WSJ(1/10): IBM To Boost Use, Marketing Of Linux
By William M. Bulkeley
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
International Business Machines Corp., bidding to step up its role
in electronic commerce, is expected to unveil today plans to expand
substantially its use and marketing of Linux operating-system
software.
The move is likely to make Linux, developed as a low-price or even
free system by independent programmers around the world, much more
interesting to IBM's big corporate and government customers. IBM hopes
it will make IBM hardware more appealing to fast-growing dot-com
companies that generally use Sun Microsystems Corp. hardware.
Although IBM, Armonk, N.Y., last year announced it would support
Linux, the latest plan markedly steps up that commitment. The new
Linux initiative will be part of IBM's struggling servercomputer
operation, Enterprise Systems Group. The unit is headed by Samuel
Palmisano, widely identified by analysts and other observers as the
likely heir to IBM Chief Executive Louis V. Gerstner Jr.
In a letter to senior IBM managers, which was made available by the
company, Mr. Palmisano said: "This is the first step in our vision to
revitalize IBM's server business."
Mr. Palmisano was named to run the server business in the fall,
after he spent a highly successful term building up IBM's huge
computer-services organization. Computer hardware was a sore subject
at IBM last year, as sales slumped. In the third quarter, IBM said,
hardware sales fell 30% to $2.02 billion, from $2.87 billion a year
earlier. For the nine months, server revenue was down 11% to $6.6
billion.
The new Linux initiative will be headed by Irving Wladawsky-Berger,
who was named vice president, technology and strategy, reporting to
Mr. Palmisano. For the past four years, he has been general manager of
IBM's Internet division, responsible for making the company a force in
the Internet. IBM said that job has been completed and the separate
Internet division that he headed is being broken up.
Mr. Wladawsky-Berger said in an interview the Linux move has been
made "on Internet time," with Mr. Palmisano asking him to take it on
only two weeks ago. "He decided to make a bold play -- not just inch
across" toward Linux, Mr. WladawskyBerger said. As a result, he said,
many decisions such as funding and policy haven't been made.
IBM will build a Linux-development organization with about 200
developers, initially at centers in India and the U.S., he said. IBM
expects to add some of its operating-system technology to Linux, with
the approval of the informal Linux community, he said.
Top Linux programmers decide by e-mail what proposed enhancements
will be added to the system. IBM may, for example, offer technology
for letting several different computers work together in clusters to
back up each other in case of crashes. The company pioneered such
technology with its mainframe computers many years ago.
IBM hasn't decided whether to sell an IBM-certified version of Linux
as some Linux companies do, Mr. Wladawsky-Berger said. It expects to
make money "by selling hardware, middleware [a type of software] and
services," he said. "The more we accelerate growth in e-business, the
more existing and new customers will come to us and say `Help me.'"
During the second half of this year, IBM expects to start shipping
Linux software that can run on its server computers that run the Unix
operating system, he said. Linux already runs on IBM's proprietary
mainframe computers at customers such as Charles Schwab Corp. and
Fidelity Investments.
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 01-09-00
11:59 PM
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