IBM Launches Skinnier, 2-Way OpenPower Linux Server
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

IBM last week launched a two-way version of its OpenPower Linux-only Power5 server platform, as it had been hinting it would do over the past several months. The OpenPower 710, as the new machine is called, will enable IBM to push Linux-on-Power a lot more effectively than the initial four-way OpenPower 720 server did. The reason why is that it is better targeted at two-way and four-way Wintel and Lintel servers in terms of price and performance. READ MORE >

Can Linux Take on Big Unix Boxes?
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

As I demonstrated two weeks ago, in the entry and midrange server market, it is Unix servers, not Lintel or Wintel servers, that are setting the price/performance pace. And up in the enterprise server space, Unix dominates, but vendors of Linux, Windows, and proprietary machines are all trying to get a piece of the action, too. Now that Linux 2.6 has arrived, and scales a lot better than Linux 2.4, plenty of IT shops are wondering whether Linux can displace other platforms for core applications, not just infrastructure workloads. READ MORE >

OSDL Denies "Operation Open Gates" Linux Rewrite
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

There's a rumor going around that Open Source Development Labs is launching an operation to rewrite substantial portions of the Linux stack to somehow circumvent theoretical patent violations. The operation, code-named "Operation Open Gates," was expected to be unveiled today by OSDL, the organization that steers the development of Linux and other open source technologies and employs Linus Torvalds, the first mover of Linux. It's a great story--well, sort of, in that breaking-news-journalism way--but it also happens to be untrue. READ MORE >

As I See It: The Elusive Pursuit of Happiness
by Victor Rozek

It's January, the time of the year when the season of hope runs headlong into disinterested reality. A lot of dreams die in the cold, dark days of January, when habit and inertia conspire to overwhelm good intentions. The Christmas bills arrive long after delight has departed, and many are left with the familiar feeling of letdown and the eternal question, "What now?" Discontent prowls below the surface of consciousness, persistent as a hungry shark, searching, wondering, "What will make me happy now?" READ MORE >

  But Wait, There's More

Linux Gets Native InfiniBand I/O Support . . . IBM Contributes to Xen Open Source Virtualization Project . . . Judge Tells IBM to Stop Dragging Its Feet and Cough Up the AIX and Dynix Code for SCO Suit . . . Linux Racks Up More TPC Benchmark Numbers . . . Wary CIOs to Spend 2.5% More on IT in 2005, Says Gartner . . . Survey Says IT Salaries Stagnated in 2004 . . . Gartner Says Utility Computing Will Cost IT Jobs . . . READ MORE >

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