Reach Path to 'Linux Nirvana'...

Computerworld - ... with archiving tool for data center. That's the message from major software vendors that have jumped on the information life-cycle management bandwagon. SAP AG will release an ILM product, possibly this summer, based on technology from OuterBay Technologies Inc. And Sybase Inc. in Dublin, Calif., has just begun offering OuterBay's ILM technology, joining PeopleSoft Inc., Oracle Corp., EMC Corp. and other companies anxious to get users to migrate their dusty data from high-priced proprietary servers to cheaper Linux machines. But Michael Howard, CEO of Cupertino, Calif.-based OuterBay, thinks these software giants want to prod you toward "a Linux nirvana," where even your pricey production machines, not just the ones with archived data, are low-cost, commodity Linux boxes. Howard claims the software vendors are discovering that their products run plenty fast on Linux systems once the old data has been moved elsewhere, so they're encouraging you to dump virtually all of your proprietary Unix systems. "For software vendors, every dollar you take away from hardware procurement leaves you more to spend on software," he says. A diabolical plot? Or a gift from heaven?
Linux Lovers Should Forget Feud With ...
Windows and think above and below the operating system. That's the advice from Tim O'Reilly, CEO of O'Reilly Media Inc. in Sebastopol, Calif. The publisher of open-source books and the impresario of the O'Reilly Open Source Convention being held later this month in Portland, Ore., argues that by emphasizing the operating system struggle, open-source zealots overlook opportunities to build successful business alternatives to proprietary technologies. He points to Google, Amazon.com and other successful Internet businesses that are built on top of Linux, as well as Indianapolis-based hardware maker Progeny Linux Systems Inc., which builds its business below the operating system. "A lot of the Linux community is fixated on beating Microsoft," he says. "But value is moving up and down the stack, as these companies show." In contrast to what was written here two weeks ago , O'Reilly thinks the desktop opportunities for Linux are alive and well. Especially with Novell Inc.'s purchase of SUSE and Ximian, which enables the Orem, Utah-based company's brand-name recognition in the enterprise to be used as ammo in the desktop wars.

Michael Howard, CEO of OuterBay Technologies Inc.