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Linux: Linux World 2003 Javits
Posted by David on Jan 24, 2003 - 10:46 AM
Topic: Linux
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Linux World has changed over the years. The first years of the show were more like going a convention for hobbyist. A lot of organization showing some very interesting hardware or software solutions. ....
Most of the products were narrow in market space and focused to integrators or positioning to partner with a third party. The last show I went was in 2001 and there was a big change it covered more floor space and many more major companies like IBM, Sun, Intel, AMD, HP, Redhat (of course), and many others. The seriousness of Linux as a true solution was becoming validated.
This year's show was smaller but every trade show this year was off in size. Even though there was less space used by vendors this year there were still major vendors presenting. IBM showing its strong support of Linux across all of it product lines. The use on the mainframe is very impressive and makes a lot sense in cost effectiveness in large environments. Just image consolidating 1,000 or more file or application servers into one larger refrigerator sized footprint. Every Linux server on the mainframe gets the benefits of high availability fault tolerant service that the mainframe has perfected. As the sales pitch went when asked how many systems could one mainframe handle? The whole Linux World could have been hosted on the one box IBM had at the show and other vendors could have left they hardware at the office. As it was they were running the servers for most of the IBM presentation booths and several other vendors at the show. They had a demo running build a new Linux server every 90 seconds and if you wanted they would build one for you to try out. Overall an impressive solution. Just image being able manage 1,000 or more systems and keep them in sync with software level from one machine. It can even support geographic diverse fail over, or at least that is the claim.
Sharp was presenting they solution of the Zaurus integrating with application solution at IBM and new hardware at the Intel both. The clamshell unit is very interesting. It is slight shorter than the SL-5500 with a 640x480 screen. The SL-5500 puts computer in your hand the forth coming clamshell will put a computer in your hand with a screen size that will functional for browsing.
NEC had an impressive high availability fault tolerant system as well in a smaller scale than the IBM mainframe of course. They demonstrated it well by having a simple application running that was writing lines to the screen constantly. To proven how a CPU failure would have no impact to the running program they pulled out one other CPU chassises and the lines continued writing to the screen without a gap. This could be a great solution for organizations with no technical staff on site. An alert would sent out to a support person who could call the office and ask somebody to look at the unit and pull the component with the red light on and send it to out to NEC. The new will be sent out and ready to slide back in within 72 hours no technical skills required.
There were many other interesting booths applications solutions to open source organizations. There was one demonstrating an interesting game (or was it an exercise system) that had pressure sensitive mat you danced on. The monitor would scroll direction arrows that you had to watch and with your feet hit the matching arrow. The kid that was trying out when I was walking by was impressive matching the screen step for step.
Overall an interesting show and a true demonstration of Linux's maturity. It is not the right solution for everything. The Desktop is still not a solution for the average user but it is progressing. On the server side it a great solution for many issues and worthy of consideration.
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