|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The press (present company included) loves a fight. Or better yet, a war. That's why we're eager to cast two successful competitors--whether or not they're succeeding at each other's expense--as warriors fighting over market share.
The best copy, of course, are David vs. Goliath stories. IBM was Goliath for decades. Davids came and went. There were the BUNCH (there's a memory test) then there was Digital, then Apple. Steve Jobs loved the role of David. After Microsoft took over the Goliath part, the Steve-less Apple made a pathetic David. Marc Andreessen and Netscape put in a much better performance. Now Marc has been replaced by Linus Torvalds.
But Linus isn't following the script. In the server business, Linux is turning into another Goliath, even though Microsoft isn't going away. As the latest IDC numbers show, both Linux and Microsoft are winning, big time. The losers are NetWare and UNIX. The sad news is that IDC lumps UNIX--Sun, HP and the rest of them--into one shrinking non-Linux group.
Between 1996 and 2003, IDC expects UNIX to lose half its share. NetWare was already declared dead by the press back when it led the pack, in 1996 (I remember, because I was working for those guys back then).
On the client side, the story isn't quite as interesting because there are no Davids, including Linux. It's almost all Windows.
Not that Linux is chopped liver. IDC shows Linux edging ahead of
Macintosh on the desktop by 2003, leading by 5.5 to 5.2%. Amazingly,
it also shows Windows gaining with almost a 90% share.
``Computers are useless. They can only give you
answers.''
--Pablo Picasso
``Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are
idiots.''
--Kaa
``It doesn't matter who you are. Most of the smartest people
work for somebody else.''
--Bill Joy
``Technology lies on the leading edge of life.''
--Rush
``Teach a man to make fire, and he will be warm for a day. Set a man on
fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life.''
--John A. Hrastar
``Two rules to success in life: 1. Don't tell people everything you
know.''
--Sassan Tat
``We are perfecting markets. We are back in the bazaar.''
--Kjell Nordström
``Brazil is the country of the future and always will be.''
--Carl Steidtmann
``Prediction is very hard...especially when it's about the
future.''
--Yogi Berra
According to the Internet Software Consortium (http://www.isc.org), 72.4
million domain names were taken by this past January. That was up
16.2 million over the prior six months. That comes out to about 88
thousand a day, 37 thousand an hour or a little over one every
second.
And yet some domain names are still safe from adoption. We prove that
every few months by offering another list of domain names that prove
untakable. Last time, we suggested ``coloncam'',
''celeprosy'' and
``butthook'', among others, all of which are still yours for
the low, low price of 70 bucks or less for two years.
If you're one of those types that like to run with the Joneses,
you're probably looking for one of those ``nt'' names, like Scient, Lucent, Viant, Cerent and Teligent (see http://www.enormicom.com/ for the
full list). But our crack research department (that sits right here
in my chair) has uncovered at least ten ``nt'' variants that
are still available. They include: Boviant, Annoyant, Terminant, Reodorant,
Cementent and Inexperient. So there you go; register at will.
Now, here's this month's orphanage, filled with children that probably will remain safe from adoption. All are available in .com, .net, .org
and every other form.
by Rob Flynn and Jeramey Crawford
Once upon a term'nal dreary, while I hack'ed, weak and
weary,
by Drew Robb
Free Linux Download Snowballs into Citywide Government Deployment.
Five years ago, the IT department in the City of Garden Grove,
California faced significant budgetary constraints. Rather than
continue to pay for proprietary software, Charles Kalil, acting information systems manager for the city, decided
to check out Linux. He downloaded it for free, installed it and liked
what he saw.
Five years later, Linux is running on six servers and 386 PCs. It serves
everyone from the public works department to the fire department, and they
couldn't be happier with the results. ``Our citywide Linux network has
operated continuously for over a year without crashing,'' said Kalil.
As an experienced NT system manager, he believes that it is possible to
achieve similar performance from NT. But that means limiting each NT box
to only one type of service. ``Linux can stably handle file/print
serving, mail server and more on one machine,'' said Kalil.
``NT can't.''
When the city began experimenting with Linux, it was originally looking
at buying an NT network. But that meant purchasing multiple servers,
licensing agreements and added software costs. ``Linux came as a free
download that also included a Web server, mail server, Samba file, and
print sharing, and Network Files System (NFS) capabilities,'' said Kalil.
``With the alternatives such as SCO and NT, these were either not
included or you had to purchase them separately.''
It wasn't all clear sailing for Garden Grove, however. Running Linux in
1995 was much more adventurous than today due to lack of support and a
shortage of applications. Despite that, the city set up a Linux database
that has been running ever since.
From a cost standpoint, the difference was substantial. Garden Grove replaced
a $400,000 Data General minicomputer with two Pentium 90 servers that
cost $5,000 combined.
Kalil also found that certain applications could not be ported
to Linux. ``We still use NT for imaging software on our optical
jukebox,'' he said. The City of Garden Grove also maintains a GIS server
running NT. Once again, the GIS software does not have a Linux port.
But as far as price, reliability and availability are concerned,
the city is fully committed to being a Linux-based shop. ``We found that
we didn't need high-price servers due to the efficiency of the Linux
kernel,''
said Kalil. ``Further, we can obtain the same results as NT with about
half the memory.'' [See LJ Issue 35 for a previous article on
Linux and the city of Garden Grove.--Editor]
There has always been a strange relationship between Cobalt's
primary business model and its most obvious product: the self-branding
Qube. Every time I spoke with him, Stephen DeWitt made it clear that his
company's business was selling rackmounted servers--its RaQ brand,
especially--to ISPs who, in turn, would sell box-resident, value-added
services to their customers. In fact, Cobalt has developed a large number
of third parties whose applications could be packaged with Cobalt RaQs
and sold to ISPs.
The Qube was a great little product, easily put to use anywhere one
could find a constant Net connection and an available IP address,
basically for SOHO settings. It was an easy product to love--a bright
blue cube with a wide greenish light in the front. But the server
appliance market was yet another one of those zero-billion dollar
categories that would get around to delivering their promise when
broadband was less the exception than the rule. As Qube observer Luke
Tymowski puts it, ``There's more money to be made selling RaQs to ISPs
than Qubes to you and me.''
But when Cobalt sold itself to Sun Microsystems a few days ago (I
write this on September 30, 2000), the Qube and the Appliance
Category seemed to be the whole story.
The San Jose Mercury News told a typical story. Under the headline
``Sun to Buy Cobalt for $2 Billion'' ran the subhead
``Deal gives company market for low-cost server appliances''.
In the first sentence, Cobalt was identified as ``the maker of
a compact server-in-a-box''. The obvious manifestation of that
label is the Qube, but the practical one is the RaQ. And Cobalt has
done a remarkable job of productizing RaQs as appliances--as plug-and-serve devices. Its on-line literature says, ``Now in its
third generation, the Cobalt RaQ is a mature, proven server appliance
already in use in 1/3 of all the Tier 2 and Tier 3 service providers
around the world. In fact, Cobalt RaQ is the server of choice globally
because the Linux-based system does not require the constant attention
of very expensive IT engineers.''
Cobalt has had very good marketing instincts from the beginning, playing
the Linux label much the same way as it played the appliance label. The
question now is whether Sun will tamper with that success. Sun has always
gone out of its way to say it ``supports'' Linux but remains
anything but a ``Linux company''. Now with Cobalt it has
bought one
of the most familiar Linux companies in the world.
However, Cobalt, unlike VA Linux and other Linux hardware companies, has
been a Linux company only to the extent that it employed Linux as a
small, handy commodity OS. It also used a small, handy commodity
microprocessor. Any idea what it is? Hint: it's not Intel or
Motorola. There's marketing at work for you.
Among all the literature provided to me by Cobalt during the Spring
Linux World Expo in 1999, the only mention of Linux was in 6-point
type on the back of the company's data sheets. But, Cobalt quickly
welcomed identification as a ``Linux Company'' and surely
benefitted from
that association with a big IPO in the fall of 1999. Around that time,
``appliance'' was becoming a hot term. Cobalt soon wisely
identified nearly all its products as ``server appliances''.
Looks like it paid off.
Once Cobalt is part of Sun, there won't be much semantic leverage left
in the word Linux, simply because of Sun's antipathy to the commodity
OS. And sure enough, Sun is already reportedly
thinking about dumping Linux from Cobalt servers and replacing it
with Sun's own appliance-specific version of its operating
system, Solaris. One wonders if they'll also insist on SPARC
processors. But Luke Tymnowski
says the fact that ``they are making noises about moving the RaQs over
to Solaris from Linux doesn't mean much. It wasn't the OS that was
remarkable, it was the web administration interface.''
Indeed. It's hard to imagine a simpler UI for a server than the
one Cobalt designed for it's appliances. Let's hope for
their sake that they keep it that way.
Handy for debugging and watching what's going on while
it's going
on. Use tail with the ``f'' option, which lets you read the end
of a growing file. Examples:
Need to capture some output to a terminal that can't be redirected
easily to a file with ``>''?
Use script. At a command prompt type script, then do what ever
you need to log and exit. The log of _ALL_ the stuff sent
to your terminal finds its way into a file called typescript! Example:
Wanna make a clone of one hardisk to another? Use tar.
Hook up your soon-to-be-cloned hardisk to your system
(power off during this operation). Boot your box.
As root, cd to /.
Mount the new hard drive on /mnt. Then run the following
command:
``umask 0'' ensures that the new files have the same permissions as the
old ones.
Doc Searls (doc@ssc.com) is senior editor of Linux Journal and
coauthor of The Cluetrain Manifesto.
http://home.earthlink.net/~searls/dec00/idc_numbers.html
LJ INDEX--December 2000
SOURCES
THEY SAID IT
DOMAIN NAME ORPHANAGE
--Doc Searls
The Penguin
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten code--
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a beeping,
As of someone gently feeping, feeping using damn talk mode.
``'Tis some hacker,'' I muttered, ``beeping using
damn talk mode--
Only this. I hate talk mode.''
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak semester,
And college life wrought its terror as the school year became a
bore.
Eagerly I wished for privileges--higher access I sought to
borrow
For my term'nal, unceasing sorrow--sorrow for a file called
core--
For the rare and radiant files of .c the coders call the
core--
Access Denied. Chown me more.
``Open Source,'' did all mutter, when, with very little flirt
and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Penguin of the saintly days of yore.
Quite a bit obese was he; having eaten lots of fish had he,
But, by deign of Finnish programmer, he sat in the middle of my
floor--
Looking upon my dusty term'nal in the middle of my
floor--
Came, and sat, and nothing more.
Then the tubby bird beguiling my sad code into shining,
By the free and open decorum of the message that it bore,
``Though thy term'nal be dusty and slow,'' he said,
``Linux be not craven!''
And thus I installed a new OS far from the proprietary shore--
The kernel code open but documentation lacking on this shore.
Quoth the Penguin, ``pipe grep more!''
Much I marveled this rotund fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning--little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help believing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird in the middle of his
floor--
Bird or beast sitting in the middle of his cluttered floor,
With such instructions as ``pipe grep more.''
But the Penguin, sitting lonely in that cluttered floor, spoke only
Those words, as if its soul in that instruction he did outpour.
Nothing more did he need utter; understood did I among that
clutter--
Understood his command as I could scarcely do a few moments
before--
I typed as furious as was willed me, understanding just a minute
before.
Again the bird said ``pipe grep more!''
``Amazing!'' said I, ``Penguin we will conquor the world
if you will!
By the network that interconnects us--by that Finn we both
adore--
We'll take this very world by storm!'' For now grasped I what
he'd meant,
The thing I do while searching /usr/doc/* for that wond'rous
lore--
Those compendiums of plaintext documentation and descriptive lore.
Quoth the Penguin, ``pipe grep more!''
And the Penguin, never waddling, still is sitting, still is sitting
In the middle of my room and still very cluttered floor;
And his eyes have all the seeming of the free beer I am drinking
And the term'nal-light o'er him glowing throws his shadows
on the floor;
And this OS from out the shadows that is pow'ring my term'nal on the
floor
Shall be dominating--``Pipe grep more!''
Linux Bytes Other Markets: City of Garden Grove Adopts Linux
Drew Robb is a Los Angeles-based freelancer specializing in technology issues.
STOP THE PRESSES: A NEW COLOR FOR SUN--COBALT
Tech Tips
Debugging Tip
$ tail -f /var/log/messages
$ tail -f /var/log/syslog
$ tail -f /var/log/mail.log
$ tail -f /usr/local/httpd/logs/error_log
Typescript
tux@coollinuxbox:/home/tux$ script
script: WARNING: script session is not secure against
eavesdropping/hijacking!
script: read /usr/doc/bsdutils/README.script for details.
Script started, output file is typescript
tux@coollinuxbox:/home/tux$ python
python commands
control-D
tux@coollinuxbox:/home/tux$ exit
Script done, output file is typescript
tux@coollinuxbox:/home/tux$ cat typescript
Script started on Thu Oct 12 12:03:22 2000
tux@coollinuxbox:/home/tux$ python
Python 1.5.2 (#1, Dec 15 1999, 11:15:06) [GCC 2.7.2.3] on linux2
Copyright 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam
>>> 45+89+12.25+63.21
209.46
>>> 70/12
5
>>> 70%12
10
>>>
tux@coollinuxbox:/home/tux$ exit
Script done on Thu Oct 12 12:04:43 2000
tux@coollinuxbox:/home/tux$
Dolly the Hardisk
$ tar clf - . | ( umask 0; cd /mnt; tar xvf - )
c = create
l = stay on local filesystem (don't cross filesystem boundaries)
f = file (the next argument is the name of the tarfile or
``-'')
- = write to standard out or read from standard in
x = extract
v = verbose