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Sun
At Linuxworld
Sun
had a wonderful time last week, shining all over San Francisco’s
Moscone Center, and assuring the LinuxWorld crowds that Sun was
going to be an important factor in the Linux world from now on.
Of course, being Sun, they did it in ways that were at
times at odds with industry trends, and certainly at odds with the
existing Sun business model (which appears, in any event, to be
somewhat tattered). In
addition to the Cobalt Edge-of-Network Linux Server that Sun
acquired last year and the Linux for low-end Intel servers
software that Sun announced in February at the Analysts’
Conference, Sun is now rolling out additional Linux products and
promises. Sun
is offering an entry-level x86 server, the LX50. based on the
Pentium III chip, loaded with Sun and open source software,
including Sun’s new Linux distribution (a version of Red Hat
7.2), Solaris for x86 (Solaris 8 for now, since Solaris 9 isn’t
ready), and the Sun ONE software stack, as well as a portfolio of
open source software. Sun
will provide the following Sun ONE products as part of the LX50
offering:
Sun
will be delivering the Sun ONE software stack on its new line of
x86 servers over the next two quarters. Other
software includes Java 2 SDK Standard Edition, Sun ONE ASP for
Linux, TomCat (JSP), MySQL (Database), Apache (Webserver), WU-FTPD
(FTP), Sendmail (Email Server), Bind (DNS Server), Sun Grid Engine
and Sun Streaming Server. The
entry-level version of the product is priced at $2,795.
(Several competitors we spoke to estimated the box, sans
Sun software, which they declined to value, was worth about
$2,000.) The system
can be configured with single or dual processors and with varying
amounts of memory and storage. Sun
will pitch this as a way of offering a complete line of products
to customers who also want Linux servers, without the need to go
further afield than their normal full enterprise vendor with the
knowledge and systems support they would expect.
We’d note that IBM and HP sell, of course, on a similar
premise. Sun still
seems to hope that customers will use these devices for low-end
infrastructure applications such as Web Serving, firewall/VPN, and
email, reserving their premium applications for pricier Sun SPARC
servers. By shipping
Solaris as well as Linux on the boxes, Sun seems to be indicating
that some of them will end up switched to its “normal”
environment. For
example, the new LX50s can be managed via enhancements to the Sun
Control Station, a $4,995 companion system that simplifies the
management of multiple Linux and Solaris-based Sun LX50s by
monitoring system health, evaluating system performance,
determining hardware inventory and managing software provisioning.
It can manage up to 250 LX50 servers.
The Sun LX50 also provides SNMP Standard Interfaces for
integration with Sun Management Center and other third-party
systems management tools. The
LX50 will be sold through Sun's direct sales force and its current
iForce[tm] partners, as well as volume partners. In addition to
these channels, the products will be made available worldwide
through the resellers previously selling the Sun Cobalt[tm] line
as well as new companies that will be recruited by Sun's Channel
Development Providers. New Sun Linux Announcements Sun
used LinuxWorld to make its usual derogatory remarks about the
competition, but it also tossed in some other new news: Sun
has decided to back LSB (Linux Standards Base), a minimum standard
configuration of Linux, designed to insure interoperability,
backed by nearly all of the distributions including Red Hat and
United Linux (since it’s backed by SuSE). We suspect this is clearly a distinction without a
difference. Sun also hinted broadly that during its Sun Network Conference in San Francisco in mid-September it will be announcing a Sun desktop Linux strategy that somehow brings Sun’s Linux server strategy and StarOffice together. We’re guessing it’s not PC-based. Comments or Questions: Send Email to
opinions@wohl.com
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