Taking advantage of the hooplah over Intel’s PIII launch, VA Research Linux Systems has announced that it will be shipping Linux products based on the brand-new microprocessors (see separate story). VA systems are already being built on top of 4- way Xeon boxes to run web and Oracle database applications for France Telecom, Deja News and Forman Interactive.
Desktop systems will also be made available. VA expects that the latter will be used in mathematical applications, simulation, parallel processing and internet file and database serving. The PIII-based Linux systems are priced from $4,525 for a dual- processor machine, but apparently, upgrading is not the trauma it might at first appear. The ease of transition from Pentium II Xeon to Pentium III Xeon provides ongoing savings through economy of scale advantages, CEO Larry Augustin argued.
Still, VA’s whole-hearted embrace of the PIII seems ironic, given that part of the appeal of Linux has always been its ability to run lean and fast on hardware other operating systems treat as obsolete.
