But Wait, There's More

• Open Source Development Labs, which is overseeing the rollout of the next Linux kernel, release 2.6, has put out a test version of the code for people to play with. The Linux 2.4 kernel debuted in January 2001 and more or less attained parity with Windows 2000 Server (for entry two-way machines) and Windows 2000 Advanced Server (for four-way and eight-way machines). Tweaks made by Red Hat and SuSE in particular made Linux 2.4 more palatable for commercial users, as did the services and technical support that these companies offer as their main source of income. With Linux 2.6, Linux will be able to scale to 32 processors in a single-system image, and has even been tested in beta form on 64-way machines. However, on 32-bit X86 machines, Linux 2.6 will apparently be limited to 8 GB of main memory when it first rolls out. A 32-way 32-bit machine will need to support 64 GB of main memory (the theoretical maximum that is also the limit for Windows 2000 and Windows 2003), and a 64-bit machine will need to support 512 GB or 1 TB of main memory to be a balanced system. The coders behind Linux 2.6 know this, but they are shooting for the belly of the market, which is two-way-capable and four-way-capable machines, plus a smattering of very large, very expensive boxes with 8, 16, 24, or 32 processors. Linux 2.6 has a new CPU scheduler, a new memory management scheme, a new file system, and a new device driver layer that makes it easier to write drivers for peripherals and boosts the performance of those peripherals, too. It also has a new Native POSIX Thread Library, which provides performance that is at least an order of magnitude better on heavily threaded applications.
  
  

• Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are in a fierce battle for market share in the X86 processor market, which Intel created and dominates, and they both recently chopped processor prices. Intel cut prices on its Pentium 4 chips, which are used in desktops and entry servers, by between 7 and 35 percent. The price on the 3.2 GHz Pentium 4 is now $417, down 35 percent from $637, and a 3 GHz Pentium 4 only costs $278, down 33 percent from $417. Prices on Pentium 4 mobile processors, which are sometimes used in blade and entry servers, dropped by a similar amount but have slightly higher prices. AMD retaliated with price cuts of its own on its 32-bit Athlon and 64-bit Opteron line, with price cuts ranging from 18 to 33 percent on the Opterons and from 4 to 30 percent on the Althons. These are big cuts all around, and should help grease the skids for desktop, workstation, and server sales in the fourth quarter and into the first quarter.
  
  
• Microsoft and Advanced Micro Devices are working together to bring the future "Whidbey" release of the Visual Studio.NET development tool and its related .NET Framework for creating Web services applications to AMD X86 processors. Specifically, says AMD, Whidbey will be supported on its 32-bit Athlon and 64-bit Opteron lines, and the company demonstrated the beta versions of the tool on its platform last week at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference. AMD was keen on pointing out that the 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Windows 2003 Standard Edition, and Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition are in beta, and that Microsoft has committed to supporting the desktop and server variants of its future "Longhorn" kicker to Windows on these chips as well.
  
  
• Commercial Linux distributor Red Hat is going whole hog for the enterprise. On December 31, the company will discontinue support and patches to Red Hat Linux 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and 8.0 on December 31. Support for Red Hat Linux 9.0 will end April 30, 2004. You can find out more about the support issues on Red Hat's Web site. Essentially, Red Hat is doing away with the low-cost Linuxes it distributed, and is now only selling its Red Hat Enterprise Linux variants, which are at the 2.1 and 3.0 release levels (3.0 has just started shipping a week ago) and which come in different versions for workstations, entry servers, and midrange servers.
  
  
• Intentia has taken the Big Blue pledge. The Swedish developer of ERP software announced last week that it will standardize on IBM's middleware stack, including WebSphere, DB2, and Linux, and that it will expand its sales and marketing partnership with IBM. It was not a huge step for Intentia, which has had close relations with IBM for some time. Intentia went big with Java years ago, and it buddied up with the Armonk, New York, computing giant a couple years ago to develop a "Bumblebee" iSeries server that featured Intentia's ERP software preloaded onto it (similar to "Bumblebees" IBM originally rolled out with Lotus Domino and eventually developed for WebSphere and Linux and the J.D. Edwards and Interactive Business Systems ERP systems). Under this new deal, Intentia will work to preintegrate the ERP, supply chain, CRM, and other components of its Java-based Movex "NexGen" suite on IBM's middleware, including WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere Portal-Express, and DB2 Universal Database, on OS/400, Unix, Linux, and Window operating systems. For customers, this will limit the breadth of middleware options they have with Movex, but it should also simplify the roll-out. Some have speculated this agreement also serves to protect IBM's midmarket ERP position, should Oracle succeed in its acquisition of PeopleSoft and kill the J.D. Edwards iSeries product.
  
  
• IBM and business intelligence software vendor Informatica and are stepping up their partnership with a new multiyear initiative to further integrate Informatica's products with IBM's middleware and supported operating systems. The plan calls for bundling a variety of Informatica offerings, such as PowerAnalyzer, PowerCenter, and PowerConnect, with several IBM products, including DB2 Cube Views, DB2 Information Integrator, IBM WebSphere Application Server 5.0, and several operating systems, including Linux, OS/400, and OS/390. The new integration should improve the scalability and load performance of the deployed software, the companies say. In September, Informatica acquired ETL tool provider Striva for $62 million. This gave it a greater degree of control over its PowerConnect for AS/400 and PowerConnect for Mainframe products, which were based on software developed by Striva and OEM'ed to Informatica.
  
  

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