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IBM, HP Both Announce New Linux Products/Initiatives
By Charles King
At LinuxWorld 2002 in San Francisco, HP announced
its post-merger Linux strategy, along with an updated portfolio of Linux
products and services. Enhancements to the company’s product portfolio
include the HP Print Server Appliance 4200, a new Linux-based appliance that
supports both HP and non-HP printers; the Disaster Tolerant Solution for
Linux, a combination of HP MC/Serviceguard 2.0 and the HP Storageworks XP
disk array portfolio; expanded Linux support for Evo desktop PCs in selected
regions including Eastern Europe and mainland China, HP Secure OS for Linux
2.0; and the new HP Software Porting Assessment Service, aimed at migrating
users of AIX, Solaris and other UNIX environments to HP’s Linux solutions. In
addition, HP announced a Linux grant program for universities, and its
support of Linux initiatives focused at ISVs and industry groups.
In a series of announcements, IBM expanded its
Linux-focused hardware, software and service portfolios. The company
introduced the x335, which the company described as the industry’s first
Xeon-based 1U rack-optimized server. The x335 is designed for Web application
serving which can also be incorporated (with the x345) into the new eServer
Cluster 1350, an integrated and validated Linux-based solution that includes
storage products, third party networking, and cluster management software.
Along with conventional clustering applications (such as database solutions),
IBM described the Cluster 1350 as ideal for grid computing deployments. IBM
also announced that Tivoli Storage Manager has been expanded to support Linux
running on Intel-based servers. Additionally, the company announced the
formation of a comprehensive program designed to help customers transition
from the Sun Solaris platform to Linux-based IBM eServers. As part of the
program, IBM migration experts including system architects, database administrators,
project managers, and OS specialists will prepare assessments of customers’
Sun Solaris infrastructures and develop step-by-step transitioning
blueprints.
In a sense, we regard these announcements from HP
and IBM as representing two sides of the Linux coin. The common goal (or
gold) here is in both companies’ use of Linux as a tool to migrate customers
from other UNIX platforms (i.e., Sun) to their own hardware. But HP and IBM
are chasing the prize down different paths. While cultivating a deepening interest
in Open Source solutions, HP has been quick to take advantage a host of Linux
riches derived from its merger with Compaq. The fact is that the profusion of
Compaq Proliant servers made them ideal boxes for companies to use in
initial, tactical Linux deployments. HP’s product and service announcements
suggest that the company is still taking an essentially tactical line in its
Linux efforts, aiming primarily at markets and niches that could eventually
generate substantial revenues. HP’s new Print Server Appliance 4200 is a
natural fit for printer-dependent HP, as is the new Disaster Tolerant
solution, which leverages existing software and storage offerings. Adding
Linux support for the company’s Evo line makes eminent sense in China and
Eastern Europe, where desktop Linux is actually gaining a bit of traction.
IBM’s approach to Linux has been considerably more strategic than its vendor
brethren. The company has certainly been aggressive in driving Linux
compatibility across all of its product lines, and the rack-optimized x335
and Cluster 1350 are simply the latest iterations of this effort. But rather
than simply regarding Linux as a tool for offering short-term appeasement to
Microsoft-weary customers, we believe IBM is taking a longer view, seeing Linux
as a lingua franca OS that could eventually, seamlessly run across the
company’s entire hardware portfolio. We regard that as a powerful vision
that, over time, could prove essential to enabling grid and utility computing
environments that IBM envisions for the future.
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Pew Project Reports “Digital Disconnect”
among Internet-Savvy Students
By Charles King
The Pew Internet in American Life Project reported
the results of a recent survey focused on how U.S. students are using the
Internet to assist them in their studies. According to the study, three in five
children under 18 and 78% of students between the ages of 12 and 17 go
online, and Internet-savvy students used the Web as a resource for
researching reports and other school projects, as well as for virtual
tutoring and study shortcuts. The Internet also provides a critical means for
students to communicate with other students and instructors. In addition,
participants see the Internet as a key resource for finding information they
need to help them in making important life, education, and professional
decisions. At the same time, students believe that schools, administrators,
and many teachers do not recognize how important the Internet’s role is in
the educational process. Survey participants noted sources for this
disconnect including wide variations in Internet usage between schools, poor
use of online resources among teachers, policy decisions made by
administrators unaware of how the Internet is being used in individual
classrooms, and wide divergence in computer literacy among their student
peers. As a result, many respondents believe roadblocks have arisen that
discourage them from using the Internet as fully and as creatively as they
would like. As part of the Pew study, students suggested a number of ways
their school-related online experience could be improved including better
coordinating in and out of school Internet activities, increasing the time
and quality of online access, improving teachers’ Internet skills, and better
educating policy makers. The Pew survey was based on information gathered
from fourteen gender-balanced, racially diverse focus groups of 136 students
drawn from thirty-six different schools. In addition, the study data was
supplemented by nearly 200 students who voluntarily submitted online essays
about their use of the Internet for school.
Differences of opinion between high school students
and their teachers and administrators are hardly headline news. In fact,
teenage disaffection is a generally recognized historical constant, and has
fueled something of a growth industry since Baby Boomers (and their offspring
and grand-offspring) swung into the Blackboard Jungle. But to our way of
thinking, the discontent noted by Pew Project might signal a sea change of
sorts in the importance of teenage angst, at least when it is
Internet-related. The fact is that for many of the current crop of teens, the
Internet has been a constant since birth. Mix online awareness with
increasing media savvy, a hunger for IP-based messaging and the killer
hand/eye coordination developed from hours of video gaming, and you have a
generation of kids who are generally more knowledgeable about the Internet
and therefore far more scary than their elders are entirely
comfortable with. What does this portend for those involved? Concerning
online issues, instructors and administrators may be well advised to admit
that the kids they are “teaching” about the Internet are often far better
versed in the subject than their elders are and perhaps ever will be. This is
not a bad thing. At a time when many American public schools and their
students are struggling financially and academically, the Pew survey suggests
that information available online could provide added relevance to high
school education, or even a competitive edge. The message of the Pew survey
is both simple and clear: Students are using the Internet to improve their
school work. Do not stand in their way. We have fewer overall concerns for
the kids involved. For generations, teenagers have been remarkably adept at
obtaining what they want or need despite the best efforts of generations of
obstructive adults. We do not expect Internet access to shake out any
differently.
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