The Persistence of Unix
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

In the physical world, a number of difference forces are at play, and each in turn displays supremacy--or at least relevance--at subatomic, atomic, molecular, and wider levels. The weak force allows quarks to change form and enables, among other things, nuclear fusion inside the sun; the strong force binds the nuclei inside atoms together, and the electromagnetic force glues atoms and molecules together. Gravity is the weakest of the forces in some terms, but it warps space and tells matter how to move throughout it. In business, inertia is probably the strongest force, and but so are familiarity, expertise, comfort, and value. These forces also operate at different levels within an organization, and they explain the persistence of Unix as a platform two decades after Unix servers first started appearing in commercial settings. READ MORE >

HP Pursues Telcos with New Entry NonStop Server
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Server makers that have invested large sums of money over the years into sophisticated, non-standard server architectures are always looking for new niches they can chase to boost sales or hold them steady in a market that is increasingly dominated by X64 processors running Windows, Linux, and sometimes Unix. And so it is with Hewlett-Packard and its fault-tolerant NonStop server line. This week, HP has announced a new entry configuration of the NonStop machine and a homegrown stack of switching software aimed specifically at small telecommunications companies--particularly those in emerging markets. READ MORE >

The Market for Servers in Europe Is Hot
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Last week, the box counters at IDC and Gartner provided their quarterly estimates of global server sales by server type, operating system, and vendor. But IDC also went the extra mile and provided some insight into server sales in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In what must seem like something of a dream for server makers, Europe is going strong right now. READ MORE >

As I See It: Operating on Overload
by Victor Rozek

If the name Conrad Gesner is unfamiliar, it's probably because you're either not a librarian or weren't around in the 16th century when Gesner walked the earth. Born in Switzerland, Gesner was a naturalist and a scholar, but he is known to librarians as the creator of the bibliography. And what an ambitious accomplishment it was! Known as the Bibliotheca universalis, it was written in three languages--Greek, Latin, and Hebrew--and it listed all of the writers who had ever lived and the titles of all their works. READ MORE >