Blorgo wrote in with the
news that Pacific HiTech has announced the bundling of IBM's DB2 Universal Database with TurboLinux. IBM is just rolling in the news today. It also appears that the companies have also agreed to work on future editions of both work together more smoothly.
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Their efforts to make Linux more user/admin friendly and available in multiple languages is to be commended, however, it appears to me that this distribution is one of the most difficult to download... (not to mention the src pkg's)
As a matter of fact, the latest versions (especially non-english ones) often take a very long time to reach even their own ftp site, and I don't think the latest Chinese version is available anywhere for download yet.
More places should start mirroring TurboLinux if it really is as popular as people have claimed it to be, and PHT should encourage more mirroring by making their packages and images more readily available. It is more profitable to gain market share than to make download difficult simply to try to squeeze $$ out of poor folks, like students!
When the d/l is difficult and box is expensive, no poor student is going to pull out $$ and pay -- people will just have to copy CDs, or simply use another distro. You don't want to alienate the poor student market, 'cause that's where the young talent is!
So why don't you just make FTP installs easier, PHT??
It is very expensive to live in Japan as a result of limited space and natural resources.
20000 yen -> less than $200 USD.
It's not so far off considering that to buy the full version of Win98 (not upgrade) you need to pay some $130 dollars.
In addition, your immature comments about the recession in Japan is rather painful to read. The recession in Japan is a result of the relationship between the government and businesses in Japan, and the fact that the government sort of screwed up big time.
I would really like to see IBM toss any improvements they can into the Linux mix.
And I've been saying all along that this is the way to go. The database vendors can optimize their product AND the OS for maximum efficiency.
Just like MS can leverage NT and Office and SQL and Win9x together.
Except that EVERYONE gets to play now.
Will a TurboLinux optimized DB2 mean that all other distributions can pack up and quit? Not even close. And IBM doesn't just support TurboLinux. IBM is hedging its bets by covering at least three other distributions.
Besides, the database vendors can't risk supporting the latest kernels or libs. They have to go with a combination that they KNOW is stable and workable. Which means that you'll see the database companies focusing on a few distributions and NOT offering updates everytime Alan releases another pre-patch.
Which means that smaller, leaner companies will still be able to compete, IF they can offer enhancements faster than the larger, established companies.
I tried it but found far too much of it was optimized for asian localization, and I was not interested in that. It's basically a repackaging of RedHat, as far as I could tell.
Heh, let them quote me. You can't argue that Linux is not a direct threat to NT, because that's exactly what it is. And if MS used that in court, they WOULDN'T be lying (Which goes against their normal business practices, so they'll probably disregard it.)
And if I'm not mistaken, I do believe Linux beat out NT in market share, no?
This give me a another good reason to convince people that linux is really usefull in a bussiness enviroment. There's the field were linux can show it's versatility and flexibility.
Hmmm, I think they have a personal use license (certainly I got a copy free through the mail a couple of weeks ago).
Check out their site I guess.
On a related note this is exactly how I'm treating Oracle and my linux partition at home... I've had to do some moderatly serious PL/SQL development in the past and with a personal Oracle 8 installation I could now work from home if I needed to again.
This might be a slight infringment of the license terms as it is commercial use, but I think there was an exception for purely development work and anyway I _could_ use a fully licensed copy plus my personal installation will never be seen by a customer.
All in all I don't really think Oracle would mind the way I'm using it.
The Chinese version is actually available... ftp://ftp.pht.com.cn/pub/turbolinux/TurboLinuxC-3. 0.2/
(And of course, the Japanese edition is most easily accessible at PHT's Japanese ftp @ ftp.pht.co.jp).
(Then again, as you say, speedwise it would be a good idea for them to mirror these internationally..) There seems to be much more information about these releases on their localized web pages than on their US ones...but of course, the info itself is localized too.
...off topic, but for those of you using RedHat or and other RPM-source, some good alternate possibilities to try are the CLE (Chinese Linux Extensions), info at http://linux.nowhere.com.hk/CLE/ and Project Japanese Extensions @ http://www.pje.linux.or.jp/
I've got a CD of TurboLinux 3.02C, but I'm a bit hestitant to repartition at the moment, so I'll most likely try it out as soon as I get around to purchasing a new HD.
Why do you think RedHat will come from behind. Is their product that much better? Or do you think it's more of a marketing game because RedHat is definitely better known and capitalized.
Be careful how you throw around the words "direct competition"... I'm sure a MS lawyer would LOVE to quote you to support their defense in the DOJ trial.
I'm also pleased that large companies are backing and even using Linux as a solution, but NT does still have a the majority market share and the battle has just begun.:)
From LinuxToday today, IBM has a plan to release VAJ on Linux. Java sure needs to get faster on Linux -- the latest Volano marks were pathetic. Then again, the fastest JVMs were from IBM, slightly slower that the (compiled) TowerJ marks (on Linux). IBM made Java on Windows speedy, I wonder what they can do with Linux, having the source code available...
While sauntering through the microsoft software section of Best Denki's CompuTown, I noticed that Pacific HiTech's Linux distrbution was priced higher than *ALL* of the Microsoft operating system products. It was placed right there next to the Windows NT/98 for all creation to see, almost like someone was instructed to put it there. I mean the majority of the oddball brands where positioned else where. It was almost as if someone was sending a little "Use Microsfot or Else!" message to the browsing consumer.
Now, I don't know if some counter boy went fscking nutz, adding a few extra zeros onto the pricing gun or if Microsoft/Softbank has a secret-handshake deal with Best Dinke to make Linux look price uncompetitive and hard to use, but something was definetyly went really wrong somewhere in this particular corner of reality...
I do know that if you wandered down a floor, you can pick up 3 seperate magazines with Pacific HiTech's *LATEST* linux distrbution for less than the price of an obento and a beer (about $10 after the national 5% sales tax)
The Microsoft brand of fun and games have just begun over here and considering the wide, early deployment of FreeBSD, I believe Microsoft's back in kinda' up against the wall with respect to the Japanese market. 200.00yen for Win98... What kinda' crack is MS Japan smoking anyway? Oh well, not like the Japanese consumer isn't conditioned to getting it up the rear-end anyway. No wonder they're in a recession over here...
IBM's announcement makes it pretty clear that Pacific HiTech's TurboLinux is to be their distribution of choice for the near future, meaning most likely that when IBM ship Linux boxes, that's the distribution they'll run.
Does anyone know - or can anyone guess - why IBM would choose this relatively little-known distribution over more obvious candidates like Red Hat, SuSE, or Debian? --
My brand-spanking-new copy of SuSE 6.1 includes DB2 (beta version), along with Sybase ASE (full version), Informix (developer license), and ADABAS-D (Personal Edition). It also has MySQL and PostgreSQL packages just to round things out...
Looking at the press release, it states that IBM will be optimising DB2 for "TurboLinux", not Linux, "TurboLinux". Is this an oversight, a typo, or is it the start of companies targetting specific distributions and the beginning of the fragmentation of the linux market.
It just means that it's free software bundled with proprietary software. Red Hat's inclusion of Metro X did no harm, and this won't either. As long as you only install DB2 once, you can still use the install disk on many machines.
In the US TurboLinux 3.0.1 is USD 49. In Japan, it is about the same price for TurboLinux 3.0 Japanese.
There are other products, one is a server and the other is TurboLinux Pro that incorporates a commercial office suite. These are more expensive. There is more information on both Japanese products at http://www.turbolinux.com/products/in dex.html [turbolinux.com]
IBM has really been pushing Java a solution as well for some time. I hope the combination of Linux, DB2 and Java (and Apache!) could make one kick as distibuted/internet computing platform. Maybe they can also help Java get a little faster. To hell with the nay sayers in the last 2 posts. This combined with the DX anouncement looks incredible for the future of non-MS solutions. I'm so excited I could....well I'm fairly excited.
Why doesn't anyone post pricing when they make big announcements like this?
Where I work, we use some very large DB2 databases. It'd be nice to have some idea of what it would cost to put together a learning system at home - and if TurboLinux stays near the $200 price range, with DB2 added, that'd be a great deal.
I don't really expect that to be the case, but I'd love to see some sort of personal use license, or a developmental-use license, especially for this version.
I, for one, am happy to see IBM back Linux the way they have been. When a major corporation pushes something with full force, other companies are sure to take notice, and maybe follow suit.
For now, Linux poses only a marginal threat to Windows NT as the No. 1 software platform for the servers that run computer networks.
I would venture a guess that Linux poses a bit more than a MARGINAL threat. Maybe something along the lines of.....oh, I don't know.....DIRECT COMPETITION?
``It takes more than just an operating system to run a computing environment effectively,''
That's absolutely correct. With more and more companies (Like IBM) backing Linux, the valuable applications will be/are being developed, giving Linux more of an edge in the market.
``In the Linux space, the No. 1 prerequisite is database software, and IBM has the No. 1 position in the database market,''
So guess what? Hot Dog IBM meets Hot Rod Linux, and cranks out a Bad-Ass product that dominates the market, and convinces more people to try the alternative.
TurboLinux/Japanese is the only distribution of Linux I've ever found that can advertise complete Japanese language support. The installation and management desktop for root (running Afterstep) is in Japanese. The package tool, turbopkg, is quite handy and can pull updated RPMs off of PHT's FTP server. I've given the CD (English version) to many people in my dorm (mostly Linux newbies) and all agree that it's easy to install -- after forcing most of them to try Slackware, Caldera, and RedHat.:)
Most importantly, it stays out of your face like Slackware, but it has a nice set of console-based tools to help you administer your system.
I really like the way IBM is contributing to Open Source software. Instead of trying to use the time of developers for free, IBM is actually contributing to many prjects in useful ways. They are doing this in places where they know that the open software is going to help their business.
One case is the Perl DBI driver for DB2. IBM is directly involved in developing DBD::DB2, they support it, and the code is free. They do this becuase they recognize that most want to mix and match web servers with databases, and Perl is a great way to talk to the database from Apache, IIS, or a CGI environment.
Also, IBM has contributed in significant ways to the Apache project, and they have a considerable presence in the java development community.
I say hooray for IBM, they are showing the world how Open Source software and proprietary software can interact simbiotically in a profitable business.
Utility is when you have one telephone, luxury is when you have two,
opulence is when you have three -- and paradise is when you have none.
-- Doug Larson
Is PHT friendly? (Score:1)
As a matter of fact, the latest versions (especially non-english ones) often take a very long time to reach even their own ftp site, and I don't think the latest Chinese version is available anywhere for download yet.
More places should start mirroring TurboLinux if it really is as popular as people have claimed it to be, and PHT should encourage more mirroring by making their packages and images more readily available. It is more profitable to gain market share than to make download difficult simply to try to squeeze $$ out of poor folks, like students!
When the d/l is difficult and box is expensive, no poor student is going to pull out $$ and pay -- people will just have to copy CDs, or simply use another distro. You don't want to alienate the poor student market, 'cause that's where the young talent is!
So why don't you just make FTP installs easier, PHT??
Re:Pacific Hi(on-drugs)Tech (Score:1)
20000 yen -> less than $200 USD.
It's not so far off considering that to buy the full version of Win98 (not upgrade) you need to pay some $130 dollars.
In addition, your immature comments about the recession in Japan is rather painful to read. The recession in Japan is a result of the relationship between the government and businesses in Japan, and the fact that the government sort of screwed up big time.
Get it here! (Score:1)
Re:IBM is a good citizen in the Open Source world (Score:1)
Get happy! (Score:1)
And I've been saying all along that this is the way to go. The database vendors can optimize their product AND the OS for maximum efficiency.
Just like MS can leverage NT and Office and SQL and Win9x together.
Except that EVERYONE gets to play now.
Will a TurboLinux optimized DB2 mean that all other distributions can pack up and quit? Not even close. And IBM doesn't just support TurboLinux. IBM is hedging its bets by covering at least three other distributions.
Besides, the database vendors can't risk supporting the latest kernels or libs. They have to go with a combination that they KNOW is stable and workable. Which means that you'll see the database companies focusing on a few distributions and NOT offering updates everytime Alan releases another pre-patch.
Which means that smaller, leaner companies will still be able to compete, IF they can offer enhancements faster than the larger, established companies.
Which means competition returns to the industry.
Life is just so spiffy keen, now.
Re:Open-source package (Score:1)
Re:TurboLinux? (Score:1)
was optimized for asian localization, and
I was not interested in that. It's basically
a repackaging of RedHat, as far as I could tell.
Re:IBM/TurboLinux/Database Devel.... (Score:1)
And if I'm not mistaken, I do believe Linux beat out NT in market share, no?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
This is good (Score:1)
Re:Pricing! (Score:1)
Check out their site I guess.
On a related note this is exactly how I'm treating Oracle and my linux partition at home... I've had to do some moderatly serious PL/SQL development in the past and with a personal Oracle 8 installation I could now work from home if I needed to again.
This might be a slight infringment of the license terms as it is commercial use, but I think there was an exception for purely development work and anyway I _could_ use a fully licensed copy plus my personal installation will never be seen by a customer.
All in all I don't really think Oracle would mind the way I'm using it.
Tom
Re:Get happy! (Score:1)
--
Re:Is PHT friendly? (download sites) (Score:1)
ftp://ftp.pht.com.cn/pub/turbolinux/TurboLinuxC-3
(And of course, the Japanese edition is most easily accessible at PHT's Japanese ftp @ ftp.pht.co.jp).
(Then again, as you say, speedwise it would be a good idea for them to mirror these internationally..) There seems to be much more information about these releases on their localized web pages than on their US ones...but of course, the info itself is localized too.
...off topic, but for those of you using RedHat or and other RPM-source, some good alternate possibilities to try are the CLE (Chinese Linux Extensions), info at
http://linux.nowhere.com.hk/CLE/
and Project Japanese Extensions @
http://www.pje.linux.or.jp/
I've got a CD of TurboLinux 3.02C, but I'm a bit hestitant to repartition at the moment, so I'll most likely try it out as soon as I get around to purchasing a new HD.
nraig
-- not speaking for intel
Re:Anyone know why IBM chose PHT? (Score:1)
Re:IBM/TurboLinux/Database Devel.... (Score:1)
I'm also pleased that large companies are backing and even using Linux as a solution, but NT does still have a the majority market share and the battle has just begun.
IBM releasing Visual Age Java for Linux (Score:2)
Pacific Hi(on-drugs)Tech (Score:2)
Now, I don't know if some counter boy went fscking nutz, adding a few extra zeros onto the pricing gun or if Microsoft/Softbank has a secret-handshake deal with Best Dinke to make Linux look price uncompetitive and hard to use, but something was definetyly went really wrong somewhere in this particular corner of reality...
I do know that if you wandered down a floor, you can pick up 3 seperate magazines with Pacific HiTech's *LATEST* linux distrbution for less than the price of an obento and a beer (about $10 after the national 5% sales tax)
The Microsoft brand of fun and games have just begun over here and considering the wide, early deployment of FreeBSD, I believe Microsoft's back in kinda' up against the wall with respect to the Japanese market. 200.00yen for Win98... What kinda' crack is MS Japan smoking anyway? Oh well, not like the Japanese consumer isn't conditioned to getting it up the rear-end anyway. No wonder they're in a recession over here...
Anyone know why IBM chose PHT? (Score:2)
Does anyone know - or can anyone guess - why IBM would choose this relatively little-known distribution over more obvious candidates like Red Hat, SuSE, or Debian?
--
TurboLinux? (Score:2)
Not just TurboLinux... (Score:2)
--
Is this as good as it seems (Score:2)
This *could* be very bad.
--
Re:Open-source package (Score:3)
It just means that it's free software bundled with proprietary software. Red Hat's inclusion of Metro X did no harm, and this won't either. As long as you only install DB2 once, you can still use the install disk on many machines.
Re:Pacific Hi(on-drugs)Tech (Score:3)
it is about the same price for TurboLinux 3.0 Japanese.
There are other products, one is a server and the other is TurboLinux Pro that incorporates a commercial office suite. These are more expensive. There is more information on both
Japanese products at http://www.turbolinux.com/products/in dex.html [turbolinux.com]
Maybe they can add some good Java support as well. (Score:3)
Pricing! (Score:3)
Why doesn't anyone post pricing when they make big announcements like this?
Where I work, we use some very large DB2 databases. It'd be nice to have some idea of what it would cost to put together a learning system at home - and if TurboLinux stays near the $200 price range, with DB2 added, that'd be a great deal.
I don't really expect that to be the case, but I'd love to see some sort of personal use license, or a developmental-use license, especially for this version.
IBM/TurboLinux/Database Devel.... (Score:4)
For now, Linux poses only a marginal threat to Windows NT as the No. 1 software platform for the servers that run computer networks.
I would venture a guess that Linux poses a bit more than a MARGINAL threat. Maybe something along the lines of.....oh, I don't know.....DIRECT COMPETITION?
``It takes more than just an operating system to run a computing environment effectively,''
That's absolutely correct. With more and more companies (Like IBM) backing Linux, the valuable applications will be/are being developed, giving Linux more of an edge in the market.
``In the Linux space, the No. 1 prerequisite is database software, and IBM has the No. 1 position in the database market,''
So guess what? Hot Dog IBM meets Hot Rod Linux, and cranks out a Bad-Ass product that dominates the market, and convinces more people to try the alternative.
Sounds good to me.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
Re:TurboLinux? (Score:4)
Most importantly, it stays out of your face like Slackware, but it has a nice set of console-based tools to help you administer your system.
IBM is a good citizen in the Open Source world (Score:5)
One case is the Perl DBI driver for DB2. IBM is directly involved in developing DBD::DB2, they support it, and the code is free. They do this becuase they recognize that most want to mix and match web servers with databases, and Perl is a great way to talk to the database from Apache, IIS, or a CGI environment.
Also, IBM has contributed in significant ways to the Apache project, and they have a considerable presence in the java development community.
I say hooray for IBM, they are showing the world how Open Source software and proprietary software can interact simbiotically in a profitable business.
-jwb