| IBM's Entire eServer Family 
        To Run Linux | 
  
  
    
    
      | Updated 1:29 PM ET October 6, 
      2000 | 
  
    
    
    
      | Current quotes (delayed 20 mins.) 
          
          
            | INTC | 39 5/8 | -1 
              3/8 | (-3.35%) |  
            | CPQ | 24.50 | -0.70 | (2.78%) |  
            | SUNW | 106 | -3 
              3/4 | (-3.42%) |  | 
by 
  Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, Sm@rt Partner 
  
  Put on your best blue tux. IBM's eServer family 
  will soon support all four major Linux distributions. 
  
IBM has a grand unification plan for its servers. It's called Linux. 
  Indeed, Big Blue is preparing to make sure that its entire eServer family--from low-end Intel 
  systems to high-end mainframes--will support all four major Linux 
  distributions. 
  
Details about the initiative are sketchy, but IBM is expected to provide 
  Caldera, Red Hat, SuSE and TurboLinux with hardware, financial and technical 
  assistance. In return, the Linux vendors will port their respective operating 
  systems to IBM's entire line of eServers--which spans S/390 mainframes, AS/400 
  minicomputers, RS/6000s, Netfinity and NUMA-Q. The intended result: Linux will 
  be the first operating system available to run on all IBM servers. In theory, 
  this could reduce support and training headaches among IBM's partners and 
  customers