Companies Using Linux

A vast number of companies and organizations are deploying Linux for at least some applications. We list here a few of the ones that use Linux for major systems.

Amerada Hess Corporation - Oil Exploration Supercomputing - Amerada Hess Corp is a $7.4 billion petroleum company, but the supercomputers traditionally used to analyze oil exploration data are rather costly even for a company of this size. No longer a problem. Amerada Hess now uses a large Linux cluster for the job.

BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) - Light Rail Metropolitan Transit System - This system tracks the flow of electricity from the high voltage DC power lines of Pacific Gas and Electric to the distribution of electricity via the third rail. If an emergency required the evacuation of a train, this system would be used to turn off the electricity to ensure the safety of passengers as they exited the system. -

Boscov's Department Stores - special invoicing, server consolidation, Web site, etc. - Boscov's, America's largest family owned department store chain, has been steadily moving it's back office operations to Linux, and will probably eventually migrate POS (Point of Sale) systems as well.

Burlington Coat Factory - Entire Systems - Burlington Coat Factory is a "Factory Outlet" retailer with 280 stores in 42 states. Initial Linux installations at their new distribution center and a few new stores proved highly successful, so roll-out to existing stores began. An order for 1,250 Dell computers preloaded with Linux was placed to support the effort.

The Linux systems are used to run warehousing and distribution, the gift registry and back office functions such as ordering and general desktop. The chosen office productivity suite is Applixware Office, which allows a very high degree of customization.

Conoco - Oil Exploration Supercomputing - Conoco is one of several major petroleum companies that have chosen to use inexpensive Linux clusters instead of costly supercomputers to analyze oil exploration data.

Cisco - Worldwide Printing System - Cisco, a $21 billion maker of routers that tie the Internet together, signed a major agreement with Microsoft regarding support for Active Directory. As part of that deal, Cisco management declared Cisco an "all Microsoft" company.

Unfortunately, Cisco's IT staff couldn't get network printing services to work right through NT servers (and you can't say Cisco engineers don't understand networking, now, can you?). Cisco's worldwide printing services now run on Linux.

Digital Domain - Visual Effects Supercomputing - Digital Domain is a major visual effects studio. In particular, they did the visual effects for Appolo 13 and Titanic. The effects for Titanic were particularly demanding, too demanding for their SGI Inigos, and would have normally required a supercomputer costing millions. Digital Domain was able to do the job on an inexpensive Linux cluster instead.

Ernie Ball Inc. - Entire Operation - Ernie Ball was one of those unfortunate companies turned over to the BSA (Business Software Aliance) by someone with a grudge. While few "infractions" . There's hardly a small business anywhere that has all the paperwork together for their software, and while few "infractions" were found, that was enough to be very costly. Ernie Ball decided this would never happen again and made a very successful migration to Linux.

Garden Grove California, City of - major operations - The City of Garden Grove began moving operations to Linux in 1995 with central data systems running Samba and the Pick database. The initial deployment was so successful and saved so much money the city has been gradually moving other operations to Linux, including some desktop systems.

Google - Search Engine - The wildly popular Google search engine simply would not be possible without a customized version of Linux fit exactly to its needs.

Just Sports USA - A fast growing chain (now 50 stores) selling sports items - All Stores, Back Office functions, Inventory and eCommerce systems run on Linux. All functions are integrated together using a PostgreSQL database. The eCommerce system runs on Linux / Apache Web servers and is also integrated with the inventory database. Postgre and Apache are also Open Source products.

Kaiser Aluminum - Manufacturing Control - Kaiser, one of the world's largest producer of aluminum, aluminum sheet and foil, has chosen Linux for many applications on the manufacturing floor. It works side by side with Unix, Windows NT and specialty "real time" operating systems.

Largo Florida, City of - City office desktop systems. - Largo has about 400 thin client workstations running the KDE Desktop from a Linux server. Database workloads were migrated from SCO Unix, AIX and Windows NT servers for a multi-million dollar savings. Largo figures its IT budget is about half that of other cities its size. Using thin clients provides a low cost, very low maintenance, uniform and easily administered computing environment for all city users. At peak, there are about 230 simultaneous users.

Lawson Inc. (Japan) - In-Store Consumer Web Ordering System - Lawson, a giant convenience store chain (7,600 stores) in Japan, will be placing two Linux based computers in each store to implement it's new Web ordering system. The over 15,000 computers will be purchased from IBM pre-configured with Linux installed.

Mexico City - government of - Everything! - The government of Mexico City have concluded they can no longer justify the ever rising cost of Microsoft Windows when the cost of Linux software is very low. Linux has already proven itself in the city's motor vehicle licensing agency and in the Mexican school system. Money saved will be used in social welfare programs.

Mobil Travel Guide - Major Consumer Web Site - This Exxon division found Linux ideal both from a cost/performance standpoint and for scalability as the division grows.

Omaha Steaks - On-Line Commerce - Advertisements for this mail order company can be found in the back of most up-scale home oriented magazines. They were running their internal systems on an IBM AS/400 and outsourced their Web site, but they wanted to tie the on-line ordering directly into the AS/400. A cluster of Linux servers now runs the Web site and connects to the AS/400.

Panasonic - Major Electronics Manufacturer - Panasonic's popular DBS business telephone system included a voicemail system based on Windows NT, but it was a bit pricy. To be more competitive in smaller businesses, Panasonic developed a system incorporating 1CTI's Linux based voice mail software. The Linux based system has been so well accepted by the customers the Windows based system is being discontinued.

Raymour & Flanigan - Furniture Chain (50 stores in Northeast) - The store chain has trnsferred most of its servers to Linux, and is replacing Windows 98 PC with Linux based "thin client" workstations in its service centers. Inventory and other databases are now being migrated from Microsoft Access running on Windows servers to Oracle running on Linux.

Royal Dutch/Shell - Oil Exploration Supercomputing - One of the world's largest petroleum companies, Royal Dutch/Shell could certainly afford the supercomputers traditionally used to analyze oil exploration data, but why do that when your competitors are using inexpensive Linux clusters to do the job. Royal Dutch/Shell has decided to set up a bigger Linux cluster than the ones it's competitors have. -

Tommy Hilfiger - Clothing Brand - Note: website designed by idiots won't let you in at all without Flash plug-in. The company is installing three Linux based portals running on IBM xSeries servers. The first provides remote access to data on the company's IBM iSeries (AS/400) datacenter computers. The second provides access for clothing manufacturers to designs and specifications. The third provides B2B eCommerce access to retailers and a company store for employees. Company officials say the Linux systems provide the required performance at a lower cost than any other platform.

Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. - Dealer Communications System - Toyota is installing a Linux based system connecting all its car dealers to it's factory. This is a Web based system from the ground up, and will be handling 30 different functions including parts ordering, warranties, sales transactions and repairs.

A 30 dealer pilot roll-out was highly successful, extremely reliable, and easily maintained, so now the system will be rolled out to all 1,200 dealers. - Article -
Travelocity - Travel Agency - Travelocity is the back-end system for the travel services offered by AOL, Yahoo and US Airways. It's Web site gets 11 million page views and 170,000 email transmissions a day. The system is being migrated to Linux and Java.

U.S. Army - major military organization - The U.S. Army's Land Warrior program, the first stage of a far reaching battlefield information and communications system, leads a general move to Linux. The Army says that "Evidence shows that Linux is more stable". Apparently the Army has issues with Microsoft's "blue screen of death".

U.S. Federal Courts - case management, case tracking, finance and accounting, probation and pretrial services - A support contract has been awarded (Nov-03) to PEC Solutions for migration of the Federal Judiciary to a Linux based system.

U.S. Postal Service - OCR Supercomputing - The Postal Service had declared itself an "all Windows NT" house, but you can't use NT for what it simply can't do - so they now sort all the bulk mail on over 900 Linux clusters scattered around the country (at less than half the cost of the next cheapest solution (and that wasn't NT either)).

The OCR (Optical Character Recognition) system uses scanners that were already in place. The Linux system consists of 5 rack mounted PCs, one to handle the scanners and sorting equipment, and 4 to share the computational tasks.
WesternGeco - Oil Exploration Supercomputing - IBM has built a Linux based supercomputer for analysis of seismic data. This machine is built from 256 IBM eServer xSeries. This is the second largest Linux cluster IBM has built for oil exploration, the largest being the 1024 xSeries cluster for Shell.

IPHONE 4S vs GALAXY S2 vs OTHERS

Yesterday was termed as a landmark day for mobile communication as there were wide speculations that the BIG DADDY of smartphones Apple Iphone's latest model will be launched which will change everything again!

Some termed it as IPHONE 5 while others expected 4S..m afraid the latter were right!
The new model launched looks exactly the same as Its predecessor but inside everything has changed!
But Lets see how it compares with other daddies of smartphones which have been in the market for sometime now n may still rule!

So what are your thoughts abt this?
Which is the SUPER-SMARTPHONE?

Steve Jobs Is Dead

Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Steve Jobs, who built the world's most valuable technology company by creating devices that changed how people use electronics and revolutionized the computer, music and mobile-phone industries, died. He was 56.

Jobs, who resigned as Apple Inc. chief executive officer on Aug. 24, 2011, passed away today, the Cupertino, California- based company said. He was diagnosed in 2003 with a neuroendocrine tumor, a rare form of pancreatic cancer, and had a liver transplant in 2009.

"We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today," Apple said. "Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve."

Jobs embodied the Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He was a long-haired counterculture technophile who dropped out of college and started a computer company in his parents' garage on April Fools' Day, 1976. He had no formal technical training and no real business experience.

What he had instead was an appreciation of technology's elegance and a notion that computers could be more than a hobbyist's toy or a corporation's workhorse. These machines could be indispensable tools. A computer could be, he often said, "a bicycle for our minds." He was right -- owing largely to a revolution he started.

Obama Statement

Jobs's passing was met with an outpouring of grief from consumers who flocked to Apple stores, technology executives who partnered and competed with Jobs over the years and even President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

"Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs," Obama said. "Steve was among the greatest of American innovators -- brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it."

On his watch, Apple came to dominate the digital age, first through the creation of the Macintosh computer and later through the iPod digital music player, the iPhone wireless handset and more recently, the iPad tablet.

With each product, Jobs confronted new adversaries --from International Business Machines Corp. in computers to Microsoft Corp. in operating systems, to Sony Corp. in music players and Google Inc. in mobile software.

Visionary to Virtuoso

And Jobs would prove himself not just a techie visionary, but the virtuoso executive who built the world's second-most valuable company after Exxon Mobil Corp.

The opening act of Jobs's professional ascent stretched from 1976 to 1984. He scored his first hit with the Apple II computer, a device that resonated with schools and some consumers and small businesses, and made Apple an alluring alternative to IBM, then the world's largest computer maker. Apple had its initial public offering in 1980 and the graphical Macintosh was born just over three years later.

During his second act, from 1984 to 1997, Jobs's star dimmed. In 1985, he was fired after a power struggle with Apple's board. He started another computer company, NeXT Computer Inc., and bought a digital animation studio from filmmaker George Lucas. The firm later took the name Pixar.

String of Hits

Apple's purchase of NeXT in 1997 brought Jobs back to the computer maker he helped found and commenced his career's third act. The company was foundering. He ignited a flurry of innovation and growth -- and achieved what may be the greatest comeback in business history.

Whether he was working on the Mac or the iPhone or backing the computer animation that yielded an unbroken string of Pixar hits, Jobs proved that complex technologies could be designed into simple, beautiful products that people would find irresistible.

His meticulous attention to product detail carried over to his public image, which grew inseparable from the Apple brand. In public he wore beltless jeans and a black mock-turtleneck.

Apple iPhone 4S: 5 Key Facts

Leaving months of speculation unanswered, Apple on Tuesday did not introduce iPhone 5, the putative heir to the smartphone throne in a product line that has redefined the mobile and the computer industries.

Instead, the company unveiled iPhone 4S, a thorough revision of last year's model.
Whether or not Apple fans were disappointed, they still managed to overwhelm Apple's Web site. Apple.com was returning "Access Denied" errors after the conclusion of the company's media event on Tuesday.

In addition to showing off its latest iPhone model, Apple also: reviewed some of the highlights in iOS 5, the latest iteration of the company's mobile operating system; lowered the price on its iPod nano and its low-end iPod touch; expanded the available memory on its iPod touch and iPhone models to 64GB; and announced a launch date for its iCloud service.

Apple also lowered the price of its iPhone 3GS to free, which is more than it may seem given the cost of the required two-year contract.

The iPhone 4S costs $199 for the 16GB model, $299 for the 32GB model, and $399 for the 64GB model. It will be available from Apple's Web site and retail stores, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, and authorized Apple resellers.

[ Adobe is emerging from the shadow cast over the company by former Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Find out more in Adobe Takes HTML5 To The Cloud. ]

The iPhone 4S will be available in stores on Friday, October 14, in the U.S., Canada, Australia, the U.K., France, Germany and Japan, and on Friday, October 28 in 22 additional countries. Online pre-orders will be accepted starting on Friday, October 7.

iOS 5 will be available for download on Wednesday, October 12.

Apple also introduced a remarkable voice command system, based on the technology it acquired when it bought voice recognition company Siri last year.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, who took over leadership of the company when Steve Jobs resigned in August to become chairman of Apple's Board of Director, presided over the media event at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.

Prior to introducing Apple's latest phone, he reviewed the company's continuing growth, noting that company's installed base of Macintosh computers had reached 58 million, about twice what it was in 2008. He said that the Mac platform had grown 23% since last year, compared to 4% growth in the PC market, and in August represented 23% of computers sold.

The litany of positive figures continued, as if Apple has something to prove: 250 million iOS devices sold; 125% year-over-year growth for the iPhone, compared to 74% for other smartphones;over 300 million iPods sold; and 70% user satisfaction for the iPhone in a ChangeWave survey, compared to 49% for the second place finisher, HTC.

Even when Cook handed off to Apple SVP of iPhone software Scott Forstall, the parade of metrics continued: iOS accounts for 43% of the mobile operating system market (comScore figures), compared to 33% for Android, 17% for RIM, and 8% for the remainder of the field. Over 1 billion apps are downloaded every month.

Yes, Apple is a very successful company. But the question is: Do you want an iPhone 4S? Here are five key facts about the device:

1. Faster processor: The iPhone 4S features an Apple-designed dual-core A5 processor, which SVP of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller claims delivers up to 2x faster CPU performance and up to 7x faster graphics performance.

2. Dual networks: The iPhone 4S works on both GSM and CDMA carrier networks; the older model was one or the other, but not both.

3. Download speed:The iPhone 4S promises twice the download speed of the iPhone 4--14.4Mbps compared to 7.2. It supports HSDPA but not LTE.

4. Much-improved camera: The camera on the iPhone 4S is significantly improved--30% sharper, with an aperture of f/2.4, a third quicker to capture images, with an 8 megapixel sensor that takes 3264 by 2448 pixel pictures. It's also capable of HD 1080p video.

5. Voice-powered "assistant": Meet Siri, which plays a starring role on the iPhone 4S. The software describes itself as "a humble personal assistant," if you bother to ask. It allows the user to control phone functions through voice commands and even answers questions. For example, saying "Wake me up tomorrow at 6 AM" to Siri prompts the software to set the iPhone's alarm clock app. This technology looks both impressive and useful.

While many people no doubt are disappointed that there's no iPhone 5 yet, the hardware tends to be the least interesting thing about smartphones. The iPhone 4S works faster, has a better camera, and runs on both GSM and CDMA networks. Coupled with iOS 5, these features make the iPhone 4S compelling.
(source:http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/smart_phones/231700257)