On The Tech Front
(Other LinuxWorld Expo: Paris Diary, Page 5)
By T. Bruce Tober
February 14, 2000
Three products caught my eye in particular.
The first, InUp
Software's "failure tolerant clustering solution" offers cluster management
of up to seven nodes per controller.
The other is a CD-based Linux OS for use in demonstrating Linux to potential users and for training
new users. Two different publishers came out with similar products at the show.
Eric Mauger, Engineer with InUp, France, describes his company's product as allowing "the
use of just one controller to manage up to seven nodes. For example, the network is on the first node, which is
the controller. That sends the requests to the other nodes in sequential order. The first request goes to the first
remaining node, the second to the second node, etc."
The software suite also allows for Hot Swapping, removing and replacing cards while the system
is running. The new or replaced card will be up and running within 20 seconds. It runs on CompactPCI cluster units.
Mauger explained that with the InUp suite there should be no more I/O or CPU bottlenecks. "On our demonstration
unit we have an average of 1000 http requests per second being handled."
Although suited to use by ISPs, it can be used for virtually any kind of application. For example,
another demo unit was showing a 3-D Image being displayed on one machine without the unit and on the other with
the unit. The image is made up of 64 parts, each is calculated by a node. The difference in the speed of display
of the full image was astounding.
"We chose to run the software under Linux," Mauger said, "because it's free. And
it's very stable. That stability is very important for ISPs because with NT technology they have to reboot the
system each day, and on Linux we don't have this kind of problem. I think it's a very good solution."
InUp was introduced less than a year ago. They're selling primarily into Europe, "because
we are French, but we would like to go to the United States. Probably Motorola will distribute for us over there."
A Linux Marketing/Teaching Tool?
One of the two CD-based Linux OSes is called DemoLinux. It was made to demonstrate Linux to people who wanted to
see it in operation and perhaps learn the basics of it, before buying it. The South Korean authors of the similar,
RunOnCD 1.1, had very similar educational goals in mind, but mentioned nothing of the marketing potential of the
CD.
Based on the Mandrake distro, DemoLinux loads on nearly any machine putting Linux into memory
without installing any files to the machine. It provides a complete Linux system on the CD.
Jean-Pierre Laisne, of SerVBox
Technologies Paris, developers of the CD, said, "The problem you have with Windows users is that if they want
to look at something else they are afraid, and so they buy another machine and it's called an iMac, or they install
something on their machine and it's so difficult to install for a non-professional that they stop.
"So with DemoLinux, you can boot on the CD and Linux comes up alive, but just in memory,
without installing anything on your machine. And you can start to play with it immediately."
A quite similar CD product, RunOnCD 1.1 from the South Korean company Easy Linux Korea was also on display at the expo.
At the End Of The Day
The bottom line for the Paris expo is the impression one gets that the veteran Linux users are being just as childish
about ownership of "their" OS as their brothers and sisters, the Internet veterans, were about ownership
of the Net four or five years ago.
In the mid 1990s, the NetVets were claiming the Net as their own domain and were railing against
the "intrusion" of the newbies and corporates. The newcomers were turning the Net into a shopping mall,
they were making a shambles of their club house with an inability to abide by (or lack of knowledge of) the rules
of conduct.
Now the Linux Vets are bitching and moaning about the corporates taking over Linux and turning
it into Windows-like bloatware in order to make it "easy" enough for the newbies to use. As with the
NetVets, they're complaining these alterations are ruining "their" system, leaving it open to abuse,
hacking, malware attacks, etc.
Just as the volcanic explosion of use of the Net brought more benefits than detriments to the
"Information Highway"), listening to the corporate types and Linux experts in Paris, I believe Linux
is in for similar beneficial results.
Some of the benefits we've seen on the Net include more multi-media goodies, development and
utilization of high-speed access technologies, and, perhaps most importantly, the mobilization of cybercitizens
and real-world citizens to defeat the ban on export of PGP, attempts at legislating censorship of the Net, and
other similar, real-world political efforts.
Some of the benefits we could see from the anticipated take off of Linux could include a wealth
of new programs and utilities (such as IBM's announcement at the expo of its putting into open source the code
and technology for its journal file system).
We can not turn the clock back. Rather, Linux veterans should accept the inevitable and help
newcomers learn Linux and more fully understand and accept the ethos of the open source movement. 
Bruce Tober is a 30-year
veteran journalist, born in Brooklyn, N.Y., he's lived and worked in the United Kingdom for eight years, specializing
in coverage of IT topics. His website is http://www.star-dot-star.co.uk/.
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