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IBM Software Wireless Networking Linux Hardware

Linux Scores An Ace At Wimbledon 148

Posted by michael from the 40-love dept.
JamesD_UK writes "IBM has a short article with some details of their Linux systems at the Wimbledon tennis championships. Aparantly IBM has been using DB2 on a Linux platform to provide statistics and information on the competition since 1999. VIPs will be offered a chance to use O2's XDA to view match details over wi-fi. Time to apt-get install champagne strawberries kismet?" There's also a BBC article about the system.
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Linux Scores An Ace At Wimbledon More

Linux Scores An Ace At Wimbledon

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  • Based on past experience... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by FreeLinux ( 555387 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:00AM (#9441377)
    I would also expect IBM to use Linux during the upcoming Olympics.

  • Who's distro? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ralf1 ( 718128 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:00AM (#9441378)
    Thats what I want to know.
    • Might be Red Hat or SuSE. Those are the distros that IBM sells their xSeries with.

    • SuSE (Score:2, Informative)

      by sbowles ( 602816 )
      I would guess SuSE Linux Enterprise Server V8 (Service Pack 3, RC4, with certification-sles-eal3 package) as this is the distro that IBM sponsored for Common Criteria EAL3+ Certification. This would allow IBM to run a "trusted" (as in "We know what it's vulnerabilities are") OS.
    • I'm not sure who distro is either.

      Oh, you mean *whose* distro? I'm sure there will be a lot of people telling you in detail soon.

    • Why? That's irrelevant.

      The customer asks IBM which distro to use, they tell them use Whatever Linux and the customer says OK if you say so. I don't think that IBM tested SuSE and Red Hat and chose "the better" one. It's probably just a DB cluster and couple of WebSphere servers - not exactly space science.

      Actually I just thought of something else - many IBM's Linux wins are people who used to buy IBM's UNIX servers. Now they don't want UNIX any more, so IBM tells them we'll give you Linux.
      They charge them
      • Yes, the distro is unimportant.
        In the same way that the weakest link in a chain is the most important.

        Any hardware will do and any service provider too.
        At two or three nines. IBM has the resources to handle the situation if, no strike that, when something goes wrong.

        To paraphrase, "Is it IBM or NOT EXACTLY".

  • Since 1999 ? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Gopal.V ( 532678 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:02AM (#9441399) Homepage Journal
    DB2 since 1999 on Linux ... :)

    I wonder if that might qualify as a better AD for IBM . (a eminesque boy watching Wimbledon , "The future is Open" )

    But Wimbledon is not an "Open" technically is it ?.
    (though I bet IBM never though about advertising on the French Open)

    • sure they did, here you go, just before the closing </title> tag: http://www.rolandgarros.com/

    • Re:Since 1999 ? (Score:5, Informative)

      by hearingaid ( 216439 ) <redvision@geocities.com> on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @11:25AM (#9442305) Homepage
      Yes, Wimbledon is an open tournament, and has been since the '70s. (For the uninitiated, non-tennis-fan, which I'm guessing is like 99% of /.: An open tournament is one in which players don't need invitations to play. It used to be that Wimbledon and the other three majors, the U.S. Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open, you had to swing an invite from the organizing committee. During the '70s, this policy was generally reversed. Now, players can compete in the qualifying tournament, or qualify for the main draw based on their tour ranking. But that's another story.)

      IBM actually uses pretty much the same software for Wimbledon, the French, the U.S. Open, and the Aussie. They're just bragging about Wimbledon because it's the most popular of the four, and consequently has the site that gets the most hits.

    • Someone else has already explained "the Open era", so I'll just add my bit to say that Wimbledon is also known as the British Open, in the same way as the French Open is often referred to as Roland Garros.
      • No no, the British Open is golf.

        Jeez, some people's kids. It is an open tournament, and it is British: but only in the U.S. do you have double opens (the U.S. Open in both tennis and golf).

        The French Open is not referred to as Roland Garros. Roland Garros was a French war hero (um, WWII? WWI? not sure). There's a tennis complex in Paris named after him. This complex is where they play the French Open. However, when somebody says they're watching tennis at Roland Garros, they could mean they're watching the

  • XDA with wifi? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:03AM (#9441407)
    Last time I looked at my XDA II (just a few seconds ago), it did not have wifi built in.
    • The XDA does not support WiFi at all as there is no SDIO slot which means that it it won't support the WiFi SDIO cards that might be about.

      I believe XDA II supports SDIO so they could be using an SD WiFi card with that or they could have the backpack and a CF WiFi card.

      Otherwise they might just be connecting over the internet via GPRS but the article doesn't sound like that is what is happening.

  • O2's Site (Score:5, Informative)

    by zerOnIne ( 128186 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:04AM (#9441413) Homepage
    I can't get into O2's website at all. I get bounced saying that my browser is out of date. I'm using Mozilla 1.4.1, and I don't really want to "upgrade" to Netscape 7, as they suggest. Warning users with an odd browser, that's fine. Forcing them out of your webpage is just plain stupid. It's sites like this that make me squicky about browser detection code in general.

    • Re:O2's Site (Score:3, Informative)

      by OwlWhacker ( 758974 )
      Go get Firefox 0.9:

      http://mozilla.org/

      You won't be sorry.

      • Re:O2's Site (Score:2, Informative)

        by mixy1plik ( 113553 ) *
        I use Firefox 0.9 and there is an error getting to the site.
        • I didn't say that there wouldn't be an error, I just suggested getting Firefox 0.9.

          ;)
          • Well, then, that's stupid. :) Once FF0.9 makes its way into the debian backports, i'll consider it. but why go through the trouble of upgrading all the time? i consider moz 1.4.1 to be very reasonably current, and the response of "you should use X instead!" to miss the point.

            if you think your site will look funny in my browser, fine, warn me about it. but let me in and see for myself. ugh. i get the same thing all the time with sites telling me that i don't have flash installed. i *DO*, and even through CX

    • Re:O2's Site (Score:3, Informative)

      by martinthebrit ( 565913 )
      Strange. I'm on 1.0.1 and it lets me in fine.
    • Opera 7.23 IDing as Opera, working fine...
    • My 1.4.1 works fine...
      (Mozilla 1.4.1 Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.4.1) Gecko/20031114)

    • That script is broken (Score:3, Insightful)

      by twitter ( 104583 )
      It rejected Mozilla 1.0 and 1.6 for me but it let Konqueror in. That's strange because Konq is sending the default browser ID, Mozilla/5.0.

      There's not much useful information on the page, unless you own one and need a ROM upgrade. But it should let in the O2's own browser, right? Here [theinquirer.net] is a review of the thing that tells you more than the site does.

    • my ID string, if anyone cares to figure out what's getting gacked, here:

      Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.4.1) Gecko/20040312 Debian/1.4.1-0jds1
    • I'm running Firefox 0.8 with Linux kernel 2.4.25. I use gentoo and keep fairly current (although I havn't made the switch to the 2.6 kernel yet) and count on the good folks at gentoo.org to release the builds on a timely basis. I do plan on upgrading to 0.9 soon, but based on my own needs and the availability of my distro (a few days behind does not bother me.) Having to be kept current on something as minor as going from 0.8 to 0.9 seems extreme to me. I'll no more upgrade from one minor version to anothe

  • Another Fine Example (Score:1, Interesting)

    by shawn_f ( 620177 ) *
    Here is another example of why linux/unix is the system of choice for these types of sites. I never hear about a windowsOS with SQL2000 running on IIS making a site like this work...reliably...it would never happen. If you need to scale, do it with minimal fuss and get RESULTS, then Linux/Unix is your choice. I am sure it is there own distro, as they use alot of their own software, and not the Open Source packages that come with most distros... Linux is just...coool!

    • Put on the brakes. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by FreeLinux ( 555387 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:14AM (#9441496)
      I never hear about a windowsOS with SQL2000 running on IIS making a site like this work...reliably...it would never happen.

      Hold on a second. I'm a big Linux fan and all but, to make claims like this is just not right. There are many large sites that use just the setup that you describe and they work just fine. Look at Dell or eBay for starters.

    • We have several where I work. They all get the job done, and usually on older hardware (in the neighborhood of P3-500s). They aren't greased lightning, but they're also horribly overloaded: we typically host about 300 sites per server on that hardware.

      So yeah, it happens, it scales, it gets results. I can't speak for the level of fuss since I'm not involved in that part of the process.

    • Re:Another Fine Example (Score:4, Insightful)

      by m00nun1t ( 588082 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @11:34AM (#9442414) Homepage
      " never hear about a windowsOS with SQL2000 running on IIS making a site like this work...reliably...it would never happen"

      Perhaps because your only source of news is /.?

      Manchester Commonwealth games and the Rugby World Cup both spring to mind as running on IIS. Both sites which have extreme levels of traffic in a very short period, both had no problems I heard about.

      How about the 4th busiest site in the world, microsoft.com? They were running Win2003/IIS6 on part of their cluster around 12 months before it was released!

  • Double Fault! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Marxist Commentary ( 461279 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:06AM (#9441428) Homepage
    Advantage Linux!
  • With al this talk about statistics why didn't IBM send out a wire and server counter to get down to the statistics this Slashdot maniac is intrested in?

    I want number of servers, km/miles of wire, Gb's of gathered data, that kind of stuff.

    Do any readers out there know of great story's like this about large scale events that do have these numbers?

  • Not much of a win. (Score:5, Funny)

    by mcgroarty ( 633843 ) <brian@mcgroarty.gmail@com> on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:14AM (#9441487) Homepage
    Sure, tennis may love Linux.

    But to a tennis player, love means nothing.

    • How was that modded flamebait, that was an AWSOME pun!

    • In tennis (LOVE == 0) is true! (Score:5, Informative)

      by SoTuA ( 683507 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:55AM (#9441927)
      To the ignorant soul who modded the parent poster as "Flamebait":

      In tennis, (in Wimlbedon and english-language tournaments, at least), the referee never says "zero". When the score is 30-0 the ref does not say "Player leads thirty zero". He says "Player leads thirty-LOVE".

      So, to a tennis player, in the context of a match, LOVE means ZERO. Get it now?

      IIRC, it comes from the french language, because the number zero looks like an egg, so in french it's "l'oeuf".

      So, the correct mod was "Funny". But no, you had to read the post, not understand a word of it, and mod if "Flamebait" because you don't understand.

      And to parent poster, well done. I laughed quite a bit :)

    • Damn I wish I had some mod points... this is easily the funniest comment I've seen on /. this week. Nice work man.

  • apt-get (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:15AM (#9441505)
    Never mind the strawberries,..
    apt-get -purge remove cliff-bastard-richard

  • This can only mean one thing... (Score:3, Funny)

    by jvollmer ( 456588 ) * on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:15AM (#9441508)

    They mean to win Wimbledon!

    If it's not Consolidated Lint, it's just fuzz!

  • Did anyone remember how IBM screwed up the FO? (Score:5, Funny)

    by xIcemanx ( 741672 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:16AM (#9441515)
    On the French Open website, someone mis-did the serve speed statistics here [rolandgarros.com]

    They gave the correct km/hr speed, but misconverted to mph. 1.6 Kilometer = 1 Mile. However, they accidentally did 1.6 miles = 1 Kilometer, and thus, Andy Roddick managed to hit several blazing 350 mph serves.

    I was laughing all night.

    However, they've changed it now.

  • AIX (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bill, Shooter of Bul ( 629286 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:16AM (#9441523) Journal
    IBM's website states that it is powered with some servers running linux and other running AIX.
    The combination of Linux and AIX provides managers with the flexibility, reliability and scalability required to meet the challenge of hosting and maintaining the busy site.

    But a Story titled "Linux and AIX Score an ACE at Wibledon" Just doesn't have the same ring to it.

  • And the Umpire types: (Score:4, Funny)

    by the_twisted_pair ( 741815 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:17AM (#9441528)
    make -e no_rain
  • Will it stop Tim Henman going out at the semi-final stage, though?

    See, it's not THAT good.

  • Now that Linux has hit the lawn... (Score:5, Funny)

    by spoonani ( 786547 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:21AM (#9441571)
    You'll be able to see Linux as the ball boy on the #23 court. By the end of the tournament, he will have mastered prepring the PIMMs and lemonade, mowing the lawns, pitching the rain tent over centre court, judging the semi-final match, win the tournament, and establish himself as owner of the facility.

  • Good. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Rxke ( 644923 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:25AM (#9441604) Homepage
    I like this. A lot.

    Getting this on BBC is bound to be more important to spread the word to the 'laymen' than on Ars Technica.

    BBC seems to be very in favor of Linux, lately. They keep mentioning it, mostly in their Technology section of course, but I'd guess it's a lot more mainstream than Ars Technica, so this namedropping of Linux in relation to professional/big events stuff must have its psychological impact on *a lot* of peeps.

    Them going from thinking "Linux is for nerds," to "Hmmm... Linux has become professional stuff, check it out!"
    • I can see why.
      IBM are making linux are important part of their business strategy, and trumpetting sucesses like this... especially with the historical context... show people they are serious.

      This sends a very clear message to people who have doubts installed by the SCO fud, as well as telling darl that IBM aren't backing away from the fight or buying up the bullshit.

      On that topic, what's happened to SCO? They've gone all quiet. Did they end up sacking the guy who wrote the press releases?

    • Re:Good. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by matt_wilts ( 249194 )
      >BBC seems to be very in favor of Linux, lately.

      The superb BBC News website [bbc.co.uk] has used Linux for some time now. Netcraft stats here [netcraft.com]. It's just a shame that all their online multimedia content seems to be based around Real Audio :-(

      Matt
      • The BBC are indeed very heavy Linux users.

        Commodity Linux systems power their digital TV interactive content. So, IBM's Linux systems at Wimbledon will be feeding data to the digital interactive service -- providing live game statistics alongside the multi-screen digital service (IIRC from last year, you could access 8 or so live games and highlights at any time via interactive)

        There's an article on Linux at the BBC over at LinuxPlanet here, although it's quite old and the services it discusses have adva
    • Why not mysql?
    • Why not one flat file and NDB? That'd do for scoring a couple of matches.
    • Why not Oracle? It's better and less pain then DB2.
    • Did IBM have Playstation 2 systems in 1999?
    • Where did the fun go? When Commentators are fed a screen full of statistics !!
    • Will they serve pictures of of Anna Kournikova?

  • I remember when ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lwriemen ( 763666 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:38AM (#9441715)
    ... this sort of news used to be exciting to us OS/2 users, until we found out that it doesn't mean diddly! :-(

  • so ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by maharg ( 182366 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:41AM (#9441751) Homepage Journal
    ... is this the start of a new "Open Era" ?
  • Makes me wonder how much of this (if any) is implemented using Websphere and J2EE...product(s) and technology IBM really has been pushing. Sounds like they are just using more of the MQ series stuff for messaging.

  • So... What is New? (Score:1, Redundant)

    by $criptah ( 467422 )

    I work for a small non-profit and we use Open Source stuff for all of our core production environments. We haven't paid a dime for what we have, well except for hardware. And we are not in hardware business! IBM and Novell will rip themselves second assholes trying to promote Linux because it makes their solutions cheaper! When I worked for IBM, Linux was the word of the year. I bet it still is.

    See, IBM is desperately trying to become the big blue of the 80s. They will explore and do anything to regai

  • Yeah (Score:1, Funny)

    by MHerrington ( 707453 )
    Yeah, but does it run.... wait, nm.
  • Linux Serves An Ace At Wimbledon?
    • I'm pretty sure you can go either way on this.

      The use of the verb "score" probably comes from the description of keeping score of the game, or scoring.
      When the player serves for an ace, it's scored as one and the player may be described in the past tense as "scoring" an ace.

      Just my $0.02

  • The version of Linux is most likely (Score:3, Informative)

    by BillsPetMonkey ( 654200 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @01:39PM (#9443790)
    Suse. I know the someone there, and he told me it's been a Novell Netware on IBM shop for years. I would ask him to confirm but I'm he'd only ridicule me for hanging around /. Here's a bit of mail header from him:

    Received: from AELTC-MTA by aeltc_office.aeltc.com with Novell_GroupWise; Tue, 11 Mar 2003 16:38:01 +0000

  • Time to apt-get install champagne strawberries kismet?

    You must mean:
    swaret --install champagne stawberrries kismet

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