Linux 99:

Prof. Dr. H. W. Meuer

Dipl. Wirtsch. Ing.(FH) Anas Nashif

Computing Center, Mannheim University

April 27, 1999, Bosch Conference Karlsruhe

Linux in Spring 99

Linux 99: Introductory Thesis

• Linux is an affordable, good, stable, reliable and secureOperating System for Desktop and Server applications.

• Linux is well suited for academic as well as for commercialusage.

• Linux is something special, not experienced so far in the bigOS space.

• Linux is not thinkable without the Internet.• Linux is very important to keep the OS market competitive

in the future.• Linux is the only competitor of Microsoft's operating

systems, especially Windows NT.• Linux is a philosophy, but Linux is also a software....

Linux 99:

„Software is like sex...it‘s better when it‘s free.“

Linus Torvalds

Linux Creator

Linux is an Unix-Derivatve

Source: iX 11/98

•• 19691969: Ken Thompson developed UNIX.•• 19911991: Linus Torvalds starts the work on a minix derivative

called „Linux“.•• 19911991: First stable kernel. Linux spreads in the Internet.•• 19981998: Commercial hardware companies Siemens, HP,

Compaq, Dell und IBM announce Linux on theirplattforms.

•• 19991999: After SAP‘s announcement to port SAP R/3 to linux,the following producers of DB/ Applications software arein the linux boat: Oracle,Informix, Sybase, Ingres, SAP,Netscape....plus others.

Linux 99: Linux History

Linux 99: Layers model of a Linux H/S - System

kernellibraries

shellapplications

Last kernel release: v2.2.6

Last development kernel: v2.1.132

hardware

Current innovation cycle:Since 8. January (version 2.2.0) 7 new stable kernel releases

≈ every 13 days a new kernel release . :-)

Linux 99 - The GNU Project

• GNU = GGNU is NNot UUnix• Tools available for all major platforms• Products under GNU Public License (GPL)• Standadization of Software• High Reliability• High Functionality

Linux 99:

• Free Availability of Source Code• Free passing on of the complete Software

Package

GNU Public Licence (GPL)

Linux 99: Statistics

0510152025303540

WW

W

FTP

News

Linux

Windows

AlleUNIXe

Solaris

• Worldwide 7.5 to 10 Mio. User• 27% of all web server running Linux

(1. place)• 37% of all FTP servers running linux

(1. place)• 27% off all News servers running

linux (1. place)• Netspace, Linux Intern., Citroen,

Subaru, Deja News, Whataburger,Netscape, Cisco, Sony, Debis,Mercedes Benz AG, BoschDaimlerChrysler, Boeing, UnitedStates Postal Services all run Linux

Source: Linux International

Conclusion:Linux has a very large private and commercial

user base

Linux Hardware Platforms

• Intel x86• DEC Alpha• MIPS• PowerPC / PowerMAC• Sun SPARC / Ultra Sparc• Motorola m68k• ARM

• IBM AS/400, RS/6000• Siemens Celsius, Primergy• SGI Indy• Compaq Alpha Server• NEXT• 3Com Palm II/III

Processors: Systems:

Linux 99:

Linux 99: Linux Studies

• GartnerGroup 01/99: „The ground swell of interest in Linux [..] ispoised to gain momentum if sincere vendor support becomesavailable“

• GartnerGroup 01/99: „Linux vendor technical support for MSEswill only be adequate for technically knowledgeable IT organizationsthrough 2000 (0.7 probability).“

• IDC 04/99: According to statistics from IDC, about 750,000 servershad Linux installed in 1998, an increase of 212% (NT: 36%)

• IDC 04/99: Over the next five years, Linux will grow faster than allother operating systems combined.

• Dow Jones 04/99 : The market size for Linux-related business willbe between $5 billion and $20 billion in 2002.

• DH Brown 04/99: Linux comes up short when compared feature-for-feature with commercial Unix products and Windows NT, but theoperating system is great for some tasks.

Linux 99: The Cathedral - Bazaar-Model

• „Release early, release often“ - L. Torvalds

• „Delegate everything you can“ - L. Torvalds

• Treating the users as co-developers means rapid code improvement andeffective debugging.

• Given a large enough beta-tester and co-developer base, almost everyproblem will be characterized fast and the fix obviously to someone.

• „Debugging is parallelizable“ - Jeff Dutky, Opensource Movement

• KISS - Keep It Small and Simple

Linux 99:

• Listen to the users. Sometimes their ideas are better.

• Recognizing good ideas from others is very important.

• The internet is an ideal tool for development of software according to“The Cathedral-Bazaar-Model“.

• Linux is developed by the community.

Anyone making use of the software must agree to give everyoneelse the rights to use, modify, and redistribute the program‘s codeor any program derived from it but only if the distribution termsare unchanged.

The Cathedral-Bazaar-Model

Linux 99: Distributions

Source: International Data Corporation, 1999

1.4 Mio. ShippedShare 55%43 % growth

From Nürnberg300 000 shippedShare 12%79 % growth

714 600 shipped8 % growth

Others:

163 800 shippedShare 6 %33 % growth

Caldera

Worldwide 30-50distributors.

Linux 99: Support included!

• Good manual

• Help files and docs on CD

• 60 Days free installation support via Email,Fax and Hotline

• S.u.S.E.-support database on the Internet(free)

• Commercial support service

Example: S.u.S.E.

Characteristics of free Linux Supportfrom the Internet

• Zero costs (if you have Internet access)

• should be managed by the system administrator

• You have to be active in Newsgroups, Mailing Lists,WWW etc.

• there is no guaranteed servic time ... but a very highprobability to get the problem fixed

Linux 99:

Linux 99: Linux software price policy

•• StrategyStrategy I I:Price for product on Linux same as on other platforms, e.g.Oracle, SAP R/3, Intershop

•• StrategyStrategy II II:Linux version is less expensive, e.g. Applixware

•• Strategie IIIStrategie III:Free for Linux, non-free on other platforms, e.g.StarOffice, Sybase

Conclusion:With the increasing commercial software base for linux, the

trend is that vendors will follow Strategy I.Despite the costs, currently vendors want to insure their share in

the Linux software market only. (Strategies II,III).

Office on the Linux-Desktop

• Office suits available(Applixware, StarOffice,Wordperfect)

• Easy to use and:

• Compatibility with MS-Office (Word, PPT)

• Smart text editing andformatting available: TeX,LaTeX

• Not easy to use,esp. for Scientific Users

• well suited for bigdocuments and books

Linux 99:

Linux 99: Linux on the Desktop

• Graphical user interface X-Windows• Desktops KDE and Gnome• Applications for most important tasks: Office applications, image

processing, scientific/technical, web, audio, internet tools, softwaredevelopment, rendering,...

• SAP R/3 GUI available since 12/99• Although many applications are available, Linux needs a better and

easier installation procedures and more applications for the normaluser.

• The upcoming OpenLinux 2.2, Redhat 6.0 and SuSE 6.1 seem to begoing into this direction

Linux on the Desktop only for advanced users.

L. Torvalds: „... The desktop market is the hardest by far“.

Linux 99: Linux on the Desktop

Linux for Servers in LANs

• Samba (in Windows-Networks)

• NFS (Network File System)

• Print-Server

• Email-Server (with IMAP or POP3)

• Central Backup-Server

• Firewall between LAN and Internet

Linux 99:

Linux 99: Linux for Servers in the Internet

• FTP (File Transfer Protocol)• WWW-Servers with Apache (HTTP)• News-Server• Email-Server• Name-Server (DNS)

Linux is great as operating system in LANs and in the Internet

Linux 99: Linux showing up in Supercomputers

• High Performance Linux Cluster

• Linux Clusters in the TOP500, e.g. Avalon

• hpcLine of Siemens (Aachen, Kaiserlautern andPaderborn)

• Do it yourself Supercomputers (half the performance, 10%of the price)

• „Supercomputing for the masses“ (Robin Miller inTechSightings)

Linux 99: Our Experience with Linux

• 1995: Web stations all around the university• 1996: Trumpf Beowulf Cluster

10 P133 SMP, Ethernet. Applications: PVM, MPI and adistributed indexer and search engine. First experienceswith Apache on Linux

• 1996: Various databases: TOP500 Database, Historydatabase, RUM Library

• 1997: Siemens Primergy Quad PPro200. As node 11 inthe trumpf cluster

• 1997: Comyc Cluster8 PPro 200 SMP, Myrinet, diskless nodes

• 1997: As a Desktop with KDE and WindowMaker

Linux 99: Our Experience with Linux

• 1998: WWW Server for www.top500.org

• 1999: Cooperation with Siemens on testing andbenchmarking SAP R/3 with Oracle on SiemensPrimergy.

• 1999: Samba PDC (Primary Domain Controller) forHPC/WWW Group. File Server, Print Server..

• 1999: top500.org powered by Siemens Primergy

• More projects planned

Linux 99: Our Experience with Linux

• Applications and development tools are widly andfreely available

• Powerful servers with APIs to almost anything

• Our experience equation:

Linux + Apache + Mysql + PHP3=

Powerful and free Intranet/Internet platform

Linux 99: Our Experience with Linux (WWW)We are neither Yahoo nor Lycos....

but to have 257.245 hits in one day is really encourging....

Linux 99: Our Experience with Linux

• Linux can replace windows NT to controldomains (PDC).

• Used to provide file and print services.• Web Administration Tool (Swat) available• Easier local and remote administration.• Better performance:

Samba

SMP• 2.0.0 had poor SMP support (First stable

kernel series with SMP support)• SMP needs applications which use SMP

capabilities• Quad SMP on Primergy seems to work with

a noticable stabiltity

Source: ZDNet

Linux 99: Our Experience with Linux (Cluster)

• High availabilty (Uptimes of 100 days and more)• HPC programing environment freely available• Interconnect hardware support available• Diskless configurations stable and ease administration• Highly scalable: add or remove nodes whenever necessary

Linux 99: Cooperation with Siemens

• 1998-: SAP R/3 (IDIS) on RM1000• 1999-: SAP R/3 on Primrgy 870 running Linux

Linux Know-How SAP R/3 Kow-How

+ =

R/3 R/3 on Linux on Linux

Linux 99: Cooperation with Siemens

• SAP R/3 will be released in september 1999 for firstcustomers

• There exists an installation CD for tests and pilot projects• Currently only pilot projects: 2 Siemens customers• Oracle and Informix will be supported• Supplementary software, e.g. backup and system

management software will be ported to linux.• Linux support teams created at Siemens (LinuxLab)• Support of new hardware (RAID, etc.)

Status report:

Linux 99: Cooperation with Siemens

• We could not boot from RAID (This problem is solved now with Redhat6.0)

• Linux is stable on the Primergy hardware: All hardware componentswell supported.

• Manual installation of Oracle and R/3 (as of 03/99, 05/99: CD)• Oracle installation stable. No crashes, no hangs• R/3 installation, although manualy, was smooth

Conclusion:Although there is still a lot to do , R/3 and Oracle are stable on the open

source OS.

First experiences....

Linux 99: Cooperation with Siemens

• Raw devices (available as patches, not supported in the main kernel)• Journaling filesystem (will be introduced for testing next month)• Filesystem blocksize (max. 4k supported on ext2 )• RAM > 2GB (can be modified to handle 4GB, although risky)• Hardware support (Major hardware vendors supported...)

..... and wihtout OS tuning and optimization (only R/3 and Oracle tuning)...

.... Linux reaches the performance of Windows NT onsimilar hardware.

Conclusion:Comparing the time invested in R/3 on Linux and the time R/3

has been available on NT, Linux can outperform NT easily.

Despite the current shortage of „important“ features in Linux, like:

Linux 99: Oracle: Linux vs. NT

• No operating system tuning was done neither on the NT server nor on theLinux server.

• the two systems were running as they were after a standard installation.• The two Oracle data bases were created and configured with the same

SQL scripts, the only differences being the storage files pathnames

Source: http://rpmfind.net/veillard/oracle/

The two servers are Dell OptiPlex GX1 desk-top PC's, who have exactlythe same hardware configurations: Pentium II, 450 Mhz, 128 Mb memory, 6 Gb hard disk

Linux 99: Oracle: Linux vs. NT

Source: http://rpmfind.net/veillard/oracle/

Selection queries: Q1 to Q17

Total Elapsed Time

Linux 99: Linux vs. NT: Price ComparisonProduct Description Qty $/item Subtotal cost

Microsoft WindowsNTServer v4.0 StandardEdition w/ 25 clientlicenses 001 1619.00 1619.001 Extra WindowsNTServer clientlicense 090 39.95 3595.50 Microsoft WindowsNTWorkstation v4.0 100 319.00 31900.00IIS FTP Server 001 0.00 0.00Site Server Website server 001 1499.00 1499.00Microsoft Exchangev5.5 E-mail serverw/ 25 client licenses 001 2129.00 2129.005 Microsoft Exchangeclient licenses 015 369.00 5535.00Microsoft ProxyServer 001 999.00 999.00Microsoft SQLServer w/ 25client licenses 001 3999.00 3999.005 Microsoft SQLclient licenses 015 11085.00 11085.00

Total cost for my office network w/100 clients: $62,360.00

Product Description Qty $/item Subtotal cost

Linux Kernel 2.2.6for the server (anyfreeware *BSD variantcould also be usedhere) 001 0.00 0.00Client licenses inf* 0.00 0.00Linux for theclient boxen 100 0.00 0.00Built-in FTPserving capabilities 001 0.00 0.00Apache Web Server 001 0.00 0.00POP3 Mail Server 001 0.00 0.00Mail Server clientlicenses inf 0.00 0.00Built in proxyservices 001 0.00 0.00Just Logic SQLweb 001 219.00 219.00Just Logic SQLwebclient licenses 100 0.00 0.00

Total cost for my office network w/ 100 clients: $219.00

$62,360.00 vs. $219.00WindowsNT based office network for 100 users

vs.

a freeware UNIX based network on theexact same hardware.

Source: http://www.lege.com/ntvslinux.html

Linux 99: Linux vs. NT

Source: http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/

Linux 99: Security

• Security against intruders from the network:At least as good as other unices

• Better and widly proven security concepts than NT• Securtiy agains viruses: Currently on 2 known viruses

among other 40.000 known viruses (April 99).• Reliable back up solutions (BRU, ADSM client and soon

Networker)• High-Availablity through solutions from Wizard/Bee.• Linux is Year 2000 proof• Problems will appear first in 38 years (2038).

Linux 99: Where Can I Get Technical Support for Linux?

• Community Help: The Linux Documentation Project maintainsdozens of how-to files covering every imaginable subject, includinginstallation, DOS emulation, networking, and using Cyrilliccharacters.

• Check Out Newsgroups: Check out the wide variety of Linux-basedUsenet newsgroups, including comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.setup, comp.os.linux.questions, and alt.os.linux.

• Other Linux Users: Linux user groups have cropped up around theglobe

• Shell Out Cash: If your company needs Linux support--even aroundthe clock--it's available. Both Red Hat and Caldera offer full-time,phone-based tech support help, either on a per-incident or annualcontract basis. In addition, there is now support from software andhardware vendors like Siemens, IBM, Compaq.....

Typical newsgroupsdiscussion

Linux 99: Linux Support

• Linux „common channels“ support using specializednews groups and mailing lists has a great value.

• Direct contact with the main developers• Direct contact with users with the same problem• Fast response and advice ( ~ 1 hour response time is

common)• An alternative to „commercial support“ but without

guarantees• Hardware and Software support directly from vendors

recommended• By mission critical application 24/7 support contracts

recommended

Linux 99: 10 Linux Links you should know

• http://www.linux.org• http://www.freshmeat.net/• http://www.slashdot.org/• http://www.32bitsonline.com/• http://linuxtoday.com/• http://www.linuxhq.com/• http://www.linuxworld.com/• http://linuxpower.org/• http://www.linuxcare.com/• http://linuxresources.com/

Linux 99:

Bill Gates: „Certainly, we think of it as a competitor in the student andhoppyist market. But I really don‘t think in the commercial market we‘llsee it in any significant way.“

Linux is growing in popularity not because of the hype surrounding it,but "because it does what people want it to do”.Linus Torvalds said to the crowd at the Spring Comdex show 1999.