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Re: Giving Linux and open source the benefit of the doubt

__/ [Roy Culley] on Tuesday 03 January 2006 18:56 \__

http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2005/12/giving_linux_an.html

Good post.

>     But IT isn't all bad, we noticed that we have had zero issues with
>     any of our Linux boxes or open source apps. All the in-house and
>     externally hosted LAMP-J machines continue to be stable and defy
>     logic with their uptime. My biggest complaint is that installing
>     and deploying new apps still requires serious sys admin
>     skills.


I can't disagree, but it depends on the application at hand and also the
distribution. Certain applications like (commercial) MATLAB, Thunderbird,
Firefox are a drag-and-drop job. That, however, is not what hearsay, based
on stereotypes, will indicate. Some still think of dependency hell as if
Gentoo is the mother of all distribution.


>     While certain specific proprietary applications may not
>     have open source substitutes or run on Linux, you can replace
>     Windows in it's entirety with Linux/open source apps...it's just
>     not easy...yet.


If the transition is not easy, it is due to *skills*. Many corporations have
become accustomed to long-standing procedures -- repetitive routines, that
is. 'IT dependencies' between one department and another has evolved over
the year and needs revising, that's all.


>     [...]
> 
>     The funny thing is we expect more out of Linux and open source
>     apps than we do from Microsoft products. These are products from a
>     20 year old software company with billions in revenue and yet it
>     often feels like the software stalls at the old 80/20. 80%
>     functionality with 20% nagging problems. I expect Windows server
>     to need reboots, I expect licensing to be too costly, and expect
>     having to attend to some serious virus/worm threat every week. And
>     yet, Windows still has a huge presence in the enterprise. I never
>     expect Linux machines to go down, Apache to crash, or desktops to
>     be under virus threat, and I sure don't worry about excessive
>     licensing fees.


What I personally find most desirable is eternal ownership. One I install a
Web application, it is there to stay for good. No breakage, no licensing
costs, no nags.

Roy

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