Server applications

Editorials

Debian: A Brief Retrospective
August 16, 2003 marked the 10th anniversary of the most popular non-commercial distribution ever: Debian GNU/Linux. To mark the occasion, Debian founder Ian Murdock gives this look back at the origins of Debian and a look ahead to the new crossroads Linux is about to face.
Friday, August 15, 2003 10:29:58 AM EST

Interviews

Steering the Linux Course at IBM
The fact that Linux is big business for IBM should come as no surprise to those who follow Big Blue. During the last decade IBM has steadily ramped up its Linux efforts to the point where it has now become a core offering across IBM's server and software product lines. In this interview, IBM's Inna Kuznetsova spoke about her role at IBM, the challenges she faces and her view on Microsoft's patent allegations and GPL version 3.
Monday, September 17, 2007 01:13:49 PM EST

What Can System Administrators Learn from Programmers?
Although we often hear about program bugs and techniques to get rid of them, we seldom see a similar focus in the field of system administration. LinuxPlanet asked Diomidis Spinellis, the author of the book Code Quality: The Open Source Perspective, for tips on what system administrators can learn from programmers.
Friday, July 21, 2006 11:23:50 AM EST

Open Source Java: Interview with an Apache Harmony Project Founder
There is a lot of open source activity currently surrounding Java, from JBoss and Geronimo (open source application servers) to MyFaces and Spring (open source web application frameworks), but Java itself is the last proprietary piece of the puzzle. If Harmony is successful, will Sun still matter?
Monday, February 27, 2006 11:11:00 AM EST

Deploying OpenLDAP: Interview with the Author
Tom Jackiewicz is the author of Deploying OpenLDAP, a title that aims to dissolve many of the myths and cover the mechnanics of using OpenLDAP in your organization. Martin C. Brown talks to Jackiewicz about his book, his job (managing OpenLDAP servers), and what he does when he isn't working on an LDAP problem.
Monday, June 20, 2005 10:56:36 AM EST

$1 Billion Well Spent?
After you've taken the largest computer company in the world and nimbly embraced one of the most important new phenomena in the industry, spending a tidy $1 billion in the process, what do you do for Act 2? That's the question facing Jim Stallings as he takes over the reins of IBM's Linux initiative. LinuxPlanet contributor Robert McMillan spoke with Stallings recently to ask him about his vision for the future of Linux and to try and get him to answer the big question: How much is IBM spending on Linux today?
Thursday, April 24, 2003 01:18:36 PM EST

Oracle Gets Serious About Free Software
After years of contributing to the Linux kernel via third parties like Red Hat or SuSE, Oracle is now focusing on more direct participation on the Linux kernel list. And, in the next few weeks it is planning to release a major overhaul of its open source developer site. Robert McMillan interiews Oracle's Linux point man Wim Coekaerts.
Thursday, March 20, 2003 10:12:57 AM EST

Opinions

Innovation in Free Software is No Fantasy
Those who have experienced free software projects firsthand know that they depend on innovation and genrally foster it. And although this isn't a highly innovative era for the computer industry as a whole, free software is an exception--and likely to become more of one as it continues to come into its own. In fact, the very idea of free software is one of the most innovative ideas in the history of computing.
Monday, December 10, 2007 10:57:20 AM EST

Put The Power of Linux Into Your Business
So, Mr. Small- and Medium-Businessman, what's holding you up? Don't you need to run a Web site, be able to transfer files around your office, or automate some processes so they run 24/7? Wouldn't you like to put the worry of a virus wiping out your valuable data out of your mind? Have you ever thought about how nice it would be to buy one DVD and be able to load it on all the machines in your company?
Monday, May 14, 2007 10:46:05 AM EST

To Serve Small Business
"IT service companies have been telling small businesses 'trust us' for a long time. With nowhere else to turn, our customers trusted us to deliver reliable and economical IT solutions. Was their trust misplaced? Happy with the status quo, failing to investigate or innovate alternatives, have we simply been feeding off our customers?"
Thursday, December 1, 2005 10:04:46 AM EST

Is the Importance of Commercial Linux Distributions Waning?
Maria Winslow gives her take on the power of commercial distros: "The conventional wisdom asserts (and I have argued as well) that only a commercial Linux distribution can provide the 'whole product' to customers, and make the shift to widespread mainstream adoption. But now I'm not so sure..."
Monday, June 13, 2005 02:56:56 PM EST

LinuxWorld Expo New Haven for Corporate Users, Vendors
The end of the Linux as a geek-oriented operating system has officially arrived. This change has been coming for quite a while and it was confirmed last week during the LinuxWorld Expo in Manhattan. Is it a joyous occasion or a requiem for the beanbag chairs? LinuxPlanet Editor Brian Proffitt reports on the change from within.
Sunday, January 26, 2003 10:00:39 AM EST

Editor's Note: RIP: Linux on the Desktop
With the departure of Eazel and the inability of anyone to make a buck on selling a desktop-oriented Linux distribution, it's time to write the obituary for Linux on the desktop -- or at least admit that it's unlikely that Linux world domination via the desktop will occur any time soon. Instead, writes Kevin Reichard, we should take joy that Linux has become a valuable and essential server operating system, and that when planning for the future we should build on that success, rather than lamenting the demise of Linux on the desktop.
Monday, May 21, 2001 01:17:44 PM EST

.comment: What Are We Shooting For, Anyway?
It's great that Linux is scalable to the point that it runs on both an Intel box and an S/390 mainframe, but for Dennis E. Powell, Linux won't truly be a success until it conquers the final frontier: the desktop. In this column, he explores the factors that are inhibiting Linux on the desktop -- including a lack of support from distribution packagers.
Wednesday, March 21, 2001 08:43:05 AM EST

Editor's Note: Linux in 2001
In the span of 14 months, Linux has gone from a really cool underground technology to the toast of Wall Street to a firmly established player in the enteprise and corporate-computing worlds. What will Linux bring in 2001? Kevin Reichard thinks that Linux will continue its rise as a enabling technology, but that it still faces a lot of challenges as a standalone technology, especially where the desktop is concerned.
Monday, January 22, 2001 04:01:14 PM EST

Ramen and the Danger of Default Linux Configurations
The security field is all aflutter about a worm that takes advantage of well-known security lapses in Red Hat Linux -- lapses that most experienced Linux system administrators addressed back in September 2000. And while the so-called Ramen worm doesn't do a whole lot of damage to Linux systems, it does point out the need for constant awareness to security issues -- beginning with the default configurations offered by most Linux distributions. Kevin Reichard reports.
Thursday, January 18, 2001 02:05:38 PM EST

Deep Dark Truthful Mirror
As Linux continues to grow in popularity, its most ardent fans must begin to acknowledge the inevitable: that Linux moust coexist in a world that doesn't always play by the rules. In this op-ed, Lou Grinzo points out five truths that Linux fans must face.
Friday, July 7, 2000 08:53:05 AM EST

Rant Mode Equals One: Shhh--We're Winning
Fresh from attending ApacheCon, Paul Ferris reflects on how the Open Source movement is changing how users approach their software acquisitions, as well as how Apache has succeeded in the marketplace.
Sunday, March 12, 2000 10:53:19 AM EST

Editor's Note: Microsoft's Potemkin Village
Criticism of Linux usually centers around the lack of applications when compared to the wide variety of available Windows applications. Yet Microsoft unveils Windows 2000 and can only come up with 21--that's right, 21--applications certified to work under W2K. Potemkin Village or Hooverville? You decide.
Wednesday, March 1, 2000 11:44:46 PM EST

Reports

Reflections on Open Source Commerce, Part 2
Linux on the desktop has yet to gain any real market presence. Despite the unrest over Microsoft Windows Vista, the companies that focus on Linux as a business have yet to deliver a go-to-market proposition that is compelling for the consumer, for the retailer, distributors, and original equipment manufacturers. Author John Terpstra continues his look at the challenges facing the desktop and server markets, with a close examination of current market dynamics.
Friday, May 16, 2008 09:39:23 AM EST

Reflections on Open Source Commerce, Part 1
It has been more than two years since the Yin and Yang article was published on LinuxPlanet. Now, open source expert and author John Terpstra revisits the state of the Linux desktop and server in today's market and highlights the challenges Linux faces to succeed.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 09:58:56 AM EST

Benchmarking Linux With the Phoronix Test Suite
The Phoronix Test Suite is for testing hardware performance under Linux. It's still very young and incomplete, but it's worth getting acquainted with--it is based on the the scripts developed by the fine folks at Phoronix for hardware testing.
Thursday, April 24, 2008 10:29:29 AM EST

Force.com: Salesforce Moves into the Platform Business
One of the more interesting technologies I've been exposed to in the past year is the Force.com platform. Salesforce.com, well known for their Software as a Service CRM product, has taken the expertise they've garnered delivering a high-capacity application to a global market, and used it to offer the underlying infrastructure to application developers.
Monday, April 21, 2008 11:02:25 AM EST

Indiana's Calling, Is Anyone Listening?
Telling the story of Project Indiana is not an easy one. Headlines like "Sun hopes for Linux-like Solaris" or "Sun OpenSolaris to become more 'Linux-like'" have published, accompanying similarly themed articles. The problem is, this assertion is not quite on the mark. LinuxPlanet talked with several members of Sun's OpenSolaris team to discern just what the deal is.
Friday, July 27, 2007 01:41:24 PM EST

QuickBooks and Linux: A Server Story
For a lot of small-to-medium-sized business, the holdout has been Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions. Despite its "Enterprise" name, Intuit has aimed the product at businesses ranging from 50 to 250 people. For many businesses, this accounting server is now the de facto standard for financial organization, but it has been available only for Windows. But no longer--now you can buy Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions for Linux. Well, with limits.
Thursday, June 28, 2007 11:39:18 AM EST

Measuring Linux and Open Source
As Linux continues to move into the enterprise data center, its power and speed are often touted as being stronger and faster compared to other operating systems. But how much faster? And what numbers are used to determine its performance? One decades-old organization has already explored the paths of computer measurement, and is hoping to lend Linux the benefits of the trails it has already blazed.
Monday, June 25, 2007 10:05:46 AM EST

Learn Your Linux Clustering Options
"Cluster" is probably the most heavily abused term in the computing world. In this article we'll talk about what a cluster really is, and give an overview of the Linux technologies that can help you implement various types of clusters. The main focus will of course be on building clusters for highly available services
Tuesday, May 29, 2007 08:32:46 AM EST

Linux Kernel Launches Hardware Management Features
The 2.6 Linux kernel has been one amazing roller-coaster ride of excellent new features and changes coming faster than you can say "git along now, little patchies." Hardware detection and management, and removable media management are probably the most obvious changes to users.
Monday, May 7, 2007 10:27:42 AM EST

San Francisco Turns To Open Source For Mapping Urban Forest
How can open source software be harnessed to help solve environmental issues? The City of San Francisco is now starting to find that out, by turning to MapGuide Open Source software for use in its "urban forest" initiative.
Friday, March 30, 2007 10:03:46 AM EST

Symantec Takes On Virtualization Management Across Environments
With its announcements this week around virtualization and Red Hat Linux, Symantec is moving beyond a past strategy of providing tools for multiple OS to a new vision of managing multiple virtualization environments. In this emerging area of heterogenuous virtualization management, Symantec is also bound to face plenty of competition from companies ranging from Microsoft to VMware and XenSource. But Symantec is well up to the challenge, according to some analysts who are deeply steeped in virtualization technologies.
Thursday, March 15, 2007 03:32:00 PM EST

Upstart Plans to Ease Linux Management
Ubuntu has an interesting project called Upstart, which is a replacement for the traditional Unix init system. The goals of Upstart are ambitious: to modernize and streamline the boot process, control user tasks, and manage services. Carla Schroder examines how this new project will work.
Thursday, March 8, 2007 10:15:16 AM EST

Tresys Nails 'Hardened Security' With Brickwall & Upcoming Razor
After releasing Brickwall Security Suite in January, open source security specialist Tresys Technology is forging ahead on a user symposium slated for March, plus work with IBM around Razor, its second commercial product for smoothing implementation of the SELinux "hardened security" now included in the Linux kernel.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 09:07:36 PM EST

Openbravo's ERP Draws International Cheers
With open-source ERP deployments now starting to take more hold, Spanish-based Openbravo is quickly gaining international penetration, garnering as many as 20,000 downloads a month of its Web-based software from all over the world.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007 01:31:45 PM EST

The State of Enterprise Linux
For more than 20 years, Unix played the role of the 800 pound gorilla in the server space, especially in enterprise, scientific, government and academic environments. But traditional Unix vendors have faced increasing competition on two fronts. Microsoft Windows Server products have made significant inroads, particularly in the business back-end. To a lesser extent, but cutting closer to the bone, is competition from Linux.
Monday, February 5, 2007 11:22:42 AM EST

Zimbra Pursues Microsoft, Novell With Revamped Software, Red Hat Pact
Open source-based messaging and collaboration specialist Zimbra is picking up more steam in its bid to compete against Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWare, with the release of Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 4.5 today and intentions to roll out a 5.0 update--plus an expanded deal with Red Hat Software--later this year.
Monday, January 29, 2007 09:49:41 AM EST

Linux Dodges Microsoft In Retail Vertical Space
In the face of a big vertical marketing blitz by Microsoft, keenly evident at last week's National Retail Federation (NRF) show, several retailers in the "household name" category keep forging ahead with Linux implementations of their internal computer systems anyway. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007 11:01:18 AM EST

Virtualization Gets A Grip In 2006
When it comes to Linux servers, a few months can make a whole lot of difference. Earlier this year, Red Hat, Novell, and most major Linux vendors were doing their best to fend off Windows Virtualized Server by getting their own virtualization offerings out the door first. Jacqueline Emigh concludes this three-part series on Linux in 2006.
Sunday, December 31, 2006 09:53:34 PM EST

Enterprise Linux 2006--A Year Of Deals
In the enterprise Linux space, 2006 was marked by greater expansion of Linux into vertical markets, new products, and most notably, a string of surprise business deals among vendors. The year also bore witness to an increasing trend, of sorts, among Novell, Oracle, and other software companies to justify their actions on the basis of "customer demand." Jacqueline Emigh reports
Saturday, December 30, 2006 09:11:10 PM EST

Heading Beyond Wall Street--HP's Linux-Enabled Blade Workstation
Hewlett-Packard is eyeing additional markets for a new Linux-enabled remote blade workstation solution, already in use at Lloyds TSB and several other big financial trading firms. Jacqueline Emigh gets the low-down on a groundbreaking product line HP is introducing in the financial sector.
Monday, December 11, 2006 03:16:29 PM EST

Hovsepian: Balancing on the Novell-MS Tightrope
A lot has been said about the hows of the Novell-Microsoft deal, but what about the whys? What motivated Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian to initiate a deal with Linux's No. 1 Enemy? In this interview, Hovsepian reveals the business realities behind the move, and that when it comes to Microsoft, Novell knows full well who it's dealing with.
Thursday, November 30, 2006 02:17:09 PM EST

New Linux Security Products Glimmer On Horizon
Beyond displaying an extensive slate of existing Linux products, vendors at this week's InfoSecurity show pointed to possible future offerings ranging from a Linux client for a CD-ROM encryption system to a Linux-enabled all-in-one device for securing both physical access and video surveillance.
Friday, October 27, 2006 10:09:34 AM EST

At Intel's Request, Glide Online Suite To Get Linux Client, Back End
Under urging from Intel Corp., TransMedia's Glide online applications suite--an emerging competitor to Microsoft Office--will gain a Linux desktop client in January of next year plus a Linux version of its back-end infrastructure during the March 2007 timeframe. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Monday, October 16, 2006 03:07:35 PM EST

Bugzilla Makes Big Trucks Better
Adapting the popular Open Source Bugzilla framework proved a great way to track the Komatsu manufacturing process. Rob Reilly files this report on a unique solution to a long-standing problem.
Monday, October 9, 2006 10:19:18 AM EST

Open Sourcer Qlusters Launches Commercial Sys Management
Today, open source player Qlusters will roll out the first commercial edition of its multiplatform systems management architecture, aiming its new OpenQRM Pro product at SMB and enterprise customers that don't want to pay the heftier prices of existing offerings from IBM, HP, and BMC.
Monday, September 25, 2006 10:13:51 AM EST

Software Compliance Gets Easier to Manage
Software license compliance is not one of those issues that just leaps out and screams for assistance, but if you are running a software development shop with multiple projects with multiple developers on each project, license compliance is a very serious issue to contemplate indeed.
Monday, September 25, 2006 09:34:00 AM EST

Serving Non-Profits: A Case Study
The challenges of deploying open source in a non-profit environment are real, but not insurmountable. One Georgia business makes a living deploying IT solutions to K-12 schools, and reveals how they have been successful using open source to do it.
Thursday, September 14, 2006 09:54:45 AM EST

The Challenges of Open Source in Non-Profits
Open source seems to present a number of obstacles to those making technical purchasing decisions in those businesses that are classified non-profit. The interesting facet of this discussion, however, is that the same business needs exist in not-for-profit institutions as it does in for-profit ones. At the end of the day, each organization has to have money in the bank to conduct its affairs. Ian Hodge files his debut report for LinuxPlanet.
Monday, September 11, 2006 11:44:26 AM EST

GroundWork to Break New Net Management Ground at Interop
When the Interop trade show unfolds in New York next month, its underlying network infrastructure will be managed and monitored by GroundWork Monitor 7, a new edition of a Linux-based software offering that mixes open source tools with unabashedly proprietary middleware.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006 02:01:09 PM EST

LinuxWorld Analysts Cite Hottest Open Source Trends
What are some of the hottest trends in the Linux/open source market today? Avid activity among some resellers, abundant virtualization, and a growing tendency to mixed open source/proprietary deployments, according to a trio of top industry analysts, who helped to preview LinuxWorld San Francisco.
Wednesday, August 9, 2006 02:58:27 PM EST

Big Blue Gets Cool
With its new round of "Cool Blue" PC servers, rolled out last week, IBM is starting to push HPC (high-performance computing) beyond the scientific-technical niche and into the mainstream, particularly among SMBs (small to mid-sized businesses). Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Monday, August 7, 2006 02:42:57 PM EST

Finding the Open Source Tipping Point
When open source developers gather on a panel to discuss whether "all software will go open source," you can expect the sentiment to tip that way, only with lots of arguments. A recent AlwaysOn Innovation Summit planel explored this very question and others.
Thursday, August 3, 2006 10:42:49 AM EST

Defense Department Marches Towards Open Source
In a new initiative to spur more use of open source software within the US Defense Department, the department's Office of Advanced Systems and Concepts has begun teaming up with Red Hat, Novell, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and AMD--along with big systems integrators and "non-traditional" open source companies--to glean insights that will help shorten the learning curve to deployment. Jacqueline Emigh reports
Monday, July 31, 2006 03:34:26 PM EST

This is Red Hat Calling
Linux leader Red Hat is aggressively pushing its Linux solutions into the telecom space with a series of new partner initiatives. Sean Michael Kerner examines Red Hat's new incursions into the world of telecommunications.
Monday, July 24, 2006 03:06:06 PM EST

A New Router, a New Direction for a Router Maker
Using open source software, a rational license policy, and modular hardware, this router company is challenging the marketplace with lower prices and all the features, carving out a cost conscious niche for itself.
Thursday, July 13, 2006 10:01:08 AM EST

Linux Gains Ground in Wall Street Nooks, Crannies
Behind the scenes on Wall Street, who is really using Linux? Although developers remain the major practitioners, Linux is also making headway these days as a grid platform for transaction processing, a place for running algorithmic trading engines, and even as a desktop environment, according to participants in this week's SIA (Securities Industry Association) conference in New York City. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Friday, June 23, 2006 02:20:50 PM EST

Computing for a Cure
Silver anniversaries are normally joyous occasions, but not this one. June 5, 2005 marked the 25th anniversary of the discovery of AIDS. Amid the calls for greater awareness and increased funding was recognition that, from a medical viewpoint, billions of dollars spent on research had produced little progress in recent years. Find out how Linux is part of the fight to cure this disease once and for all.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006 01:41:47 PM EST

Open Source a Judgment Standard
Open Source is changing the way that Gartner Group measures the application development market. The big loser as a result may well be proprietary Java application development tools, according to this Sean Michael Kerner report.
Thursday, June 1, 2006 11:41:11 AM EST

Linux Computing at MIT
It is the institution that is arguably the home of free software, as well as so many other important technologies. So it comes as no surprise that the IT infrastructure at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology depends on Linux. Rob Reilly takes a tourist's look at the nuts and bolts of MIT information systems.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006 09:06:26 AM EST

New OpenClovis Project Builds Communication Systems
Formerly known as Clovis Solutions, Inc., OpenClovis has announced it has launched the OpenClovis Software Project, contributing more than 500,000 lines of carrier-grade application service code to developers under the GNU General Public License. Rob Reilly reports on how the carrier-grade industry will be affected by the onset of more open source technology.
Monday, May 15, 2006 01:40:56 PM EST

Unitrends Adds Linux Hot Snapshotting To Appliance-Based Rapid Recovery
Servers crash. Hard drives die. Users delete files they want back. OS patches don't work. It's possible to recover... if you've got the right files, the right spare hardware, enough time, and enough knowledge. Daniel P. Dern reports on one new product that uses Linux to provide rapid, bare-metal recovery in a snap.
Thursday, April 27, 2006 09:24:02 AM EST

Linux Rising in Financial Firms; But Some Users Wonder Why
Among early adopters of Linux, Wall Street looms as tall as its skycrapers. But why are some financial services firms starting to take giant steps into Linux, and what stands in the way of even bigger penetration? Jacqueline Emigh files this report from this week's Linux on Wall Street show in New York City.
Thursday, April 27, 2006 09:15:14 AM EST

Novell Chips Away at Microsoft's Desktop Dominance
In an effort to break some of Microsoft's stranglehold on the desktop, Novell is taking new steps in the product and pricing arenas to attract customers who want to move either gradually or quickly to Linux. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Monday, April 3, 2006 09:18:58 AM EST

OpenVZ Delivers Easy Virtualization
Understanding virtualization is not an easy thing to do. The concept of many virtual machines running on board a single physical machine sounds all well and good but to many, even in the IT field, the idea seems rather, well... virtual. Brian Proffitt reports on one open source approach to virtualization that is getting a lot of attention, including from Linux kernel developers.
Thursday, March 9, 2006 10:32:06 AM EST

Wall Street: Linux Gets a Lift from Web Services, Tech Support
Are Linux and open source implementations rising on Wall Street? "Yes," said participants in a financial services IT trade show held this week in New York City, who cited Web services and incremental improvements to tech support as two big drivers. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 10:37:36 PM EST

Collax Takes Appliance Approach to Push Linux into SMBs
In the early days of the Internet, a software appliance would have been called a "turnkey solution," so the idea is nothing new. But that hasn't stopped a number of Linux vendors from pushing their software appliance wares into the market, a move that is seeing some early signs of success. Brian Proffitt reports on one vendor that may have big things to offer SMBs
Friday, February 24, 2006 12:08:57 PM EST

Linux Rare at Legal Firms, Except for Security
In the increasingly Microsoft-dominated land of law firms, Linux deployments remain just about nil, but security appliances are starting to stand out as one exception, according to attorneys and IT folks attending LegalTech. Jacqueline Emigh files this report.
Friday, February 10, 2006 07:01:11 PM EST

IBM Rolls Out Blades for Virtual Desktops, Hollywood Movies
IBM and some of its customers are starting to test new "virtual desktop" solutions running atop Linux-, Unix-, and Windows-based blade servers, including three souped-up systems rolled out at an event in New York City this week. Meanwhile, all IBM blade servers, old and new, are now being outfitted with new Linux-enabled management controllers, regardless of which OS the servers running. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Thursday, February 9, 2006 02:56:32 PM EST

Big Vendors Leap To More Linux In Retail Stores
Although Microsoft is becoming an increasingly formidable rival in the same space, IBM, Sun, Oracle, and many other vendors are now responding to renewed opportunities for Linux in department store environments, as retail chains like Circuit City, Pep Boys, and Urban Outfitters start to step to 100-percent Linux deployments on their store-level IT systems. Jacqueline Emigh reports from this year's National Retail Federation show.
Thursday, January 26, 2006 09:53:49 AM EST

Scali Manage 5 Offers to Tame Linux Cluster Proliferation
As Linux cluster use in the datacenter grows with each passing day, a unique problem has begun to develop, the kind of problem most people like to have: there seems to be just too many Linux clusters out there. Scali has released a new management application that promises to keep all of a company's clusters under control in one place.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006 09:32:33 AM EST

Novell's New CTO/EVP Mulls 2006 Linux Strategy
Novell has a new CTO, a position that has gone unfilled for a while. In this article, Jacqueline Emigh finds out about Dr. Jeffery Jaffe and reports on what he is bringing to Novell--and what he thinks Novell will soon be bringing to the world.
Thursday, December 29, 2005 02:11:27 PM EST

Interop: Giants, Start-ups Examine Open Source
From giants such as Sun and Computer Associates to start-ups such as Sourcefire and GroundWorks, companies are now stepping in to the open source market from a variety of directions and perspectives, as evidenced at last week's Interop show in New York City. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005 11:25:23 AM EST

Knock Knock. Who's There? Mandriva
To say that Mandriva has been quiet on the Linux front lately might just qualify as an understatement. The Paris-based Linux distribution company has had a rough road these last couple of years, having pulled themselves out of redressement judiciaire (the French equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US) in March 2004. But now the company is back with a vengeance, and is more than willing to discuss its past, present, and future. Brian Proffitt reports.
Thursday, December 15, 2005 10:39:26 AM EST

Sun Gives Red Hat, Novell Their Niagara Marching Orders
Sun Microsystems is "talking publicly" this week with both Red Hat and Novell SuSE about doing native ports of their respective Linux distributions to the high-powered and relatively low-priced RISC-based T1000 and T2000 Fire Servers rolled out in New York on Tuesday. Find out more about how the open source bug has bitten Sun in this report from Jacqueline Emigh.
Friday, December 9, 2005 01:15:18 PM EST

Verano--Improving Industrial Network Security
Verano is on a mission to safeguard industrial control networks... like manufacturing plants, waterworks, or electrical grids. They use a combination of hardware, proprietary and Open Source based software to head off threats, both internal and external to the protected network. Rob Reilly reports on the company's latest technology.
Monday, December 5, 2005 12:28:46 PM EST

Getting the Real Facts: How Industry Analyst Reports Can Trick Readers
Microsoft's "Get the Facts" advertising campaign makes the claim that Windows offers a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than Linux, and backs it up with reports from well-known industry analyst firms. But Linux advocates claim that the TCO of Linux is lower, and some other studies back them up. How can you separate the fact from the fiction?
Monday, November 14, 2005 10:12:15 AM EST

Communicate with CommuniGate Pro 5.0
Do you need an Internet communications server solution that handles email, instant messaging, calendaring, and VoIP? Want it to run on Linux? CommuniGate Pro 5.0 could be the ticket. Rob Reilly examines the features of the latest flagship release from Stalker Software.
Thursday, November 10, 2005 10:27:22 AM EST

The Yin and Yang of Open Source Commerce, Part 4
"The bulk of Linux business opportunity is demonstrably in the SMB/SME marketplace, a market that is presently under-serviced by Linux companies. The nature of the market as a whole has been discussed, and in this concluding part of the series, the competitive situation is briefly mentioned so as to round out the argument that it is time for seriously profitable Linux business activity from businesses that know the rules for success..."
Friday, November 4, 2005 01:33:23 PM EST

The Yin and Yang of Open Source Commerce, Part 3
"Had Linux companies better focused their efforts on the SMB/SME market, the operating system market share picture would look far more rosy for Linux and OSS than it does today. There is some suggestion in what we have seen so far that Linux has performed well despite the efforts of the Linux vendors. It is as if the market has made a run for Linux, in spite of the lack of market presence by Linux vendors..."
Thursday, November 3, 2005 10:47:01 AM EST

The Yin and Yang of Open Source Commerce, Part 2
By targeting the enterprise markets, Linux vendors are going after big bucks. But have they completely ignored a much better market and, in so doing, slowed the overall commercial development of Linux? Part 2 of this special series examines where a better market opportunity may reside.
Wednesday, November 2, 2005 09:12:43 AM EST

Google Displays Model OSS Citizenship
One of the hottest companies on the planet, it is a well-known fact that Google has relied on open source tools and technology to build itself. But how good of an open source citizen is Google? Based on its actions in 2005, the company's doing a pretty good job.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 03:57:48 PM EST

Inside the Novell Linux Migration
It is open knowledge that Novell has been progressing towards migrating their own internal desktops and servers to a pure-Linux play. Details of this migration have been sketchy, but in a public presentation to attendees of Ohio LinuxFest, Novell specialists gave a rare look inside the ongoing move to Linux and laid out ideas for other companies to follow in their own migration plans.
Thursday, October 6, 2005 11:29:56 AM EST

What's Holding Up Linux on Wall Street?
Although the financial services industry has adopted Linux more slowly than first expected, Linux is now starting to hold more sway, even if often from behind the scenes, according to participants in this week's High Performance on Wall Street conference in New York City.
Thursday, September 29, 2005 04:21:08 PM EST

From Contributors to Customers: How Open Source Projects Turn Into Successful Businesses
Currently, over 100,000 registered open source projects are on SourceForge.net, and you've never heard of most of them. While the great majority of projects remain in obscurity, some have turned into successful businesses and made the transition to mainstream. Maria Winslow looks at some of the features of this new breed of business.
Monday, September 26, 2005 12:05:04 PM EST

Kaspersky: More Adoption Could Make Linux Attractive Target
Linux needs anti-virus? As malware writing gains more of a profit motive, according to one security exec, that improbable future may yet come to pass.
Tuesday, September 6, 2005 03:38:27 PM EST

IBM Package Expand Grids on Linux (and Elsewhere)
"Grid computing is the domain of the enterprise-level business." Not anymore, thanks to a new on-demand grid service from IBM that puts Linux-powered grids in the hands of small- to medium-sized businesses.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005 04:18:15 PM EST

Carrier Grade Linux: Adoption and Deployments
In this article, Ibrahim Haddad continues his detailed examination of Carrier Grade Linux, with an overview of CGL distributions, deployments, and some of the challenges ahead.
Thursday, July 14, 2005 12:04:22 PM EST

Carrier Grade Linux: Linux in Telecom
The Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) released the latest version of the Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) Requirements Definition--version 3.1 on June 2, 2005. CGL 3.1 is the successor to CGL 2.0 and 1.1, the earliest versions of CGL which have been broadly adopted by the industry. In this article, Ibrahim Haddad of the OSDL provides an overview of the state of Carrier Grade Linux.
Thursday, June 23, 2005 01:04:34 PM EST

OpenNMS: A Study in Deployment
"At one point we had three separate network monitoring systems, three separate performance management tools and a plethora different scripts, web pages and command line tools. We sent out critical alerts by email, pager, and SMS, often to completely inappropriate people. The company was growing, and it looked like it was beginning to need a grown-up systems management tool, but which one...?"
Thursday, June 2, 2005 12:15:45 PM EST

LinuxWorld Summit: Linux Replacing Other Enterprise OS
"Linux is rapidly replacing Unix, Windows, and old-style mainframes for mainstream enterprise use, despite lingering issues ranging from the availability of enterprise server applications to the quality of desktop Linux software, according to attendees at this week’s LinuxWorld Summit in New York City..."
Thursday, May 26, 2005 04:03:50 PM EST

Behind the New Mandriva
Citing desires for both a "new identity" and an end to possible legal liability, Mandrakesoft changed its name to “Mandriva” last week, not long after announcing a merger with Conectiva and many details of a future product roadmap. Some members of the Linux community are unhappy about the changes, but Mandriva has plans to make the changes more palatable.
Monday, April 11, 2005 03:44:57 PM EST

OpenNMS Helps Keep Tabs On Networks
"OpenNMS is an open source package that has not only been successful as a tool to help network managers run their networks, but also as an example of how open source software can be leveraged to create a service business. The latter will be the focus of this article..."
Thursday, April 7, 2005 04:14:25 PM EST

Black Duck On Demand
Black Duck Software is rolling out an on-demand service that will help small companies establish their software compliance processes at a modest cost. This puts open source licensing analysis capabilities within reach of small software development shops, law firms involved in intellectual property litigation and venture capitalists doing due diligence.
Monday, March 28, 2005 09:31:27 AM EST

The Debian Delay: Is Sarge MIA? Or Simply a POW of Process?
The latest release of Debian Linux, code named "Sarge" was supposed to report for duty at the end of last year. That didn't happen. Why has Sarge been delayed and ultimately does it matter? Debian developers and Debian's founding father talked to LinuxPlanet about Sarge's delay and its ultimate deployment.

Thursday, March 3, 2005 02:53:08 PM EST

Free Standards Group Has Goals in Sight
To say that the Linux Standard Base has a lot of confusion surrounding it could be a bit of an understatement. But that is the challenge Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Free Standards Group, has facing him these days.
Monday, February 14, 2005 12:02:55 AM EST

Outblaze Kindles Own Linux Flame
There are companies out there who will never need to migrate to Linux. The joys and pitfalls of transition will be forever lost to them. That's because they've been using Linux from Day One. Outblaze, an e-mail and messaging provider that handles about five percent of the world's total e-mail traffic, is one such company.
Thursday, February 10, 2005 11:07:36 AM EST

Veritas Storage Foundation Eases Pain of Data Migration
"Vendor X Ports Enterprise Widget App 5.0 to Linux! Nations Rejoice!", the headline might read. Or: "New Linux App To Bring World Peace." You've read the headlines. We've even written some of them. But in all this glorious talk about applications moving to Linux, what about all that data you have? How does that get over to Linux?
Thursday, December 2, 2004 08:00:40 AM EST

Unisys Makes Big Play for Linux in 2004
Unisys has not-so-quietly entered the Linux enterprise arena this year, after a rather cold relationship with the open source operating system. Now that the Blue Bell, PA-based company has come in from the cold, what Linux products and services will it now offer?
Monday, November 29, 2004 10:22:34 AM EST

Imprivata's OneSign Simplifies Password Management
"Imagine having separate login names and passwords for your desktop machine, email account, and the main application that you use for your job. At the same time, you might have a different user name/password combination for a web application or other programs. Then imagine, that all the systems you use enforce password aging, on different time schedules. In short order, the situation gets way out of hand..."
Monday, November 15, 2004 10:13:11 AM EST

Switching to Linux is Getting Easier
Deciding to switch to Linux is one of the daunting questions every CIO must continually evaluate. Fortunately, the answer is getting simplier as Linux evolves into the enterprise-ready versions making their way onto the market today.
Monday, November 1, 2004 09:46:42 AM EST

OpenCountry To Update Cross-Distribution Linux Management
If you’re a Linux administrator, most of the tools available to you are either too limited in scope or overly big, complex, and expensive, according to OpenCountry CEO Michael Grove. Naturally, OpenCountry is offering its answer to this particular problem.
Thursday, September 30, 2004 11:12:24 PM EST

Oracle on Linux Gets One Firm Great E-Commerce Seats
As what is known as a "secondary ticketer," StubHub.com specializes in helping its customers to get good deals on sporting events, concerts, and live theater. But from the perspective of Shawn Kernes, VP of technology, StubHub itself is now getting great value out of running the company's Oracle database on Linux.
Wednesday, September 29, 2004 11:42:12 AM EST

3PAR Snapshots Your Data
Database managers and system administrators in charge of maintaining huge sets of files frequently feel the heat when data gets corrupted or a user decides that he didn't want to delete something. Administrators need effective ways to deal with these situations.
Thursday, August 26, 2004 11:59:08 AM EST

Students Create Linux Code For Real IBM Products
While some college students did little else but hit the beach, about 20 highly select computer science and MBA degree candidates interned with IBM this summer, creating Linux code along the way. Software developed through IBM’s “Extreme Blue” internship program will turn into real IBM applications for electrical utilities, financial risk management, and other industries.
Monday, August 16, 2004 02:39:18 PM EST

Xandros To Roll Out Myriad Servers After Desktop Release
Xandros has seen a new version 2.5 launch of their desktop product, so will they rest on their laurels? It seems unlikely, since next week at LinuxWorld they plan plan to introduce their new Xandros Desktop Management Server. More on the company's plans to shake the Linux, er, world within.
Saturday, July 31, 2004 10:44:01 AM EST

Oracle Forges Further with Linux
Oracle's new 10g database on Linux continues the company's tally of record-breaking TPC-C benchmarks. Naturally, Oracle's pretty darned proud of their product. So what will Oracle do for an encore? Big hint: roll more products over to the Linux platform.
Thursday, July 22, 2004 03:30:19 PM EST

Clients Find The IDEAL Way
How do you make money with free and open source software? You get really good at implementing it for a variety of tough clients. Orlando-based IDEAL Technology Corp. is one such company, celebrating five years of Linux consultancy with clients such as the Army and the IEEE in their portfolio.
Thursday, July 8, 2004 11:37:51 AM EST

Verano's Industrial Defender Does Just That
So, what's keeping the bad guys out of the computer systems that run a huge metropolitan water works? Or, how would a plant manager know if someone had broken into his multi-megawatt power plant's network? What would happen if a virus got into their plant's networks and took out all of their MS boxes for a few hours? These are questions that security company Verano is answering with Linux-based technology.
Monday, June 21, 2004 11:17:28 AM EST

Large Plans for Linux at Marist College
You might not associate a small upstate New York college with penguins, but recently Marist College became host to one of three OSDL laboratories. This is a school, however, with even stronger ties to Linux and Open Source.
Thursday, June 17, 2004 10:10:16 AM EST

Penguins Like Salmon, Too
Springtime is a time for budding flowers, buzzing bees, and, it seems, Linux and open source seminars. Correspondent Dee-Ann LeBlanc files this report on her recent visit to the up-and-coming show: Linuxfest Northwest 2004.
Monday, May 10, 2004 10:51:35 AM EST

Real World Linux 2004: Bigger and Better
RealWorld Linux 2004 came to a close last month with a lot of news generated around the newest Linux player on the block, Novell. But what was the show as a whole like? Speaker-correspondent Dee-Ann LeBlanc gives this review of the conference atmosphere and events.
Monday, May 3, 2004 12:18:16 PM EST

Dell Takes More Steps into Linux
Dell, a long-time member of the Wintel camp, has started taking more steps into Linux, often hand-in-hand with various software partners. Outside of splashier deals with the likes of Red Hat, Oracle, and SAP in North America, Dell' has more quietly started selling SUSE Linux and Red Flag distributions on other continents.
Friday, April 30, 2004 03:57:58 PM EST

Opteron's First Year All About Linux
"Opteron's first year has been all about Linux," said Christopher Rimer, an exec in AMD's Infrastructure Enablement Group. Over time, though, industry experts expect 64-bit x86 implementations from AMD and Intel to gravitate much more towards Microsoft Windows, without leaving Linux behind, either.
Wednesday, April 28, 2004 10:49:07 AM EST

Novell Eyes YaST Solutions of Various Stripes
"In releasing YaST (Yet Another Setup Tool) to open source, Novell has thrown down the welcome mat to management solutions aimed at homes and small businesses as well as enterprises, according to Novell officials..."
Monday, April 12, 2004 03:20:04 PM EST

Linux Vendors Push Migration Strategies
Use Linux today, all the pundits proclaim. The cost seems right, the scale seems right... there's just one problem: what's the best way of actually migrating to this open-source OS? Recently, more vendors are stepping up with clear guidelines and toolkits that can make the move to Linux a lot easier.
Thursday, April 8, 2004 11:37:51 AM EST

Novell Plans Future of Red Carpet, ZenWorks
As BrainShare 2004 continues, almost every Novell product has some sort of plan to make it integrate better with the company's new Linux strategy. This includes ZenWorks and the newly acquired Red Carpet, as Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Thursday, March 25, 2004 04:17:54 PM EST

JBoss' Open Source Plans
"Fueled by a $10 million injection of investment capital, JBoss plans to keep offering its J2EE application server and other open source software for free..."
Thursday, March 18, 2004 09:00:06 AM EST

VERITAS Continues Linux Push
At the January LinuxWorld Expo 2004, VERITAS made a number of announcements that demonstrate this company's commitment to the Linux space, and the new products have kept coming steadily since then. Dee-Ann LeBlanc recaps VERITAS' Linux product line to date.
Monday, March 1, 2004 10:33:10 AM EST

Linux, SiteScape Save the Green
When you hear the phrase "saving the green," do you usually conjure images of saving the environment? Or, perhaps, saving money? Green is a color associated with these elements, so it there can be a pause when this phrase is heard, until one can figure out the context. In the case of one government agency's use of Linux and some very flexible collaboration software from SiteScape, both instances of the phrase can certainly be true.
Thursday, February 12, 2004 03:47:52 PM EST

Novell Plans GUI For '04
Novell is planning new Linux products for 2004, now that its Nterprise Linux Services 1.0 product is out the door. The second edition of Linux Services will feature a graphical user interface, in addition to the command line interface in 1.0. More on this, and other upcoming developments from the new player in the Linux arena in this report.
Tuesday, December 30, 2003 10:06:40 PM EST

iSeries Linux Apps Now Total 300, EFT Solution Is The Latest
IBM Monday unveiled S2 Systems' OpeN/2 financial services application as the latest software solution for Linux running on iSeries, which brings the number of Linux apps available for the iSeries midrange server to more than 300. This mid-range Linux system is making a big impact in the enterprise, with more to come.
Tuesday, December 23, 2003 09:55:06 AM EST

SUSE/IBM, Red Hat/Oracle Tool Up On CCS Security
Backed by big name partners, SUSE Linux and Red Hat are each putting their security systems through the rigorous paces of Common Criteria Scheme (CCS) testing, with ultimate plans to reach the same security ratings already achieved by Microsoft and Unix players.
Friday, December 19, 2003 01:56:17 PM EST

Linux in the Security Crosshairs
Linux's growing popularity is attracting unwanted attention from virus writers, script kiddies and other criminal elements. In response, Linux advocates are putting a new emphasis on security measures and working to reassure companies that the OS is ready for important business networks.
Monday, December 15, 2003 10:51:44 AM EST

Netli Adds App-Level SSL To Ultra High Speed Network
At Comdex this week, Netli will announce the addition of hardware-based application-level acceleration and encryption for Web sites that use its Linux-enabled NetLightning high speed Internet overlay network. The three-year-old Silicon Valley start-up will also make an official rollout of four more blue-chip customers: Boeing, Hewlett-Packard, Tektronix, and Scholastic Publishing.
Monday, November 17, 2003 11:09:19 AM EST

Spam Cleaning with the Big Boys
"You think you've got spam problems with a hundred or so spam messages a day? Try being an ISP or a business where on a good day you don't get more than a one hundred thousand spam mails a day..."
Monday, November 10, 2003 10:28:07 AM EST

From the Data Center to the Desktop: Linux Grows Up
Linux has matured from a robust adolescence, a time when those in the server room had those in the board room convinced that it had the potential to be everything for everybody, to being known for being highly effective in certain conditions, such as those that benefit from scaling out, yet less desirable in others, such as those that require scaling up. So what is the state of Linux in the enterprise, circa 2003?
Tuesday, November 4, 2003 09:06:40 AM EST

Linux Is Sometimes a Pleasant Surprise
Sometimes companies aren't actively seeking Linux for the solution to their problems; sometimes Linux just happens to be the best solution for their needs. One NY-based sporting goods chain found itself in this position recently, and they are so far pretty impressed with the benefits of the unsought platform.
Monday, October 20, 2003 11:44:49 AM EST

Linux Rescue Disks Get a Kick from GAR
Spurred by its recent adoption of the GAR build system, The LNX-BBC Project is now galloping right along. Find out the progress of the project and learn how mini-distros can be put to work in your organization.
Monday, October 13, 2003 10:53:01 AM EST

Linux Cost Savings Add Up
Companies that have changed their systems over to Linux report cost-savings across a wide variety of categories. Learn that it's not just license savings that you'll pocket if your organization shifts to Linux and open source.
Monday, October 6, 2003 11:00:44 AM EST

Catapult MySQL with Pogo Linux
If you're an enterprise looking to start using open-source and Linux solutions in your company, the hassles of systems configuration and administration might make you hesitate. Pogo Linux has come up with a solution that will take even these minor concerns away: the DataWare 2600--specifically tuned and configured for MySQL database.
Thursday, September 25, 2003 12:21:35 PM EST

Linux Clusters Rev Up on PC Blades
When it comes to Linux clusters, mainframes have long drawn the largest acclaim. Now, though, scientific and technical imaging specialists such as Paradigm and Electro-Optical Sciences (EOS) are praising the gains they're seeing from Linux clusters on PC servers, even without blades.
Monday, September 15, 2003 11:35:20 AM EST

Boscov's Inches Into Linux
Massive mainframe migrations, dizzying desktop moves--all a part of the huge effort to move to Linux, right? An all-or-nothing approach to Linux may not be the only path an enterprise has to take. Boscov's Department Stores is learning that slow and steady wins their race to IT savings with Linux.
Thursday, September 4, 2003 10:43:30 AM EST

PureMessage Raises E-mail Admin Standard
URGENT REPLY REQUESTED may have been funny the first two thousand times it showed up in your employees' Inboxes, but now it and the rest of the deluge of spam and viruses have added up to a real and burdensome cost in manpower and systems. One Canadian firm is using the power of Perl for a fast, sleek, and very efficient e-mail administation and filtering tool: PureMessage.
Tuesday, September 2, 2003 11:48:06 AM EST

OSDL Seeks To Be Linux Center of Gravity
With the likes of Linus Torvalds and Andrew Morton coming onboard, one gets the distinct impression that some interesting things are happening at the Open Source Development Labs. Fortunately, it didn't take long to catch up with OSDL CEO Stuart Cohen to find out more.

Thursday, August 21, 2003 11:08:24 AM EST

Tux Makes Orbitz Fly High
It is perhaps one of the most commercially-oriented ventures on the Internet today: a travel Web site run by a consortium of airlines. You can't get more corporate-minded than that. So what is Orbitz doing when working directly with the open source community for support issues on its massive search engines? Enjoying one of the many benefits of Linux, that's what.
Thursday, August 14, 2003 11:13:16 AM EST

Penguin Wooed By Platform Vendors
Major hardware vendors are continuing to push the next wave of processors: the 64-bit platforms. And while Intel is still touting its Itanium offerings, AMD is seeking to attract Linux vendors to its Opteron platform. Who wins in this tussle? The customer...
Monday, August 11, 2003 11:57:10 AM EST

The StartX Files: Inside the Expo
The end of the this summer's LinuxWorld Conference and Expo has come and gone. What did participants get out of the experience? Brian Proffitt lends his perspective on what vendors, attendees, and even the media got out of the conference, and shares some theories on what may happen next.
Friday, August 8, 2003 04:07:39 PM EST

Tux on the Telly: An Open DVR Product
In a world where hardware vendors erect very stringent walls to protect their precious products from being modified, customized, or otherwise hacked, it is a bit refreshing to hear about a company that wants people to be able to do all of those things to its product. And the pleasure factor goes way up when you take into account the fact that the product is really, really cool.
Thursday, July 31, 2003 11:10:00 AM EST

VERITAS: Then and Now
The name VERITAS has a familiar ring to most people in the computing world, even if they can't quite remember why. After all, VERITAS is no startup. It's been around since 1989, and if you're an enterprise-level company that is moving seriously to Linux, VERITAS has a heavy commitment to the open-source operating system, as Dee-Ann LeBlanc discovered.
Monday, July 28, 2003 10:38:17 AM EST

Linux Makes PalTalk Possible In A Windows World
PalTalk is a Windows-based instant messaging/telephony application that is showing real market success in the world of voice-based IM. And, learns Rob Reilly, one of the secrets to its success is the fact that all development and production for the New York-based company is run on Linux and open-source software.
Thursday, July 24, 2003 09:44:43 AM EST

So Many Customers, So Little Time...
There's a big, wide world of potential Linux customers out there, all ready to make the shift to open source. And there's an ever-growing population of skilled Linux vendors ready to deliver the goods. But how are the different vendors picking their targets. Jacqueline Emigh talked with three of the biggest Linux vendors to find out who's on their most wanted customer lists.
Thursday, July 17, 2003 11:57:50 AM EST

CommuniGate Pro 4.1 Continues Stalker's Linux Growth
Commercial products for Linux are often given a wide berth, as many admins and developers question the need to pay for something they can already get for free. Stalker Software's CommuniGate Pro messaging server is one of those products that is gaining a strong following in the Linux enterprise despite the existence of a price tag.
Monday, June 30, 2003 11:32:05 AM EST

PGA Tour Is On Par With Linux
The PGA is probably more well-known for Tiger Woods, mulligans, and the occasional hole-in-one rather than for IT systems. But the real-time demands of an information-hungry audience has brought PGA Tour organizers driving down the information age fairway. And guess which flightless fowl is holding the No. 3 Wood?
Monday, June 9, 2003 12:25:19 PM EST

Analysis: Novell Tries to Torpedo SCO Unix IP Claims
Today's events surrounding The SCO Group and Novell are just another chapter in a long and continuing saga between the two companies. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols recaps today's events, gives an in-depth analysis of how SCO and Novell came to be at odds over the Linux operating system, and speaks with industry analysts on their take on SCO v. Linux.
Wednesday, May 28, 2003 05:19:22 PM EST

Big Machines, Big Linux
Often called the aging dinosaur of IT, the IBM mainframe product line is starting to make a real comback in sales and deployment. The secret to its recent success, of course, is server consolidation with Linux as the platform. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols focuses on the new IBM z990, aka the T-Rex, which shows that dinosaurs should not be trifled with.
Tuesday, May 27, 2003 10:31:07 AM EST

SCO Turns Cartwheels for SCOx
Remember SCOx? Right after The SCO Group launched its IP lawsuit against IBM, the Utah-based firm announced the SCOx product, which would work with Unix and Linux, at least the announcement seemed to say. Now that SCO has suspended its own Linux sales, just what happens to this product now? Easily done--just deny that the product was ever intended to run on Linux at all. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Monday, May 19, 2003 03:23:30 PM EST

SCO Plans To Stay In UnitedLinux, Despite IP Beef
In spite of a heated intellectual property (IP) spat with IBM, SCO Group will stay on as a UnitedLinux member, according to Thor Christianson, SCO's director of ISV/IHV relations. Meanwhile, the vendor is now pushing ahead with SCOx, a newly rolled out common Web services framework for its Linux, UnixWare, and OpenServer platforms.
Monday, May 5, 2003 01:19:28 PM EST

Microsoft Users, Partners Add Linux To The List
Jacqueline Emigh visited the New York Windows 2003 launch event and learned that many long-time Microsoft users are still evaluating Linux as an alternative platform. Reasons cited by IT administrators range from cost savings to "an anti-Microsoft boss." Meanwhile, many of Microsoft's partners in the launch already offer products for both environments.
Monday, April 28, 2003 11:55:24 AM EST

Novell Elaborates on Linux
Recent reports out of Novell's Brainshare conference in Utah this week have the company both touting Linux as a future direction for NetWare and delivering back-hands such as calling Linux "immature." Is Novell another company getting into Linux without really understanding it? Jacqueline Emigh files this report from the conference.
Wednesday, April 16, 2003 01:26:31 PM EST

Sun's McNealy: We've Been Through This (Linux ISV) Movie
Now that Sun has decided to drop plans to create its own Linux distribution, what is the company going to do? In a press conference this week, CEO Scott McNealy gave some of his new spin on how Sun will be using Linux in the future--this time.
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 08:16:30 AM EST

Dell Feels Linux Customer Demand
In rolling out low-cost, Oracle-based server clusters on Wednesday, Dell CEO Michael Dell mentioned Linux and Windows as "standards" in almost the same breath. At the same press conference in New York City, though, members of a Dell customer panel indicated that momentum for Linux could be starting to outweigh attachment to Windows and other OS among Dell's customer base. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Thursday, April 3, 2003 11:57:40 AM EST

IBM's eServer Strategy Strong on Linux and UNIX
What started as a feature on IBM's eServer line may be the last pre-lawsuit comments made on the company's policies regarding Linux and AIX, IBM's version of UNIX. The Utah-based SCO Group alleges that IBM is trying to kill off UNIX by sharing SCO's proprietary UNIX code with the open-source Linux kernel. But in this interview with IBM's Rich Michos conducted mere hours before the SCO lawsuit was announced, IBM appears to be hanging on to Linux and AIX equally.
Monday, March 10, 2003 08:50:10 AM EST

Gordano Messaging Suite: Early, Current Support for Linux Platform
It used to be called NTMail and it ran on the Windows platform with the same name. Put as time went by, the makers of NTMail realized that their next move had to be Linux platform. Today, Gordano is one of the largest software vendors of messaging software, and their customers definitely like the availability of products for Linux. Brian Proffitt reports.
Thursday, March 6, 2003 11:49:37 AM EST

The Return of PowerCockpit
Turbolinux's departure from the US left some of its toolsets in a state of legal limbo. Now one of the former founders of Turbolinux is bringing one of the more powerful applications back to life: PowerCockpit. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports.
Tuesday, February 25, 2003 11:15:43 AM EST

IBM, HP, Sun--Dueling Approaches to 'Linux on RISC'
From IBM's full-bore charge, to Sun's tentative first steps, to HP's complete abstinence: server companies have wildly differing views on running Linux on RISC-based hardware. What are their rationales for their Linux on RISC strategies?
Thursday, February 20, 2003 09:48:04 AM EST

Grid Computing Oracle Style
"Oracle has been at the forefront of database technology for a long time. The have also embraced the Linux environment in a big way. Now they've gone a step further, developing industrial strength database applications that run on clusters of commodity blade servers or grids..."
Thursday, February 6, 2003 09:58:20 AM EST

Red Hat Isn't Alone at the Linux Management Table
Red Hat has released a new management tool that promises a high degree of control over Linux-based servers. But Red Hat doesn't have the only management tool on the block... IBM, UnitedLinux, HP, and Computer Associates also have such tools on the shelf or lined up in development.
Monday, February 3, 2003 11:24:30 AM EST

Modeling Linux in the Enterprise
Think Linux and open source software isn't ready for the enterprise? Linux International and Wild Open Source have collaborated to actually demonstrate live just how viable Linux is as a business solution. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Thursday, January 30, 2003 11:44:20 AM EST

Tolerating Fault in an Intolerant World
In the world of clustered computers, you have your high-performance machines and your high-availability machines. But while clustering is a great way of getting HPC for not too much cost, it may not be the only solution for HA computing. A very hardened and redundancy laden Linux server from NEC has the capability of performing in the HA arena--and at a price point that won't blow the IT budget.
Monday, December 23, 2002 09:49:05 AM EST

Your Friendly Neighborhood Supercomputer
Getting access to multi-FLOPS computers has historically meant a big outlay in time, resources, and money. But what if your company could acquire access to a big distributed computing network without facing most of these hurdles? A company you might not expect is offering such a service, thanks in large part to its alliance with United Devices and the capabilities of Linux.
Thursday, December 19, 2002 10:43:33 AM EST

UnitedLinux Momentum Mounts--Who's Coming Along?
During Comdex this week, UnitedLinux officials claimed growing industry momentum for their new Linux platform, which is aimed in large part at giving developers and customers a well-supported alternative to industry leader Red Hat. Red Hat ISV (independent software developer) partners Oracle, Novell, and BEA Systems have already received the "gold" code for UnitedLinux 1.0, along with a number of other ISV players, said Paula Hunter, general manager for UnitedLinux.
Thursday, November 21, 2002 11:32:22 AM EST

Automating Manufacturing Processes with Ethernet-Enabled I/O Modules, Linux
If you think Linux is just something that runs on PC and servers back in the IT room, this report from Rob Reilly should disavow you of that notion. See how modern manufacturers are starting to introduce Linux-based processors into their automation schemes.
Wednesday, October 9, 2002 08:19:15 PM EST

Koha: A Library Checks Out Open Source
Library software is an expensive and rather restrictive proprietary environment. "You get what you pay (a lot) for" seems to be the industry model. But one rural Ohio library is using a free software application developed in rural New Zealand to shatter this model and develop their own library management system.
Friday, August 30, 2002 04:13:55 PM EST

Amazon.com To Don Red Hat Data Center
Amazon.com has been a prominent user of Linux for quite some time, having implemented the platform for it's application and middle tiers. Now Amazon.com plans to "go for the 'full Monty' in the data center" and implement an Oracle on Red Hat solution there. And the benefits are already estimated to be enormous. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Wednesday, August 21, 2002 10:37:37 AM EST

Students Score Big Opportunities For Learning Using Linux
In a practical sense, it is rather hard to ask users to just quit using the technology they're used to cold turkey. Rather than abandoning their use of Windows altogether in favor of Linux and Open Source, one Florida school is opting for a slower, more balanced approach as they move towards Open Source and Free Software. And, as Rob Reilly reports, the results are already pretty dramatic.
Friday, July 12, 2002 11:08:18 AM EST

UnitedLinux: Turbolinux Sees Lots Of Advantages
Of the four current members of the UnitedLinux consortium, we've heard from all but one: Turbolinux. Jacqueline Emigh reports on what Turbolinux hopes to gain from this union, how they feel about the Linux Standards Base, and how this member of the group makes no secret of who UnitedLinux is going after.
Thursday, July 11, 2002 11:53:04 AM EST

Caldera Changes its Captain but Stays the Course
It's been a day of many changes for Caldera International, but as Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports, the more things change, the more things stay the same. A look at the new leadership of Caldera and where UnitedLinux and Caldera may be heading now.
Thursday, June 27, 2002 05:44:50 PM EST

Server Consolidation—Beyond the Hardware
Hardware may be the most obvious component of server consolidation, but it's by far not the only one. This overview discusses how and why hardware, software, and human capital must be taken into account when considering undertaking such an endeavor.
Thursday, June 13, 2002 03:14:24 PM EST

Graduation Day for Linux
"Suddenly, the rest of the world has figured out what many in the Linux community knew all along--that the availability of free, resource-stingy software to these various environments could not help but bring significant costs savings to new Linux users. For two men in Portland, Oregon, the success comes as no surprise--they've been implementing Linux within school systems in the Portland area for the past six years..." Brian Proffitt reports.
Wednesday, May 22, 2002 10:49:58 PM EST

Astaro: A "Swiss-Army Knife" of Security Software
Astaro Security's software is becoming a strong player in a widening market as more and more clients find they need the strength of heavy-duty security, the flexibility of open source, and the pricing that won't blow the IT budget out of the water. Jacqueline Emigh reports.
Tuesday, April 30, 2002 02:42:33 PM EST

The Law Office Network/Linux Server Trial
Entrepreneur-based small businesses make up a large percentage of the business community. Not quite an enterprise and not quite home users, small businesses have their own unique needs in getting a Linux network put together, as Rob Reilly explains.
Thursday, April 4, 2002 09:12:28 AM EST

Case Study: Clusters and Image Processing, Part II
ImageLinks, Inc. had identified a need to migrate their high-end image processing servers from SGI machines to Linux boxes. Having devised a plan for implementation, it was now time to actually put the plan to work. In Part II of this Case Study, Dee-Ann LeBlanc examines the real-world solutions used by the ImageLinks team in their quest for this goal.
Monday, March 25, 2002 08:53:30 AM EST

Getting Connected: The Evolution of Linux and Windows E-Mail Integration
In today's world of tight IT and MIS budgets, saving money and
investing wisely in new infrastructure are words to keep your job
by. Regardless of whether there's a recession, times are tough and
money is tight. One good way to implement cost-savings, Bill von Hagen reports, is to use non-Microsoft products in a corporate e-mail environment. In this article, he gives a detailed overview of the Ximian Evolution client and how, with the help of the Ximian connector plug-in, it can allow Linux-based clients to work freely with Exchange-based messaging systems.
Friday, March 22, 2002 11:31:07 AM EST

Case Study: Clusters and Image Processing, Part I
In the late 1990s, ImageLinks, Inc. had the software to perform highly sophisticated remote sensing operations, thanks to declassified government code. But the software ran on high-end--and highly expensive--SGI Indigo 2 systems. In this first part of a comprehensive two-part case study, Dee-Ann LeBlanc examines the challanges that faced the team at ImageLinks when they decided to try running their code on Linux systems, in the hopes of saving thousands of dollars a year on licenses alone.
Sunday, March 17, 2002 06:47:40 PM EST

Bynari Compatability: Linux Software Vendor Provides Exchange Emulation
Breaking the hold of the Exchange/Outlook combination is not an easy thing to do. In this report from Bill von Hagen, see how the new product InsightConnector is giving administrators the choice to replace Exchange with Linux-platform IMAP servers.
Friday, March 15, 2002 09:15:46 AM EST

Frontline Report: Linux World Expo Turns Businesslike
Dennis Powell braves a whole new world at Linux World Expo 2002, discovering that the Javits Center has turned into less of a Mecca for Linux enthusiasts and more of a business opportunity for the Movers and Shakers.
Thursday, January 31, 2002 12:03:14 AM EST

Running Windows Apps on Linux: Put Away the WINE
There's always a crucial factor when Linux advocates are trying to woo new users: the fact that most Windows users are locked into their favorite applications, many of which have no comparable counterpart in the Linux world. Brian Proffitt reviews two tools that run Windows applications on a Linux desktop: the WinToNet application server for the corporate crowd and Win4Lin for the small office/home user crowd.
Monday, March 12, 2001 01:38:04 PM EST

How SuSE Carries Its Big Stick
Carving out a profitable niche in the Linux space has proven to be an elusive goal, and SuSE is approaching the marketplace with the same mix of operating-system sales and services that others like Red Hat Software are offering. But the differences between SuSE and other Linux companies lie in the details, explains Dirk Hohndel, Chief Technology Officer for SuSE in an interview with Brian Proffitt: SuSE may be speaking softly, but it's carrying a big stick.
Monday, February 5, 2001 07:45:44 AM EST

Linux a Very Silent Player in New Cobalt Release
Cobalt made its name as a vendor of Linux-based servers, but Sun's acqusition of Cobalt put this strategy in doubt. And when the dust settled on a press conference announcing a new line of Cobalt servers -- which are still running Linux, by the way -- it was clear that Sun executives wanted nothing to do with any discussion of Linux as a strategic part of Sun's future. Brian Proffitt reports.
Wednesday, January 17, 2001 05:11:36 PM EST

.comment: Happily In My CUPS
Setting up printing under Linux is not a pleasant task, whether you're connecting a printer to your own Linux box or to a Linux server on the network. How can you solve the problem? Dennis E. Powell recommends CUPS, the Common Unix Printing System, which solves a multitude of problems. In this column, Dennis details how he used CUPS to remedy printing problems on his personal Linux system and tells how CUPS can solve printing issues on a network.
Wednesday, January 17, 2001 12:42:39 PM EST

Penguins Over the Wires: X Servers for Windows
When Michael Hall's DSL connection began to behave erratically, he faced a Sophie's choice: keep running Linux and putting up with the hassles of a connection that came and went on a whim, or get a working Windows 98 install up long enough to let the technician diagnose the problem. His solution: running X applications over a network on a Microsoft Windows machine, using MicroImages MI/X and Labtam WinaXe X servers.
Friday, January 12, 2001 11:53:57 AM EST

Net Returns: Linux and Netware
Linking Linux and Netware systems used to be one of the most eagerly anticipated trends in the server field. But, as William Wong writes, suddenly Linux and Netware are on separate paths, as Caldera quietly drops support for Netware and the Open Source community fails to develop any cross-system tools.
Friday, December 22, 2000 10:00:55 AM EST

Protecting Your Linux System with FireStarter and Storm Firewall
With Linux emerging as a powerhouse on the desktop, it's more important than ever to make sure that your Linux system is secured. Michael Hall reviews two tools that automate the process of setting up a firewall on your system: FireStarter and Storm Firewall.
Friday, December 1, 2000 11:44:36 AM EST

Web Coding in Romulan? Open Source at the Worldcon
There is certainly a lot of overlap between Linux geeks and science-fiction fans, so it's no surprise that the onsite Web servers at the current Worldcon (the yearly world science-fiction convention) is built around a raft of Open Source tools: Linux, BSD, Apache, mySQL, and PHP. Scott Courtney reports from Worldcon in Chicago and shows how Open Source tools are used in a real-world--and otherworldly--situation.
Monday, September 4, 2000 09:00:00 AM EST

From the Desktop: Dealing with the Dark Side
Can't we all just get along? Brian Proffitt thinks so. He's put together some ways to have Windows and Linux coexist on the same system and the same network.
Friday, August 4, 2000 10:25:21 AM EST

.comment: Lawyers, Guns, and Money
Historically, Linux has been developed by volunteers interested in cool technology. However, the ranks of Linux developers are now being augmented by developers on loan from commercial companies--and in some cases, the needs and goals of these commercial companies don't mesh with the needs and goals of the Linux community. Dennis E. Powell explains how this happened in the KDE community and how it could reverberate throughout the entire Linux community.
Wednesday, June 14, 2000 08:04:50 AM EST

It's Official: IBM Announces Linux for the S/390
What began as an underground project is now an official product: Today IBM adds System/390 hardware to its list of supported environments for Linux, completing a range of systems that extend from Intel laptops to the largest mainframes the company has ever made. Scott Courtney reports on why IBM's release and support of Linux is important.
Wednesday, May 17, 2000 12:01:07 AM EST

Linux and Oracle: NetLedger's Real-World Solution Detailed
When NetLedger needed a robust data center to fuel its new accounting ASP, it put Linux, Windows NT, and Solaris though a rigorous evaluation process. Linux not only shone on the technical side, but also offered the best performance for the price. Kevin Reichard details how Linux triumphed when compared to other operating systems in a real-world evaluation, leading to the world's largest Oracle/Linux deployment.
Thursday, March 30, 2000 11:50:44 AM EST

How the Wolf Will Survive: Linux Supercomputing and Los Lobos
Combine Linux with 256 IBM Netfinity servers and clustering software, and you have one of the fastest supercomputers on the planet. Welcome to Los Lobos at the University of New Mexico, where a planned Linux supercomputer could change the face of computing in the 21st century. Kevin Reichard reports.
Wednesday, March 22, 2000 08:34:00 AM EST

Do-It-Yourself Caching: Squid 2.3
This open-source solution is a great low-cost way to get into caching. However, a stable Squid installation calls for some fairly hefty hardware--not to mention considerable tuning effort. Lisa Phifer explains.
Tuesday, February 29, 2000 12:19:06 AM EST

Implementing E-Commerce on Your Linux System
Looking to implement e-commerce on your Linux server? With these three open-source e-commerce tools--TallyMan, Yams, and OpenMerchant--Linux stands a good chance of becoming the dominant e-commerce OS. We look at all three of these Perl-based packages, currently available in alpha and beta.
Monday, December 20, 1999 06:49:10 PM EST

Is Microsoft Giving up on Windows CE?
Is Microsoft giving up on Windows CE? All signs are yes. If so, that creates a huge opportunity for embedded Linux to serve as the underlying OS for the next generation of smart devices. David Haskin, managing editor of AllNetDevices, explains how Microsoft is rethinking its OS strategies.
Monday, December 13, 1999 09:20:06 AM EST

Reviews

Open Source Joomla Emerges as a Top CMS Tool
The Joomla website proclaims that, 'Joomla is one of the most powerful open source content management systems on the planet.' Sure, they're biased about their collaborative open source creation. But there's no arguing that Joomla is quickly becoming one of the top content management system platforms on the Internet.
Monday, March 24, 2008 03:04:10 PM EST

Status Report: Chandler Desktop and Server
Earlier this month, the Open Source Applications Foundation (OSAF) announced a major staff reorganization, which included the departure of founder Mitch Kapor as head of the OSAF's flagship project, Chandler. After almost seven years of effort there is finally a release remotely resembling something a casual user might consider giving a try.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 09:59:22 AM EST

Untangle Not a Tangle At All
One of the best uses for Linux is special-purpose, tightly managed distributions for a single purpose, and Untangle has created one of the most impressive applications of this principle. The Untangle Gateway bundles together a list of applications that even seasoned sysadmins couldn't install and effectively manage in a timely manner.
Monday, January 14, 2008 08:58:24 AM EST

Custom Linux Kernels with Debian and Fedora
Fedora and Debian make building a custom kernel and packaging it for rollout a simple process. Part 2 of the Linux kernel compilation series examines the unique steps in getting these popular distros' set up with a custom kernel.
Thursday, August 9, 2007 11:45:02 AM EST

Open Source Zenoss Muscles Into Net Monitoring
Obvious quality control and performance distinguish commercial, open source Zenoss from other offerings in the network and service monitoring field.
Friday, June 1, 2007 02:00:46 PM EST

RT Scratches a Trouble-Ticketing Itch
When enough people agree that what's available isn't enough, open source software is born. That's the case with RT, a trouble-ticketing system that outclasses the commercial competition.
Friday, June 1, 2007 09:24:37 AM EST

LinuxWorld OpenSolutions Wrap Up--Is Open Source Really Superior?
Without a doubt, the topic wasn't on the official list of conference tracks at LinuxWorld OpenSolutions Summit 2007. But among IT managers and developers who braved icy winds and snow to trek to the two-day show in New York City, talk was in the air over whether software emerging from the open source tradition is really any better than other softwar