Javits And Linux: Perfect Together.

Perhaps buoyed by an anticipated court defeat for Microsoft Corp., the Linux faithful were out in force in New York for the second annual Linux World in February. From appliance Linux to embedded Linux to clustered Linux from. startups to the world's largest OEMs, everyone had a finger in the Torvalds pie. Following is a taste of a few interesting announcements.

Compaq and TurboLinux are collaborating on qualification of TurboCluster on Compaq platforms According to Compaq officials, the TurboCluster Server is one of the most widely used systems on Compaq's Test Drive site. Compaq also demonstrated high performance Linux Beowulf clusters featuring Bioinformatics modeling and CMU, and a Compaq StorageWorks Fibre Channel SAN running Linux. Compaq was also showing Linux-based Internet appliances and services, including eSoft's Redphish on AlphaSeiver.

Coollogic a maker of Internet appliances, has acquired ON Channel and its embedded Linux software. The combined company will pursue the embedded Linux market adding Java Shockwave, and RealAudio functions to Internet appliances. In addition, Coollogic will continue ON Channel's existing business strategy of developing a wide variety of industrial license opportunities that incorporate Linux, with specific focus on embedded applications for OEMs and VARs.

VERITAS announced significant expansion of the company's Linux strategy.

During 2000, VERITAS will port VERITAS Volume Manager, File System, Cluster Server, and NetBackup (for servers) to Red Hat Linux The two companies are also exploring joint sales and marketing strategies.

Magic Software announced its Magic Enterprise Edition V 8, a development environment for Linux--which was ported to the darling OS in three, months. The software features Java support, visual partitioning of applications, dynamic generation of HTML, capabilities to develop complex processes in parallel, and secure Internet transaction processing:

Computer Associates has ported eTrust Access Control to Red Hat Linux 6.0, and has also announced Ingres II Linux Edition, Linux-compatible version of CA's Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). Ingres II Linux Edition is a Linux-compatible version of CA's popular Relational Database Management System (RDBMS).

Just after the close of Linux World, Lernout & Hauspie demonstrated a prototype handheld device running Linux equipped with a speech recognition engine and L&H's RealSpeak Text-To-Speech (TTS) technology engine. Company officials demonstrated how users can listen to email summaries as well as full-text emails; issue natural language commands (such as "next message or "send e-mail") and dictate emails. As part of its live presentation, L&H also used the device to issue Web queries ("What is the weather in Fresno?"); complete a transaction (such as a book purchase); and conduct a stock trade. No ship date had been announced at press time.

BASCOM, a maker of Linux-based thin servers, announced an initiative in keeping with the collaborative spirit of the Open Source movement BASCOM's Open Source Equipment Exchange (osee.bascom.org) is designed to match those donating computer equipment with those in the Open Source community needing to add infrastructure to further their development efforts and spur innovation and the continued evolution of Linux. More information is available at the Web site.