Server: News

A mainframe version of the OpenSolaris operating system is now available for download, IBM and Sun announced Monday.

Canonical, which wants Linux to challenge Apple's Macintosh in usability on the desktop, is unveiling on Monday upgrades to its Ubuntu Linux distributions, offering 3G and virtualization improvements. Version 8.10 of Canonical's Desktop and Server Linux distributions are being announced Monday and will be available Thursday.

A recent decision by Lenovo to cut back sales of pre-installed Linux PCs has not altered the company’s commitment to offer operating system choice for its new server products launched this week.

IBM is targeting midsize business customers that use Linux with a new "baby" mainframe that costs just a fraction of the amount charged for the high-end mainframe IBM released in February.

With virtualization's popularity soaring, it was predictable that hardware vendors would eventually bring to market specialized servers that cater to the needs of virtual machines. The market leader in this category is Dell, which currently offers three models of virtualization-optimized systems: the entry-level R805 server, and the larger R900 and R905 servers. Although these systems make perfectly good generic servers for all standard IT uses, they have specific features that endear them to virtualization users.

The full depth of IT's involvement in Wall Street's meltdown is unknown, but one plan to stop it from happening again calls upon a growing IT trend: open source.

Google's leadership on the Web stems partly from its powerful data centers, which allow it to provide lightning-fast search results while keeping energy costs to a minimum. The company has been mostly secretive about what goes on inside these giant computing factories, but on Wednesday it offered a peek at what it has been able to achieve -- on the energy side at least.

It was nearly two years ago at the 2006 Oracle OpenWorld conference that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison unveiled a plan to have Oracle provide support to Red Hat's own Linux customers.

Microsoft Monday said it would ship Windows HPC Server 2008 on November 1 with designs on challenging Linux for supplying high-performance computers and specifically taking aim at ailing Wall Street customers.

VMware CTO Stephen Herrod drew a cheer at the VMworld conference Wednesday by announcing plans to bring the next version of VMware's VirtualCenter management software to Linux and the iPhone.

PC maker Lenovo says it will enter the global server market later this month, shipping systems for small and medium-sized businesses.