The following is quoted from the column Business Bulletin on the
front page of today's Wall Street journal, which is probably the most
widely read newspaper by corporate America:
'FREEWARE' STIRS debate while entrepreneurs find a nice niche.
Advocates prefer to call the free software from developers "open
source software", stressing the fact that the source code used for
programming is open and constantly improved. Skeptics fear hackers
and the lack of support offered by commercial firms. Enter "value
added outfits like Caldera Systems, Inc. and Red Hat Software. They
package and offer support services for Linux, a popular open-source
software version of the Unix operating system created in1991 by
Finnish graduate student Linus Torvalds.
O'Reilly & Associates, a publisher in Sebastopol, Calif., expects
about half of is $40 million in revenue this year to come from the
sale of open source books. Even the big firms are involved: IBM, for
instance, licensed Apache, an open-source product for Web sites.
Potential corporate users have a mixed view. Many firms, such as
Virginia Power, Wells Fargo & Co., Ipalco Enterprises, Inc. and Boeing
Co. discourage use of freeware, although some allow special use. Some
fear viruses.
The City of Garden Grove, Calif. has used a Linux-based network
since 1995.
Bob
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|_) _ |_ Robert D. Hilliard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
|_) (_) |_) Palm City, FL USA PGP Key ID: A8E40EB9
