In the article “Linux not everything to all” ( NWC, Jan. 29, 1999, page 1), I find it a little irresponsible
when you quote Jonathan Eunice, analyst at Illuminata Inc. in Nashua N.H., as saying “Linux does not have the kind of system size or scalability that lets it run a big database or big application,” when three days later Timothy Dyck for PC Week Labs issues a report called “IBM backs Linux with solid DB2” (www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/news/0,4153,383856,00.html).
Despite IBM’s setbacks with competitors, they are still the originators of “System-R,” the grandparent of all relational DBs.
The issue of scalability seems to be resolved in Linux kernel 2.2, due in the next few weeks, which should resolve some of Linux’s multiprocessor scalability issues.
Despite the small number of days between your paper’s mailing date and the report on ZDNET, this information has been in the pipeline for a while and should have been verified before it was published.