Previously the domain of the propeller-head and serious computer geek, over the past year Linux has blazed a trail of successes through the IT (Information Technology) prairie, leaving those in its wake stunned by the speed of its adoption and the rising levels of support. Its time has truly come.
[VIDEO]IBM`s support for the free operating system is undeniably one of the factors that made me begin to take Linux more seriously. The backing the world`s largest IT company is giving the open source community comes as quite a surprise to those who remember the lack of interoperability of IBM`s PS/1 days.
Its effort to port Linux onto its Big Iron platforms takes the operating system onto a new tier of performance, as well as into a new market. IBM is hoping users wanting to consolidate their Unix IT infrastructures with lower management and hardware costs will buy into their vision of a Linux world, scaling from desktop through to supercomputer.
I would trust my mother with a Linux installation - my true test of a technology`s ease of use.
Jason Norwood-Young, technology editor, ITWeb
Sun has not backed Linux as such as it has its own competitive operating system, Solaris. The past year however has seen Sun embrace the open source concept, releasing its StarOffice suite and its Solaris code to the open source community. This has added weight to the open source community and, by inference, the Linux community.
Even EMC, known for its conservative approach to interoperability, is to ensure its compatibility with the free operating system.
IBM has said Linux is the world`s fastest-growing operating system. The likes of Microsoft and traditional Unix vendors are losing accounts to a solution that has no real owner. This organically growing freely available code is slowly taking over the market, and - without a clear central protagonist - will be very difficult to fight. We have already witnessed Unix vendor SCO being bought by Caldera.
With Microsoft`s legal battle still fresh in hardware vendors` memory, they are doing all in their power to ensure Linux is on an equal footing with other operating systems in the development of new hardware platforms. Drivers are becoming easier to come by, with peripherals, sound cards, and video cards receiving native support in the Linux distributions.
Intel is ensuring Linux developers are receiving as much exposure to its 64-bit technology as possible before release, and we can expect a 64-bit Linux ready to ship with the first McKinley processors.
There was some debate regarding access to Intel`s development labs - one of the top Linux developers told me that while Microsoft had access to a 64-bit development program that Intel was running, Linux vendors had been excluded. This debacle lasted less than a week before Intel let the Linux crew into the loop.
Recently I installed Caldera`s Linux technology preview, which had been sitting on my desk for three months. I had not been able to afford the downtime until then, but since I was building a new PC I decided to give it a whirl. I was pleasantly surprised when, while showing the install splash screen, my PC played a nice little intro piece over my Sound Blaster. I was even more delighted when it auto-detected my Voodoo 3 and set the defaults needed for it.
Overall the installation was easier than a typical Windows installation. It led me through the setup so effortlessly and expertly that I would trust my mother with a Linux installation - my true test of a technology`s ease of use.
Another story proves Linux`s scalability. Dimension Enterprises, an application solutions provider, has managed to run 41 400 Linux images under VM/ESA on an IBM S/390. Each virtual server performed a specific task, such as generating Web traffic, handling network connectivity or running as application servers and file servers. The company reports the machine - capped at 10% processor capacity - ran smoothly and never crashed.
If you have not yet played with Linux, I suggest you get your hands on a copy (it is free) and see what you are missing. It has reached the level where it appeals to both the Unix techie and the Windows user alike. Its popularity is only going to increase from here, and having the skills to work in a Linux environment could prove invaluable in the years to come. Watch this space.
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