– By Robin “Roblimo”
Miller –
Looking at my email and talking to people I meet at various industry association meetings, I am seeing a shift in the kind of people who are switching to Linux. And the latest round of “converts” I see are not dumber or less computer-savvy than “old-line” Linux people. If anything, they’re more experienced than the talented students and hackers who made up the bulk of early Linux adopters.

Any article about marketing or advocating Linux to “the mainstream” draws a set of fairly predictable responses from those who want Linux to stay geeky instead of getting “dumbed down” for “Joe and Jane Sixpack.” But I am not seeing any huge increase in the number of help inquiries coming into editors@linux.com from people with AOL email addresses asking if they can run their Windows genealogy programs and games on Linux. We still get those, and always will. But we are seeing a veritable explosion in the number of information requests from IT professionals who are seriously investigating Linux for the first time.

Here’s an example of the “new wave” of inquiries we’re seeing:

I am the IT administrator for a medium-sized school district, and we’re talking about switching some or all of our servers to Linux. We are currently using a mix of Sun Solaris and Microsoft, especially Exchange and Outlook for email. Do you have any migration guides that can help us make a smooth transition to Linux? Is there any way we can continue using Exchange on Linux or can you reccomend a Linux equivalant? We are making this move because our IT budget has been cut and proprietary software license fees are going up. We are excited about Linux and need to learn more about it.”

An excerpt from another one:

My name is [removed] and I recently visited a web page discussing the benefits of Linux Operating Systems and in particular the ability to reduce on purchasing software licensing. I currently work for the [removed] law firm based out of [removed] and we are rebuilding our entire network down to the cabling. If you could send me any info on Linux systems and their ability to support databases and possibly up to 2500 users. Thank you.

These are sophisticated computer professionals, not home users. They are, no doubt, highly competent with Windows NT/2000 and/or Unix, but when it comes to Linux, they are “new users” who don’t know much. They are entirely capable of reading manuals and learning; they have already learned how to deal with complex networking issues or they wouldn’t have their jobs. But before they start learning Linux, they need to know what they can (and can’t) do with it, what kind of work they’re looking at if and when they start deploying Linux, and what kind of problems they are likely to encounter.

We can’t say, “Go download a copy of [favorite distribution] and if you have any problems, look for help on IRC,” to someone who is talking about using Linux on a significant network that is critical to a company’s or government agency’s operation. They need more and better information than that. And never forget, if the Linux migration doesn’t work out, the person within the organization who pushed for Linux is probably going to lose his or her job, which raises the stakes (for that person) even higher.

I guess what I’m asking here is, “Hey, seen any good white papers lately?” Most of the “newbie-oriented” Linux tutorials and HOWTOs I’ve seen were written for home users or students, not for professional network administrators or IT managers. And where should that Windows-experienced admin thinking about at least experimenting with Linux turn for help? I have no problem advising them to turn to local Linux User Groups, because every sizable LUG I have had any contact with had a “hard core” of professional, very knowledgeable IT people in it — often including consultants eager to help with corporate Linux migrations professionally, for a fee. But where else should we point new or potential enterprise-level Linux users?

Companies like IBM or Red Hat and almost any other Linux distribution publisher will happily supply all the enterprise-level Linux support anyone could want if the money’s right. Are they the best places for corporate IT managers to go for Linux advice? What about training current employees? Is it better to send people already working in the organization off for Linux training, and rely on their newly-acquired Linux knowledge instead of turning to outsiders? What formal Linux training programs are best? Or is it better to just buy books, set up a couple of test systems, and rely on self-teaching?

Then we come to the problem of choosing enterprise-level hardware and software. NewsForge and other publications that cover tech matters can easily have a staff member or freelancer test and review a standalone computer or a single-user program, but how are we going to test a server that’s supposed to be able run 800 thin clients? We don’t have 800 thin clients in daily use that we can suddenly change over to a new, untried system in order to write a review of it. Neither do most school districts, law firms, manufacturers or retailers, and that’s a major problem they have not only with switching to Linux but with switching to anything new to them.

Managers responsible for corporate or government IT systems are going to be conservative about major decisions. They should experiment with Linux (or anything else they haven’t tried yet) a little at a time, and gradually increase its use as they gain experience with it — assuming it works better for them (or costs less) than what they were using before.

But that still leaves us — the people who already use Linux — with the question of how we can best help new enterprise-level Linux users have satisfactory initial experiences with Linux.

Any suggestions?

ITWales is launching its online magazine by featuring, among many other articles, a streaming video of Alan Cox at the University of Wales, giving a lecture entitled “Doing Things Differently – Linux Past, Present and Future.”

Mariuz writes: “The Firebird Project is proud to announce the immediate availability of Firebird 1.0 for Linux, Windows and MacOS X. Other directly supported platforms (FreeBSD, Solaris, HP-UX) should follow shortly.”

njcajun writes: “LinuxLaboratory.org, a banner-ad free community site devoted to administrators of *nix servers and networks, is looking for any and all writers who can document some of the more advanced uses of Linux. Some ideas are: ‘Linux in a Mixed LDAP/NIS environment’, ‘Solving Problems through Clustering’, ‘Development for Linux on the Itanium’, and ‘Step-by-Step: a Custom Bootable Redhat Distro CD’. Writers own their submissions, and are credited as such. Papers should be addressed to njcajun _AT_ LinuxLaboratory _DOT_ org.”

LinuxPR: “Bynari’s InsightConnector allows Microsoft(R) Outlook users to uncouple their dependence on Microsoft Exchange. To test it, a user needs an IMAP server. So what’s the problem? Outlook users need an Open Source advocate to help them through the murky waters of freedom.”

BBC.co.uk: ” Steve Ballmer was sharing the platform with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder when he acknowledged his company had a less than perfect track record as far as trustworthiness went.”

DocTomoe writes: “While many Linux users wouldn’t think a second about playing music on a Linux box, others can’t live without it. iMacLinux has a guide that will show you a bit through the possibilities of XMMS and why it has become the “standard” Linux music player. Screenshots included.”

Debian Planet reports that a Debian developer has won two gold medals at this year’s Paralympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

– By Jack Bryar –

I love MandrakeSoft.
I love its product. I think its software team is great, but the
company’s recent “strategy” of begging for money is ridiculous posture for any
for-profit company. It may be time for MandrakeSoft to return to its roots.

It must be that time of the year. My local National Public Radio affiliate is
begging for money. At least four times a year, the airwaves at the lower end of
the FM dial are clogged up with boring mid-level executives, whining
for dough and threatening to drive their Volvos over to CBS if I don’t
fork over another $10 a month.

This means they have come begging only twice as often as
MandrakeSoft during the last year.

I have a problem with this. I don’t mind being guilt-tripped into forking over a little dough to my local public radio station. After all, where else will you hear a music marathon featuring the
Portsmouth Symphonia? Certainly not on commercial radio.

I do have a problem with making regular contributions to the folks
at MandrakeSoft, not that they have stopped asking. About a year ago,
they were warning everyone that they were having trouble making ends meet,
and were effectively soliciting contributions. Last summer the company put together a multimillion dollar IPO of sorts, selling off 20% of
the company for a little under $4 million dollars.

That was nearly $4 million raised despite the fact that MandrakeSoft had nothing in
the way of decent financial prospects, and no obvious business plan
that would ever turn the company into a promising investment.

I cheered them on. Last May, I suggested that there
was a good case to be made for Mandrake, although not a
particularly good financial case. I did think the company might be able
to keep its burn rate under control until executives there figured out a way to run
the company as a business.

Apparently not.

Before
the end of the year, Mandrake was asking enthusiasts to chip in $5
dollars a month to join something called the Mandrake Club. By the
beginning of this week, the company was back louder than ever, stating that, the “Mandrake Linux distribution’s short-term future is in jeopardy due to a simple factor:
money.” The newest fund-raising gimmick? Corporate club memberships,
with fees ranging from $2,500 to $100,000. Among the perks: direct
downloads from Mandrake servers.

MandrakeSoft is assuring users that its current financial straits
are temporary. The company is about to release version 8.2 of Linux Mandrake. The company expects to be profitable in 90 days.

Of course, the company also planned to be profitable 90 days
ago.

This really wouldn’t be a problem if MandrakeSoft was a little more
like National Public Radio. No one ever figured that NPR would
become self sufficient. Likewise, MandrakeSoft was originally set up as a
non-profit. It began its existence as a volunteer project to upgrade and localize
Red Hat’s version of Linux, combined with the KDE user interface. Almost
from the day the company declared itself a profit-seeking corporation,
observers have had trouble figuring out how the firm expected to make money,
although MandrakeSoft leaders keep insisting they are going to try.

And that’s silly. In some ways, the company is a lot like your local
public radio station. Public radio puts out a reasonably good product and
owns the top income demographics in most markets. However, it has no
means of forcing its user base to pay for its services. MandrakeSoft,
more than most Linux firms, has the same problem. There’s a reason that
Linux firms like Red Hat walked away from the end-user, desktop business. Setting up and managing a massive server farm at companies like AOL requires plenty
of onsite support and more than a little custom development. There’s a
potential revenue stream and an obvious market. By comparison, MandrakeSoft’s
desktop Linux is a shrinkwrapped product. No matter how good it is, there’s little
need for support and there’s no reason that a company should ever
have to fork over cash for anything other than the minimum single
license to run an entire floor of workstations.

One important difference is that NPR is supposed to be a non-profit.
MandrakeSoft isn’t. The company is backed by firms like AXA
and ABN Amro — both gigantic financial service companies. Since when did you send a love offering to your local bank? In addition, the company has yet to float 80% of its stock. Last I checked, the current trading price was still trading at around $3.50. If MandrakeSoft needs to raise a little cash, it could always sell some of the remaining stock.

If selling stock or heading to the bank is not an option for
Mandrake, the firm may have to face the fact that it may not be viable as a
for-profit entity. It may be painful, but it’s not the end of the world. Other
firms have restructured. Plenty of private schools, water and sewer
companies, hospitals and real-estate holding companies have made the
transition to becoming non-profit institutions. There’s no reason a software
developer couldn’t do the same thing.

And when MandrakeSoft does, I’ll mail it a nice contribution.

Anonymous Reader writes “silicon.com carries a story that a pressure group called OpenForum Europe has been created to speed the take-up of open source software (OSS) in UK businesses.
Comments are invited from registered users”