Red Hat vs SCO: Prelude to a Class Action Suit?
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

When Red Hat launched a lawsuit against the SCO Group this week in the US District Court in Delaware to defend itself against SCO's allegations impugning the legality of open source technologies used in the latest releases of the open source Linux operating system, the first legal shot in what could become a volley that turns into a cannonball was fired. By suing SCO and setting up a $1 million legal defense fund for open source developers, Red Hat has taken a bold step. But a bolder one would be to put in an additional $1 million for open source developers to file complaints against SCO for damaging their businesses. READ MORE >

IBM Debuts eServers Based on AMD Opterons
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

At the LinuxWorld trade show in San Francisco, IBM duly launched its eServer entry servers using the 64-bit "SledgeHammer" Opteron processors from Advanced Micro Devices. IBM had promised to deliver real machines for real customers when the Opterons debuted back in April, effectively becoming the tier one server vendor that AMD desperately needs to make the Opterons compete in the market against Intel's 32-bit Xeon and 64-bit Itanium processors. READ MORE >

HP Rolls Out Linux Wares at LinuxWorld
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Hewlett-Packard, boasting once again that it has sold some $2 billion worth of Linux-related hardware, software, and services since it started pushing Linux with increasing aggressiveness in the past several years, rolled out at LinuxWorld this week some key products for Linux that will help it peddle even more products in the future. The products are focused on systems management and clustering software that HP already sells for Windows and/or Unix platforms. READ MORE >

IBM Serves Up 'Blue Ice' Packaging for Linux Across eServers
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Two years ago, when IBM caught the Linux bug real bad, it promised to get the open source Linux operating system running on all of its platforms, to get its core middleware and databases running on it, and use Linux as a kind of common glue holding the disparate eServer family of incompatible products together. With the "Blue Ice" Integrated Platform for eBusiness, which will soon be available on the iSeries, IBM is making good on this promise. READ MORE >

IDC Runs the Numbers for iSeries Wintel-Lintel Server Consolidation
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Every 12 to 18 months or so, IBM rejiggers or substantially revamps the OS/400 server line. Soon thereafter, like sunshine after much-needed rain, the analysts at International Data Corp present a study of one aspect or another of the OS/400 platform that helps IBM and OS/400 shops make their economic and technical arguments for the platform. With such a big repackaging of the OS/400 platform in January, IBM had a lot of options in commissioning a study from IDC. But this time around, IDC was instructed to focus on Wintel and Lintel server consolidation onto the iSeries. READ MORE >

Mad Dog 21/21: Blocking the Sewers of Cyberspace
by Hesh Wiener

Brace yourself. It's time to check your e-mail. It's probably got ads for pornography, sexual potency pills, absurd mortgage deals, offers for credit cards, and human growth hormone. There could be invitations to meet sex partners or to join the next group of pyramid schemers who will make tons of money pumping out messages like the one sent to you. You may be offered the chance to put software on your PC that will reveal the secret lives of your favorite personal suspects. READ MORE >

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