Linux on Audi?

For several years, German automobile manufacturer Audi AG, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, has been steadily migrating its engineering systems over to Linux. The company hopes to finish the job in 2007 and have the bulk of its servers and workstations running 64-bit Linux by the end of the year. Recently Audi, whose longstanding motto is “Vorsprung durch Technik” (“Progress through technology”), has been upgrading to 64-bit Linux in deploying its automotive CAE (Computer-Aided Engineering) servers, where simulation software is used in the design of casts, frames, and components, as well as for crash-test simulations and other 3-D visualization problems, as part of the greater migration to Linux.

If the Germans know one thing it’d be smart technology. I recently saw a broadcast showing the inside of VW’s latest factory and high-tech is a huge understatement. Can you imagine cabinets that move -themselves- to other another part of the building to get a certain part to someone? What am I getting at? Linux is a smart move. That’s what!