A sermon on Linux: Part 1

Sing to the tune of Anything Goes:

In olden days most network vendors

Were looked on as real contenders

Now heaven knows, anything goes.

Some vendors who once had market share

Now haven't even got their hair

As they close, anything goes . . .

- Apologies to the late Cole Porter

Brethren, welcome back to the First and Last Church of Networking. Let's have a round of applause for the choir. A fine job and, might I note, in tune for a change

With all the present furor over Microsoft, Intel and Cisco and whether they have indulged in unfair competitive practices, now is a good time to reflect on the future of the network, the design of the desktop and the nature of the network operating system (NOS). It all comes down to operating systems.

So, what have we got in the corporate world in the way of operating systems? Let's see, there's Windows, HP/UX, Windows, OS/2, Windows, OS/390, Windows, AIX, Windows, Macintosh, Windows, Solaris, Windows, IRIX and Windows. Oh, and there's the operating system that runs that cute little PalmPilot. And there's Windows. (Hey, editor, do you think I overdid that?) ((No more than usual - ed.))

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you there is an alternative to consider, there is another choice, there is salvaaaation.

At one time, the joke was that no one got fired for buying IBM; now it is no one gets fired for buying Microsoft. And while I think the father, son and holy ghost of corporate networks -Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT respectively - have their merits, as I have said in previous sermons: They aren't the best or only solutions.

Brothers and sisters, there is another way . . . the way of Linux.

Yes, this humble son of Unix is as a beacon in the darkness that is the lot of IT managers everywhere. (Whoa, big guy, whoaaaa - ed.)

In the last few months, we've seen a surge of interest in open-source software (which includes Linux), and we're coming to understand that this is a different way of thinking about products. The argument against freeware has always been that it is unsupported and therefore, unsupportable.

Now, I think we can see that, generally, support from commercial vendors for any software is essentially as good as it ever was . . . which is to say, hardly recognizable as support.

I recently received a very amusing account of one anonymous man's quest for support. He called Microsoft and listened for a considerable time to a technician learning the product! The technician ultimately failed to solve the caller's problem and to add insult to injury, Microsoft then apparently refused to refund the $45 they charge per incident.

So, by way of comparison, the chap with the problem called the Psychic Friends Network. They cost the same as Microsoft, were equally incapable of finding a solution but were far more polite. A lesson for us all, I think.

It really comes down to recognizing that the way support is really achieved for the majority of commercial products is by your own staff, using the product documentation, their insight, books, periodicals, news groups and Web sites. Now, how do you support open-source products? Exactly the same way.

So, why don't IT groups go for open-source products more? I have some ideas why and some ideas what they could do. So next week, brothers and sisters, we'll delve into the nascent Linux market and how it might have a fighting chance. Amen.

A sermon on Linux: Part 2