Microsoft and Novell in Landmark Partnership
by Alex Woodie

Longtime competitors Microsoft and Novell unveiled a partnership last week designed to foster a greater level of interoperability between Windows and Novell's SUSE Linux distribution. The companies say the partnership resolves several long running issues, including difficulty in managing joint Windows-Linux environments, as well as patent and intellectual property issues regarding co-existence of the two operating systems. Microsoft also issued a covenant not to sue individual developers of open source software. READ MORE >

Bang for the Buck: Entry Linux Servers Keep Windows and Unix Honest
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Only 15 years ago, Linus Torvalds was annoyed enough about the expense of the just-commercialized Unix workstations and systems on the market that he started to create his own operating system, one that had a look and feel very much like Unix. Back then, proprietary operating systems dominated the midrange of the server market, mainframes ruled the high end, and there was no such thing as an entry server, but rather a NetWare file system for file sharing and network printing. How the world has changed. Proprietary operating systems still have their niches--and they will for a long time to come--and a formerly ascendant Unix has been pushed out of the entry server space by Linux and Windows. READ MORE >

Liquid Computing Starts Shipping LiquidIQ Servers
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Canadian server maker--there are three words you don't normally see next to each other--Liquid Computing has begun shipping its innovative Opteron-based LiquidIQ servers. And the third release of the LiquidIQ system, which is the first commercially available version of the platform, is a lot more scalable than the prior two generations were, weighing in at 960 dual-core sockets. However, the LiquidIQ machines are still based on the Rev E Opterons, not the current "Santa Rosa" Rev F Opterons that Advanced Micro Devices launched during the summer. READ MORE >

The X Factor: Form Follows Function
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

In nature, the shape of an animal or a plant is the result of the interplay between the organism and its environment--the latter being the sum result of the forces at play, the competitive pressures between competing life forms, and the materials at hand with which to build and sustain the life form. In the data center, similar competitive pressures are at work on computer designs, and instead of working at periodic timescales, evolution happens over a human generation or less. But sometimes evolution is stalled by greed. READ MORE >