Cleveland, Ohio-based paint company Sherwin-Williams gave
Linux a boost and signed with IBM to convert its computers and cash registers
in more than 2,500 stores to the open source operating system over the next
year.
Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp.
will provide the company with a portfolio of services, including consulting
as well as IBM NetVista personal computers running Turbolinux.
In addition, all peripherals such as printers, scanners, cash drawers and
switches will be Linux compatible. The company currently has a Unix-based
system and the Linux installation is said to be one of the largest
deployments of the open source system in a chain store environment.
The Sherwin-Williams’ Point of Sale and inventory applications will run in
the Linux environment, and the company said its paint tinting and color
matching applications will also be tied into the network, allowing the
formulas for custom paint blends to be filed and kept securely for a
customer’s next project.
Pilot installations have already taken place in stores in the Cleveland area.
Main deployment will begin in July and completed by second quarter 2003. Back
office support systems are not part of the deal.
It’s a nice boost for Linux, but the OS isn’t being asked to do a lot of
heavy lifting, analysts said. “It’s just a nice, low-cost platform for doing
kind of everyday computing,” Jonathan Eunice, an analyst at Nashua,
N.H.-based Illuminata was quoted as saying.
Spending wasn’t disclosed. Other contenders for the contract were
Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Sun Microsystems.