The Truth About Linux TCO?, Apr 25, 2006

Sophisticated management tools now allow Linux management to be fast, effective and inexpensive. With lower acquisition costs, Linux is now a cost-effective alternative to Windows, EMA says.

With a high-profile executive speech at LinuxWorld and the launch of a new Web site focusing on open source, Microsoft has been cozying up to the Linux penguin this week.

While the Linux Mark Institute (LMI) is drawing some criticism for enforcing the trademark Linux, such criticism is unwarranted, given the nature of trademarks and the alternative to their enforcement.

Is Linux a better choice for business than, say, a proprietary operating system such as Microsoft Windows? The debate, full of passion and conviction, rages on both sides of this issue.

Linux is very easy to use, and the idea that the open-source operating system is a command-line driven environment is a misconception.

The promises of a successful move to Linux -- greater speed and lower costs -- are what every technology-dependent business is after.

Linux-distro maker Xandros on Wednesday announced that it is shipping a new full-point release of the company's Business Desktop OS, designed specifically for seamless compatibility with the latest Windows servers.

For the past few weeks, I have been looking at and working with SuSE Linux for EM64T as well as Win x64. Both operating systems are good and stable. However, the question that keeps coming up is, who needs 64 bits now?

The completion of its acquisition of Suse Linux last year has allowed Novell to change its focus to Linux and identity, said company chairman and CEO Jack Messman.

As a result of the SCO litigation, the community has bonded more tightly than ever, and showed that it will support Linux and free and open-source software and any company that stands up for it. That is how Groklaw was born.

If your application vendor only supports one of the Red Hat enterprise editions and this obligates you to pay at least $799 for your first year, is it still free?

Siebel, Microsoft and Salesforce.com may get serious competition from open-source enterprise software systems, say Linux advocates bNitro.com and SourceForge.net. They envision a highly adaptive software application that any business could download from the Internet for free.

Torvalds himself has never claimed to be more than he is, but tipping points aren't made out of technical reality. They're made out of perceptual change. Thus, it was the legend of Torvalds, not the reality of his actions as a kind of Wayne Gretzky of Unix development, that gave Linux the patina of political correctness needed for it to gain widespread public acceptance.

The Open Source Development Labs has raised $4 million to provide the seed money for the Software Freedom Law Center, which is based in New York.

Open source has a reputation for being free, or at least cheap. But when the costs of programming, customization, maintenance and other factors are taken into consideration, enterprises can find that conversion from proprietary platforms to open source offers little or no savings.

Linux slowly but surely is making its presence known in the mobile communications market and has a chance to gain a following as OEMs and operators roll out their advanced voice and data networks.

Novell chief information officer (CIO) Debra Anderson was given the task of migrating all of the company's 6,000 staff from Microsoft Windows to Novell Linux on the desktop. In an exclusive interview with vnunet.com she details the project and the lessons it provided.

Despite its gains in the server computer market, Linux may not be taking hold very quickly on the desktop. A new report from the research firm Gartner -- expected to be released in the coming weeks -- suggests that major challenges remain before Linux threatens the dominance of Windows.

Gartner plans to report that Linux is shipping on 5 percent of desktop computers, but that it is not necessarily the operating system of choice. A more realistic figure is that 2 percent of PCs shipped will operate using Linux software this year.

Webmaster's note: For your reading pleasure, one from Laura DiDio

The buzz associated with Linux is growing louder by the day, with most major software vendors embracing the open-source concept.

Still, while Linux vendors sing the praises of their products for across-the-board enterprise I.T. operations, a wholesale switch from Windows to Linux may not be the best move for most businesses.

Intel is moving to replace the antique BIOS code currently used to boot up computers with an open-source alternative. BIOS lets computer hardware communicate with operating systems and other software applications, but using the 20-year-old technology today is "barbaric," says Meta Group analyst Steve Kleynhans.