Who's Keeping An Eye On The SMB Wallet?, Dec 13, 2006

After noting very little reseller representation of Linux, Quail has nestled itself into selling Linux-based solutions, which was what originally led the company to Adaptec. Quail has experienced 60 percent growth each quarter since its founding approximately 18 months ago.

Faced with a choice between adding more HP-UX and Solaris boxes, or moving to Intel hardware with Linux, CitiStreet chose the latter. Today the company is enjoying enhanced stability and security, and drastically lower costs.

Local poultry producer Bartter Enterprises is evaluating the future of around 70 Microsoft Windows servers, in the context of a recent migration of other systems to Red Hat Linux.

Fast-food chain McDonald's is reportedly piloting Linux-based electronic signage at a location in Chicago. The Golden Arches at Archer and Rutherford is using content-managed digital signage for menu-board promotion, dining- and play-room adver-tainment, and customer information collection, according to an article at SelfService.org.

Kennards Hire is ready to replace Windows server with Linux at 90 branches, to accompany 400 desktops already running the open source operating system.

What the world needs now, according to a Japanese research group, is a low-cost programmable robot.

Hawker de Havilland, the local arm of aircraft engineering giant Boeing, will retire its 30-year-old VAX system in favour of its new Linux-based environment in the manufacture of parts for the company's next-generation 787 jets.

Despite all the talk of offshoring software development to developing nations, computer and electronics giant Toshiba is expanding its Sydney research and development centre, which uses Linux as its platform of choice.

Behind the scenes on Wall Street, who is really using Linux? Although developers remain the major practitioners, Linux is also making headway these days as a grid platform for transaction processing, a place for running algorithmic trading engines, and even as a desktop environment, according to participants in this week's SIA (Securities Industry Association) conference in New York City.

Ever wonder how Lightning McQueen and friends looked so good in the movie Cars? A lot of that spit and polish came from the Pixar Animation Studio's Linux workstations and servers.

When Backcountry.com, an outdoor sporting goods retailer, was looking for shopping cart software, it picked an open source application called Interchange. It worked so well that the company began an enterprise-wide migration to open source software that has Linux running everywhere, from the servers to the desktops.

Kevin Mauldin's younger brother Gary was CEO of Denver-based La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries, an independent four-store retailer of La-Z-Boy, Inc. furniture. When Gary died in 2002 as the result of complications from an accident, Kevin inherited the CEO's job and an IT infrastructure that had been built from scratch by his technologically talented sibling. Unfortunately, it was such a patchwork of disparate technologies that no one else could easily sort it out. Mauldin decided on an IT overhaul, aimed at planting La-Z-Boy firmly on a Linux foundation.

Linux and open source is behind most of the special effects you see in the movies, software engineer Andre Pang, from Rising Sun Pictures (RSP), revealed at Linuxworld last week.

ASX-listed underwear, fashion design and direct sales company UnderCoverWear (UCW) has revealed how building its business around Linux and open source increased IT flexibility while avoiding vendor lock-in.

Automotive electronics manufacturer and a supplier to big names like General Motors Holden, Australian Arrow has migrated half its servers to Linux in two years to gain greater stability.

Stonebridge Bank is a small, relatively young company with seven years under its belt and a staff of 60 employees. But that didn't stop the number of servers at this West Chester, Penn.-based bank from spiraling out of control.

A move to the Linux operating system and open source applications more than a year ago played a key role in DreamWorks' transition to a service-oriented architecture.

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