IBM is one of the most strident supporters of the Linux movement.  IBM’s booth had many different rack servers running. Why is IBM committed to Linux?  The gentleman at the booth informed me that IBM wanted to have the flexibility to supply top industry standards to large and small businesses. Giving the customer what they want and what they need at a reasonable price is a top priority for IBM. IBM is one of the many sponsors for Open Source Development Lab (OSDL).  OSDL is the first independent, non-profit lab for developers who are adding enterprise capabilities to Linux.

Novell is committed to Linux as well. After a major deal with SuSE Linux, Novell is back up to bat. With this giant step, the company is strongly looking to the future. After meeting up to talk to a few of the techies, they explained how Novell’s Nterprise Linux Services Suite will provide helpful services now and in the future.

Novell iFolder will offer powerful personal file management, including 24/7 access to the files. With iFolder, you can have automatic synchronization between your Windows based file, data backup and your internet system security.

Novell NetMail provides excellent standard-based messaging and calendaring support for up to 20,000 users per server.

Looking at the offerings in Nterprise, it is very obvious that Novell is heading into a bright direction. After listening shortly to their speeches about the direction of the company, I headed on over to the next booth.

Oracle’s booth certainly won the beauty contest, although it didn’t beat the Red Hat sports car. Oracle’s space was a large tent in the middle of the Expo. Inside the tent was a surround visual projection that was displayed on the roof and sides of the tent. This was achieved with 7 different projectors. Space limitations prevented me from hearing any of the speeches that day, but below I have attached a screen shot of the inside projectors to give an idea of how inventive and creative this booth was.