Ed Allen's Alerts

IBM Itanium workstation; will ship with Linux first

"IBM said 64bit Linux from Red Hat, Turbo Linux, SuSE and Caldera will be available at the same time as Itanium is released, while AIX 5L - IBM's next-generation Unix operating system - will be available in April. Whistler, the 64bit version of Windows 2000, is expected to follow a few months after that, said Rudd."

M$ needs more money

Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2000 12:36:43 -0600

Increasing prices by closing out the in demand lower cost version again but this time I think they are getting desperate.

New memory from IBM could lead to "instant on" computers

Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2000 13:08:54 -0600

Only works if you never reboot, that leaves Windows out.

M$ exclusionary terms removed from RoadRunner contracts

Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 11:47:58 -0600

Yet, a statement released by Time Warner, notes that a 20 percent combined interest of Road Runner held by Microsoft Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp. will be redeemed, while a joint venture between AT&T and Road Runner will be dissolved.

Luftman insists that buying out Microsoft's share is a step in opening up competition, not shutting it out. "Microsoft held minority ownership in Road Runner and we are buying back shares," he said.

"Today's announcement helps us to remove limitations within the affiliation agreement and accelerate our ability to offer multiple ISP systems. This has nothing to do with the MSN network. As far as ISP negotiations go, talks with the MSN network are under way."

Microsoft VP Joachim Kempin Leaving Post

Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 12:22:36 -0600

I keep hoping for a "night of the long knives" but I have seen nothing to indicate Jim Alchin is in disfavor.

Quietly shifting away from the antitrust witnesses

Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 12:30:23 -0600

Removing the ones who know where the oldest skeletons are buried ?

Win2000 sales disappointing analysts

Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 12:41:23 -0600

Microsoft's Achilles' heel is now clearly visible, analysts say.

While the company's dominance in operating systems galvanizes competitors and government trustbusters, analysts say 46 percent of the company's revenue comes from desktop applications, primarily various versions of the Office suite.

But Thursday's unexpected profit warning from the software giant underscores a chilling reality: Office 2000 sales aren't taking off as expected, being dragged down by slower-than-anticipated adoption of Windows 2000.

2.5 million initially and $700,000 more with Microsoft

Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 11:57:31 -0600

Not Linux/390, but significant anyway.

Major points:

Musicland (owner of Sam Goody and Suncoast Motion Picture Co.) is installing 7,000 POS terminals running Linux. Musicland calculated that basing their new system on Microsoft would cost $2.5 million more initially and an additional $700,000 per year in ongoing costs.

Home Depot Inc. plans to roll out some 90,000 cash registers and in-store terminals running Linux and Java by 2003. The company saw "tremendous dollar savings" by reducing the amount of hardware it had to install in each client, declining to provide specific cost figures.

"About 15 of the nation's 20 largest retailers are looking at Linux, according to one industry source. Retailers that have reportedly kicked the tires with Linux include Auto Zone, Gap and Goodyear Tire & Rubber, sources say."

Microsoft Supports Windows Media Services On Linux

Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 17:29:57 -0600

Remember when Microsoft said that the only way any of its products would ever show up on Linux would be over its dead body? Bring out your dead

The "official" story of how Gates obtained Dec BASIC

Date: Wed, 03 Jan 2001 14:57:49 -0600

When C-cubed went out of business in 1970, the Lakeside Programmers Club nearly imploded in civil war. Gates and Evans arranged to buy a set of DEC tapes cheap in a bankruptcy auction — without the knowledge of their partners.

Drugs, Microsoft and .Net

Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001 17:10:44 -0600

If one were to look at Microsoft's new strategy as well as the illegal drug industry, one would find some interesting parallels.

Another Key Microsoft Windows exec departs

Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2001 16:26:15 -0600

More and more underpinnings of the monopoly are cashing out before the breakup.

Microsoft pushes for 100 million Xbox sales

Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2001 20:23:01 -0600

Save this link for when X-Bob sales do not live up to expectations.

Pizza maker about to switch to Linux

Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 09:41:59 -0600

I think that the unnamed company here is Pizza Hut.

IBM Also Says (Unofficially), It Looks Like Linux is Paying Off

Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 11:55:08 -0600

IBM's latest quarterly results were very impressive, particularly against the background of a "PC slowdown" that's been causing most technology companies to downgrade their forecasts and come in with earnings well below analysts' recent estimates. I asked Dougherty to comment on what role, if any, IBM's Linux strategy may have played in the latest financials -- "is IBM's Linux strategy starting to pay off?" His answer:

"As you may or may not know, we don't comment specifically about something as discrete as that. But, on the other hand, we do think that's part of what's fueling our growth, because the strategy makes sense -- that people buy into the strategy and therefore buy your products. And it's not just a one-piece Linux strategy, it's a multi-purpose strategy, and we think the fact that we told the world, for instance, that in our Unix business, which grew 49% this quarter, that part of the reason for that is that we've told people that Linux is a part of our strategy..." Dougherty went on to elaborate that part of that Linux strategy is to make it easy for customers to migrate from Linux to AIX, if they decide that's what they need to do. And IBM makes it easy for customers to stay with Linux, if they decide that's what they need to do. It's up to the customer.

ZDNet: Interactive Week: Linux Takes On Bigger Jobs

Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 10:03:27 -0600

It's beginning to look like 2001 is the year Linux gets down to business. Systems managers who used to ask how Linux crept in the back door now ask if they can get the server to run it through the front door.

In Vancouver, British Columbia, for example, Metahost.net, a provider of J.D. Edwards and other Enterprise Resource Planning applications, runs Linux on a combination of two IBM z900s, the former System/390 mainframe. Metahost supplements the two big servers with hundreds of thin servers, according to Metahost spokesman Jag Sandhu.

The combination of high-end and low-end servers illustrates the flexibility that Linux has achieved as it moves into more mission-critical environments, a range of user spokesmen said.

Govt.-Industry team to release "supercomputer on a CD"

Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 12:43:24 -0600

OAK RIDGE TN/CHAMPAIGN IL, January 25, 2001--Software that will make configuring and maintaining a Linux cluster like installing commercial software from a CD will be demonstrated by Intel at next week's Linux World Conference in New York. In addition, IBM will discuss this software, called Open Source Cluster Applications Resources (OSCAR) in a presentation at IBM's Linux World booth.