Making waves

LOVELAND — Terra Soft Solutions, a Loveland-based reseller of Apple products, has left terra firma and gone to sea.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin has picked Terra Soft to supply 260 Apple Xserve machines, which Lockheed will install on U.S. Navy submarines.

Terra Soft earned the $1.9 million deal because it figured how to make the Apple servers seaworthy, technologically speaking.

Specifically, Terra Soft engineers — with Apple’s consent — outfitted the Xserves with a Linux operating system, replacing Apple’s proprietary Mac OS X system.

The Linux system — Terra Soft’s own system is called Yellow Dog Linux — better meets the Navy’s needs…