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Date:      Thu, 18 Feb 1999 00:34:35 -0500
From:      "Jack Velte" <jackv@earthling.net>
To:        <freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG>
Cc:        <chat@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   IBM to offer Linux with Netfinity computers - NYT
Message-ID:  <002701be5b00$8a411040$6a6c4cd1@jackv.pacbell.net>

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IBM to offer Linux with Netfinity computers
New York Times

NEW YORK -- In perhaps the most significant endorsement yet of the little
operating system that could, IBM Corp. will announce Wednesday that
beginning next month it will ship its Netfinity line of network server
computers with the free operating system Linux pre-installed alongside
Microsoft's Windows NT.

Linux is a highly regarded flavor of Unix, a kind of operating system widely
used in powerful business machines that serve as the hub of local computer
networks and Web sites.

But despite its power and stability, Linux has not gained wide acceptance
because corporations have had nowhere to turn for support; it was designed
and built by a loose international coalition of programmers who freely share
its source code and collaborate on its development. Thus, there is no
company that can be held responsible for the product.

IBM will address that drawback by offering customers technical support for
the software through an agreement with a Linux distributor, Red Hat
Software.

The move by IBM comes on the heels of decisions by several other computer
manufacturers -- most notably Hewlett-Packard and Dell Computer -- to sell
machines that run Linux, making it a viable competitor to other flavors of
Unix and, most notably, to Windows NT.

Although some system administrators and programmers within companies have
embraced Linux because of its flexibility and propensity not to crash, the
operating system has rarely been officially sanctioned by management because
of its orphan status.

``This increases the credibility of Linux in organizations,'' said Stacey
Quandt, an analyst with Giga Information Group in Cambridge, Mass. ``A lot
of companies are running Linux on some server in a closet somewhere, but
when IBM comes out and says they're supporting it, it creates a lot more
credibility.''

IBM said customer demand had been growing for Linux, particularly among
Internet service providers and companies that want to take advantage of its
open source code to modify their systems for their own needs.

``If you go back to early PC days, what you typically saw was technically
literate folks using PC's at home and moving them into businesses where it
wasn't a top-down decision,'' said Phil Hester, chief technology officer of
IBM's personal systems group. ``This has a lot of that same feel to it. We
think we need to understand this marketplace and grow with it.''

Hester's division, which is based in Raleigh, N.C., just five miles from Red
Hat's headquarters, has set up a laboratory to test Linux on the Netfinity
servers, as well as on work stations and its Thinkpad line of laptops. In
addition to Linux and Windows NT, the Netfinity servers will continue to be
shipped with IBM's OS/2 operating system.

The deal positions Red Hat, which also supplies Linux to Hewlett-Packard, as
the leading commercial distributor of the operating system, although IBM
left open the possibility that it would also contract with one of Red Hat's
competitors, like Caldera Inc. or SuSe.

Linux, which can be had free on the Internet, has spawned a cottage industry
of distributors that combine its various pieces on a CD-ROM with basic
technical information.

Red Hat, a five-year-old start-up that last year received an equity
investment from the Intel Corp., aims to make money by selling technical
assistance to Linux's growing customer base. Under the agreement with IBM,
customers will have the option of buying Red Hat support directly or through
IBM. The company's existing support contracts range from $1,000 a year for a
single user to $60,000 a year for enterprises, depending on the number of
computers linked to the server.

Microsoft uses a different approach, pricing its support for the Windows NT
Server by ``incident,'' meaning that when a customer has a problem, he gets
Microsoft's help for a specified amount of money. Typically, this is about
$195, with a volume discount for companies that prepay for 10 incidents.
Windows NT itself range in price from about $250 for a single computer to
about $55 per computer when licensed for 25 or more computers.

``Intel's endorsement of Red Hat meant Linux was OK to use,'' said Robert C.
Young, Red Hat's chief executive. But anyone who bought it still took on the
liability for buying hardware not supported for Linux. Now IBM is stepping
up and taking responsibility for the hardware component.''

Still, analysts caution that the bigger hurdle for Linux is a lack of
software that runs on it.

``Applications drive operating system sales,'' said Bill Petersen, research
director for IDC Research. ``The fact that Linux is available on hardware
gives chief information officers the ability to say, `Great, I can get
Linux,' but their next question is, `What can I run on it?' The story only
begins to get interesting when more organizations begin to make their
applications available for it.''




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