http://www.premodded.com/
This month our Workshop section introduces the LinuXbox. APC shows you how
to boost the power of your Xbox by installing Linux on it to play games,
DVDs, DivXmovies or serve files.
The buzz around Linux is reminiscent of the stirrings surrounding the
Internet before the dot com crash. In fact, many of the concepts that
fascinated people about the Net also applied to the operating system: both
began as academic projects, neither were owned by a specific organisation,
and they were largely free for anyone to access and contribute to.
These factors meant that activity snowballed, building up from simple
projects into a global phenomenon with great promise. And in both cases, it
was also predicted that they'd quietly go away in favour of proprietary
alternatives once the hype died down.
There's no arguing that some of the heat has gone out of the Linux market.
Companies that had jumped onto the bandwagon, like Caldera and Corel,
stepped away from the platform. Others, such as Linux desktop company
Eazel, disappeared entirely.
But Linux, like the Internet, isn't about to go away any time soon. And the
serious players in the Linux industry are doing quite well.
Red Hat is profitable and still expanding; IBM has recouped its billion
dollars worth of Linux investment sooner than expected, and research firm
IDC estimates that spending on Linux will increase from $80 million in 2001
to $280 million by 2006. The platform and its open source philosophy is no
longer a left-of-field concept to the business world. Linux has become
part, and in some cases the whole, of the IT infrastructure of many
Australian businesses, earning a reputation for providing inexpensive and
reliable file and print, email, Web and network infrastructure services.
More recently, with IT budgets feeling the strain of Microsoft's expensive
new licensing model, businesses are looking closely at Linux. IDC reports
that some 15% of Microsoft's customers are examining alternative
technologies such as Linux following the introduction of Microsoft's
Licensing 6 scheme.
Open source licensing of the OS and many applications delivers significant
cost savings, and allows staff to replicate their work environment on their
home machines for free. It also avoids licence audits and the cost of staff
"borrowing" expensive software.
But Linux is also getting attention in its own right. Stuart Guthrie, from
NSW systems integrator Eureka IT, says that his customers are "seriously
looking at Linux -- not just trying to arm-bend Microsoft [into a better
licensing deal]."
While best known as a back office platform, for Linux the desktop is now
the most promising frontier as well as being its biggest challenge. Only a
short while ago, a Linux desktop looked like a mishmash of inconsistent
applications which performed every task under the sun except what most
desktop users need: a Web browser capable of displaying most Web pages; a
good email client and contact manager; and an office suite which can work
reliably with Microsoft Office files. That situation changed once
mainstream Linux distributions began to direct their efforts towards
Microsoft's heartland.
In common with many competitors, Linux market leader Red Hat once focused
purely on servers. However, with its 8.0 release, the company aimed to
deliver a polished, consistent desktop that anyone could use (whether it
succeeded is another question -- see our Workshop article entitled: "You
can leave your Hat on", page 136).
The United Linux consortium (a group consisting of Caldera, SuSE,
Turbolinux and Conectiva) has also announced an upcoming release with a
clear desktop focus.
Switchers and stayers
Although Linux isn't yet up to the ease of use of Windows, it's getting
there. Furthermore, as a desktop platform Linux offers a variety of
advantages over Windows, particularly in terms of installation and
maintenance. The tight set of default permissions is appreciated by
administrators seeking locked down, tamper-proof desktops, which eases the
maintenance burden and reduces the effects of malicious users and software.
Another frequently cited business benefit of Linux is the ability to easily
produce a standardised roaming user environment. Kim Perkins, Information
Systems Manager at Melbourne private school Strathcona Baptist Girls'
College, explains that by using LDAP for authentication and the Network
File System (NFS) to share users' home directories, staff and students "can
sit down on any machine and get their own environment, which they can
customise without harming the underlying OS. Users have remarked that it's
like having their own machine," says Perkins.
While his team looked at doing the same for its Windows desktops using
profiles and the policy editor, the process was "much more difficult and
would have taken more time".
Strathcona has converted 90 student and staff desktops -- half of its total
fleet -- to Linux, and adopted Sun's StarOffice 6 suite on all Linux and
Windows machines; the application is also available for staff and students
to use on their personal systems.
"One of the problems we've had with Microsoft Office is that students save
work here and can't open it [on their home PC] because of file
incompatibilities," notes Perkins. "The choice is up to the student, and
they can save their documents in Office formats if they choose to stick
with Office at home.
Recurring software licensing is a major component of the IT budget," he
says. "Linux provided substantial cost savings, allowing us to spend those
funds elsewhere." This includes more powerful desktop hardware, where the
school opted for cutting-edge desktops with high-end nVidia graphics cards.
Switching to open source to trim licensing costs doesn't have to involve
ditching Windows entirely. It might just mean employing some open source
applications that run on Windows, such as OpenOffice, or the Gimp photo
editing software.
At the same time, there can be some hidden costs in rolling out Linux. Unix
network administrators typically earn at least a third more than NT
specialists, although they usually bring with them a good set of cross
platform skills and extensive TCP-IP nous.
In some cases, the licence fee for Windows is almost forced upon the user.
Very few of the name-brand vendors will sell a desktop PC without an
included OS, and although Microsoft's licence agreement promises that the
company will refund the cost of the software if you don't accept the
licence agreement, trying to wring that refund from the Redmond coffers can
take a lot of effort.
But it can be done, and as more companies move to Linux, vendors are
readjusting their own approach with OS-free machines -- especially "white
box" makers, where removing the Windows licence can be the cost savings
trump card that seals the deal against a larger player.
