The Four Hundred

New Intel-based Linux servers were announced by Sun Microsystems and IBM at LinuxWorld this week, as the two server rivals jostled for position at the low-end of the market for Linux servers. IBM also sought to capitalize on Sun's late entry into the Linux server market by announcing a new program to migrate customers' Unix applications running on Sun's Sparc servers to Linux running on IBM hardware.

The fact that Sun has begrudgingly reconciled itself to being a Linux server vendor--and more than a year after the so-called proprietary AS/400-iSeries got native Linux--just shows you how very little the usual suspects in the server business want to embrace Linux. IBM didn't want to, but had to, and Sun didn't want to, but has to, because IBM did. It's not "Peace, Love, Linux," like IBM Linux promotions from a year ago said, but more like "Disruption, Denial, and Acceptance." Open source and its Linux champion is, in many ways, a grassroots revenge for the decades of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt that server and operating system vendors used to get companies to invest in what they, the vendors, said was feasible, as opposed to what might have been right for them (such as buying an AS/400 server). [Editor's Note: It's a pity OS/400 wasn't made open-source in 1988. The world would be radically different. It might not be too late for that. More on this next week.]

Sun's new LX50 servers, which have gone by the codename "Big Bear," are thin, rack-mountable machines based on the design work done by Cobalt, the hardware appliance vendor Sun bought in 2000. The LX50 is available with either one or two Intel Pentium III 1.4 GHz processors (based on the ServerWorks HE SL chipset with a 133 MHz front side bus), 512 KB of L2 cache memory, 256 MB to 6 GB of main memory, two SCSI hard drive bays (for 36 GB or 72 GB disks), dual integrated Ethernet ports, a dual channel Ultra 160 SCSI controller, and two 66 MHz PCI slots for I/O. The LX50 starts at $2,795 for a single Intel Pentium III 1.4GHz processor with 512 MB of memory. The two processor model with 1 GB of memory goes for $4,295, while the two-processor model with 2 GB of memory is listed at $5,295.

The LX50 comes standard with Sun's Linux distribution, called Sun Linux 5.0, although users can opt to install Sun's 32-bit Solaris 8 Unix operating system if they prefer. Whichever way customers go, the LX50 ships with a bunch of software and applications. For users choosing Sun Linux 5.0, these applications include Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE) application and development tools, the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition, the Sun Chili!Soft ASP Web server plug-in software, the Sun Grid Engine software, and the mySQL database. For Solaris, the LX50 ships with the Java 2 Platform, standard Edition, the SunScreen firewall software, the Sun Grid Engine software, the mySQL database, and Apache Web server software.

The LX50 is the first general purpose Linux server produced by Sun. Sun has walked a fine line on the Linux-on-Intel issue to avoid damaging the business it does selling integrated servers running its version of the Unix operating system, Solaris, and running on its proprietary, 64-bit Sparc processor architecture. That Sun is now trying to compete in the Linux-on-Intel server business is a significant deviation from its core Solaris-on-Sparc business, industry watchers say, but Sun has strived to downplay the move. (For more information, see "Sun's New Lintel Server Line Coming in August.")

On Monday, IBM announced its new Intel-based xSeries 335 server, which IBM intends to go head-to-head against Sun's new LX50. The rack-mountable xSeries 335 has two of Intel's latest Xeon processors and features Ultra320 hard disk drives, integrated dual gigabit Ethernet, and two 64-bit/100 MHz PCI-X slots. IBM also announced the xSeries 345, a 2U form factor, two-way machine that supports 2 GHz, 2.2 GHz, and 2.4 GHz Xeon processors. IBM's Cluster 1350 offering is comprised of clusters of these two types of machines preconfigured to support Linux-based parallel clusters aimed primarily at supercomputing workloads. Like the LX50, IBM's xSeries 335 and xSeries 345 are available with two different operating systems, in this case, Linux or Microsoft Windows.

IBM also attacked Sun by kicking off its new Solaris-to-Linux migration campaign. IBM is offering the services of a range of experts, such as system architects, database administrators, project managers and operating system specialists, to migrate customers' complete Solaris operating environments--including operating systems, databases, applications, servers, storage, networking, and security--from Solaris to Linux. IBM is also including financing as part of the deal.