We Don't Have Room for Solaris 10, AIX 5L v5.3,
Windows and Linux

Lets Have Solaris 10 and Linux on POWER5

by Anura Guruge, Editor at Large

The “no-charge, give away” Solaris 10, unveiled by Sun on November 15, extends Microsoft’s uncanny knack for Serendipity.  Though not a show stopper by any means, it is not, however, great news for the Linux camp.

In my opinion, the only way anything truly positive and meaningful will come out of this is if IBM, at long last, decides that it is time to pay more than what in reality is but mere lip service to Linux!

Though the market for server OSs is huge and growing there is no room for Solaris 10, AIX 5L v5.3, Windows and Linux – especially now with Solaris trying to be ‘Linux à la Sun’.

Solaris 10 is just going to fragment the Unix/Linux space even further.  The British, when they had an empire, were famous for their divide-and-conqueror approach for solving territorial skirmishes.  Microsoft is blessed in that it does not have to do that.  Others, like Scott McNealy, do it for them – but what I have not been able to ascertain as yet is whether they do so for “free”, or for some nefarious gain.

What should IBM do?

What would Gerstner have done?

What would be best for Java?

I think IBM should abandon AIX 5L (or at least donate it to the Linux world, for free).

Don’t get me wrong.  AIX 5L is good.  It is very good, but it is now becoming the Ralph Nader of the Unix world – in other words a spoiler.  IBM claims, and has been claiming for quite a few years now, that it is totally committed to Linux and is a champion for Linux.  But you have to forgive me here.  As an ex-IBMer, and then as a professional IBM watcher for the last 25 years, I have seen IBM hedging its bets too many times.  And right now, at least to me, that is what IBM is doing with Linux.

IBM is hedging its bets, and at the same time still trying to indulge in its lop-sided vendetta against Microsoft for the great OS/2 scam.  What IBM is doing with Linux is only slightly different to what it did in the past with OSI, ATM and even TCP/IP.  AIX is what SNA used to be, and you can pick whether you want to equate Linux to OSI or TCP/IP.  IBM in the end only abandoned SNA when TCP/IP, thanks to the Web, became a given.

Well it is time for us to tell IBM that Linux should also be a given.

With the POWER5 and the redoubtable p5/i5 machines IBM right now has an amazingly potent and flexible hardware platform – that, moreover, supports Linux.

Lets make the POWER5 the Pentium of the Linux/Unix world.

Lets convince Scott, assuming that he is a truly a free-agent and not in Microsoft’s pocket, that Solaris 10 should support POWER5.  Yes, I appreciate that this is the opposite of the model that Scott is working on at the moment but this is where Scott, IBM and the Linux camp have to come together and decide how they can better share the pie – rather than having the pie thrown in their face by Bill.  And remember, Java.

Yes I will confess that this is not a new theme for me.  Ever since the POWER4+ I have maintained that Scott and IBM should form an axis, where IBM provided the POWER processors and Scott did the software – including Java.  Instead, Scott was won over by Bill, earlier in the year, with that Java settlement.

There is not much more that I need to say.  All of you can fill in the rest.  We know the dynamics and we know the stakes.  It is now time for IBM and Scott to do the right thing and the right time.

Thank YOU.

You can share your views with me at: anu@guruge.com