Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Linux in Mondays NY Times | Date | Mon, 6 Jul 1998 20:03:41 PDT | From | "Marty Leisner" <> |
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I was surprised when I read this piece in the business section of the NY Times:
A Line of Computers Without Windows
As a market test, Ralph Nader's Consumer Project on Technology recently tried to order a personal computer from a dozen companies without Microsoft's Windows as the operating system. No luck, reported David Chun, the Nader summer intern who made the calls to Dell Computer, Gateway, IBM and others -- not even when he asked for a PC with no operating system at all.
He should have called VA Research in Mountain View, Calif. The upstart computer maker specializes in machines that run Linux, a freeware version of the Unix operating system. Linux (pronounced (LINN-uks) originated in 1991, written by a young Finnish programmer, Linus Torvalds.
VA Research began in 1993 as a part-time venture for Larry Augustin, then working on his doctorate in electrical engineering at Stanford University. He could not afford a costly Sun Microsystems work station, so he decided to build his own high-powered machine, using Linux and off-the-shelf hardware.
Since then, Linux has become a more mainstream operating system, and VA Research is beginning to take off, but Augustin, 35, declines to disclose revenues for the private company. VA Research's machines start at $1,500, but the line extends to server models that can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Its customers include Southwestern Bell, a unit of SBC Communications Inc., which uses the Linux machines in its call-processing centers.
Linux users worldwide now number about 6 million, tiny compared with the more than 300 million for Windows. Still, as Augustin sees it: "Microsoft is always going to get its share. But Linux does have a future as a genuine alternative to Windows." jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
marty leisner@sdsp.mc.xerox.com Don't confuse education with schooling. Milton Friedman to Yogi Berra
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