| Together We Get It Together |
by Malcolm Dean (May 30, 2002)
In a curious synchronicity worthy of Carl Jung, just as CNN finished broadcasting the closing ceremonies for the World Trade Center cleanup and recovery -- an effort which in less than nine months confounded early predictions that it would require two years -- four leading Linux distributions banded brilliantly together to confound early predictions that Linux would follow in the footsteps of UNIX and collapse under the weight of conflicting distributions.
Expected this Fall, UnitedLinux will be an uber-distribution aimed at enterprise customers, taking the best technology from Caldera, SuSE, Turbolinux, and Connectiva to produce a common code base for 32- and 64-bit Intel, AMD and IBM platforms.
Based on the Free Standards Group's Linux Standard Base and Linux Internationalization Initiative, UnitedLinux will be the first cross-platform, cross-vendor, cross-distribution, enterprise-grade Linux. Members of the UnitedLinux consortium will own the UnitedLinux brand, provide employees, a Board of Directors, and a Technical Steering Committee.
While UnitedLinux will adhere to Open Standards such as the GPL, and the source will be freely available, the distribution binaries will not. They will be bundled with other products and services by each vendor. So you'll buy Caldera OpenLinux, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server, Turbolinux, or Connectiva Linux "Powered by UnitedLinux."
On what "Good Morning Silicon Valley" editor John Paczkowski called "a slow news day", commitments to UnitedLinux came from AMD, Borland Software Corporation, Computer Associates (CA), Fujitsu Siemens, Fujitsu Japan, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, NEC, Progress Software, and SAP. Borland is clearly looking to improve the future of its Kylix RAD products. CA's John Pincomb said the announcement will accelerate the acceptance of Linux in distributed and heterogeneous environments, benefitting CA's more than 50 Linux products.
"This is the best thing since sliced bread," said Judy Chavis, Director of the Linux Program Office at "the new" H-P. "Linux is moving up the food chain. This really minimizes engineering and marketing expenses. Our platforms will be Red Hat and UL."
IBM plans to support UnitedLinux across its entire range of hardware, according to Scott Handy of IBM Worldwide. "Since UL supports ten languages, it's easier to build and deploy. We will also support Red Hat."
UL's founders have talked with Red Hat and Mandrake, among others (including Sun and Red Flag), welcoming anyone willing to contribute to the consortium. But in a telling comment Mark de Visser, Red Hat's Vice President of Marketing, called UL "the Caldera group." "Time will tell if [their] distribution will achieve the same level of support [as Red Hat]," he said.
Dan Kusnetzky, Vice President of System Software at IDC, said that combined, the founding partners of UnitedLinux amount to less than half of Red Hat.
Yesterday, Red Hat announced the Red Hat Alliance, its partnership with primarily software vendors including Alias|Wavefront, BMC Software, Borland Software Corporation, Check Point Software Technologies, Computer Associates, IBM, Legato Systems, Novell, Rogue Wave Software, Softimage, Synopsys, TIBCO Software, and VERITAS Software.
A computer press corp devoted to reporting division and discord was eager to encourage the perception that nothing has changed. But together, the initiatives prove that powerful forces are gathering in support of Open Source technology and Linux. By eliminating duplication of effort and allocating their talents more effectively, the UL consortium will produce a stable OS tested by Quality Assurance and certification labs around the world.
"This is a monumental step for Linux," said Ransom Love, Caldera's President and CEO. "UnitedLinux will also be available on Open UNIX 8 with the Linux Kernel Personality (LKP), so we can contribute our UNIX expertise toward optimizing Linux for businesses."
SuSE Linux is responsible for integration and quality assurance of the final product. "Now everyone can concentrate on one distribution," SuSE CEO Gerhard Burtscher said.
Based on SuSE's Enterprise Server, UnitedLinux is not a desktop distribution. The KDE and GNOME desktops will be included, but not productivity tools such as OpenOffice. (During the online press conference, Conectiva CEO Jaques Rosenzvaig reported that Linux desktop penetration in South America is reaching double digits.)
To ensure that UnitedLinux will play well to audiences in Asia and Latin America, the founding consortium members include Conectiva SA (South America) and Turbolinux (Asia Pacific). Turbo's CEO Ly-Huong Pham praised "The beautiful spirit of co-operation across geography and cultures. This is a major change in the Linux market," she said. "UnitedLinux creates a large ecosystem of vendors and third parties. There is now one go-to organization for guidance. UL is not about being anti Red Hat. We look at Red Hat as an important partner. UL is the beginning of a new collaboration between companies."
As Benjamin Franklin put it, we must hang together or hang separately.
Copyright © 2002 by Malcolm Dean. Reproduced by DesktopLinux.com with permission.
About the author: Contributing Editor Malcolm Dean is a writer and IT strategist based in Los Angeles.
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