MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-05-23 |
| FROM | Michael Richardson
|
| SUBJECT | RE: [hangout] Big Business & World Perceptions - Linux on the Des ktop
|
First thing those in the Free and Open Source community have to stop saying
"Linux is not ready for the desktop". STOP SAYING THAT!!!. Most of the
people won't know if you don't keep saying it. M$ is not ready for the
desktop (it keeps crashing). But they don't keep that in the buyer's face.
Look at where they are at.
-----Original Message-----
From: Inker, Evan [mailto:EInker-at-gam.com]
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 10:01 AM
To: 'hangout-at-nylxs.com'
Subject: [hangout] Big Business & World Perceptions - Linux on the
Desktop
Linux lags on the desktop
Jennifer Maselli, InformationWeek
Friday, 11 April 2003
Associates at Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp.'s more than 330 stores
have used Linux-based point-of-sale systems, inventory applications, and
gift registries for more than two years. But CIO Michael Prince drew the
line at desktops in the company's headquarters: Linux wasn't ready, for a
slew of technical reasons.
Until now. A lot has changed in the last six months, Prince says. Support
from key vendors and advancements in the compatibility of Linux software
gave him reason to put StarOffice, Sun Microsystems' desktop software suite
that runs on Linux and other operating systems, on 300 office PCs. He uses
it himself. But here's the catch: The corporate PCs still run Microsoft's
Windows, and Prince hasn't abandoned Microsoft Office. He wants Burlington
office staff to have the same applications as the retail stores, but he
doesn't yet think a corporate transition to Linux on the desktop is worth
the trouble of migrating existing data and retraining employees.
Linux looks increasingly like a technically viable option as an operating
system for PCs, but it's still one that's rarely considered seriously in
business environments. That's despite wide use of the open-source system in
many companies' IT infrastructures: Research firm IDC says Linux has 14% of
the US$50.9 billion market for server operating systems and will climb to
No. 2 behind Windows by 2006. Replacing server software and training IT
staff to use Linux is one thing; getting knowledge workers to use a new
system makes even the several-hundred-dollar savings between the Microsoft
Office productivity suite and a Linux suite such as StarOffice not enough
for most IT execs. "They're not willing to make a change from Microsoft when
the Windows software is handling their needs and users are comfortable with
it," says Nicholas Petreley, an analyst for research company Evans Data.
Linux on the desktop is confined mostly to workstations that rely heavily on
graphics for digital-content creation and product engineering, says Jim
McDonnell, senior VP of marketing for Hewlett-Packard's personal systems
group. "This makes sense because it's taking advantage of the operating
system for performance," he says.
But vendors haven't given up trying. Sun's latest low-cost Linux PC, slated
to ship this summer, could spur wider use of the system on desktops, says
Bill Claybrook, research director for Linux and open source at the Aberdeen
Group. "Linux hasn't made a dent in the desktop marketplace so far, but
things will change," he predicts.
Other changes are under way. Oracle said last month it will offer technical
support to customers using open-source software from the UnitedLinux
consortium. In February, CodeWeavers Inc. and Tarantella Inc. started
bundling together Tarantella's Enterprise 3 access software with
CodeWeavers' CrossOver Office Server Edition, to let users access Office
applications from a client running Linux via a Java-enabled Web browser.
Also, Ximian Inc., a maker of Linux-based desktop-productivity applications,
says a version of its software, to be released this spring, will tightly
integrate with Windows.
The technical barriers are steadily falling away, Burlington's Prince says.
Many of the company's applications have been loaded using Oracle's toolsets,
and IT workers at Burlington use those same Oracle toolsets to do
development work. Until recently, the toolset used to develop and deploy the
applications required a special version of Java called Oracle J-Initiator,
and up until a few months ago it had been available only on Windows. Oracle
teamed with Sun to add Linux support, Prince says. Still, some of the
company's older Oracle applications aren't Linux-compatible.
StarOffice 6.0 can open Microsoft Word and Excel documents, removing one of
the most annoying problems of the past, Prince says. By deploying both
StarOffice and Windows on corporate PCs, he hopes to ease any eventual
transition to Linux. Still, a migration is a migration, so Prince isn't
making a major operating system or productivity-suite change right now. "I'm
not sure there's any payback in migrating people," he says. "Cost-wise,
Linux is better, and it's more reliable, but migrating users one-by-one is a
big effort." Prince will encourage new employees to use Linux instead of
Windows, but he won't force them. "We want people to use what they're
comfortable with," he says.
Linux still has shortcomings. Rory Hudson, retail systems manager for Zumiez
Inc., a retailer with 100 stores, deployed PCs running Linux in stores so
managers can access a company intranet and Linux-based E-mail and
spreadsheets for financial reporting. But he's keeping Windows at
headquarters to do some of the company's more-complicated PC-based work. "We
wouldn't consider switching off of Windows, because we have advanced
spreadsheets and Excel handles those really well," Hudson says. "We've found
a really good niche for each operating system." That includes Apple
Macintoshes for the company's graphic designers.
Aberdeen analyst Claybrook has his own Linux experience. He dabbled with the
open-source system on his desktop but dropped it because some document
formatting was lost when files were sent to a Windows machine. "We have a
specific format that we need to follow when we send reports, so I couldn't
afford those discrepancies," Claybrook says.
Laptop users also face challenges. "Laptops are tougher to run Linux [on]
because they've got more proprietary devices, and not very many are designed
for Linux," Prince says. "It's doable, but it's a lot of work."
Some business-technology executives are just getting comfortable with
running Linux on their servers, where it has something of a track record for
value and performance; Linux on the desktop isn't even in the planning
stages. PNC Bank is evaluating whether to move some servers to Linux and
plans a limited test this year. The bank is confident it can lower costs and
increase performance using Linux. But it isn't even considering a desktop
change. "We don't really have a need for faster performance at the desktop
level, so there's not the same push to evaluate Linux on the desktop," a
spokeswoman says.
For those who choose to take the plunge, however, there are savings to be
had. Zumiez's Hudson says that running either Windows or Unix on
point-of-sale computers in all stores would have cost about US$1,000 per
store. Zumiez went with free Linux systems for the 19 stores it opened last
year. Sun's StarOffice suite lists at US$50 per machine for 125 users, to
US$25 for 10,000; that compares with an average price of about US$400 for
Office.
Ernie Ball Inc. turned to Linux out of crisis more than cost savings. Three
years ago, the global manufacturer of guitar strings was slammed by the
Business Software Alliance for running more copies of Windows than the
company had paid for. Then there were the pirated copies of software from
Autodesk Inc. and FileMaker Inc. It was the spark that turned Ernie Ball
into a Linux hot spot. "We had 120 days to comply with the BSA, and we
complied by throwing everything out," says Jeff Whitmore, an IT manager at
Ernie Ball.
The company operates almost all of its business on open-source software,
including Red Hat Linux on its desktops and servers, StarOffice on PCs, and
E-mail from Ximian. Whitmore says the company spent about US$20,000 to make
the switch and cut US$80,000 to US$100,000 a year from its IT budget. With a
little more than 70 users, the IT staff handled training on the fly. "There
wasn't a lot of training involved, and we just handled questions from users
as they popped up," he says.
For now, Microsoft commands more than 90% of the desktop market, and most
users seem comfortable with what its productivity apps cost for what they
deliver. With its upcoming Office suite, Microsoft will try to pull further
ahead of competitors. That leaves only a little wiggle room for Linux, as it
battles the inertia of an installed base.
Regards,
Evan
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____________________________
NYLXS: New Yorker Free Software Users Scene
Fair Use -
because it's either fair use or useless....
NYLXS is a trademark of NYLXS, Inc
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