[lug] MS Apps ported to Linux???

[Ferdinand Schmid]

Here is my take on this much talked about statement (I read the interview in
e-week last week):


>    ... "While we are threatened by the Linux business model, where
>    companies give away free software, we are not at all worried about that
>    operating system from a technological standpoint," Miller told eWEEK
>    before heading off to the conference. "There are no earth-shattering
>    technological innovations in Linux -- actually, there's a lot less than
>    can be found in the Windows and Unix platforms." ...

What earth shattering innovation is in Windows 2000?  Is it that it now
offers a telnet server?  Yes - it is a powerful operating system for certain
tasks.  You can use it for hosting dynamic web sites without requiring highly
skilled staff and there are many more good uses for it.  But judge for
yourself if it is a good idea to run Internet services by not well trained
personnel.  And - Windows is yet to run on a vertically scalable system such
as a 100+ CPU Sun.  Linux isn't there yet but it is on its way with support
from the companies who are already able to power such high end machines.
While there is Windows for embedded systems on the low end its proprietary
architecture is a problem.  Everybody in the embedded market is running to
Linux because it is easy to include custom modifications to the OS to address
a specific need and because it liberates developers from requiring fairly
high end systems (often Intel compatible).  Linux runs on a huge number of
platforms so the system integrator can choose very low power, very low cost,
... so they can really perfectly match their requirements.

The free software threat doesn't hold either.  IBM just poured 300 Million
Dollars into Linux related projects.  They don't do that without expecting
return.  Engineers often fall into this scheme of doing business as always
and even Microsoft fails to innovate in this particular case.  The Linux
development effort is sponsored by a group of companies who use Linux as part
of their product or service.  This joined effort will definitely lead to
cheaper and more competitive products.  Look at network storage appliances,
small data gateways, TV set-top boxes, Internet solutions providers, and the
list goes on and on.  These companies offer solutions - not raw building
blocks.  Companies of this type will grow because they can help make
businesses more efficient by offering new capabilities...  These new style
companies are the innovation behind Linux.


>    ... I think the shine is dulling around Linux as people scramble to
>    find a business model based on free software that actually works," he
>    said. "Ultimately, there's no such thing as a free lunch -- someone has
>    to pay for continued innovation and support." ...

See above - selling free software for fee won't work but offering innovative
solutions based on a common pool of free software will work.  MS sees
innovation simply as new software algorithms.  True innovation however is
helping people in their everyday life in new ways.  How about not having to
sit down with an expensive PC for doing e-mail?

>    ... While there has been much talk about Linux as an operating system,
>    there hasn't been nearly enough talk about how it is solving customer
>    problems through a full suite of business applications, Miller
>    contended, adding it has a "long way to go" to solve the range of
>    business problems that companies like Microsoft solve today. ...

See above - people may have more problems than what MS-Office can solve!
Think out of the box and you will find the Linux success stories.  Eventually
Linux may offer an even better solution to our desk work than working with
MS-Office style software.

>    ... "Linux is many, many years away from being an enterprise-ready
>    operating system that can compete with, and challenge, the Windows
>    platform," he said. "There is also no vision or driving force around
>    it. We are already in very good shape on the enterprise today and are
>    leading the charge on the Web services front and in new ways of looking
>    at delivering value. ...

I've heard this argument for many years now.  Consider this:  When I
installed the first Linux systems here at our company (print servers, small
file servers) it all happened without anybody knowing.  Nobody would have
approved such "untested" equipment.  Now we have a Linux logo on some of our
web sites and all important servers run Linux.  This is not just my story but
the story of thousands of companies.
Linux is what small companies can afford and hence use these days.  As some
analyst firm who was quoted in e-week said:  These small Linux shops of today
are tomorrow's big companies and Linux is what they grew up with.  So that's
what they will use as an enterprise.  Our disk storage here has grown from 18
GB to 180 GB in 3 years and none of the users even noticed because Linux can
mount disks to directories.  In Windows I would have had to create new drive
letters and users would have needed to learn new storage structures over and
over again (we don't have hardware RAID).
As mentioned earlier - Windows only scales horizontally (cluster of many
small computers).  So does Linux.  No difference there.

And finally:  A few years ago a large bank in Munich, Germany switched to a
new generation of ATMs running WindowsNT.  I learned from a friend (who
doesn't care for Linux at all) that getting money from an ATM became a matter
of luck - frequently you saw the famous blue screen on those machines and
left without cash.  I hear that eventually this bank switched to Linux for
their new ATMs - no more problems.  I don't expect experiences like this will
help Windows 2000 set foot on the enterprise level.

So let's hope that the companies we like to do business with put their bets
on the right horse.  RedHat seems on the right track by making money through
offering creative solutions and landing smart contracts with users of their
OS rather than trying to sell boxed copies of their OS for fee.
As Maddog (John Hall) said at last year's CLIQ:  Go forth and make money
using Linux!


--
Ferdinand Schmid
http://www.archenergy.com
303-444-4149 x231