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From the Editor - Money Talks

Issue 124

From Issue #124
August 2004

Aug 01, 2004  By Don Marti
 in
And it says, “Hooray for Linux servers!” It's almost time for the billion-dollar-quarter party.

At the end of May, IDC released a thorough report on server sales in the first quarter of 2004. Linux servers came in at more than $900 million for the quarter, up 56.9% from last year.

At that growth rate, the best of any server OS, we're soon due for the first billion-dollar quarter for the Linux server business. So let's plan to celebrate it.

Even if servers aren't your bag, it's important to recognize milestones in this mature, successful area of the Linux business. The smart choices that made for Linux server success—including a commitment to GPL-licensed device drivers instead of problematic binary-only ones—will be a recipe for success in other fields too. Generic and hackable beats restrictive and specialized.

On the embedded hardware side, there's more good news—you can get a generic, hackable platform at your favorite computer store. Get a Linksys wireless access point with Linux onboard, and you can run your custom firewall, traffic control or any application you want on a platform that's well under a hundred dollars.

“Linux on Linksys Wi-Fi Routers” by James Ewing (page 50) gets you started in embedded Linux with hardware that fits your budget and beginner projects that get some real work done.

We've quietly made a change in our Resources sections at the ends of articles. Instead of a list of links, we point you at one jump page per article. Not only does that save you typing some long URLs, it also saves us some space in print, and now we can check our logs to find out which articles got you interested enough to take the next step.

So, are you looking to reorganize your servers for easier management with serial consoles (page 66)? Are you planning to develop Linux support for a new USB device, and want to follow along step-by-step as the Linux USB master does it (page 36)? Or, are you planning to speed up your database application with Memcached (page 72)? We want to know.

So, congratulations to all the great people doing support, engineering, sales and everything else in the Linux server business. And whatever you use Linux for, you'll find something in this issue.

Don Marti is editor in chief of Linux Journal.

______________________

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Re: Money Talks

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 07/15/2004 - 02:00.

Be careful! If the EU gets to here about this they're liable to hit the Linux community with a hefty fine for using their market dominance in an abusive manner...

"How much are they abusing the market Franz?"

"$900m Jean"

"Ok, How much is the European Parliament lunch budget?"

"That would be $35,000,000."

"Ok lets fine them $40,000,000 plus they must unbundle Apache from all distros except those included on Mandrake and Suse - sound good?"

"Excellent strategy."

Don H.

Re: Money Talks - the real EU?

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 07/27/2004 - 02:00.

Hi Don,

are you sure you're talking about the same EU that actually tried to cut down on monopoly abuse by M$? That tries to force M$ to openly document their SMB interface on the server side? Would that help Linux servers and would it help more than the US antitrust ruling against M$ did? Or did that court touch that subject at all?

The same EU where Linux is more and more considered as the more secure, stable and "democracy compatible" platform by governments and other public organisations?

And by the way - ever noticed that Suse now belongs to Novel?

So if you really thought that "the EU" was too dumb to know the difference between open software and the monopoly of M$ and was otherwise just somehow undiscriminatingly "anti-US" could you maybe reconsider? I'm sure there will still be more than enough good jokes to be found even so, like:

Q: You're American when you enter the bathroom and American when you leave, but what are you in between?
A: European ...

Johannes L., Germany

Re: Money Talks - the real EU?

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 07/29/2004 - 02:00.

Greetings Johannes,

So many questions and so little time. I am, however, concerned that Linux could be the next in line when Super Mario Monti goes for another high score in Grand Theft Auto (Corporate Edition). What market or corporation is safe when the EU really needs several hundred million dollars to spend on Armani suits, Tattinger, stock options and personal pension funds. Never look a gift horse in the mouth - just mug it!

Yes, I was aware that Novell had acquired Suse, I just thought that Suse deserved a mention.

As to NAFTA, well, Never Allow French Tourists Abroad comes to mind but this, and all the rest is written with a big (-:

Kr

Re: Money Talks - the real EU?

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 07/29/2004 - 02:00.

Just curious does mcdonald sell french or freedom fries?
could someone remind me of what does nafta stand for?

Re: Money Talks

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 07/22/2004 - 02:00.

Good on you. I almost choked on my bourbon when I read this, I laughed that much - how true

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