(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Linux Products Roll Out for Japanese Corporate Users
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February 1, 1999 (TOKYO) -- The Japanese market has been invigorated
by a range of Linux applications and support service products emerging
in rapid succession.
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Linux is drawing a great deal of attention for its merits of cost economy
and stability in operation as a server operating system.
Users have options in the market of Linux packaged products, such
as Linux versions of databases and business applications. Support
services, often offered on a case-by-case basis, are being systematically
arranged and organized. Vendors now are more aware of having services
made easily available to corporate users.
Hurdles Lowered for Linux Server Application
The number of corporations adopting Linux is increasing. For instance,
a system user division of Shimizu Corp., a major construction company,
is using 18 servers on which TurboLinux was installed. They serve various
purposes such as intranet servers, file servers and mail servers.
A Shimizu staffer responsible for installation said the reason why Linux
was chosen is the stability of the operating system, its robustness
without needing a high level of hardware performance and inexpensive
cost of coupled hardware and software.
However, managing Linux server operations is not as easy as Windows NT,
which has plenty of functions for operation management on the graphical
user interface base. That means users are requested to have a reasonable
level of knowledge of UNIX.
Shimizu has engineers with 10 years of experience in development in UNIX
environments, such as Solaris and HP-UX. With such expertise, the company
is adept in operating Linux servers.
Three reasons are cited commonly for why the use of Linux in business
is difficult: bothersome installation, a lack of variety in application
products and no appropriate established support systems.
However, those obstacles for Linux server applications have diminished
rapidly as the availability of support services and applications designed
for Linux servers has improved.
Making Installation Work Easy
The following products have contributed to alleviating the problems of
installing Linux: "Linux MLD III" of Media Lab Inc. and "TurboLinux
Japanese Edition" of Pacific HiTech, Inc. (Table 1).
Table 1: Major Linux Package Products
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Vendor
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Product Name
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Ichikawa Mitsuru
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Caldera OpenLinux 1.3
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Itsubashi Research
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Japanese redhat Linux5.2
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Pacific HiTech
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TurboLinux Japanese Edition 3.0/ Pro Japanese Edition 3.0
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Media Lab.
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Live Linux/Linux MLD III
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Linux MLD III, when installing Linux to a PC having Windows NT or Windows
95/ 98 already installed, automatically refers to registry information
so that users are relieved in terms of time and energy for setup for
the preferred environment.
TurboLinux Japanese Edition is easy to handle because all the screens
for setting an environment are displayed in Japanese. In the usual settings,
users need to follow instructions displayed in English when installing
Linux to a PC server.
Another reason for complicated installation of Linux is that users cannot
apply certain types of devices such as peripherals and video cards to
a new Linux environment without modification.
In the case of Windows installation, users can use attached device drivers
functions that are assured. However, assurance of normal operation is
not necessarily given to devices in the Linux environment.
Nonetheless, things are getting better. Vendors are making efforts to
offer solutions to the problems by selling servers with the Linux operating
system and bundling validated device drivers and having them pre-installed
to servers. Servers pre-installed with Linux can be purchased from Otsuka
Shokai Co., Ltd., Plat'Home Co., Ltd. and Kojiro Corp. (Frontier Kojiro).
Full Lineup of Applications Start to Appear
Linux application lines are filling the market (Table 2).
Table 2: Typical Server Software for Linux Servers
Vendor Product Name
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Vendor
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Product Name
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NTT Data
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Infrover/ UniSQL & InterServ for Linux
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Informix
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Informix Dynamic Server Linux Edition Suite
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Sybase
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Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise
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Justsystem
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Ichitaro Ark for Java
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10 art-ni
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alpha-J Sales Management
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Oracle Corp. Japan
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Oracle 8 Workgroup Server for Linux Release 8.0.5
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Database software products for Linux were released by Sybase KK of Japan
in September 1998 and by Informix KK of Japan in December 1998. Oracle
Corp. Japan is also preparing its release of the Linux version of Oracle
8 on March 18 this year. Oracle Japan reportedly planned the delivery
of the Linux version as Oracle 8i, but the version number has been moved
forward to 8.0.5.
The 10 art-ni Corp.'s "alpha-J Sales Management" is a business application
based on Java and assured to run on Linux and Solaris. Order data are
entered by clients through a Web browser.
Justsystem Corp. has scheduled a release of the Java version of Ichitaro,
the most popular word processing software in Japan, between the end
of February and March 1999. This version of Ichitaro will be made for
Linux servers. Specifically, after installing Ichitaro to a Linux server,
users can read and edit documents on a client PC with a Web browser.
Support Provided in Menus
Support systems are becoming more customer friendly. To date, corporate
users have not been strongly encouraged to rely on vendors offering
Linux server support, because many of those vendors submitted a quotation
of service items and charges on each support service case by case.
In order to improve case-by-case way of business, more vendors compile
support items in menu format for an offer to customers.
As an example, ThirdWare Corp. plans to provide a three-level support
system ranging from support by email to visiting customer sites.
A business organization was also established to provide Linux support
information and related matters (Table 3). However, as a number of organizations are expected to be established in a short period of time,
there is confusion in the industry.
Table 3: Notable Organizations for Linux-Related
Activities; Organization Representative
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Organization
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Representative
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Linux Consortium (tentatively)
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Fuji Soft ABC
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Linux Section of UNIX Business Association (UBA)
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Open Technologies
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Japan Linux Association (tentatively)
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Japan Linux User Group
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Linux Business Initiative (LBI)
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ThirdWare
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Still, major vendors are still reluctant to start Linux support.
"If we add one more operating system to support, we would need to establish
a system to counter troubles with thorough investigation when they do
occur. It is questionable that Linux really deserves such massive human
resources," said Mitsuru Sanagi, general manager of the Strategic Planning
Division of Fujitsu Ltd.'s Strategy and Planning Group.
Related stories:
� Oracle Japan Moves Forward Shipment Date of
Linux Oracle8
� Linux Surfaces As Alternative to Windows NT
(Yuichi Sakaguchi, Staff Editor, Nikkei
Computer)
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