MESSAGE
| DATE | 2004-02-04 |
| FROM | From: "Inker, Evan"
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Open-source Linux offers alternative
|
Posted on Tue, Feb. 03, 2004
Open-source Linux offers alternative
By AMAN BATHEJA
The Kansas City Star
For Keith Harrington, technical support was never like this.
Last year, Harrington, director of infrastructure systems at Birch Telecom,
installed a new software tool called NetSaint. The program is designed to
monitor the company's network resources.
Initially, the program wasn't working exactly as Harrington had hoped.
"We had instances where we couldn't get certain pieces of the network
monitored the way we wanted to," Harrington recalled.
Luckily, NetSaint is an open-source program, meaning anyone can tinker with
its code, not just the company that made it. Instead of calling a customer
service representative for help, Harrington went online and consulted the
open-source community of programmers.
"We just asked them what to do, and they helped us out," Harrington said.
"We ended up with a much more robust system." The switch is likely to save
the company more than $50,000, he said.
The story represents one of several reasons why area companies are beginning
to move away from operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and toward a
new breed of software.
These companies have become followers of a burgeoning movement called open
source. The movement's unequivocal star is Linux, an operating system that,
in the business world at least, is giving Microsoft a run for its money.
"We're trying to do everything we can to get away from these large software
providers that sometimes charge an exorbitant amount of money," Harrington
said. "It's just so cost-effective."
For the time being, Microsoft no doubt remains the information technology
leader. The company held a 30 percent worldwide market share for its Windows
operating system in the first three quarters of 2003, according to
technology analyst IDC. Linux's market share was 6.2 percent.
However, sales of Linux servers were $3 billion in 2003, a 40 percent
increase from the year before, according to IDC.
"It's real clear Linux is the most significant competitor to the Windows
platform," Microsoft Chief Financial Officer John Connors said recently in
the San Jose Mercury News.
The company has even gone so far as to launch an advertising campaign called
"Get the Facts," in which the software giant highlights to consumers and
businesses the advantages of Windows over Linux.
A recent poll of 600 information technology executives at the
Gartner/Soundview IT Symposium in Florida revealed the true extent of the
Linux phenomenon. More respondents said they were planning to spend
"significantly more" on products from Red Hat, the leading Linux seller,
during 2004 than they would be spending on Microsoft.
So what exactly is Linux and why all the fuss?
Linux was created more than 10 years ago by Linus Torvalds, a student at the
University of Helsinki in Finland. When Torvalds made the operating system
freely available for download online in 1991, he also released its source
code. That code, essentially the blueprint for a piece of software, allows
programmers to adapt Linux to their individual needs.
What's more, from the beginning, Torvalds has relied on suggestions from the
open-source community on how to improve his system. Thanks to continuous
help from collaborators worldwide, most of them volunteers, Linux has
matured at an incredible speed.
The result has been an operating system that is widely viewed as more
flexible and reliable than more popular systems such as Windows, along with
being much cheaper.
"There's not a lot of need to reboot it," aid Bret Stouder, director of
Lawrence-based Atipa Technologies. "There's not a lot of need to support it
once it's set up."
Atipa is one of many information technology companies around the world that
specialize in Linux-based products. Its clients include NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, AT&T and Sprint.
Over the past two years, Stouder said, interest in companies such as his has
risen as Linux has become increasingly popular among businesses. "Linux has
grown so much in the past five years that companies need it to keep a
competitive edge," Stouder said.
That edge comes from a company's ability to mold Linux to fit its needs as
well as from the luxury of having a community of programmers working to make
the system better. "The open-source community develops solutions for common
problems, and they do it pretty efficiently," Harrington said. "That's a
huge, huge benefit."
Harrington began looking at Linux two years ago for Birch. Since then, he
has guided the transfer of a small group of the company's back-office
processes toward Linux systems.
Over the next year, Harrington plans to transfer more of Birch's operations
toward Linux, including the company's network operating centers, call
centers and possibly all of its Internet service division.
For businesses, the value of Linux is more than just that it's cheaper and
easier to customize. Believers say one of the most valuable aspects of using
an open-source system is its increased security. Because Linux's source code
is freely available, it is constantly open to intense scrutiny. As a result,
problems are normally found and fixed quicker than with a system where the
code is a company secret, they say.
Mike Springer, one of the principals of the Ncisive Group, an IT consultancy
that focuses on open-source software, said: "It's like having a car when you
can't open the hood so you have to take it to the dealer. With open source,
the hood's open so anyone can help you. It's a whole different model."
Springer recently co-founded the Overland Park-based company to take
advantage of the growing Linux craze and bring it to the Midwest.
"It always happens that the West and East coasts are quicker to adopting new
technologies than we are," Springer said. "Here in Kansas City, the curve is
just starting, but we're getting there."
To reach Aman Batheja, call (816) 234-4918 or send e-mail to
abatheja-at-kcstar.com.
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