February 7, 2000 Web posted at: 9:16 a.m. EST (1416 GMT) by Ed Scannell

From...

(IDG) -- NEW YORK -- Linux's growing strength in corporate America manifested itself at LinuxWorld Expo here Wednesday as several major vendors threw their weight behind the open-source operating system with new products and deeper strategic commitment.

Leading the parade was IBM, which pledged to deliver its journaled file system and engineering support to the open source community. IBM also is making its ViaVoice speech recognition product and think clients available on Linux.

IBM announced that the code for its Journaled File System -- technology that is on all of its major operating system platforms -- is now available for download from its IBM developerWorks Web site.

	MESSAGE BOARD
Linux

The journaling functionality allows users to track their data more efficiently and retrieve it if a server fails, a valued necessity in running e-business file servers. The company will dedicate a tram of engineers that will work full time to add these functions to Linux.

IBM has already made available to the open-source community over the past year its XML parsers and Jikes reference compiler. It will make other products and technologies available, including those from its research division, over the course of this year, according to company officials.

MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE

IDG.net home page

Linux vendors think small

Linux certification

Why use Linux?

IBM has big plans for Linux

Reviews & in-depth info at IDG.net

E-BusinessWorld

Year 2000 World

Questions about computers? Let IDG.net's editors help you

Subscribe to IDG.net's free daily newsletter for IT leaders

Search IDG.net in 12 languages

News Radio

Fusion audio primers

Computerworld Minute

"Linux is moving into the computing mainstream at least as fast as the Internet did earlier this decade and figures to fuel even further the growth of e-business," said Dr. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, newly appointed vice president of technology and strategy for IBM's Enterprise Systems Group.

IBM will also offer a Linux-compatible application developer's kit that includes DB2 Universal database, Websphere Application Server for Linux, Domino for Linux, and VisualAge for Java for Linux.

IBM will also deliver what it believes is the first available speech-recognition product for Linux. The new product enables developers to voice-enable a range of different Linux applications for systems ranging from handheld devices to servers.

Big Blue also said it will offer a beta version of Netobjects TopPage, a Web authoring tool that allows non-programmers to create Web pages.

The two thin-client systems, the Network Station Series 2200 and 2800, will complement the company's other clients, including its ThinkPad, PC 300, and IntelliStation systems.

SCO jumped into the Linux market for the first time, announcing at the show a Linux version of Tarantella, its Web enabling server-level software. The product allows IT shops to deploy Linux, Unix, mainframe, and Windows NT applications in a thin-client environment without having to modify existing applications.

Corel announced it will deliver its WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux in two versions: Standard and Deluxe. The two versions will cost $109 and $159, respectively. Both versions are compatible with the company's Windows version of WordPerfect Office 2000.

Members of the Trillian project, an effort among several major vendors to port Linux over to Intel's upcoming IA-64 chip, are releasing the code to the open-source community.

"This marks the first time that software can be developed by the entire open-source community for a pre-production processor architecture," said Sri Chilukuri, the Trillian project's director.

Not all the news at the show was upbeat. During his keynote address, Linux inventor Linus Torvalds said the upcoming 2.4 version of the Linux kernel was behind schedule.

Expected this quarter, work on the kernel is not expected to be completed until mid year and will not likely appear in distributions of the operating systems until some time this summer, Torvalds said.

"We were on a nine to 12 month schedule to deliver [Version] 2.4, but it will end up being more like 18 months since we delivered [version] 2.2." Torvalds said.

Because the process is taking too long, Torvalds said they are readying a "preview" version of 2.4 that would include some minor "tweaks and bug fixes."