More Movement on the Linux E-Commerce Front

VA Linux Systems and Opensales.Com recently announced an alliance intended in part to advance the cause and availability of powerful and cost-effective Linux servers for companies engaged in e-commerce.

Under the terms of the agreement, VA — a supplier of Linux-based hardware, software, service and support solutions — will load Opensales.Com e-commerce solutions on its servers in order to streamline the process of creating and maintaining an e-commerce presence.

“VA Linux systems are ideal for e-commerce because of their scalability and reliability in handling millions of transactions without downtime,” stated Dr. Larry Augustin, VA’s president and CEO. “By including Opensales.Com’s open e-commerce applications on VA systems, VA and Opensales can offer customers the much needed applications to expand and grow their businesses.”

Opensales.Com, an idealab! Company, will make its OpenMerchant applications and source code available to VA customers in the third quarter of 1999. idealab! gained a degree of notoriety earlier this year when it launched FreePC.Com, offering what its name implies, in exchange for immovable, desktop advertising.

Linux WebTrends

WebTrends Corp., (Nasdaq: WEBT) a provider of enterprise management, analysis and reporting for Internet-based systems, is shipping a trial version of its Enterprise Reporting Server for Linux on the applications CD of the Red Hat 6.0 Linux package.

The Enterprise Reporting Server is the first real-time, Web traffic analysis solution designed specifically for high traffic sites running on the Linux operating system (OS). According to Paul McNamara, vice president of business development at Red Hat Software, “having their solution available for Red Hat Linux users responds to our customers needs and demands for enterprise applications.”

Using a multithread analysis engine to track Web site activity, the WebTrends server provides real-time, personalized reports to IT managers by way of a consistent browser-based or Microsoft Word interface. Over 70 configurable report tables and graphs are available, utilizing daily, weekly, monthly and annual summaries.

Linus on Linux

Linus Torvalds, the mastermind of Linux, will deliver the closing keynote speech at LotusDevCon99, a conference set for June 20 through 23, 1999 in San Francisco. Featured at the event will be a preview of Domino R5 for Linux.

No stranger to the bay area, Torvalds recently spoke on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. Treated more as a mystical figure, Torvalds sobered the crowd by exclaiming, “I don’t think technology changes anything.”

According to Upside.Com, Torvalds also explained that “the Linux phenomenon” is currently in “the transition phase between the motivation for improved social status and the quest for personal fulfillment.”