Linux and OpenSource for Business
I recently installed a new distribution of Linux on my laptop, Mandrake 9.2, and I was thoroughly impressed.
The installation process was very fast (under 20 minutes),and extremely easy. I was shocked when my sound card, display drivers, and wireless card all worked without any kind of adjustment on my part. This is even more surprising when you consider that my laptop is not even mainstream (Fujitsu
Lifebook S6110).
My previous Linux experience has been with RedHat 9.0, and I’ve found that the Mandrake Distribution is far more suited to use on the desktop.
Mandrake has led to a realization: Putting Linux on the desktop is an incredible opportunity for businesses to save money.
If you’ve got windows experience, you should have absolutely no difficulty getting a system up and running. Almost any task you wish to do, can be done on a linux computer. Not only can it be done, but it can be done for free. All you do is download the software from the web, and all sorts of programs are included. Office Productivity, Database, web server, CD burning, Graphics programs, etc.
Are you looking for business software? ERP, CRM,
Desktop Publishing… All kinds of software can be found for free, and you can find it here.
Open source software is improving by leaps and bounds. Even on my windows machines I use open-source: my current web browser is Mozilla Firefox 0.8 (an incredible browser – far better than Microsoft Internet Explorer), and I run a mozilla mail client at my work.
Although some open-source software does lag behind traditional software, the gap is quickly closing. For example, you can look at MySQL and see the developments the software has made over the last 3 yrs: It’s shocking. If MySQL can fit your needs, there’s definitely no need to spend $10,000 on an Oracle database.
One of the strongest arguments for open-source has been the “good enough” claim. This states that, for most users, the open-source software out there is good enough to get the job done. If you’ve got employees who spend most of their time writing emails, composing word documents, or doing data entry – they really don’t need many of the advanced features of windows programs. There will still be a large market for those that need and use the latest software, but for those who don’t, programs like open-office can get the job done right (and they offer compatibility with Microsoft office files).
The potential of open-source has not been lost on the media, and the buzz has been building. This year, the government of China has made a commitment to open-source, as have Munich and Paris. If, however, open source isn’t for you – Microsoft Longhorn looks to offer some promising solutions.
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While I agree with you that Opensource is definitely ready for the desktop, after all I ran SuSE and Mandrake myself for years, I see its place more in small businesses than in large ones. For one smallbiz don’t usually have the resources for the proper commercial licenses and its a good way to keep cost down.
However for large ones, I just see the total cost of ownership still unfavourable for opensource. The training for windows users, would still be substantial and I am uncertain if the benefits outweight the downsides.
Klaus, I agree with you. Small businesses are where the potential lies. The only problem is that small businesses will rarely have the technical ability or the awareness that will expose them to the benefits.
I’ve worked for small businesses before, and was always surprised at the inefficiencies (things like manually entering hours of data into three different systems) – so I’m not confident that small businesses will be really fast to adapt. The motivation of thousands in saved licenses will definately help
MySQL does not have OLAP capability, nor is it programmable. PostGresql is a nice alternative, although it doesn’t have OLAP either.