Linux Advances from Status of 'Tested' to 'Guaranteed'
October 11, 2000 (TOKYO) -- Server vendors have become more aggressive about
marketing the Linux operating system in recent months.
IBM Japan Ltd.'s announcement that it will officially support the Linux OS on all of its
servers helped trigger the move. Leading vendors, which had managed to handle Linux
to some extent, began to follow IBM seriously after this announcement.
Among others, Hitachi Ltd. announced in September that it will support Linux on all of
its major product lines, including mainframe computers, UNIX servers, PC servers, PCs
and mobile devices. Although the company announced the establishment of a joint
venture with Microsoft Corp. in June to offer Windows 2000-based enterprise solutions,
Hitachi has organized a business unit dedicated to promoting Linux, showing its high
expectations for the Linux-solution market.
The Linux OS, which is primarily used as a PC server OS, is often compared with
Windows NT/2000 Server. We often hear people say, "We should no longer talk about
the operating system. Solutions running on the OS are more important, such as
applications or services."
This argument may be true from an end user's point of view. However, a selection of
operating systems is critical for system integrators or system administrators who
implement systems or administer overall system operations.
The general support level for Linux offered by PC server vendors has been relatively
poor compared with that for Windows NT/2000. Most vendors only provide the results
of the verification tests running Linux on their PC servers as Linux support information.
Compaq Computer KK, for example, has even opened a Linux Web page that provides
abundant information, but it clearly states, "We have verified the operation of Linux on
our platform, but we do not guarantee it. If you would like to introduce Linux on our
platform as part of your system, it will be at your risk."
IBM Japan, Dell Computer KK and Fujitsu Ltd. have gone further. For instance, IBM's
brochure for the Netfinity PC server specifies Red Hat Linux 6.1 and TurboLinux Server
6.0 as operating systems that are supported, in addition to Windows NT Server 4.0 and
Windows 2000 Server.
"Just a single line description of Linux in the brochure is very important to a PC server
vendor like us, because it means that a maker officially guarantees Linux operations on
its platforms. IBM Japan now supports Linux on the same level as Windows NT/2000",
a PC server planner at IBM Japan said.
Other vendors will also need to provide such "guarantees" for them to keep pace with
IBM Japan.
Dell started pre-installing Linux on its PC servers. Most vendors are reluctant to do this
because legal risks could be involved in pre-installation. Although Linux is a free
operating system, a possibility exists that developers could suddenly bring up matters
of intellectual property rights as concerns Linux. A pre-installed model could infringe on
the patent of a certain vendor and could be a target of a lawsuit.
Although this issue is yet to be resolved, Dell has decided to offer a pre-installed model
for user convenience, Dell said. As a result, the OS ratio of Dell's PC servers between
Windows NT/2000 and Red Hat Linux is 5:1, for a larger Linux usage rate than other
vendors. Dell thinks that pre-installation has attracted customers, while other vendors
only bundle Linux with their platforms. Some vendors may follow Dell's strategy.
In addition to the support, another issue of the Linux OS in comparison with Windows
NT/2000 is the availability of application suites.
Kuniteru Kojima, president of TurboLinux Japan KK, said, "One of the most important
things we must do is to make many more applications available on Linux."
"We want to release a thousand application titles by the middle of 2001," Kojima said.
Application vendors, however, will speed up their Linux developments if server vendors
show aggressive moves in Linux efforts. If so, Linux will be more widely used in
addition to the current primary use of Internet-related servers.
Microsoft Co., Ltd. announced Sept. 26 its release of the high-end server OS, Windows
2000 Datacenter Server.
Microsoft is targeting the large-scale server market, while Sun Microsystems Inc. is the
real leader.
"People say that it is taking a long time for Windows 2000 to fully start up. But we aren't
worried at all because it took almost a year for NT 3.51 to shift to NT 4.0," a Microsoft
official said. But it was because NetWare, then the strongest rival, was declining and
there were no other server OS competitors at that time. The market situation today is
completely different.
(Tomio Kikyobara, Senior Editor, Computer Group) |
