IBM Follows Dell's Direct Lead

push direct PC sales reported earnings that beat Wall street estimates

In the other big earnings report of the week, HP reported higher earnings, but lower revenue, than in the year-ago quarter, and announced they saw no signs of pick-up in corporate IT spending.

Other financial news wasn't even that good. Network Associates will be restating earnings for 1998, 1999 and 2000 after an internal investigation, but defended its more recent numbers; Sun VAR Infinite Technology Group announced it was filing for bankrupcy protection, and Comdisco filed it's Chapter 11 plan with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Computer Associates Under The Microscope

Also on the SEC's desk this week: the agency announced it was formally investigating Computer Associates this week for issues related to its revenue filings. The company announced its cooperation, as well as new corporate governance policies to help keep it out of trouble in the future.

Linux Feels The Love

Rob Wright talked to solution providers, vendors, customers and analysts for his Why We Love Linux feature, looking at the reasons for the upstart OS's growing popularity among businesses. It's a popularity that was mirrored by the feature itself--far and away the most-read article on the ChannelWeb network this week.

Upgrade Cycle

Sun Microsystems announced Solaris 9 and StarOffice 6 would both be available next week; ePeople announced Teamwork 4.0, their collaborative support application; Oracle is giving developers a new preview of its 9i database; and Apple announced the XServe, it's new OSX server. Rack different.