Linux on trial

1999-05-12

What is the Linux phenomenon? Repeated announcements (including two on Silicon.com today) show more and more companies, vendors and end users are adopting this freeware package. What are the reasons? And isn’t this mass migration to a seemingly unsupported piece of software a little dangerous?

Different camps have different reasons for adopting Linux. For some, particularly IT-literate end-users, Linux is a free training bed – it runs Unix commands, comes with free compilers and a host of other software that are an ideal entry point to IT. Vendor adoption is two-way – some are “listening to their customers’ needs,” as they say, but others are porting to Linux merely as a marketing ploy – after all, porting from Unix to Linux is relatively straightforward. Businesses really are using Linux – a number have built Linux-based systems as mail servers or as a cheap entry to the Web.

This is where things are getting interesting. A vast number of people are taking a look at Linux for their non-mission-critical neeeds, and as they do so they are discovering that the rumours are true about Linux stability. Common sense is coming into play, for example how much support do end-users really get for commercial operating systems? As with the X-files, Linux users note, the support is out there. Techies from the Unix world (who, admittedly, are a little biased) note the fact that a number of essential facilities on that platform, such as Xwindows, were also freeware – that is, public domain software, which is entirely different to freeware. Honest. In other words, Linux is becoming acceptable. And as this happens people are starting to trust Linux for their non-trivial applications. Some of this trend is unavoidable, as Web interfaces and email servers move from being “windows to the world” to being eCommerce gateways. But IT managers are becoming more and more comfortable with the cheekie chappie operating system that was downloaded by the placement student.

There are still plenty of things missing from the Linux jigsaw – in particular, there is still only limited application support and multiprocessor capability still has some problems. These facilities will come, and in the meantime there are plenty of other opportunities for IT managers to see for themselves the benefits of running a secure, stable, free operating system.

(First published 12 May 1999)