– By Dan Berkes –
“Clean air. Walk to work. Rocky Mountain National Park is less than 45 minutes from here.” That’s how Kai Staats describes living in Loveland, Colo., and working at Terra Soft Solutions. Perhaps the only thing more refreshing than the Rocky Mountain scenery are the innovative PowerPC-based Linux products that his company has created.Terra Soft co-founder and CEO Kai Staats was busy developing Web sites and doing marketing consulting work through his Terra Firma Design company. Business was good, but there was a problem with how his work, and by extension, the work of his clients was presented. “We hosted our Web sites on servers that we neither owned or maintained,” says Staats, “and so in 1997 [we] brought our servers in-house. I wanted Apple hardware, and my sys-admin [Terra Soft co-founder and CIO Dan Burcaw] wanted Linux. We used MKLinux at first, tried LinuxPPC, and decided we could produce a better product.”

That better product made the Linux distribution scene in April 1999, when Terra Soft Solutions announced the availability of Yellow Dog Linux Champion Server 1.0. Now known simply as Yellow Dog Linux, the 2.0 version arrived to rave reviews this summer. As with any Linux distribution, the roster of Yellow Dog Linux users is quite diverse, including HBO, America Online, Boeing, and yes, Apple Computer, a company that Terra Soft has worked hard to develop a relationship Staats has described as “positive, supportive.”

Later that summer, Terra Soft introduced Black Lab Linux, described on its Web page as an “enhancement” package for Yellow Dog Linux. Black Lab offers additional features for clustering and embedded development needs. Institutional users including Sandia National Laboratories, MIT’s Media Lab, and NASA divisions from Ames to Langley have availed themselves of Black Lab Linux. In fact, Staats recently finished installing a 16-node Yellow briQ cluster at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labs at the end of August.

Why Linux? “All the good reasons,” says Staats. “Open source. A diverse suite of applications and development tools. Stable. Fast. A community effort. People truly believe in Linux and use it because they choose to, not because their company policy dictates they must despite their personal preference.”

Last year, Terra Soft started researching alternative PowerPC platforms for their Linux distributions. That search yielded an OEM partner, Total Impact, the company behind the hardware that makes up the Yellow briQ Node. Its bright yellow casing sets it apart from the usual drab assortment of data center hardware. So do the PowerPCs under the hood — G3 or G4 processors running at 500MHz.

This past summer, California’s power crisis made headline news around the U.S. That crisis seems to have largely vanished the moment utility companies secured sky-high rate increases, leaving businesses with higher monthly electric bills in the process. Staats has an excellent reason for choosing a PowerPC system — a briQ, hopefully — over that of any x86 offering: “PowerPC offers considerably less power consumption with an individual briQ operating as low as 15 watts. Eight nodes consume roughly 300 watts combined, which is less than a single Pentium.”

Technical advantages help, too: “PowerPC offers the AltiVec technology, a Motorola DSP that processes 32-bit (single precision code) in parallel to two additional data pipes (integer and floating point). This is how a 500-MHz G4 can out perform a gigahertz x86 in many instances.” Staats offers examples on his company’s sites, including a handy chart and a list of additional resources.

While briQ sales have been good, Staats acknowledged that selling hardware has its own unique challenges. “The sales cycle is longer than that for software and takes some getting used to as with [the Department of Energy], we may consume a year or more to close the sale. Their funds are allocated far in advance.”

In addition to doing well in the public sector, Staats said that ISPs and even private individual sales are picking up with each favorable review and customer testimonial. And PowerPC platforms, regardless of maker, seem to have a special place in the hearts of media companies. Staats said that several cable channels are interested in using the briQs as a back-end video rendering solution.

There’s much in store for Terra Soft in the next couple of months. Yellow Dog Linux 2.1 is expected to make its debut during the first week of October, along with a new book title, Getting Started with Yellow Dog Linux. The latest version of Black Lab Linux will be ready soon after that release. And company representatives will be on hand at Cluster 2001 in Newport Beach, Calif., and SC2001 in Denver, Colo., to make the most of those new releases.

“We’re still in business,” says Staats, “proud to have survived the dot-bombs. Watch the briQ closely, it’s an exciting part of our future.”

Kelly McNeill writes “A coalition of four highly respected consumer groups on Wednesday formally accused Microsoft Corporation of continuing its historic pattern of anti-competitive behavior. The coalition said Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows XP, “advances the company’s illegal anti-competitive practices and harms the nation’s consumers.” In a joint statement, the Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Media Access Project and the U.S. Public Research Interest Group said the “economy will be threatened and consumers harmed if Windows XP and its tightly bundled version of Internet software hits shelves as planned.””

From MSNBC: “The Bush administration is pressing Congress to approve the most sweeping expansion of federal law-enforcement authority since the Cold War. But would U.S. officials even know what to do with the deluge of information their new power could make available?”

From IBM: “This article takes a look at a little shell application that uses an innovative approach to increasing open UNIX security. A step-by-step analysis of the code is provided. The author’s areas of expertise are in Web programming and cutting-edge network security development.”

Kelly McNeill writes “With the advent of such destructive viruses as the Nimda worm, users of alternative operating systems have been boasting about how much more secure their boxes are when compared to Microsoft’s Windows. As if to say that their machines are somehow immune to virus attacks. Despite uninformative comments suggesting otherwise, these virus outbreaks are not based on questions regarding Microsoft’s security (or lack thereof). Instead, it’s an issue of logistics. Alternative operating systems were not spared from these attacks because of their supposed superior security, but were instead spared because these computing environments are small fish.”

From ZDNet: “Two start-ups that hoped to popularize skinny, energy-efficient servers using Transmeta Crusoe processors are throwing in the towel. FirstCycle, which hoped to market ultradense “blade” servers with Crusoe chips, is in the process of winding down operations, CEO Spero Koulouras said Wednesday. The size of the staff has dropped from 33 to about 10.” The other is server-appliance maker Rebel.com.

“Intel has slapped suits against VIA and sundry allies in Germany, the UK and Hong
Kong.

It accuses VIA of infringing eight Intel patents with the P4X266 chipset and VIA’s
new C3 processor. By adding the C3 processor to the patent charge sheet, and by
taking the battle to so many countries, Intel is clearly in little mood for small talk.” Full report at The Register.

“Linux, an open-source Unix cousin, has captured a lot attention from many of technology’s most powerful
juggernauts. The Linux operating system is used in systems ranging from personal digital assistants (PDAs) and
Tivos (digital VCR-like machines) to IBM mainframes and supercomputers. Last year, IBM pledged to spend $1
billion on Linux and offers Linux on all of its servers. Big Blue along with Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Computer
Associates is backing the non-profit Open Source Development Lab. The Lab is charged with helping to bring
enterprise class enhancements to Linux and other open-source software.

Why then are IT shops taking a go-slow approach?” Read the full article at searchWin2000.com.

From Nicholas Petreley, at ComputerWorld: “The [Linux Standards Base] moved at a glacial pace for years, but it recently picked up speed
when Scott McNeil took over the reins. Now executive director of the Free Standards Group, paid by IBM as an artist
in residence, McNeil is no stranger to Linux, having paid his dues as president of SuSE Linux and in various roles at VA
Linux.

McNeil knows that I had pretty much written off LSB as irrelevant, so he recently dragged me to a room full of
representatives from companies like Hewlett-Packard and Sun to convince me otherwise. I left both encouraged and
disappointed. “

From osOpinion: “Anyone not living on the moon for the past few days has either heard of or been affected by the Nimda worm.

This worm appears to be one of the most destructive pieces of software yet, and has wreaked havoc on a large percentage of Internet users and
businesses throughout the world. Reports of entire companies shutting down for days are not uncommon as IT departments and system administrators
struggle to clean machines and install patches.

When Nimda first appeared, everyone seemed to be in a state of panic and frustration, yet my company continued business as usual. Our servers and
workstations were completely unaffected. The Nimda scare was merely an article on Slashdot among all the other tech articles of the day. Why?

We run Unix.”