IBM Corp has announced worldwide support for customers running Linux, including free 90-day support for all major versions of Linux running on its NetFinity servers. Big Blue’s twenty-four hour telephone and email help center support is now available in 164 countries. Some of our largest customers are considering Linux to manage their business applications, explained IBM Global Executive for e-business and Linux, Mike Riegel; customers come to us looking for bullet-proof systems and support. In recent weeks, IBM has also announced training and certification for Linux users, AS/400 server interoperability and support for Terra Soft Solutions Inc’s Yellow Dog Linux on RS/6000 servers.
Ironically, just as IBM is enthusiastically embracing Linux as the enterprise platform of the future, the Sun-Netscape Alliance appears to be backing off earlier declarations of fealty to the upstart OS. Smart Reseller News was first with the news that the Alliance will upgrade the Netscape Application Server (NAS) in August – without releasing the promised Linux port. Linux is fun, it definitely has a cool factor… but it isn’t one of the operating environments that our customers are asking for, Alliance senior product marketing manager Roseanna Marchetti told the News. Marchetti added, however, that if enterprise demand increases, a Linux port of the app-server could follow.
