Too much is being made of Linux as a free operating system, when its real benefits are its features, says Sean Moony, chief technical consultant at .
MIP Holdings is a Progress-based software development house specialising in enterprise business management systems for the healthcare industry. The company is currently moving into the applications service provider (ASP) arena and uses Linux as an operating system at a number of its sites.
Moony maintains total cost of ownership should be considered, rather than up-front costs when it comes to deciding which operating system to run with.
"Linux can result in lower TCO, but it depends what you are using it for, " says Moony. "It has so many other plus points it is a real shame to focus just on the cost aspect.
"It is certainly stable enough to use in business critical systems, but as with all mission critical systems you need to have support close at hand. In our case, we have strong in-house Linux skills to ensure mission critical delivery," says Moony. "For those less fortunate than ourselves, there is the Linux Professionals Association to call on for professional support. These are real experts with real experience, not just people who have been on fast-track certification courses.
"We consider Linux to be very much a network component, using it extensively in gateways, firewalls, Web servers and file servers. It is exceptionally versatile. For instance, using Samba, we are able to make selected directories and printers sharable to Windows machines as well as other Linux and Unix machines, obviating the need for NT servers.
Despite recent Microsoft-sponsored benchmarks which compared apples with oranges, Linux is much more scaleable and robust than NT. Although Linux has a graphical component, NT cannot compete when it comes to scripting and command-line power. In real administration tasks, NT`s GUI interface can actually become an unacceptable hinderance. In a similar same vein, NT`s ActiveX support more often than not results in security compromises.
"Linux is elegant, attracting technically-minded people who are dedicated to it, because it is a democratic and versatile operating system. This democracy of use on which it is based has resulted in its having a wider range of supported platforms, whereas NT is slowing down and rationalising its support for certain platforms, such as MIPS and Alpha. Besides those platforms, Linux can also run on Sparc and others.
Open source code reviews ensure that code is efficiently written, and enhancements and improvements are quickly available. There`s also a healthy degree of competition within the open source community. This openness and democracy guarantees Linux`s growth and survival into the future," says Moony.
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