[ba-unrev-talk] NYTimes.com Article: I.B.M. Agrees to Expand Its Use of the Linux Operating System
This article from NYTimes.com
has been sent to you by garyrichmond@rcn.com. (01)
I.B.M. Agrees to Expand Its Use of the Linux Operating System (02)
September 16, 2002
By BARNABY J. FEDER (03)
I.B.M. and the software company Red Hat plan to announce a
multiyear alliance today to greatly expand the range of
I.B.M. computers and software products that run on the
Linux operating software distributed by Red Hat. (04)
I.B.M. and Red Hat, the leader among the start-ups trying
to profit from packaging and supporting the free Linux
operating system, also agreed to jointly sell their
products and support services to big business customers
deploying Linux systems. (05)
Financial details and the exact length of the three
separate deals in the alliance package will not be
disclosed. But the general terms outline a substantial, if
not entirely unexpected, step forward in the Linux assault
on the corporate market. (06)
Linux initially became popular among academic and
government computer users anxious to avoid the cost of
systems based on proprietary software from companies like
Sun Microsystems and I.B.M. itself. Big businesses have
taken note of the potential cost savings, but have been
cautious about whether Linux measures up on other
attributes that they consider important, including
reliability, the ability to add capacity and compatibility
with widely used business software. (07)
The new alliance does not supplant previous I.B.M.
commitments to other Linux distributors or Red Hat's
cooperative arrangements with I.B.M. rivals. But the closer
and broader cooperation between the two companies should
help validate Linux in the corporate world, where I.B.M. is
the leading provider of both hardware and computer support
services, according to Stacey Quandt, an analyst at Giga
Information Group in Santa Clara, Calif. (08)
She predicted that the validation will help even Red Hat
rivals like SuSE, which offers versions of Linux tailored
to a number of I.B.M. computer models that Red Hat has
ignored in the past. (09)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/16/technology/16LINU.html?ex=1033183447&ei=1&en=19124290e09b4f76 (010)
HOW TO ADVERTISE
---------------------------------
For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters
or other creative advertising opportunities with The
New York Times on the Web, please contact
onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media
kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo (011)
For general information about NYTimes.com, write to
help@nytimes.com. (012)
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company (013)