12 Hot Products To See At LinuxWorld

Thousands of the Linux faithful will converge on San Francisco's Moscone Center next week (Aug. 4-7) for the LinuxWorld conference and expo and the accompanying Next Generation Data Center show. Everything from cool hand-held devices to data center-class servers -- and the open-source software to run them -- will be on display and put through their paces on the show floor. We've compiled info on a dozen products that either recently hit the market or are making their debut at the show.

Openmoko (booth #1234) is promoting its recently-debuted Neo FreeRunner mobile device as the first open mobile computing platform. Utilizing GNU/Linux, the product comes with core software for dialing, SMS and recording contacts. Openmoko plans to unveil a suite of applications for the device at the show. Carrying a suggested retail price of $399, the 6.5-ounce Neo FreeRunner is available in 850 MHz or 900 MHz Tri-band GSM versions to match frequencies in different countries.

Openbravo (booth #1515) develops the Openbravo Network open-source ERP and Point of Sale applications. At LinuxWorld the vendor will extend the product line with new applications specifically for small and midsize businesses and ISVs. Openbravo OEM Network is tailored for ISVs who build customized commercial applications on top of the Openbravo ERP system while Openbravo Base Network is designed for small companies that need more flexible deployment options. The software is a Product Excellence Award finalist for best integration solution.

Super Micro Computer (booth #1125) will be showcasing its recently debuted SuperBlade (pictured) and Supermicro 1U Twin high-performance computing servers. The systems sport 20-Gigabit InfiniBand interconnect technology and provide superior performance and energy efficiency, the vendor says. CRN's Test Center recently gave Supermicro's blade servers high marks for their manageability, features and price/performance. At the show Supermicro will also be showing new chassis and power supply products.

Looking for an alternative to Microsoft Outlook/Exchange? Unison Technologies (booth #816) will be showing the company's just-launched unified communications software. The system combines telephony, a PBX, e-mail, instant messaging, directory services and groupware into an integrated package the vendor says costs as much as 85 percent less than other unified communications products. The system is made up of a Linux server and Windows-based desktop software. Unison is targeting the system toward SMBs with 20 to 1,000 employees. The software is a Product Excellence Award finalist for best messaging solution.

Ingres (booth #1408) will be demonstrating its Ingres CAFE (consolidated application foundation for Eclipse) open-source application development tool that began shipping in June. A Product Excellence Award finalist for best development tool at the show, Ingres CAF bundles everything developers need to assemble and deploy Java applications. It comes with a version of the Eclipse development environment, Ingres database, Apache Tomcat application server, and Hibernate and JavaServer Faces libraries.

Blade Network Technologies (booth #726) will unveil its BladeHarmony Manager 3.0 software for managing networks of blade servers. The product monitors and manages the company's 1- and 10-Gigabit blade switches with HP BladeSystems, IBM BladeCenters and NEC Sigmablades, as well as Blade Network Technology's own RackSwitch family. The new release, which the vendor will be demonstrating at the Next Generation Data Center show, offers new capabilities for simplifying the management of scaled-out data centers and reducing the total cost of ownership of blade servers.

Running out of space to store your "digital stuff?" Sans Digital (booth #402) will be exhibiting its just-released MobileNAS MN4L+B network attached storage server that can also be used for direct attached storage via iSCSI. The system provides a way to share documents, files and digital media such as photos and videos. The compact MobileNAS MN4L+B comes in a four-bay tower configuration that utilizes an Intel Pentium M CPU and 512 DDR-2 memory. It even offers built-in game console support for home use!

Tools for escaping Microsoft products for open-source software must be popular. Kerio Technologies (booth #734) will be showing off its new Kerio Exchange Migration Tool (KEMT) at LinuxWorld. The software helps transfer e-mail and groupware data from Microsoft Exchange to the Kerio MailServer, the vendor's cross-platform messaging collaboration server for SMBs. KEMT allows IT administrators to transfer e-mail messages, domains, user accounts, user folders, public folders, folder rights and groupware data such as contacts, calendars, tasks, notes, distribution lists and journals. The Kerio MailServer is a finalist for the best messaging solution Product Excellence Award at the show.

As Linux becomes a core technology in many data centers, the need for accompanying backup and recovery software grows as well. InMage (booth #1210) will be demonstrating the latest release of its flagship DR-Scout disaster recovery and business continuity product with support for the latest releases of Linux, including Red Hat, SUSE, Oracle Unbreakable Linux and Debian. The software offers built-in pushbutton failover and failback for the MySQL and Oracle databases, as well as file and Web servers.

Power strips may be a pretty unsexy technology. But with growing demands for energy efficiency the timing is right for Raritan (booth #426) to debut its expanded power management portfolio, including the new "smart power strip" that measures in real time the power of each server in a rack, as well as track humidity and temperature. Raritan's product line includes the Dominion PX power distribution unit (pictured) that provides both rack-level and outlet-level remote power monitoring and management.

Rackable Systems (booth #602) will be displaying the latest version of its mobile data center called "Ice Cube" (pictured) at LinuxWorld. Such modular data centers are all the range with such major vendors as Sun, HP, Dell and IBM now offering them. On July 28 Rackable Systems inked a deal with IBM to include Big Blue's BladeCenter servers inside its Ice Cube centers.