BEA Systems has duly announced immediate availability of its Tuxedo and WebLogic products on Linux, including the provision of a free single-user and 60 days of free technical support for both products at www.beays.com/linux. Tuxedo’s debut on Linux was rumored last week (CI No 3,665) at the same time as Novell Inc announced native Linux support for Novell Directory Services.
Both announcements are a significant boost for Linux in the corporate market where perceptions still linger the open source operating service has few mission critical credentials. However, BEA’s system architect, Garth Eaglesfield, said the key issue for BEA is the opportunity that Linux gives the corporate systems software vendor to migrate into the small and medium-sized enterprise market. Linux offers a broad comparatively low-cost, and portable development platform, said Eaglesfield. As such it offers a seeding potential for BEA, which is keen to encourage smaller, innovative developers to begin targeting Tuxedo and WebLogic with new extensions and object libraries. There has been a tradition of big companies building software for other big companies. Linux is an opportunity to bring smaller developers in, Eaglesfield said.
