Major vendors back open source software

Compaq Computer, EMC, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel and Sun Microsystems are among the major vendors who have voiced support for open source software at the LinuxWorld show in California this week.

The companies have teamed up as founding members of the Open Source Development Network (OSDN), an organisation working towards accelerating open source software development. They will provide equipment, training and funding for developers and launch a beta version of OSDN.com, a website for open source collaboration, distribution and discussion.

Also at the show, IBM and Red Hat said they would develop and sell new versions of IBM software on top of Red Hat's Linux. "It's the most significant relationship we've entered into," said Paul McNamara, vice president of products and platforms at Red Hat. "What we do now is work together to tune and optimise IBM's software portfolio on Linux."

As part of the alliance, the pair will finance a market development fund, while programmers from both companies will work to make sure Red Hat's version of Linux meshes with several IBM applications including DB2 database software, Lotus Domino, Tivoli management software and WebSphere ebusiness software.

The agreement is similar to that of Red Hat rival TurboLinux, which has announced versions of its own software working with database applications from both IBM and Oracle. In addition, Oracle is working with German Linux seller SuSE.

SGI and Mission Critical Linux announced support for SGI systems running Linux. The support provides 24 x 7 monitoring coverage with an on-site response time of two hours or less, the companies claimed. SGI also said it is teaming up with SuSE to deliver Linux FailSafe clustering software that enables users to link two or more servers together and create a failover environment.

Oracle announced the roll out of its enterprise level server for Linux. The company said its iAS will now support its ebusiness applications on Linux.