IBM Remains Active in Linux Market
The Linux love fest continues at IBM as Big Blue in conjunction with the open source community has released a series of new Linux applications, which are intended to promote the use of Linux in the enterprise.
IBM has been among the biggest backers of the Linux platform since it began working with open source in 1998. And it sees a real future for open source technology in an enterprise environment. The latest additions to its Linux initiative are designed specifically for enterprise functions including file system management, threading and Linux stress testing.
Specifically, the solutions are:
Journaled File System (JFS) for Linux -- a high-performance file system that provides rapid recovery from a system power outage or crash and the ability to support large disk configurations. The code is available at http://oss.software.ibm.com/jfs (new window). JFS was initially open sourced in January of 2000, and has had more than 30 code releases since then.
Next Generation POSIX Threading (NGPT) -- a POSIX threading package for Linux that improves the scalability of multi-threaded enterprise applications. The code was derived from the existing GNU Pth and has been open sourced under the LGPL. The code is available at http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/pthreads (new window). NGPT was initially open sourced in January of 2001.
In addition, IBM also is participating on a project in conjunction with SGI and Open Source Development Lab, focusing on enabling enterprise test and verification processes, methodologies and tooling for the Linux platform. The offering is called the Linux Test Project and it involves stress testing Linux-based solutions.
Currently, IBM is working with SGI and the Open Source Development Lab to open source an initial test suite that focuses on customer enterprise workloads. The project resides at http://sourceforge.net/projects/ltp (new window).