Linux and FOSS in a Slowing Economy
September 26th, 2008 by Katherine Druckman
In case anyone hasn't been paying attention, apparently the US economy isn't doing too well these days. There is a lot of news lately about banks failing, government bail-outs, and natural disasters that will cost us all a lot of money (thanks, Ike).
I start to wonder if small-to-medium or even larger organizations will begin to pay more attention to FOSS solutions during these belt-tightening times. Instead of upgrading a fleet of outdated hardware that could be renewed with a fresh Linux installation, or paying through the nose for 50 licenses for some expensive piece of proprietary software, will more businesses with their eyes intently focused on the bottom line look to free and open solutions?
My perspective tends toward the web side of things, which leads me to think about things such as open source CMS solutions. With a tight budget, you can accomplish a great amount with Drupal, WordPress, and many others whose community contributed modules allow for many people to benefit simultaneously from a each individual contribution. I would love to see more businesses gravitate to these types of solutions, and give back to their respective communities rather than staying locked-in to proprietary technology.
What say you all? Is your company looking at more FOSS solutions to save money? I'd love to hear from people who are involved in these decisions, and really hear what is going on "out in the trenches."
__________________________
Katherine Druckman is webmistress at LinuxJournal.com. You might find her chatting on the IRC channel.
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August 2009, #184
If you're a culinary type you've probably heard of Pickled Capers. This month, we present you with an even tastier treat: Kerneled Kapers. That's right Linux so good that you can eat it for dinner. We've got two articles about kernel scheduling: one about real time scheduling and the other about the Completely Fair Scheduler which appeared in Linux 2.6.23. We also have an article on the new Ksplice technology that appeared on the scene just recently. Also in this issue: find out how to make root unprivileged.
And if Kapers aren't your cup of tea we have our usual buffet of articles: eyeOS which allows you to create your own cloud based desktops, using fixtures and factories with Rails, more on secure Squids, a review of the long awaited KOffice 2.0, Longomatch, and Kanatest.
But don't leave before we serve up the "piece de resistance": Point/Counterpoint on Twitter.
Apologies to Chef Marcel for borrowing his shtick.
FOSS is missing some key points
On September 29th, 2008 David Lane says:
There are few people out there that can tell you how powerful the Open Source community is. I have worked and lived in the Open Source world for more than 10 years, most recently working for a company that provided VoIP to consumers, almost completely using Linux and other Open Source technologies.
With that being said, there are some SERIOUS missing pieces that any major corporation or company with more than a handful of workstation consider essential.
The most significant is the management of the desktop. The Open Source community still does not have a good management system for managing desktops, which includes everything from installing software to verifying patch compliance. This is a CRITICAL step in full acceptance in the Enterprise. Yes, Puppet and its grandfather, cfengine can manage configurations, there is still the requirement to stabilize and control the user and server desktops. This is not trivial. Yes, you can write scripts and put stuff together, but as IT staff are reduced, the time to do this is reduced and the reality of implementation is reduced.
Management of multiple platforms is critical. Management of multiple platforms by a single person who is overworked already is vital to the success of Linux/FOSS as well as the sanity of the SysAdmin who is stuck with the job.
__________________________David Lane is a member of Linux Journal's Reader Advisory Board.
FOSS and the economy
On September 29th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) says:
A company I do consulting work for (though I have had nothing to do with this part of it) has been faced with email integration after a merger. The larger partner has been a nothing-but-Microsoft organization, and uses Outlook. The smaller company has used POP3 with an assortment of clients on Linux and Windows (usually Evolution on Linux and Thunderbird on Windows).
On Friday, the new system was announced: Zimbra. And the reasons given were more capabilities than POP3, and a "very substantial dollar savings" over Microsoft solutions.
Re: Linux alternatives to Windows SBS part one
On September 26th, 2008 gnusci (not verified) says:
C'mon, GNU/Linux it is not only ready, it is more than that, the fact is that a lot of people are out of date, GNU/Linux is in 60% or more of the server today....
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/09/26/ballmer-still-searching-answer-google
Just read a little bit more..... please, check your facts before to write. Any good answer welcome...
FOSS Is Ready
On September 27th, 2008 Chris E. (not verified) says:
Webmistress is correct. I believe that FOSS is ready and I am always the advocate here at work. Pardon the fact that my sarcasm didn't make it through my comment. And to answer the original post's question. I know that we won't be moving to anything open source soon.. despite the fact that we could save lots of money. Unfortunately in my position, I am usually required to justify 'internal support' costs of FOSS. And it's hard to put personal headcounts (application/infrastructuer expertise) up against flat-rate proprietary software support costs. Keep in mind that I don't work for an IT/Tech company, so we usually do not have the tech know-how that usually adopts FOSS easily.
I don't remember...
On September 26th, 2008 Webmistress says:
...writing anything about Linux and FOSS being ready or not. In fact, that really isn't the point at all. I merely pondered the question of whether or not the current economic climate would prove to boost interest in free and open source software.
There are still a lot of companies out there forking over big bucks for proprietary solutions, but how much will they spend this year?
I believe the previous poster's point was that "FOSS isn't ready for primetime" is a response he typically hears that he finds irritating because it very much IS ready.
__________________________Katherine Druckman is webmistress at LinuxJournal.com. You might find her chatting on the IRC channel.
Probably not
On October 2nd, 2008 Pseudonym (not verified) says:
There are still a lot of companies out there forking over big buck for proprietary solutions, but how much will they spend this year?
As much as they have to get the job done. Quite a few companies can't use the Linux platform.
FOSS isn't ready for Primetime???
On September 26th, 2008 Chris E. (not verified) says:
The retort that I always here about FOSS at my (big, oversized, sitting-fat) company is that FOSS is not ready for primetime and we don't have anyone to support it in production. As for support, typically we buy really expensive proprietary software at say $100,000 for a new release. Then we add-on a "maintenance fee" of say 20% per year to secure support in the case of a software disaster or unforeseen bug. What happens after the decision is made... is that we (as a company) still become the app experts on this overpriced, closed-source software and NEVER utilize that support that we pay for. And as for "not ready for primetime".. that says we (as a company) need a scapegoat when things go awry. I'm like a sitting duck over here, pushing for Linux and FOSS. Someday, we'll make it.
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