The day is approaching when Linux will likely replace IBM's version of Unix, the company's top software executive said, an indication that the upstart operating system's stature is rising within Big Blue.
dabooty writes "International Business Machines (IBM) may soon start packing its PCs with the open-source Linux operating system (OS). IBM’s Linux initiative has so far been limited to its servers and workstations.
Read it at Financial Express." Yes, we all know Linux isn't an OS - but a better comment would be 'Is this Yet Another Linux Distribution or the sound of the the first stone of the Microsoft empire crumbling?'
Frank wrote in to tell us "IBM has released IP Security Validator, which enables independent evaluation of VPN configurations and quick/autonomous reaction to problems. An offline mode even allows the offline evaluation of traffic that was captured into a file with other tools such as tcpdump or pcapture. This way, traffic collected from non-Linux network nodes can be evaluated on a Linux machine." The site goes on to say that among the features, it "reports the results on the standard output in words." Finally, not only can I compete with my friends who use all Windows 2000 networks, I can read the results without a man page!
"IBM has released the Web Services Tool Kit for Mobile Devices. Its a free set of tools that provide run-time environments that allow development of applications that use Web Services on small mobile devices. This tool kit's Java Web service run-time environment is supported on PoctketPC, Palm, and BlackBerry." More at the IBM Website
"In a surprise move, IBM agreed to acquire Rational Software Corp. Friday in a deal worth $2.1 billion. IBM officials said the acquisition of the major development toolmaker would be the biggest for IBM since the computer giant acquired Lotus Development Corp."Read the report at eWeek. Our Take: This could be a serious blow to traditional Unices, like HP-UX and Solaris, depending on how IBM will handle these platforms.
The Aberdeen Group has issued a report on Big Blue and its Linux products and strategy today for the enterprise today. The report -- An Assessment of IBM's Enterprise Linux Strategy -- says that the firm has so far spent billions in an attempt to lead the industry on Linux related technology. But it questions whether IBM will be able to sustain this strategy over a long period of time. Read the news report.
"IBM WebSphere 5.0 features SOAP parsing, UDDI repository, Java and a number of open source technologies that IBM claims speeds performance of Web services and lowers integration costs. The application server also simplifies management through features IBM claimed are part of its nascent autonomic computing strategy for self-healing of systems. These features include ability to detect and correct faults and automated server clustering."Read the report at TheRegister.
"IBM Corp is lining up the launch of its first xSeries server based on Intel's 64-bit Itanium-2 processor for the first quarter of 2003, and has confirmed that it has dropped plans to bring its AIX Unix operating system to the Itanium processor platform."Read the article at TheRegister.
IBM announced on Monday a microchip for personal computers that will crunch data in chunks twice as big as the current standard and is expected (but not confirmed yet) by industry watchers to be used by Apple. Apple was not available to comment, and IBM declined to comment on which computer makers would use the chip, but its plans would mark a change for the industry, which has emphasized the importance of the speed of a chip rather than its ability to handle heavy workloads. Read the report. Update: Read another report at ZDNews.
Version 5.0 OF IBM's WebSphere Studio software for developing Web applications is scheduled for release Tuesday, featuring new tools for working with legacy applications written in Cobol and PL1 and support for the latest batch of open-source standards and software.
PortingManager is a free tool that provides assistance when porting C and C++ Solaris applications to zSeries Linux. PortingManager scans a source code tree, looks for Solaris APIs, flags them, and provides documentation that is useful when porting the API from a Solaris-specific function call to an equivalent Linux function call.
IBM is disclosing the technical details of a new 64-bit PowerPC microprocessor designed for desktops and entry-level servers. Based on the award winning Power4 design, this processor is an 8-way superscalar design that fully supports Symmetric MultiProcessing. The processor is further enhanced by a vector processing unit implementing over 160 specialized vector instructions and implements a system interface capable of up to 6.4GB/s. Read more here and here. The first article speculates that Apple might find a future in these new IBM CPUs. Update: News.com has an article too.
The initial release of the IBM WebSphere SDK for Web Services on Linux is now available. Developers can easily create Java-based applications for Web service providers and consumers. This offering contains everything developers need in a single convenient package, including a IBM SDK for Java technology, a runtime environment, a private UDDI registry, tools, samples, and documentation. It's based on open specifications for Web services such as SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI and runs on both Linux and Windows operating systems. The IBM WebSphere SDK for Web Services includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation and is being offered at this time for free.
Dave Hansen, the IBM programmer working at the Linux kernel, answers back to some interesting questions about Linux, development and its desktop status, at an interview over at Slashdot.
"The German government has signed a deal with IBM and Linux company SuSE that makes it easier for government offices to use the open-source operating system, a move that addresses concerns about relying too heavily on Microsoft products."Read the report at News.com.
The latest IBM middleware for Linux (DB2 Universal Database, WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere Studio Application Developer, and Lotus Domino) is being provided, at no cost, on a 2 CD set, along with Web Services technologies, Linux technical articles, Linux Redbooks, and the very popular Java battle-bots game Robocode. IBM is also providing a worldwide no-cost 2-day Linux workshop, which includes hands-on labs for installing and configuring Linux.
One of the biggest complaints these days about Web services is the security issues within a Web service environment. IBM and Microsoft just released specifications describing Web Services Security (WS-Security). There is an developerWorks overview document and a whitepaper describing this model that supports, integrates and unifies several models, mechanisms, and technologies.
In this interview with a top VP at IBM Grid Computing, an old idea coming back, is defined as the next emerging technology. Specifically, cheap bandwidth and interoperable standards have created an environment where Grid Computing is not only possible but also "the natural evolution of the Internet".
IBM and SAP announced general availability of mySAP.com on Linux for IBM eServer zSeries. This is just another example of the many ISVs that have migrated their applications to the Linux for IBM zSeries family. Here is the complete list of ISVs who have ported to the zSeries servers and the FAQ for mySAP on Linux for IBM eServer zSeries.
This paper presents the results of the test conducted on a 58-node Cluster 1300 system, simultaneously running eight instances of e-Business Trade 2 benchmark tests on Red Hat Linux. This solution mounted in only three racks supported 800,000 users, serving an unprecedented 12,547 requests/sec with an average response time of 0.27 sec/request.
