How Linux saved Amazon millions, Oct 31, 2001

Online retailer Amazon.com shaved millions of dollars from its technology costs last quarter by switching to the Linux operating system, a disclosure that could provide some guidance for other companies seeking to cut expenses in a stagnant economy.

VA Linux Systems wants to drop the 'Linux' from its name, less than three years after it added it. The new name of VA Software is thought to better reflect the company's new business of selling software, rather than Linux-tuned hardware and services.

If IBM gets its way, users will soon be thinking about operating systems the way investors view pork bellies: as mere commodities. The instrument the company will use to make this sea change in IT? Linux.

Free operating system Linux was another unexpected result from ad hoc Internet collaboration embraced by Intel, saving the chipmaker $200 million, Busch said. The company ditched expensive Unix servers with proprietary Unix software and replaced them with cheaper servers equipped with Intel's own chips that run Linux software.

Linux evangelists are keeping the faith, even when it comes to the elusive Holy Grail of the open-source operating system: taking a significant chunk of the desktop market.

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