The Linux religion

The Linux movement has very little to do with operating systems, applications and software. To look to its open source code to find the soul of Linux is futile. Do not read the public licence to discover more about Linux. Linux is a concept, philosophy and religion. Its users are zealots. Its creators are priests. Linus Torvalds is its god.

Qualitatively it`s quite surprising to find out how wide the penetration is.

Paul Kotschy, chairman, Linux Professional Association

When Linux hit the planet 10 years ago, its creator, Linus Torvalds, could not have known how his software would change the world of computing. Designed as an alternative to Unix, the operating system was built from the ground up to be stable and reliable. Graphical user interfaces, huge driver support and easy application development were not key factors for Linux until very recently.

Released to the open source community, Linux grew organically, speeding up in advancement as the community of coders building Linux increased. The Internet provided a particularly useful platform for the open source community, and its rise further spurred development. Today, Linux looks quite unlike its earlier versions, with graphical installers, GUI front-ends, and an ever-increasing support base from the original developer community, the corporates and established IT players. Its time has come.

The penguin -- chosen by Torvalds as the Linux symbol -- used to rock up on technical Web sites hosting close communities of highly technical developers who adopted Linux as their own. Now you will find the penguin living side-by-side with IBM logos, on Sun Microsystems` site, near Corel`s 'C` emblem, and next to the business-like font of Oracle`s logo.

The IT establishment`s sudden uptake of Linux is not surprising. The benefits of Linux as a cross-hardware-platform operating system were too good to ignore. IBM, with its disparate hardware platforms, realised that Linux was the perfect tool to offer its customers a break from having to redevelop over each platform.

It`s reliable. You don`t measure Linux uptime in days to weeks -- it`s more months to years.

Paul Brown, MD, Tangent

The man-hours of development that have gone into Linux are worth millions of dollars in research and development -- a direct saving for corporate IT companies, which can merely pick up the source and use it for their own ends. It is even rumoured that Microsoft used some of the Linux kernel in its Windows 2000 operating system.

It seems the critical mass of Linux-skilled techies has been reached -- or is at least within reach. It does not compare to the Windows-literate population yet, but is significant enough for companies to find the skills they need. With Linux`s first teetering steps onto the desktop, the time was right for the big guns to come in firing.

The wave of support from IT`s established players has pushed Linux into a new realm. Once considered a hobbyists and academics operating system, Linux is now taken seriously by companies looking for a cost-effective method of deploying an IT infrastructure.

"It`s hard to ascertain who is using it [locally]," comments Paul Kotschy, Linux Professional Association chairman and director of SevenC Computing. "Qualitatively it`s quite surprising to find out how wide the penetration is. Most corporates have one or two people hacking around on Linux. It hasn`t made inroads like it has in Europe yet."

One of the local banks is investigating the possibility of deploying Linux in a thin-client environment, testifying to the fact that corporate SA is finally starting to take note of Linux`s possibilities.

The lack of skills is stifling Linux`s growth.

Paul Brown, MD, Tangent

Linux is known for its stability, thanks to its top-down development approach. "It`s reliable. You don`t measure Linux uptime in days to weeks -- it`s more months to years," comments Paul Brown, MD of Tangent, which offers training, consulting and support services for Linux.

Once a Linux system is up and running, it can result in lower cost of ownership (TCO) -- put the box in, and leave it. Lower downtime also means lower losses due to technical difficulties.

The lower TCO through stability is offset by the high cost of Linux skills. MCSEs are a dime a dozen, while Linux professionals are rare, and so cost more. "The lack of skills is stifling Linux`s growth," says Brown. As a result, companies often have to outsource their Linux support, a situation that is unacceptable for some.

The benefit of having one source of support also becomes apparent. Operating system vendors can be held accountable for problems, are easily contactable, and help is relatively quick and simple to obtain. With Linux, there is no central call centre to harass for answers when things go awry. Even documentation is, by comparison, difficult to get your hands on.

Linux promotes vendor neutrality. It espouses openness.

Paul Kotschy, chairman, Linux Professional Association

Linux pundits protest that the support infrastructure for Linux -- in essence, the Linux community -- offers all the help a company could need to keep its systems in tip-top shape. Of course, you have to know where to look. For a Linux newbie, this ad-hoc support structure can be less than reassuring.

Kotschy believes that the reasons for Linux`s success are subtler. "Linux promotes vendor neutrality. It espouses openness. It is about minimising risk of failure of a business -- people are more concerned about avoiding failure than making money in business. If all of your business is controlled by one vendor it makes you worried."

Many big IT users -- particularly non-US governments and military -- are looking for an infrastructure that does not originate from a single US-based company, Microsoft. The German military has stated its intentions of moving away from Microsoft`s operating systems, and it is highly likely that it will choose Linux instead.

The Chinese government is also eyeing Linux, which has a large and well-developed support for the Chinese character set. It has obvious reasons for distancing itself from an American operating system.

Linux`s open source allows military to ensure there are no back doors built into the code, while Microsoft must comply with the US government`s ruling to ensure that any encryption built into its products can be cracked by its defence departments. Its stability is also obviously another draw-card for the military.

Linux will definitely change the way the world works.

Paul Brown, MD, Tangent

Linux makes obvious sense for developing nations. The cost of computing is high enough with the hardware alone, and with the ever-strengthening dollar, a free software infrastructure is appealing. Linux distribution Suse announced recently that it will offer Linux in both Zulu and Xhosa, targeting South African schools. A school can install Suse Linux on every box for less than R500, including 2 000 free applications, such as an office suite, a Web browser, an e-mail application, and anti-virus software.

Getting Linux into schools will obviously help Linux vault one of its biggest hurdles -- lack of skills in the marketplace. Until the skills-base is increased, Linux has little chance of overthrowing Microsoft, as many of its zealots hope it will.

Another threat to Linux is its religious, philosophical nature. For corporations doing real business, this image does not reassure them of Linux`s potential in their companies. If the next generation of Linux users still see the operating system wars as some kind of holy war, as many of its current leaders do, Linux has little chance of success.

"Linux will definitely change the way the world works," says Brown, who admits that he used to be a Linux zealot. "Open source is testament to that. It`s something that Microsoft would never have done. Is Linux taking over the world? No. Redefining it? Yes."

Is Linux taking over the world? No. Redefining it? Yes.

Paul Brown, MD, Tangent

Getting past this religious fervour will also change Linux, as it will have to overcome its original roots of openness and fear of proprietary code. When Suse used some closed code in its latest installer, it was shot down by Linux pundits as breaking away from the Linux tradition of open source. However, Suse is a company, not a non-profit charity organisation, and needs to differentiate itself from the other Linux distributions available. The fairly immature attitude that Linux users have to their creation is stunting its potential growth in the real-world market.

"It`s a case of fundamental idealism versus real-world pragmatism," says Kotschy. "From the idealist`s point of view, there should be no proprietary code. As a pragmatist, Suse thinks it can make money, and put a bit of its own code in. I would tend to take a pragmatic view: is Suse meeting my needs as an end-user?"

Even those who recognise that Linux needs to grow and change seem saddened by the potential demise of Linux`s innocence. With the introduction of large IT companies into the Linux world, it is no longer totally owned by the community that founded the operating system.

"Many open source people would encourage the commercialisation of Linux, with their work becoming more and more important. Linux is protected by GNU public licence. It can`t ever become proprietary," says Kotschy.

Many open source people would encourage the commercialisation of Linux, with their work becoming more and more important.

Paul Kotschy, chairman, Linux Professional Association

However, with Suse`s proprietary installer, its open source nature seems doomed to be turned into a mixed closed source/open source environment. The Linux of tomorrow -- if Linux intends to continue growing -- will be very different from the Linux that Linus Torvalds invented 10 years ago. It is unlikely that it will ever divorce itself from its philosophy of freedom and openness.

"The philosophy is absolutely critical to Linux. It is the promotion of this culture of openness and sharing that has spawned a product such as Linux. If we lose that culture we will lose Linux, no question," says Kotschy.