Sledgehammering Linux?

AMD will be living large at next week's LinuxWorld, but don't expect to see many announcements of support. In talking with most of the major Linux powers, we found that most Linux vendors were having lukewarm reactions.

Red Hat and VA Linux sources say that they were talking with AMD, but that they found out about the new chip only recently and have not formed a position yet.

Others, such as Penguin Computing's director of business and product development Han Dong, say that while it's "focused on providing Intel-architecture based servers, Penguin Computing [also] ships AMD K-6 and K-7 based products, and that Penguin is certainly open to the idea of alternative microprocessors to Intel Corp's CPUs."

On the other hand, TurboLinux sources say that it simply doesn't have the time and resources to devote to developing Sledgehammer while working toward 64-bit Linux for Itanium in the Trillian Project. VA Linux sources also mention that there just aren't enough high-end architecture engineers around to make it likely that another major commercial quality Linux port could happen anytime soon.

Caldera/SCO, however, are neutral, leaning toward the positive. Ransom Love, CEO, notes that, "Lineo has done a lot with AMD on the embedded side" of computing, and that he "doesn't see any reason we can't continue to support AMD in the future." SCO CEO Doug Michels seconds Love, adding that, "SCO had always supported AMD in the past" and that he can see UnixWare and OpenServer being ported to Sledgehammer in the future.