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Real answers to the question Can you run your business on Linux and open source? (iTWire)
iTWire's David M. Williams tries to answer a common question about using Linux to run a business. Using information from companies who have switched from Windows to Linux, his answer is mostly affirmative. "He reported they had solved authentication issues using LDAP with replication to all servers and using Samba 3.0.24. This, he said, had slick integration with XP clients and Windows 2003 servers in both directions. Additionally, his company enhanced their mail platform by using 'Postfix for the MTA with amavis and spamassassin.' This, he advised, took a little tuning to stop spamassassin giving false positives but was do-able."
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Of course! Posted Nov 26, 2007 18:14 UTC (Mon) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link] Roaring Penguin (my company) has run on Linux since inception in 1999. Our current software stack looks something like this:
Of course! Posted Nov 26, 2007 21:51 UTC (Mon) by aleXXX (subscriber, #2742) [Link] Yes, Slackware rules ! Sorry, SCNR. Alex
Of course!; and network effects Posted Nov 28, 2007 1:58 UTC (Wed) by pjm (subscriber, #2080) [Link] dskoll's list of example software for different tasks looks helpful. As for the answer of course!, it's a good start to point out that many businesses do use all Free Software (indeed, many businesses use no software at all, so are trivially able to use only Free Software); though really I think a person asking this question intends it to mean Can I reasonably use Linux and open source (as some or all of my software) in my business?. Comments here and in the article bound the answer from below, one might figuratively say (below assuming false < true); to try to bound the answer from above, if the business of the person asking the question is providing support for Windows software, then my answer would be It really would be a good idea to run at least some Windows software in your business unless you can change what your business does. That said, my experience is that businesses can usually benefit by using at least some Free Software. It's helpful that the author of the original article speaks to people from a (small) number of businesses, who describe shortcomings and give advice. The article starts with some reasons why businesses often choose to use certain non-Free software such as Windows. It should be stressed that these reasons apply to some businesses more than others, and many of the reasons have small weight compared to the costs of the software. Most (all?) of the reasons given in the article relate to network effects. Something to keep in mind if any of these is significant for the business is that the proportion of people using one piece of software or another varies over time; and change is particularly likely if you'd rather use different software if it weren't for network effects. Also, network effects cut both ways: if you'd rather that more people were to use different software for whatever reason (whether because its functionality is better for you or because you'd rather use Free Software for whatever reasons), then using that different software yourself can help to bring that about because of those network effects.
Real answers to the question Can you run your business on Linux and open source? (iTWire) Posted Nov 27, 2007 1:44 UTC (Tue) by fjf33 (subscriber, #5768) [Link] The small company I work at, is probably a better example of where Linux has made inroads. We use it at the router, to screen Exchange from the internet and do things like multiple external domains, virtual addresses, etc that can be done with Exchange but is a lot heavier. We also use it to host an intranet usking a wiki rather than loading apache and php under windows.
Real answers to the question Can you run your business on Linux and open source? (iTWire) Posted Nov 27, 2007 8:56 UTC (Tue) by dreadnought (subscriber, #27222) [Link] All my server systems are Linux based and centrally managed. I have Kerberos setup for authentication of my Linux systems and was able to include my Windows hosts. I also have LDAP setup for account management across all the Linux systems. The Desktops deployed are mostly Linux based with VMWare workstation/server installs for Windows client testing. I was able to get Windows to authenticate against the Linux Kerberos store by using "Support Tools" included on the Windows CD. However this wasn't as great an option as I had hoped as there have been a few minor problems with it. In another setting I have there is a corporate Active Directory Server which the Linux hosts authenticate against using ntp/Pam/Kerberos and it all seems to work quite well. My hope is for something like pGina to take things further http://pgina.sourceforge.net/.
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