Open Source Software Given an Additional Push by IBM

IBM's participation in the budding open source software market continues to grow, as it recently concluded deals for the use of its Linux-based open source software with the governments of the United Kingdom, Russia, and Brazil. The UK deal involves a six-month evaluation period for the software by multiple levels of government ranging from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister down to the local council on the Orkney Islands.   The Russian deal relates to the launching of a Linux Competency Centre in Moscow, similar to existing Linux centres established by IBM in New York, Bejing, and Sydney.   As for the Brazilian deal, although the precise details are not known, a letter of intent was signed with IBM to develop initiatives and promote the use of Linux within Brazil. Concurrently, IBM announced that it had joined forces with Cisco Systems Inc. to develop a common open source language for "self-healing" computer systems and networks.   The technology is based on the concept of autonomic computing, i.e. a methodology for enterprise systems and networks to automatically detect, analyze, correlate, and resolve IT problems in sophisticated systems.   As with open source software generally, if this joint effort succeeds, Microsoft's share in the enterprise software market could be affected. To learn more about IBM's recent Linux-related transactions, see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3181108.stm; http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/10/10/HNibmbrazil_1.html; or http://makeashorterlink.com/?P23552F46. To learn more about IBM's joint venture with Cisco, see: http://xml.coverpages.org/CiscoIBM-CBE.html. Summary by:   Colin Adams