Microsoft dominates the operating system market, and where companies don’t use Windows they often use Unix for large installations like server farms and data centers. The received wisdom is that Windows offers a widely accepted platform for business applications while Unix provides the reliability and scalability for those critical back-end systems.

So why would companies even consider alternative platforms such as Linux? Could it be IT professionals have been and are still waiting for that true "open system" promised years ago by companies like IBM, HP, Sun, and Digital (now rolled into Compaq). They kept telling us they were working on new technology that would let Unix enterprise systems work together seamlessly. That would have let different systems within and between companies talk to each other, and this easy data exchange would have made things a lot easier for both IT and business people.

Unfortunately, the industry ran into some problems along the way.

The first problem was cost. The systems these vendors developed, based mainly on Unix, were expensive because they typically involved proprietary hardware and software with high development costs (that, of course, were passed on to customers). Larger companies buying these systems could justify these costs because, in the early days of commodity PCs, Intel-based systems didn't scale well at all. The customer looking for industrial-strength hardware and software to run a business and a support line to back it all up needed something more than a PC running Windows 3.x.

The second problem was interoperability. The promise of open systems kept getting derailed by differences in APIs between the vendors -- IBM's Unix differed from HP's, which differed from Sun's. This made developing software for each platform that much more difficult, and customers ended up having to use one vendor's platform throughout the company to keep systems working together smoothly.

And then somebody came along with a different promise: affordable business systems. Intel hardware became so cost-effective that lower-quality proprietary operating systems became a reasonable alternative to expensive, also-proprietary Unix systems, pushing upward against these choices. The real casualty in this whole scenario was the promise of any kind of vendor-neutral standard for operating systems.

The Dark Horse, Linux

The Linux operating system grew out of Linus Torvalds’ project to make a free version of Unix that would run on lower-end computers. Linux runs on the popular Intel-architecture PCs as well as Macintosh computers, making it more accessible than Unix and a low-cost alternative to Microsoft Windows and other proprietary operating system platforms.

Thanks to its reliability and adherence to open standards, Linux is moving steadily into the business market. Two years ago, most people laughed at the idea of using Linux even for small businesses. Linux community members weren't laughing -- they had been using it for quite some time and were convinced long ago. Now, the open source upstart has gone from zero to three percent of global OS shipments in less than three years, according to market research firm IDC. Much more significantly, IDC also reports that shipments of servers preloaded with Linux now account for nearly 25% of the business server market.

What makes Linux a contender? Its early attraction was its very low procurement cost -- free or, with some packaging and support, a small fee -- but it also interoperates well with the Unices from IBM, Sun, HP, and Compaq. More importantly, and compellingly, Linux has the reliability that proprietary, non-Unix solutions lack. Many users report running Linux Web servers for months or years with zero downtime.

Open source development has numerous advantages, among them the fact that the OS kernel is constantly being improved by developers all over the world. (You can find many more advantages detailed at http://www.opensource.org.) IT executives are starting to take notice: VA Linux Systems CEO Larry Augustin told attendees at the most recent Software Development conference that people are choosing Linux because it’s better, not just because it’s free. This summer, for example, Toyota announced it would run its Dealer Daily communication network on Red Hat Linux Web servers. Google, a popular Web search engine, runs Red Hat Linux on its 6000-machine network.

Putting Linux to Work

It's one thing to be a true believer; it's another to actually get Linux in users’ hands. Linux distributors such Caldera, Debian, Red Hat, SuSE, TurboLinux, and VA Linux Systems have packaged the OS kernel and selected useful programs to make Linux more attractive to IT and business executives accustomed to purchasing shrink-wrapped software. These companies also recognized that support would be essential to drawing and keeping customers -- any OS will cause some headaches, and potential Linux users would be more comfortable taking the plunge if they knew they’d be able to get help if any problems arose.

Applications for the Linux platform are also proliferating. Red Hat reports that more than 6000 applications have been developed for Red Hat Linux. Corel has developed Linux versions of WordPerfect Office 2000 and CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 9. Other apllications areCybozu Office 3 for Linux 3.0.3.1, OHCP Test Suite 0.2, Photogenics 5.0 rc2, Firestarter 0.5.0, FileWatch 0.09, UnixTree 2.22, Trade Client 0.7.3, and XMovie 1.4 to name a few.

However, attracting the mainstream business market means getting the blessing of the server and desktop vendors, who often sell their wares with the operating system already installed. It also means adding some enterprise-class features to the Linux OS, such as scalability and multiprocessing support. This push is coming not just from the Linux developer community but from vendors such as Dell and industry stalwarts like HP, IBM, and Sun that are responding to the market buzz about Linux but also, perhaps, trying to finally make good on old promises.

Unfortunately, Linux users are forced to deal with constant changes in the OS kernel. With Linux, incremental updates are released constantly, which, while well intentioned, can cause IT headaches and pose an obstacle to some that might otherwise adopt the environment. A busy IT department has better things to do than struggle to keep up with the steady drip of updated code that they have to go out on the Web to retrieve. At least with Windows, you can expect a service pack every six months or so, which dumps a load of bug fixes all at once.

Enter the Linux distributors, which have moved beyond packaging and technical support to adding functionality and simplifying upgrades. Red Hat, Linux's best-known distributor, proposes to take care of all this constant updating with a new Web-based subscription service called Red Hat Network that it claims will help administrators more easily deploy and manage Linux distributions and updates.

Prior to this program, administrators had more than 800 different programs delivered to them when they received Red Hat Linux. If you accept that each of these programs update on average once a year, that is two updates per day that you, the system administrator, have to track, study, and figure out whether you need. Red Hat Network is free to all Red Hat Linux 7 users through Dec. 1 and will cost $9.95 a month thereafter.

Making Linux Work Better

If you doubt the growth potential of Linux, just look at IBM's Web site and you’ll see that IBM offers a broad array of Linux certification and training options. IBM is also doing much research and development for Linux, and ships a fast-growing array of products including servers and workstations preloaded with Linux.

Along with IBM, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, and NEC have announced they’ll fund a research lab specifically geared to making Linux an enterprise-class solution. The Open Source Development Lab will support developers who are creating business applications for the Linux OS. The companies said they would provide "significant" equipment and funding for the lab over the next several years. Other backers include Dell, VA Linux Systems, Caldera Systems, Red Hat, TurboLinux, and SuSE AG.

The commitment these companies are making bodes well for Linux, and I'm sure many enterprise-class buyers -- not to mention midsized and small companies -- wouldn't mind the benefits of lower cost and a truly open system. Especially as costs for both high-end and alternative low-end commodity software go up and licensing issues become more complex.

In addition, cracks are starting to appear in Microsoft's armor. The company currently has 88% market share in the desktop operating systems market, but Linux increasingly threatens that position, and other technologies have shown that the company isn’t as dominant as some might think. Look at Microsoft's repeated attempts to break into the handheld market with Windows CE: they have been disappointing, with the first two major releases of the mobile operating system being universally panned. Microsoft is quick to minimize the significance of the beating it received at the hands of Palm, but a lot of analysts aren't so sure. When you have a small division of a networking company beating Microsoft so soundly, I'd say that's a problem.

Even within Microsoft itself, things aren't what they used to be. Staff turnover has risen to 7.4% -- still half the industry average, but a significant increase for a company where churn had remained static at 6% for more than 10 years. This doesn't mean Microsoft is going out of business; it just means it has to change how it does business, and the growing popularity of Linux is only further proof. The business world emulates life: if things don’t constantly change, they stagnate and die.

Linux is offering a real alternative for enterprise customers who have cost in mind, and these enterprise people are now asking for it. If you’re still not convinced that Linux should be taken seriously, here are some Linux facts to get you thinking.

The use of Linux is growing steadily. Linux held 8.3% of the server market in 1997. In 1998, Linux held 18% of the server market. By 1999, its market share had risen to 24.8%, a figure that analysts had not expected it to reach until 2003. (IDC and the Gartner Group)
In 1998, Linux held 2.1% of the desktop market. In 1999, its share of the desktop market had risen to just over 4%. (IDC)
29% of all public Web servers run under Linux. That makes Linux one of the most popular operating systems for hosting Web sites. (Netcraft)
Estimates of Linux users worldwide vary from 10 to 24 million. The Linux Counter (counter.li.org), the most thorough attempt at an estimate, suggests 14 million as of May 2000, an increase of 6 million since 1998. Exact figures are impossible because of free downloads and the fact that Linux is not distributed by one company.
In April 2000, 26% of embedded application developers planned to use Linux as their host operating system in the next year. (Electronic Market Forecasters)
49% of IT professionals consider Linux essential or important to their corporate strategies. (MERIT Advisory Council).
The top 100 financial institutes in the United States spent $50 million on Linux applications in 1998. By 2003, they are expected to spend $200 million. (Evans Marketing Services)
The sale of Linux software is expected to increase by 25% each year until 2003. (IDG)

Resources

The Linux Kernels site hosts the latest kernels for Linux.

Linux Documentation Project home page hosts documentation or links thereto for the Linux operating system.

LinuxPlanet provides a guide to the Linux OS.

LinuxWorld is a Webzine with Linux news, how-to articles, technical information, and other resources.

Linux Journal includes FAQs, Linux commands, newsgroups, journals, international organizations, documentation projects, related sites, and news.

Linux Online! is a comprehensive collection of Linux resources such as distributions, applications, support, and user groups.

Linux Gazette offers news, tips, and short articles about Linux.

Have or implemented Linux in your business? If not, are you planning to? Let us know below.

	Content provided by www.8wire.com - Pure Networking \| Back to article
	Linux and the Road to Platform Independence by Michael Bensimon Monday, November 20, 2000
	Microsoft dominates the operating system market, and where companies don’t use Windows they often use Unix for large installations like server farms and data centers. The received wisdom is that Windows offers a widely accepted platform for business applications while Unix provides the reliability and scalability for those critical back-end systems. So why would companies even consider alternative platforms such as Linux? Could it be IT professionals have been and are still waiting for that true "open system" promised years ago by companies like IBM, HP, Sun, and Digital (now rolled into Compaq). They kept telling us they were working on new technology that would let Unix enterprise systems work together seamlessly. That would have let different systems within and between companies talk to each other, and this easy data exchange would have made things a lot easier for both IT and business people. Unfortunately, the industry ran into some problems along the way. The first problem was cost. The systems these vendors developed, based mainly on Unix, were expensive because they typically involved proprietary hardware and software with high development costs (that, of course, were passed on to customers). Larger companies buying these systems could justify these costs because, in the early days of commodity PCs, Intel-based systems didn't scale well at all. The customer looking for industrial-strength hardware and software to run a business and a support line to back it all up needed something more than a PC running Windows 3.x. The second problem was interoperability. The promise of open systems kept getting derailed by differences in APIs between the vendors -- IBM's Unix differed from HP's, which differed from Sun's. This made developing software for each platform that much more difficult, and customers ended up having to use one vendor's platform throughout the company to keep systems working together smoothly. And then somebody came along with a different promise: affordable business systems. Intel hardware became so cost-effective that lower-quality proprietary operating systems became a reasonable alternative to expensive, also-proprietary Unix systems, pushing upward against these choices. The real casualty in this whole scenario was the promise of any kind of vendor-neutral standard for operating systems. The Dark Horse, Linux The Linux operating system grew out of Linus Torvalds’ project to make a free version of Unix that would run on lower-end computers. Linux runs on the popular Intel-architecture PCs as well as Macintosh computers, making it more accessible than Unix and a low-cost alternative to Microsoft Windows and other proprietary operating system platforms. Thanks to its reliability and adherence to open standards, Linux is moving steadily into the business market. Two years ago, most people laughed at the idea of using Linux even for small businesses. Linux community members weren't laughing -- they had been using it for quite some time and were convinced long ago. Now, the open source upstart has gone from zero to three percent of global OS shipments in less than three years, according to market research firm IDC. Much more significantly, IDC also reports that shipments of servers preloaded with Linux now account for nearly 25% of the business server market. What makes Linux a contender? Its early attraction was its very low procurement cost -- free or, with some packaging and support, a small fee -- but it also interoperates well with the Unices from IBM, Sun, HP, and Compaq. More importantly, and compellingly, Linux has the reliability that proprietary, non-Unix solutions lack. Many users report running Linux Web servers for months or years with zero downtime. Open source development has numerous advantages, among them the fact that the OS kernel is constantly being improved by developers all over the world. (You can find many more advantages detailed at http://www.opensource.org.) IT executives are starting to take notice: VA Linux Systems CEO Larry Augustin told attendees at the most recent Software Development conference that people are choosing Linux because it’s better, not just because it’s free. This summer, for example, Toyota announced it would run its Dealer Daily communication network on Red Hat Linux Web servers. Google, a popular Web search engine, runs Red Hat Linux on its 6000-machine network. Putting Linux to Work It's one thing to be a true believer; it's another to actually get Linux in users’ hands. Linux distributors such Caldera, Debian, Red Hat, SuSE, TurboLinux, and VA Linux Systems have packaged the OS kernel and selected useful programs to make Linux more attractive to IT and business executives accustomed to purchasing shrink-wrapped software. These companies also recognized that support would be essential to drawing and keeping customers -- any OS will cause some headaches, and potential Linux users would be more comfortable taking the plunge if they knew they’d be able to get help if any problems arose. Applications for the Linux platform are also proliferating. Red Hat reports that more than 6000 applications have been developed for Red Hat Linux. Corel has developed Linux versions of WordPerfect Office 2000 and CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 9. Other apllications areCybozu Office 3 for Linux 3.0.3.1, OHCP Test Suite 0.2, Photogenics 5.0 rc2, Firestarter 0.5.0, FileWatch 0.09, UnixTree 2.22, Trade Client 0.7.3, and XMovie 1.4 to name a few. However, attracting the mainstream business market means getting the blessing of the server and desktop vendors, who often sell their wares with the operating system already installed. It also means adding some enterprise-class features to the Linux OS, such as scalability and multiprocessing support. This push is coming not just from the Linux developer community but from vendors such as Dell and industry stalwarts like HP, IBM, and Sun that are responding to the market buzz about Linux but also, perhaps, trying to finally make good on old promises. Unfortunately, Linux users are forced to deal with constant changes in the OS kernel. With Linux, incremental updates are released constantly, which, while well intentioned, can cause IT headaches and pose an obstacle to some that might otherwise adopt the environment. A busy IT department has better things to do than struggle to keep up with the steady drip of updated code that they have to go out on the Web to retrieve. At least with Windows, you can expect a service pack every six months or so, which dumps a load of bug fixes all at once. Enter the Linux distributors, which have moved beyond packaging and technical support to adding functionality and simplifying upgrades. Red Hat, Linux's best-known distributor, proposes to take care of all this constant updating with a new Web-based subscription service called Red Hat Network that it claims will help administrators more easily deploy and manage Linux distributions and updates. Prior to this program, administrators had more than 800 different programs delivered to them when they received Red Hat Linux. If you accept that each of these programs update on average once a year, that is two updates per day that you, the system administrator, have to track, study, and figure out whether you need. Red Hat Network is free to all Red Hat Linux 7 users through Dec. 1 and will cost $9.95 a month thereafter. Making Linux Work Better If you doubt the growth potential of Linux, just look at IBM's Web site and you’ll see that IBM offers a broad array of Linux certification and training options. IBM is also doing much research and development for Linux, and ships a fast-growing array of products including servers and workstations preloaded with Linux. Along with IBM, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, and NEC have announced they’ll fund a research lab specifically geared to making Linux an enterprise-class solution. The Open Source Development Lab will support developers who are creating business applications for the Linux OS. The companies said they would provide "significant" equipment and funding for the lab over the next several years. Other backers include Dell, VA Linux Systems, Caldera Systems, Red Hat, TurboLinux, and SuSE AG. The commitment these companies are making bodes well for Linux, and I'm sure many enterprise-class buyers -- not to mention midsized and small companies -- wouldn't mind the benefits of lower cost and a truly open system. Especially as costs for both high-end and alternative low-end commodity software go up and licensing issues become more complex. In addition, cracks are starting to appear in Microsoft's armor. The company currently has 88% market share in the desktop operating systems market, but Linux increasingly threatens that position, and other technologies have shown that the company isn’t as dominant as some might think. Look at Microsoft's repeated attempts to break into the handheld market with Windows CE: they have been disappointing, with the first two major releases of the mobile operating system being universally panned. Microsoft is quick to minimize the significance of the beating it received at the hands of Palm, but a lot of analysts aren't so sure. When you have a small division of a networking company beating Microsoft so soundly, I'd say that's a problem. Even within Microsoft itself, things aren't what they used to be. Staff turnover has risen to 7.4% -- still half the industry average, but a significant increase for a company where churn had remained static at 6% for more than 10 years. This doesn't mean Microsoft is going out of business; it just means it has to change how it does business, and the growing popularity of Linux is only further proof. The business world emulates life: if things don’t constantly change, they stagnate and die. Linux is offering a real alternative for enterprise customers who have cost in mind, and these enterprise people are now asking for it. If you’re still not convinced that Linux should be taken seriously, here are some Linux facts to get you thinking. The use of Linux is growing steadily. Linux held 8.3% of the server market in 1997. In 1998, Linux held 18% of the server market. By 1999, its market share had risen to 24.8%, a figure that analysts had not expected it to reach until 2003. (IDC and the Gartner Group) In 1998, Linux held 2.1% of the desktop market. In 1999, its share of the desktop market had risen to just over 4%. (IDC) 29% of all public Web servers run under Linux. That makes Linux one of the most popular operating systems for hosting Web sites. (Netcraft) Estimates of Linux users worldwide vary from 10 to 24 million. The Linux Counter (counter.li.org), the most thorough attempt at an estimate, suggests 14 million as of May 2000, an increase of 6 million since 1998. Exact figures are impossible because of free downloads and the fact that Linux is not distributed by one company. In April 2000, 26% of embedded application developers planned to use Linux as their host operating system in the next year. (Electronic Market Forecasters) 49% of IT professionals consider Linux essential or important to their corporate strategies. (MERIT Advisory Council). The top 100 financial institutes in the United States spent $50 million on Linux applications in 1998. By 2003, they are expected to spend $200 million. (Evans Marketing Services) The sale of Linux software is expected to increase by 25% each year until 2003. (IDG) Resources The Linux Kernels site hosts the latest kernels for Linux. Linux Documentation Project home page hosts documentation or links thereto for the Linux operating system. LinuxPlanet provides a guide to the Linux OS. LinuxWorld is a Webzine with Linux news, how-to articles, technical information, and other resources. Linux Journal includes FAQs, Linux commands, newsgroups, journals, international organizations, documentation projects, related sites, and news. Linux Online! is a comprehensive collection of Linux resources such as distributions, applications, support, and user groups. Linux Gazette offers news, tips, and short articles about Linux. Have or implemented Linux in your business? If not, are you planning to? Let us know below.
	@2000 8wire, Inc. All rights reserved. Terms and Conditions