IBM Raises Rates on iSeries Financing Deals
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

With interest rates on the rise again, the term "low-rate financing" might soon take on a different meaning. The Federal Reserve has voted to raise a key interest rate. The anticipation of that move, which was relatively minor, is nonetheless giving captive financing companies the chance to shoot the gap between reality and perception and to make some extra money. While the Fed only raised that key interest rate a smidgen, IBM raised it by a factor of four more. READ MORE >

Host Access Vendors Wary About Windows XP SP2
by Alex Woodie

Will Windows XP Service Pack 2 break older host access programs? That is one of the things vendors of Windows-98-era 5250 emulation programs are worried about. Just as IT spending seems to be picking up, Microsoft will make many security enhancements with Windows XP SP2, but representatives with host access vendors, such as NetManage, are concerned that those enhancements will make their legacy emulation programs incompatible with the update to the Windows desktop environment. READ MORE >

Governments to Go Ga-Ga for Linux?
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Munich, Germany. Bergen, Norway. Anytown, USA? Anyborough, England? Quelqueville, France? The first two are not mythical places, but real cities in Europe that have achieved somewhat mythical status in the Linux community because they have decided to put Linux on their desktops and servers, replacing Windows. As Microsoft has so aptly demonstrated in the past decade, the desktop platform is unequivocally linked to the platform in the data center, and those who choose Windows or Linux for one job are apt to choose the same platform for the other. Eventually. READ MORE >

Mad Dog 21/21: To Hive and Hive Not
by Hesh Wiener

They naturally organize themselves into orderly, cooperative groups. They produce what it takes to nurture and enlarge their society, and more, too. When the central figure in a group departs, they very quickly nominate one or more candidates for that role. If two or more prospective leaders arise, only one will remain with the group and emerge as a leader. That's the way honeybees behave and bee hive. That's the way people in prominent software development teams often act, too. READ MORE >

  But Wait, There's More

Read Four Hundred Stuff for the Latest i5 Announcements . . . What Happens if Oracle Wins the PeopleSoft Antitrust Lawsuit? . . . Open Source Eclipse 3.0 Integrated Development Environment Arrives . . . IBM Inks Deal with Tandberg for iSeries Tape Drives . . . IDC Says IBM Middleware Share Will Decline with OS/400, OS/390 . . . Guild Companies Adds Google Search Service . . . READ MORE >

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