By Barbara Darrow ,
NEW YORK -- Linux is not only ready for the enterprise, it's already there, according to IBM Corp. president and COO Sam Palmisano.
"Linux is real and Linux is ready for real business," Palmisano told attendees in a keynote speech kicking off LinuxWorld here.
Citing such real-world Linux customers as Weather.com, Shell Oil, and National Center For Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, Palmisano said people who doubt that the operating system can scale to the biggest of applications are just wrong.
Weather.com, one of the Web's most popular sites, supports anywhere from 5 million to 27.5 million page views per day running Linux and can scale even higher to 40 million per day, according to the company's CTO Mark Ryan.
If people still see Linux as a niche player, Palmisano said the open source code operating system is a major presence in telecom and Internet applications as well.
"That's probably 40 percent of our industry and 40 percent of a $1 trillion industry -- that's a niche," he said. "That's big enough for IBM to play in, and we need a big sandbox."
IBM (stock: IBM) used the show to promote new products and programs, including a $300 million investment in Linux support and service by IBM Global Services.
That is in addition to the $1 billion IBM has already pledged to Linux-related development and work.
The company will focus on building more services, figuring out the best way to build high-availability clusters, and porting applications to Linux to boost application consolidation, said Irving Wladawsky-Berger, vice president of technology and strategy for IBM's Server Group.
IBM also said it plans to offer a new 64-bit eServer x430 that will be based on Sequent's NUMA-Q technology.
Domino Workflow from IBM's Lotus subsidiary is now available on Linux.
IBM is working to make its supercomputing clusters, of the type used by Shell and the University of Illinois, more packaged.
Such systems are now basically custom built for each application, said Wladawsky-Berger.
Palmisano, the heir apparent to IBM chairman Louis Gerstner, came to the show to underline the company's support for the burgeoning open source operating system.
Even IBM, which spends $5 billion a year on research and development, cannot possibly solve all e-business problems, he noted.
"We need to unleash the creativity of thousands of developers around the world," he said.
The bottom line: IBM would not devote this much effort to Linux if it did not believe in it.
"IBM has made our choice," Palmisano said. "We put a significant amount of IBM's future prosperity behind Linux. We don't invest a billion dollars casually. Lou [Gerstner] and I don't write those checks without, shall I say, some engaging meetings."
Whether the rap on Linux is true or not, it is still pervasive. The IT manager for a major New York financial institution was asked if he's looking at Linux in the near term.
"No," he said emphatically. "It just doesn't scale."
Other vendors -- including Dell Computer Corp. (stock: DELL); Compaq Computer Corp. (stock: CPQ); and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (stock: AMD) -- are also at the show to reaffirm their support.
Microsoft Corp. (stock: MSFT) has sent its representatives as well to keep tabs on Linux, which president Steve Ballmer recently called a major threat to Windows.
Sun Microsystems Inc. (stock: SUNW), which some say has shown lukewarm support to Linux, has sent a representative to tell its Linux story.
After IBM, Sun has more resources devoted to Linux than any company, said Herb Hinstorff, manager of Sun's Linux Program.
Sun tried to get Pat Sueltz, Software Systems Group executive vice president, a keynote slot but was turned down, according to Herb Hinstorff, manager of Sun's Linux Program Office.
IBM hinted strongly -- without mentioning names -- that Sun is not fully committed to Linux.
Palmisano used a long unattributed quote from a vendor executive, likening Linux code to a bathtub full of software that anyone can use.
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