The steady rise of Linux in the business market was
underscored last week at the LinuxWorld conference in San
Francisco.
Some of the largest software suppliers announced a clutch of new
products for the open source market, which is fast becoming a
mainstream alternative to Microsoft and other proprietary
software.
The main attraction for organisations, particularly in the public
sector, is the lower cost of Linux and its reputation for
reliability.
Nearly 70% of internet servers use the open source Apache software,
according to research company Netcraft. In the European server
market Linux has a 6% share, said analyst firm IDC.
Dan Kusnetsky, an analyst at IDC, predicted that the growth of
Linux in business would continue. He said suppliers needed to offer
users web-based applications, a reliable e-mail access system and
greater security.
There is also potential demand among developers who may want to
build Java-based applications and web services using Linux instead
of Windows, providing this is cost-effective, he said.
Hewlett-Packard announced the release of the HP Compaq t5515 server
- the first of the t5000 series to offer Linux .
HP said the server offers increased security because fewer hackers
target Linux and there are fewer Linux viruses in the wild. As the
server is designed to support thin-client applications, end-users
cannot introduce new soft- ware or viruses to the network.
Red Hat, the biggest seller of Linux licences, launched an open
source application server it said would work with other Java
Enterprise Edition 2.0 application servers from IBM, BEA Systems
and Oracle.
The Red Hat Application Server includes a web application server
and support for messaging technology from Axis.
IBM Cloudscape
At Linuxworld, IBM announced it has donated its Cloudscape
relational database to the Apache Software Foundation, which will
manage it as an open source project. IBM acquired Cloudscape when
it bought Informix in 2001.
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