IBM Corp has certified Linux distributions from Caldera, Red Hat, SuSE and Pacific High Tech for use with it Netfinity 3000 and 5000 servers. As with Linuxcare Labs (see separate story), the point of the certification is not to imply that other Linux distributions won’t work on Netfinity hardware. Rather, it is to reassure cautious business customers that these particular flavors are guaranteed to work just fine.
A growing number of our customers are considering Linux for their business applications, explained Tom Figgatt, the Linux segment executive for IBM Netfinity Servers. Certifying all of the major Linux players is yet another step IBM is taking to give customers added confidence. IBM also announce the extension of its ServerProven designation to cover Applixware’s office productivity suite for Linux. The company is making Linux device drivers for its ServRAID 3 adapter and is building a web forum for users of Linux on Netfinity.
