IBM Expands Linux Support

IBM Expands Linux Support in WebSphere

When the cream goes crap

Take a look at this article in Times Of India by Sudipto Majumdar... Now... read ahead... This is as ridiculous as it can get. The entire GoI and we as the general public should be ashamed that an upright officer was killed when he was doing his duty. This happens to many other such officers. So, where does the IIT angle come? Sudpito says (seemingly to Mr.Vajpayee)... Isn't this what you always wanted? Didn't you try convincing IITians over the years to stay back in India and make a difference? When someone tried, where were you? How can this even be thought of in terms of a FAVOUR...!! IIT belongs to India – its an Indian Institute, and if you stay in India post-IIT, it's the most natural thing to happen. I would agree if IIT was in nation X, and one chose to stay in nation Y after doing an IIT from nation X... then, and only then, you could say you were doing Nation X a favour...!! On that lines, if you go to US after studying in IIT, you are doing the US a favour, not the other way..!! Let me put this straight, we (and I mean all of us, IITians, Non-IITians, lawyers, doctors and everyone) are doing no favour to anyone by staying in India... We see a future here and hence, we're here. If Sudipto and a few others want to leave India for "a better future", they can go ahead... This country will do better without them. And notice these ridiculuous phrases Sudipto mentions... It pains me as an IITian --- Not as an Indian..?? A sense of betrayal troubles me... for having stayed on in India. --- Is the country of your birth so bad? This is no patriotism. Just a belief to stand up and do things differently. --- Makes no sense..!! My friends who emigrated then, with whom I differed in my beliefs, seem to stand corrected in retrospect - they were the real smart ones. I was among the romantic idealists who decided to stay and work in India. But I am lucky to be alive. May be because I didn't stretch my honesty and idealism as far as Satendra did. --- who is vindicated here..?? The people who stay back are idealists... Lucky to be alive..?? Are we living in a war zone..?? Sudipto dares of having done his motherland a favor. It is a matter of immense shame to the whole of the prestigious community that he represents. A sardonic representation of ideas reflecting the mindset of some of the people who are known as the "Indian Elite".

mis informations

I would also like to contradict with the info what kishore has provided in his post abt Websphere suppot and Linux'x support for desktop/mobile and applictaion development...
In the first place IBM's Websphere supports Linux and for that matter we have performed a migration test for Websphere for Linux in our company though for test reasons and it pretty well compatible with Linux.
And with all these and Java alkso endorsing Linux, (You should be knowing that Java is predominant in mobile and desktop application developments) I hope Linux is one step ahead of Windows...
Got to go and will get back to the TCO issue too later...
Hope the stage gets hot...

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Mahendran Jayavel

I do understand the various bottlenecks that kishore has pointed out. But we have to still look deeper into this issue...
Linux is no longer to be a free OS and Its slowly turning out to come out as an Enterprise Linux...Of course its free, and rather than seeing this term "free" from the "zero cost" perspective the stage is set to see it as "freedom" to tune to fit the needs of the user.
And as kishore said, when it comes to Domains such as EAI and all, Its not far away from possible that Linux can well be integrated with other legacy systems and I hope Kishore might not know that MQSeries Integrator has support for Linux...For that matter of Enterprise Applications integration the underlying OS is not a major concern as all of the integrations are based on a universal Standards with which every OS including Windows or Linux (no matter which OS it is) complies with can be integrated.
For instance today there was an Internal training for us on EAI for which we had a person from Satyam who is the chief functional consultant of Satyam's Malaysia divison was giving us a lecture and I put forth this doubt to him...
His views do match with what I thought in the same way as he said that the platform really doesnt matter for the integration of Linux or WIndows systems and he also added that in fact this is the major reason why Linux made Microsoft rattled. This fellow from Satyam by name Sai is the chief Consultant for Satyam and infact he was a Pro Microsoft person who worked with BizTalk Server and a lot more of that sort and he was also Sun Certified professional as well...
Why I am giving this much stress to these granular details about him is that may be I may have a feel say looking Linux and Microsoft from say from about 50,000 feet, whereas he as an experienced head may make more sense than what I can say...
Right from the beginning when Linus Torvalds released his Kernel, he just developed his own kernel just to have an operating system which lets us what we want to do instead of the OS letting us what it lets us to do...as in the case of Windows
Later on when you look into the evolution of Linux, It was specifically designed for professionals or I would say that in other terms that it was developed and handled by "Gurus"...who had a better systems knowledge when compared to the end user...
This might be the reason that might have prevented the popularity and user friendliness of Linux from being explored by the end user.
But now the scenarion which is emerging is completely different... IBM has already started OSDL (Open Source Development lab) which involves giants like SUN, Oracle, and lot more to join the bang still...
With this, Now the Linux I hope is trying to get transformed into a desktop alternative too and for instance Sun Microsystems is going to install some 200 million servers and computers in China with its Java enables Linux Based Workstations and servers It has also signed an MOU to distribute unrestricted number of copies of its office suite "Star Office" in china for corporates Governments and institutions...
Already the stage was set for what kishore has said about the integration of legacy systems and the day is not too far for Linux to occupy an inevitable role in the future computing... I need to close today and will get back with lot more details when i find time for ranjini and no doubt that we cannot doubt on micropsoft's Marketing power, But ranjini, do believe that Linux Enterprise is no longer a dream and that dream will come tru and your belief is no invalid still...

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Mahendran Jayavel

Busy...

I've been busy for the past few days. So I have unable to post or respond to queries. Hoping to become free by tomorrow. Bye.

There is no free lunch

Its true that Linux has been growing in prominence as pointed by Mahendran. But lets delve a bit deeper into the actual scenario. When we say "linux" we only refer to the operating system. But at an enterprise level OS is just a minuscule investment. OS licensing costs are a relatively small portion of calculating the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of any system. Since software, including the operating system, only accounts for around 10 percent of the total cost, reducing the direct operating system costs will only have a marginal affect on the overall IT budget. The real money-eater is Administration, development and support and its related hidden costs which account for 50 percent to 70 percent of the enterprise system. Further, there are umpteen niches that enterprises typically could encompass – Telecom, EAI, Web Services, Mobile computing, Information sharing, Migration and the list never ends. There are numerous products which cater to each of these niches. Though operating system is a vital part, these products form the basic back bone for any enterprise computing. But, more than majority of such products are not available for linux. Forget Microsoft. IBM touts linux in a big way, but they have don’t have their WebSphere suite (their linchpin product) supporting linux. Though IBM has been releasing linux based server systems, they are yet to port most of their product suite to linux. Various WebSphere suites are available for Mac OS, Mainframes, Windows and Solaris platforms but not linux. In similar lines, TIBCO, the market leader in EAI products, supports only Mac and Windows and have not indicated migration to linux as their strategy for the near future. Various SAP suites are available for Windows, Mac and Solaris but not yet on linux. With linux into the picture, integration with legacy systems becomes next only to impossible. Typical integration middleware like MQ Series do not have a linux version. Bringing out a linux version for all these products (and there are many many more, that I have not mentioned) will involve enormous investments and laborious efforts. Further, the existing infrastructure also needs to be maintained and upgraded, which makes the task all the more difficult. Linux may be an obvious choice for small Govt projects (like India’s own bhoomi, gyandoot etc.) with Java as the programming option, as they look for cheapest possible cost with reasonable quality. But considering the other wide array of product domains, linux may only be a good "Server software" and get bundled in the server systems, but not for an inter/intra enterprise-wide web/desktop/mobile application development – and this is where most of the enterprises bet their life on… So, its not a question of being free or having quality, but it’s a question of encompassing an insurmountable number of domain specific suites, which is never going to be easy for an "open source" community – the precise reason why GNU is still suffering…!!

Hi all,
Its not weird for you to hear people chanting the Linux mantra increasingly if not predominantly nowadays... With the governments of countries like China, Brazil, and Germany already in the list of patrons of Linux and more and more market being swayed away by the open source computing, Its really going to be a tough ride for Microsoft in major developing markets like china and India. But do you think that Open Source can beat Microsoft... Its a popular belief that anything that is free cannot meet the quality of its paid counterpart ...Afterall beggars cannot be choosers, but consumers can be...isnt it. As Shiv Khera rightly said in his Living with Honour that "Popular beliefs need not be always right for the sake of its popularity and they will be challenged at times..." Lets wait and see whether penguins climbs up our desktops...

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Mahendran Jayavel