IBM Corp. is no exception. In this review we're looking not only at one of that company's products, Small Business Suite for Linux, but also at the link between the world's No. 1 hardware provider and Linux, which, not incidentally, is No. 2 in the server operating system market today, behind Microsoft Windows 2000.
How commited is IBM? The company said in December it will invest $1 billion in the open-source OS this year (see "'Linux Lou' and IBM"). That sounds like a lot, but check the numbers: Linux will continue to be the fastest growing server operating system through 2004, with shipments skyrocketing from 1.3 million in 1999 to 4.7 million in 2004, according to IDC projections. Last year, 25 percent of new server installations were on Linux -- more than all other Unix operating systems combined -- and 48 percent of small businesses, defined as those with 100 or fewer employees, chose Linux.
IBM, like many other companies, has recognized the growing strength of Linux in the small- to midsize-business market as well as in the enterprise (see "The Linux Challenge"). IBM views Linux as an extremely strategic weapon in its battle with Microsoft and Sun Microsystems for market share, though IBM has said its move to support Linux is driven primarily by customer demand for server solutions.
The company says it plans to continue to move forward aggressively, porting all its e-business offerings to Linux while refining those offerings for specific business segments. And, IBM last month said its high-end Enterprise Storage Server now supports Linux data.
Wherefore AIX?
When we asked IBM officials about the company's commitment to AIX, they said they see Linux as complementary rather than competitive within the company's Unix strategy. They noted that Linux's foothold is in small-to-midsize enterprises, while AIX is characterized as IBM's "industrial strength" Unix OS.
In January, IBM made available for download an AIX toolkit for Linux applications, which provides a common set of open-source and GNU development tools and utilities across both AIX and Linux. In addition, version 5.1 of AIX 5L will incorporate Linux APIs and header files, thus providing source compatibility with Linux and allowing most Linux applications to be compiled and run on AIX 5L. While the company would not disclose the number of dollars earmarked for AIX development, officials stressed that the OS is a very important part of their product road map.
IBM is also paving the way for future enterprise-level installations of the OS. By providing an affordable entry point to its hardware and software products for the increasing number of small and midsize businesses choosing Linux as their server platform, IBM is aiming to ensure an ongoing relationship with these businesses as they grow into enterprise-class corporations. IBM includes itself in the growing group that envisions Linux as a Tier 1 development environment. Although the company is today "client agnostic," it's optimistic about the future of Linux and is making itself one of the most comprehensive supporters of e-business solutions for the platform.
Staying in the Race
We raised the concern that a commercial software shop might not be able to keep up with the often short release schedules of Linux-based distributions (historically, open-source software vendors have been faster than their commercial counterparts in bringing new technology and patches to the masses). IBM doesn't see this as an issue, though company officials acknowledged the difficulty in keeping up with major kernel releases, which have been averaging one every 18 months. The company added that its customers rarely move their production systems to a new release unless the kernel has been updated, and IBM feels it can easily keep up with an 18-month to 24-month development cycle.
The IBM Small Business Suite for Linux comprises a complete Linux-based business solution for small and midsize companies at an attractive price: $499. Considering the components included in this suite, that's a sweet deal (for a complete list of those components, see sidebar, "Sum of SBS' Parts").
But the fun doesn't stop there.
The most impressive piece of SBS is the Installation Manager, which offers distribution and management of not only all the components offered in SBS, but custom applications as well. In addition, Installation Manager supports distribution of Windows-based SBS components.
Despite this capability, however, we feel that SBS for Linux will not replace SMS as a distribution-management system anytime in the near future.
The distribution of Windows-based applications via SBS is rudimentary, lacking the robust distribution features found in SMS. Certainly, SBS will provide for distribution of simple Windows applications, but it is targeted at a primarily Linux-based environment. Features offered by SMS, such as inventory control, silent installations and remote control, are not offered by SBS regardless of the target OS. These niceties will need to be included if SBS is to measure up to SMS in the distribution management arena. However, because distribution of Linux-based applications -- whether client-side or server-side -- is not supported by SMS, SBS has definitely found a niche for itself.
Because of space restraints, we couldn't cover all the components of SBS for Linux here. Instead, we decided to focus on the Installation Manager -- a tool we haven't seen before.
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