My post in reply
----------
From: Gregory Bradley
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: Bradley, Greg
Subject: Linux
Date: Sunday, 14 June 1998 8:18PM
Reasons for usage of Linux:
Price
Its free
Stability
Linux is incredibly stable. Because the source code is freely available,
bugs tend to be found and corrected as fast as they appear. In many
instances Linux servers are only shutdown for the purpose of upgrading
to a later version of the software kernel. Basically, if you cant afford
for your application to crash, it should be running on Linux, as even
the best application must fail when the underlying operating system
fails.
Support
All the commercial operating system providers now charge a fee for
support. Even then, you tend to spend hours waiting to get through. When
you do get through, they hand feed you one possible solution at a time
(each call generates more income).
Linux is supported through the internet, through conferences and e-mail
by people who enjoy doing it, I guess it provides a boost to the ego or
something. Anyway, I have NEVER had a problem with Linux that I couldn't
find a solution to this way, often within the hour. In fact, this is now
my FIRST port of call for finding solutions to problems with commercial
software, although, probably due to there being a commercial supporrt
service, the free support on the internet for these products is not as
well developed.
Applications
While there are certainly more applications available for windows, ther
are enough good quality products of each kind for Linux. I dont care if
there are 300 word processors available for windows, I only use 1 of
them. Likewise, I only need 1 good word processor for Linux. There are a
number of quite good free ones however, a number of better shareware
ones, and certainly enough commercial ones such as Wordperfect. What
makes the difference though is the number of these that come free in the
box with the distribution. The average user need not ever buy another
piece of software again after the initial purchase of Linux which comes
with windowing system, TCP and IPX client AND server software, word
processors, spreadsheets, databases, mail clients, web browsers etc etc.
While all of these can be purchased for a commercial operating system,
the cost of actually doing so effectively stops most people from doing
so.
It should be remembered that many windows and dos programs will run
happily under Linux anyway under emulation, and often faster than the
did under their supposed natural host.
Security
Unix is a fairly old platform. Almost every conceivable way of breaking
in has been tried, and fixed. With Linux, the source code is available
so every possible avaenue can be seen, explored and fixed. New whole in
NT are being found all the time. This is no fault of the OS itself as it
has implemented a number of innovative security measures, rather, it
stems from the fact that no limited group can forsee every eventuality.
The ONLY way to ensure true security is to open up the code to public
scrutiny, debate and comment.
Future
If your company is spending millions building an in-house application
you do not want the rug pulled from under you in a year or twos time
when the vendor decides not to support the operating system you wrote it
for. This CANT happen with Linux, you have the source code to the OS and
in the worst case scenario, can maintain it in-house as well. Compare
this to windows. When win95 didn't sell well enough, Microsoft simply
refused to supply win 3.1 any more, even though sales of 3.1 continued
to exceed sales of 95 right up to the last day.
The commercial penetration of Linux is largely hidden. If you were to
ask the management of the company I work for for instance, they would
tell you it is not used. In reality, there are dozens of Linux servers
throughout the company, In fact, with my section it is central to what
we do, I am employed solely to maintain our Linux servers.
Anyway, I think the question really should be, why WOULDN'T you use
Linux, I can think of only one, it is very difficult to by it
pre-installed on a machine, but Corel for instance, and a few others,
are now even addressing that issue.
Regards
Greg Bradley
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