TurboLinux wins supporting role in Hollywood bank

Linux may not be as mature as its progenitor, Unix, but it's good enough for some: The First Credit Bank of Los Angeles has started using TurboLinux as part of its computing system.

Winning over financial institutions is an important step in establishing the legitimacy of comparatively new companies such as San Francisco-based TurboLinux. But there's plenty of room for improvement, as First Credit Bank will be using the TurboLinux servers only for relatively minor server tasks such as sharing files, sending print jobs to printers and transferring files over the Internet, TurboLinux said.

The core of the bank's computing operation still takes place on a mainframe, a bastion of business computing, the bank said. First Credit Bank, based in West Hollywood, is a small commercial bank with $300 million in assets.

The TurboLinux servers replaced Windows NT systems, the bank said. The bank began a TurboLinux pilot in mid-1999 and now is in the midst of installing Linux on its production servers.

TurboLinux specializes in selling its version of Linux tuned to work with accompanying higher-level programs such as Oracle's database software, OpenMerchant's shopping cart software, the Apache Web server and Tallyman's e-commerce software.

TurboLinux got its start in Asia but is pushing to gain a stronger foothold in the United States, where the market is dominated by Red Hat. Along with Red Hat, Caldera Systems and SuSE, TurboLinux is one of the four global versions of Linux for sale that IBM has included in its push to embrace Linux, though IBM also has a lower-level partnership with the French company Mandrakesoft.

TurboLinux also sells a product called EnFuzion, which allows computing calculations to be shared among a host of computers.