A couple of things happened…..

A couple of things happened over the past several days that bode well both for the computer world in general, and for Linux users specifically.

First is the anticipated announcement by Intel that it would reduce the price of its flagship P4 chips. Any chip price reduction is welcome, in my opinion, as it continues to spur competition between Intel and AMD. It’s nice to see that speeds continue to go up and prices continue to go down. Intel has always had the clout to drive the market and, as such, it seems like AMD is always scrambling to keep up. Personally, I like the AMD chipsets as a strong alternative to the higher pricing of Intel. In the end, I like that market forces continue to work to make computing cheaper and more powerful for all of us.

The other item of note was IBM’s announcement that its zSeries and iSeries servers will now be dedicated Linux servers. These servers have previously been available in either the Windows 2000 or Linux platforms. According to IBM, the high-end iSeries consolidates the tasks of ” … from 20 to hundreds of Sun and Intel servers … ” into a single box. Bill Zeitler, IBM senior vice president and group executive says, “These new Linux servers answer the call of every customer who is serious about reducing server sprawl and dramatically improving their total cost of ownership.” While IBM has had a strong commitment to Linux for the past 3-4 years, this move represents another significant leap in the credibility of our favorite OS. It’s interesting to watch the “mainstreaming” of Linux. As awareness of its strengths has increased, the niche markets have jumped in to claim and leverage Linux for specific tasks. The move by IBM takes that credibility to another level. IBM’s corporate view of Linux can be found in their Linux at IBM pages. It’s pretty interesting reading.

This week we’re continuing on with the series on Crisis Management in Linux - arming you all, hopefully, with the fire extinguishers necessary to quell the unexpected. Even in Linux, you can always expect that the unexpected will happen. I’m also continuing to collect interesting and useful shell scripts for the scripting series that starts next Monday. I’ve seen some heavyweight scripts by readers of note and some scripts that are just plain fun. But, I still need yours to make the series complete.

I don’t normally comment on the advertisers for Penguin Shell, but I have to make an exception today. WebTrends has been the standard for enterprise-level traffic reporting and analysis. I had the good fortune to be able to use it at a previous Internet company. The reporting functions were, to say the least, exhaustive. Penguin kudos to the folks at WebTrends for porting this great tool to the Linux platform. I’d love to get my hands on a copy for the Lockergnome site … or does that sound too much like a hint?

Tony
Steidler-Dennison