Turbolinux first to develop OS for Itanium

Advanced Micro Devices will forever be known as the company that was first to market a 1 GHz PC processor. TurboLinux, the upstart Linux distributor, is claiming a similar title in having beaten industry giant Microsoft to be the first with a full-working OS for the Intel Itanium processor.

The Itanium is now shipping in relatively high sample volume to computer makers. TurboLinux said its Frontier development group has succeeded in running a new version of the TurboLinux OS on the IA64 processor. (info at www.linuxia64.org).

The Itanium is critical to the future of Linux as the powerful processor will present the Linux OS industry an opportunity to compete head-on with Windows 2000 on the new server hardware platform. TurboLinux is one of a group of Linux companies aligned in the so-called "Trillian Project" which was set up to help push development of Itanium versions of Linux. Red Hat, VA Linux, SuSE and Caldera are all members of the Trillian Project.

With TurboLinux having reached the "alpha" stage in the development of IA64-based operating systems, and other Linux flavors soon to follow, TurboLinux is definitively a step or two ahead of Microsoft. Microsoft’s Win64 code is still in pre-alpha state and may remain there for a while as Microsoft is likely to run in the same kind of problems that caused its Windows 2000 OS to fall nearly two years behind schedule. In all, Intel expects six operating systems to be available for the IA64 chips, including Linux, Windows 2000, Monterey, HP-UX, NetWare and Sun’s Solaris, although Sun and Intel appear to be at odds right now over brining the Solaris version to market.

Last summer, the Solaris version of the then-called Merced processor appeared heading quickly for completion in time for the IA64 launch. But, Sun has slowed down the program and Intel has grown increasingly displeased with Sun's level of support for the development project. Intel is also ­ understandably -- upset about Sun’s corporate Web site, which attacks the IA-64 architecture.

Reportedly Intel is so frustrated with Sun’s attitude, it may cut Sun from the McKinley program. The McKinley is the more powerful second-generation IA64 processor. Those rumors has sparked reports that Sun is planning a legal attack should Intel default on its contractual obligations.