server 3.1.1. Along with Mandrake, Red Hat, and SuSE, Caldera is one of the four leading Linux OS distributions
”
Story at http://www.mozillaquest.com/Linux02/Caldera_3-1-1_ released_01_Story01.html. Also, check out the press release at Businesswire.com.

Ben Martin writes: “A new paper
by the Ferris guy “monkeyiq”.
Abstract: An XSQL like solution for exposing a relational database through server side parameterized SQL queries invoked through XSQL like CGI roundtrips. Ferris is used as the underlying tool to mount SQL queries and expose the results as a Filesystem or DOM.”

“I wanted to say thank you very much for letting me test drive a version of Microsoft Office for the latest Apple operating system, OS X. Office X has a really nice interface, and it looks like it has lots of nifty tools. But after playing around on it for a couple of days, I have to conclude that I’m not interested.” More at BusinessWeek.

PCWorld: ” A security flaw in Netscape Communications’ Navigator Web browser can let malicious Web site operators view the information stored in cookies on a user’s computer, according to a security note published on Netscape’s Web site.

The vulnerability affects Navigator versions 6 through 6.2, as well as version 0.9.6 and earlier versions of Mozilla, the open-source version of Navigator, according to an analysis written by Marc Slemko, who discovered the bug.”

Newsfactor Network writes: “Thanks to advancing technology and the growth of high-speed Internet service, home computer systems have become faster and more powerful. But they remain a favorite target of hackers and virus writers who are looking for easy prey with less fear of prosecution. Experts say that while home user security — primarily the use of antivirus and firewall software — is getting better, computer hackers are still taking advantage of home users’ overall lack of expertise and security resources to make “launching pads” out of their systems.”

vmlinuz writes: “After reading an article in Linuxjournal about radioparadise, a open-source radio station “non-commercial” I thought to myself, this place I must visit. A great radio station, and it even has a special program for the GNOME panel. Let’s listen to open-source radio.”

– by Tina Gasperson –
If vendors don’t have products to sell, they shouldn’t
be on the show floor at LWE, says an IDG World expo
official. And, he says, if you’re only coming for the
free stuff, you should probably stay home, too.

The mood at LinuxWorld Expo in New York City is much
more business-like than in previous years. There won’t
be any big shindigs upstairs with robotic servers, ice
sculptures, and flowing booze. Whether there’ll be free
T-shirts remains to be seen. One thing is for sure:
The one-show wonder vendors that were sipping the
mother’s milk of venture capital last year are gone.

What’s left is a leaner, meaner collection of serious
players in the growing Linux enterprise arena. And
that’s not just on the vendor side, says Rob
Scheschareg, IDG World’s v.p. of sales, marketing and
product development. “The demographics are changing.”
He says that the percentage of attendees coming from
businesses with 1,000 or more employees has jumped from
10 to 12% last year to 33% this year, and that’s more
attractive for vendors who really want to sell things
and not just give away schwag.

LinuxWorld is working to bring extra value to conference attendees and to
exhibitors, says Scheschareg. For example, IBM, Compaq, HP and AMD are
sponsoring “Customer Days” with special conferences and face-to-face meetings on
the exhibit floor that feature product demonstrations, tutorials and
first-person testimonials from happy buyers. “It’s a more intimate way to market
to specific customers,” he says.

The “Taste of Linux” series is new this year and features topics for newbies,
like “Linux 101” and “All About LUGs.” The sessions are included in the exhibits
pass and will be held right on the show floor. “Taste of Linux is modeled after
MacWorld’s Mac Beginnings sessions,” says Scheschareg. MacWorld is the only
other show produced by IDG that emphasizes the community, according to
Scheschareg, although LinuxWorld tops MacWorld when it comes to grassroots
support.

Even with all the concentration on getting down to business,
“LinuxWorld is still a community-based event,” he says. “We’ve had a good
relationship with the Linux community.” IDG still sponsors the .org pavilion,
which gives free booth space to non-profits; this year there are 24
.org booths. And now there’s “The Rookery,” a program IDG is using to help new
Linux businesses by offering a special turnkey exhibitor’s package deal.

“We can’t control the economy,” says Scheschareg. “But we can ask ourselves,
‘does the show keep getting better?’ And if the answer is yes, then we’re really
doing the best that we can.”