CNet reports on IBM’s participation in two Japanese Linux projects, including its new partnership with NEC, Fujitsu and Hitachi and a new
Japanese branch of the Open-Source Development Lab. More from Reuters.

A ZDNet columnist argues that Eazel’s failure shouldn’t affect Linux’s chances on the desktop. Other file managers are available in Gnome and KDE, the columnist says.

Fujitsu Limited, Hitachi Limited, IBM, and
NEC Corp.
today announced a partnership that will capitalize on the companies’
global
resources to refine features needed to drive Linux further into the
enterprise. The companies, implementing a shared common plan to
help Linux
mature, will work together with the Linux community to develop
various open
source projects.

By working on open source projects, the partnership will ultimately
offer
customers added Linux features to deploy in their enterprise. One of
the first
projects the companies will work on will be a serviceability project
designed
to enhance problem isolation, the ability to quickly and precisely
isolate
problems in running systems. Other projects planned include
scalability, and
NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access) capabilities for Linux. The
companies plan
to work closely with the open source community to gain their insights
and
acceptance, while delivering simple, modular, high-quality,
serviceable
results.

Today, enterprises and research are increasingly looking to Linux to
meet
their critical e-business applications. Linux is the fastest growing
server
operating system, growing at 166 percent last year according to IDC;
with the
number of users growing from about 1,000 in 1992 to about 9 million
last year.
By working together and with the Open Source Community, Fujitsu,
Hitachi, IBM
and NEC hope to accelerate that growth.

“Linux is rapidly becoming an enabler of e-business,” said Dr. Daniel
Frye,
Director, IBM Linux Technology Center. “This move today will help
ensure that
Linux gains in functionality and will ultimately provide technology
decision
makers a greater choice for their server environment.”

“Linux has proven itself to be a promising operating environment for
the
internet business. Hitachi believes it will continue to grow as an
essential
component for enterprise systems,” said Nobumasa Mori, general
manager of Open
Platform Solutions Operational Division. “Hitachi provides a wide
range of
Linux servers, from PC to Mainframe. We will also provide a variety
of
Middleware products on Linux, so that Linux can easily be deployed
both in the
internet and enterprise environments. Hitachi has experience and many
achievements in the enterprise system area. By making the most of its
technology and experience, Hitachi is ready to contribute to the
Linux
community.”

“Having been cultivated in the open source community, Linux has risen
with
remarkable speed to become an Internet server standard,” said Akira
Ozora,
general manager of Fujitsu Limited’s Linux Division. “Fujitsu will
supply
robust and efficient hardware and software components to penetrate
the
enterprise and public system Internet server markets. In this
regard, we
consider Linux to be an extremely important enabler of the Internet,
and we
intend to contribute as much as possible to improving the
reliability,
stability and scalability of Linux.”

“In addition to network servers, the usage of Linux is now being
expanded to
the enterprise servers,” said Hiroshi Katayama, Chief Manager, First
Computer
Software Division, NEC Solutions. “NEC will be able to contribute to
its
acceleration by providing its technology accumulated through long
experience
in this market under this alliance.”

About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a leading provider of Internet-focused information
technology
solutions for the global marketplace. Its pace-setting technologies,
best-in-class computing and telecommunications platforms, and
worldwide corps
of systems and services experts make it uniquely positioned to
unleash the
infinite possibilities of the Internet to help its customers succeed.
Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported
consolidated
revenues of 5.48 trillion yen for the fiscal year ended March 31,
2001.
Internet: http://www.fujitsu.com/

About Hitachi
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world’s
leading
global electronics companies, with fiscal 2000 (ended March 31, 2001)
consolidated sales of 8,417 billion yen ($67.9 billion*) The company
manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including
computers,
semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment.
For more
information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi’s Web site at
http://global.hitachi.com
* At an exchange rate of 124 yen to the dollar

About IBM
IBM is the world’s largest information technology company, with 80
years of
leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM creates, develops and
manufactures the industry’s most advanced information technologies,
including
computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices and
microelectronics. The fastest way to get more information about IBM
is through
the IBM home page at http://www.ibm.com.

About NEC
NEC Corporation (NASDAQ: NIPNY) (FTSE: 6701q.l) is a leading provider
of
Internet solutions, dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its
customers in the key computer, network and electron device fields
through its
three market-focused in-house companies: NEC Solutions, NEC Networks
and NEC
Electron Devices. NEC Corporation, with its in-house companies,
employs more
than 150,000 people worldwide and saw net sales of 5,409 billion Yen
(approx.
US$43 billion) in fiscal year 2000-2001. For further information,
please visit
the NEC home page at: http://www.nec.com

Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. The IBM e-business logo is a
trademarks of IBM Corporation. All others are trademarks of their
respective
companies.

– By Grant Gross –
IBM and three Japanese computer makers are banding together to pump up Linux’s functionality for the enterprise business market.

IBM, Fujitsu, Hitachi, and NEC already have thousands of developers working with members of the Linux community on Linux-for-the-enterprise projects, but today’s agreement will help the four companies avoid duplication and speed up results, says Dan Powers, director of Internet technologies for IBM. The four companies have worked together on the Open Source Development Lab.

The companies aren’t planning something as formal as a project hosting site; instead focusing more on steps such as introducing developers working on similar projects. IBM alone has about 2,000 developers working on Linux projects, Powers estimates, and the four companies will welcome others who want to join them.

“We felt it probably made sense that we should deepen or expand the relationships that we already had, with the thought that four heads are better than one,” Powers says. “It’s all about speed and collaboration, trying to get these enhancements out into Linux quicker.”

In a press release titled, “Leading Linux companies announce alliance to help Linux mature,” the companies gave examples of projects they will work together on. One is a “serviceability project designed to enhance problem isolation, the ability to quickly and precisely isolate problems in running systems,” according to the press release. Another project Other projects planned include scalability and non-uniform memory access capabilities for Linux.

Powers says the three PC makers are also interested in IBM’s Project eLiza, a effort to make “self-healing” servers that can manage their own problems and fix them. Much of eLiza’s focus will be on IBM’s Linux server platform, Powers adds.

Powers says the partnership also demonstrates the interest in Linux from the Asia-Pacific market, where IBM signed a Linux kiosk deal with convenience store chain Lawson Inc. last fall. “Everybody’s very interested over there about the price performance they’re getting out of Linux and access to a huge skills base of services companies,” he says.

The call for enterprise enhancements to Linux have come both from people in the Linux community and from IBM customers, Powers says. “When you talk to CIOs, before they’ll adopt anything in their enterprise, they’re extremely concerned about the scalability, the performance, the availability,” he adds. “With Linux being an Open Source project, they potentially take a step back and say, ‘Is it ready for prime time?’ We think it is, but it can only get better.”

Bill Kendrick writes, “Angela LeWinter of Agenda Computing reported on their ‘agenda-announce’ mailing list that the first batch of Agenda VR3 Linux-based PDAs are shipping today. She writes: ‘I HAVE AMAZING NEWS!!! 🙂 The Agenda VR3 ships today! Yes! It’s true…
We will send out the first 200’ish orders today, then the remainder of
orders tomorrow.’ You can read her entire post here.”

Rorsharch writes, “The Register today reported on coverage in the national media surrounding Tony Blair’s visit to the UK Microsoft campus.
Here’s the story. ‘Tony Blair spent about an hour at the software giant’s Reading HQ, where his party chose to launch its business manifesto.

Tony and Cherie were given a ten-minute demonstration of Windows XP surrounded by gawping Microsoft staff …
Meanwhile, the opposition parties raged against what was seen as Labour endorsing a commercial product.'”

Bradley M. Kuhn writes, “An audio recording of Stallman’s speech at NYU is now available. We at the FSF expect to have a text transcript of the speech available by the end of the day tomorrow.”

LinuxUser has a story about a Microsoft-designed U.K. government Web site doesn’t work with anything but Microsoft products. “As we go to press, the authentication service www.gateway.gov.uk, flagship of the UK government’s ambitious
policy of providing a complete range of services electronically by 2005, restricts access to anybody not
running a combination of Windows and Internet Explorer. Mac users can enter the Gateway site but cannot do
anything useful. Windows users running any version of Mozilla or Opera are barred from entry. Anybody else,
including those running Linux or Unix of any flavour, is not welcome. They are told that they are running an
unsupported browser.”

LWN.net posted an email calling for papers in the Australian Unix User Group’s
Annual Conference, Sept. 23-28 in Sydney.

Joshua Marshall writes, “Devshed.com has a new article. Python 101 (part 1): Snake Eyes delves into Python’s history, basic syntax, and concepts. Here’s a sample: Perhaps it’s just my imagination, but Python programmers seem to command a great deal more respect than their Perl or PHP counterparts. In the consciously-elitist world of software engineering, a developer with a few years of Python under his belt gets the best cubicle, the prettiest girl and the respect of his neighbours; people move out of the way when he strides down the hall, and colleagues turn to him for creative and elegant solutions to the problems they encounter. Walk into a job interview and mention Python when reciting your qualifications; you’ll immediately see a glint of recognition in the interviewer’s eyes, an awareness that, in the hierarchy of software developers, you’re one of the top guns.”