Linux Development Lab as Intel Trojan horse for elimination of Unix-on-RISK

Nikolai Bezroukov. Portraits of Open Source Pioneers

For readers with high sensitivity to grammar errors access to this page is not recommended :-)

Intel likes the idea that Linux is a predominantly Intel-based OS and cannot compete with commercial Unixes on any other architecture. That understanding led to a logical (and successful) early investments in Red Hat and later less successful investment in VA Linux. Those early multimillion financial infusions helped to drive both companies to successful IPOs. But Intel wanted to push Linux game in a direction different from both Sun and IBM.

Like IBM's game Intel strategy contains a definite anti-Microsoft edge. But like in any healthy business partnership Intel tries first to play Linux card against its direct competitors like Sun, IBM and HP (in that particular order).  Actually Intel was the second (after DEC) large company that understood potential usefulness of Linux in promoting your own architecture and simultaneously fighting other CPUs architectures and grabbing additional marker share from Sun in low-end and mid-range servers.

Here the phase "Linux is not Unix"  has a specific meaning that Intel management likes very much. Since 1998, the company has made investments in more than 10 open-source companies, including early and strategically important investment in Red Hat, Caldera,  Turbolinux and VA Linux Systems (and many people who never saw the VA Linux financial documents still are naively asking questions why VA Linux never used AMD chips in their servers ;-).

And Intel does not want to limit Linux to a desktop as Sun (despite loss of the market share to Linux in this segment) would prefer. It really wants it as a server and moreover it wanted it as midrange to high end server running Oracle and SAP/R3. As Interactive Week reported in Intel Linux has 'no place' on desktop in June 2001:

Intel chief executive Craig Barrett concedes that Linux has its uses, but doesn't see much of a future for it on the desktop until it can compete with Windows in the number of applications available.

Barrett's comments, made during a visit to London on Wednesday, reflect a fundamental and deepening division in the Linux world: While Linux is seeing startling success in the server market, it has yet to make much headway when it comes to mass-market desktops.

Linux advocates believe the desktop will be conquered in due time, having seen the operating system grow from nothing to its current prominence in just a few years, but skeptics say Linux is destined to remain in its current niche, for which it is well suited.

Barrett, leader of the world's largest semiconductor company, said he falls into the latter category. "The role of Linux is not so much in the desktop but in the server or back office," he said. "It is not made for the general purpose PC."

He said the crucial thing is for Linux to come up with a body of applications to compare with the tens of thousands available for Windows; until then it will have "no appreciable place on the desktop."

His comments echoed those of computer maker Dell last month, which said that Linux is likely to stick to the server market. Hewlett-Packard, on the other hand, long a Linux booster, is backing several desktop-Linux initiatives and sells Linux on some desktop PCs sold in developing countries.

Taken into account Intel's and IBM's love for Sun it was not surprising to see them (with HP and NEC as a minor partners) establishing in late August of 2000 Open Source Development Lab(OSDL) in Portland(Oregon) devoted to polishing Linux on high end servers.

While the OSDL partners are reluctant to discuss funding, observers feel each of the big four has donated at least a million dollars to get the development lab off the ground with Intel probably donating the largest share.  Initial funding is expected to climb to $12 million in 2001, according to one source close to the project. But Intel goals in Linux game is different from goals of it's OSDL partners. Intel is mainly interested in Linux role of promoter of its 64 bit chips against the rivals.

That means that  Intel is actually the only player among OSDL troika (IBM, Intel, HP) who is really interested in Linux for large enterprise servers. And it was probably implicit Intel pressure that led to the creation of SMP capabilities in the Linux kernel. At the same time like IBM Intel steered clear of pitting Linux directly against Windows, especially on 32-bit CPUs, given Intel's close ties with Microsoft. Intel is not interested is changing the desktop OS. The main priority for Intel is growing enterprise Linux server market share on Intel processor vs. the Unix-on-RISK market segment represented by Sun, IBM and HP.  Actually OSDL is a nice example of how IBM is competing against itself on some segments of the market :-)

That means that Intel short term goal is to improve Linux development environment to such extent that it become the standard Unix development environment. It's clear that only if the Linux development environment is better than development environment for Solaris and AIX, only then Linux can gradually become a top-tier port for software developers and thus will make 64-bit Intel CPUs the most attractive for the midrange server segment.

The top priority for Intel here are new IA-64 processor, not its older established 32-bit line of CPUs. Only in this 64-bit area Intel is ready to invest even more money in Linux. Therefore it's not surprising that Intel became one of the main financial donors of open source movement and that Red Hat was the first Linux distribution to announce Itanium port.  For example after multimillion investment in Open Source Development Lab, in Jan 2001 Intel announced several new expensive programs and initiatives aimed at attracting open-source developers to IA-64 platform:

• Intel Developer Services, for example, unveiled the free Intel Early Access Service. The program allows developers to build, test and debug IA-64-based open-source applications in a hosted environment.
• Advanced Network Services for Linux were produced by Intel developers and made public in Jan, 2001. They includes load balancing, fail-over and other advanced networking services designed to reduce server bottlenecks and improve uptime.
• Open Source Development Lab award was established.  The lab, of which Intel is the leading founding member, will grant an individual or group in the open-source community a $25,000 prize every six months for the "most impactful idea" for Linux in a business environment.
• Intel IA-64 Fund, via which the company has provided funding for several other Linux and open-source companies.

The Intel desire to promote Linux as an enterprise class alternative to Unix on IA-62 was evident even in the initial approach to the Open Source Development Lab. As NYT noticed:

... ... ...

Mike Balma, the open source marketing director at Hewlett-Packard, one of the investors in the lab, said the far-flung contributions had made Linux a very stable operating system, and one in increasing demand from customers. He said, however, that Linux developers' lack of access to high-end hardware had meant that Linux was not built to be scaled to a level needed on the high-end enterprise servers.

But Will Swope, a vice president at Intel, which proposed the idea for the lab, said its creation would accelerate development of Linux-based enterprise software.

... ... ...

Dan Kusnetzky, vice president for system software research for International Data, said that beside helping Linux, the lab might also benefit Intel. He said Intel had not been perceived as a leader in the field of enterprise servers and that it could help its reputation by promoting and financing the development of stable Linux-based systems.

It's clear Intel (and to a certainty extent IBM) would like to see Sun roasted probably more than they would like to see Microsoft roasted. And both feel that here Linux can help to win this noble game and that's why they are so ready to open their valets to fund so many open source initiatives. Publicly, the new Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) hopes to promote Linux in the enterprise. But privately, it looks more like a direct attack aimed against Unix enterprise share of Sun Microsystems. Arthur Tyde, CTO and co-founder of OSDL partner Linuxcare explained the situation in the following way:

"We're doing this because while the Linux development model works great, people tend to develop for the machines that they already have. What these guys [the four hardware vendors] are doing is making it possible for Linux to move into high-end machinery.

" At the OSDL labs, developers, either on-site at its future Portland, Ore., lab or remotely, can "tweak Linux for enterprise-class machines. Want to test a Linux solution on disk farm? 256-node networking? Or, 64 to 128 processors on an RS/6000? Come to us with a project that the OSDL board of directions will approve, and you're off."

"Unlike earlier Linux partnerships, the OSDL was not driven by pure-play Linux vendors. Instead, as Linux pioneer Red Hat confirms, major hardware vendors started the OSDL in mid-July. Althouth formally, the OSDL's primary focus is "Linux for the enterprise", OSDL's  members would like to harm Solaris on midrange the way it already harmed on the low end."

Later, in 2003,  when problems with SCO lawsuit surfaced for Transmeta Linus Torvalds was promptly shipped to the OSDL. 

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