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BOSTON—At the OSDL Enterprise Linux Summit a few weeks ago in Burlingame, Calif., the focus was on the theory of taking Linux into the future. This coming week, here at LinuxWorld Boston, the attendees focus will be on the practical details of moving Linux forward in the market.
IDG (International Data Group), the shows sponsor, expects more than 6,000 attendees to come to see over 180 exhibitors showcasing new Linux and open-source products in Bostons Hynes Convention Center. The exhibitors will include AMD, Apple, Computer Associates, HP, IBM, Intel, Novell, Oracle, Red Hat and Sun Microsystems.
Red Hat Inc. is expected to unveil the latest version of its flagship server Linux operating system, RHEL 4 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4).
Based on Fedora 3, Red Hats community-based distribution, RHEL 4 will be the Raleigh, N.C. firms first Linux 2.6-based operating system.
Novell Inc. beat Red Hat to the punch with the first major enterprise Linux 2.6-based server operating system, SLES 9 (SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9), in August 2004. Red Hat, though, has elected to go slower both to keep its enterprise customers happy and to ensure that RHEL 4 would be stable.
Novell is expected to have numerous announcements about its SuSE Linux, NetWare and identity solutions based around Linux. Perhaps more important than those announcements will be that numerous Novell partners like workload management solution provider Aurema Inc., business process giant SAP and IBM will be making joint announcements with Novell.
So far, Novells efforts to push forward with creating a complete enterprise business software stack for Linux appear to be successful.
Penguin Computing will also be pointing out that companies that need mainframe power can look to Linux clusters as well, with both traditional clusters and its newly launched line of BladeRunner blade server-based “clusters in a box.”
Developers will be interested to know that VA Software will be announcing the next version of SourceForge Enterprise Edition. The new edition of this popular development platform will include a Windows desktop environment, a native Web interface, and several IDE (integrated development environment) and SCM (software configuration management) solutions, making it possible to do collaborative development with both Web-enabled and local access.
In addition, the new SourceForge will boast a customizable interface, improved integration with the Subversion version control system and new LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) integration.
Its not just the big names that will be making news at LinuxWorld though. Smaller firms like Solinus are trying for their day in the sun.
Solinus will be announcing the release of its Linux-powered MailFoundry 4100 anti-spam appliance. With a $3,499 price point, no per-user fees and what the company says is the ability to process over five million messages per day, the company hopes to find both SMB and enterprise customers.
Big companies or small, they all have one goal in mind at this LinuxWorld: to show that Linux and open-source software are more than ready to take their place at the heart of enterprises.