Posted at 5:05 PM PT, Jul 10, 1998
Computer Associates will join companies such as Software AG, InterBase, and possibly Informix in running its database on the Linux operating system.

CA confirmed that a Linux version of its Ingres II database will arrive in September.

"We feel that with Ingres on Linux, it gives those users a chance to experience a mission-critical, production-quality database," said John Ainsworth, a vice president at CA, in Islandia, N.Y.

For its part, Informix has officially denied that it has no intentions to support Linux. But asked about the possibility of a Linux database from Informix, a source close to the company hinted that an announcement could happen shortly.

"You may see some new OS support that hasn't been there before," the source said.

A likely place for such an announcement would be the Informix Worldwide User Conference in Seattle the week after next.

If support is extended, the company would join lower profile database vendors that run their databases on Linux.

Software AG, for example, sells the Adabas D for Linux database, but not in the United States.

A German Linux user expressed satisfaction with Adabas.

"The Adabas server has Oracle and IBM DB2 compatibility," with support of drivers and SQL statements written for the rival databases, said Hartmut Holzgraefe, a technical director at Media Engineering, a software developer in Bielefeld, Germany.

InterBase is offering a free, embedded version of the Interbase 4 database for Linux as a prelude to a commercially supported, more functional successor, InterBase 5, which is due by September.

"There's an awful lot of applications that are [embedded] that just need to run in stable environments, and Linux is perfect for that," said Mike Tossy, InterBase marketing director. InterBase supports the Red Hat Software distribution of Linux.

Informix Software Corp., in Menlo Park, Calif., is at http://www.informix.com. Software AG Americas, in Reston, Va., is at http://www.sagus.com. InterBase Software Corp., in Scotts Valley, Calif., is at http://www.interbase.com.

Paul Krill is a senior editor for InfoWorld.

Related articles

"Linux not yet critical mass, database vendors say"