Linux elbowing its way to top with some firms
Austin Business Journal - by Karen Wagner Special To The Austin Business Journal
Microsoft Corp. may have bigger problems than the U.S. Department of Justice breathing down its neck. For the first time, a competitor is threatening to cut into the company's market share.
In Austin, a steadily increasing number of companies are realizing the merits of Linux, an operating system that many high tech users consider a cheaper and better alternative to Microsoft Windows and Unix, two industry giants that currently dominate the systems market.
An operating system is essentially the core software of the computer: the internal logic that enables all the elements -- the monitor, the keyboard, the printer, and different kinds of software -- to work together.
Several Austin-area-based companies -- including computer giant Dell Computer Corp. of Round Rock -- have taken a strong interest in Linux and have incorporated it into their product lines, in many cases at the customer's request.
"We basically listened to our customers," says Subo Guha, director of product marketing for Dell's Enterprise Systems Group. "They did ask for Linux, and that's how Linux became one of our operating systems."
Dell provides factory-installed Linux operating systems on their PowerEdge brand servers, which are powerful central computers that run computer networks. Dell also provides Linux for desktop solutions in workstations.
"We definitely are making it [Linux] available across the line from servers to PCs," Guha says.
In April, Dell announced that it had invested an undisclosed amount of equity in Red Hat Software Inc., a Durham, N.C.-based leading distributor of the Linux operating system. Red Hat's technology is so popular that the company's initial public offering in August was one of the year's most successful.
According to research by International Data Corp., a Massachusetts-based firm that tracks the information technology industry, Linux was the fastest-growing server operating environment in 1998, capturing 15.8 percent of the $4.4 million server operating systems market. IDC forecasted a 66 percent increase in the number of Linux users between 1998 and 1999, to 2.5 million.
In addition to Dell, other key players -- such as IBM, Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Silicon Graphics Inc. -- also support Linux.
Belle of the ball
One major attraction of Linus is that it is free. The operating system was written by Finnish computer programmer Linus Torvalds who made it available on the Internet for anyone who wanted it.
Technology experts say the Linux operating system has a number of other benefits as well.
"It's coherent. It's understandable. It's stable. It's well supported," says Stu Green, a technology veteran with 25 years experience using Unix, from which Linux is derived.
Green is a member of the Austin Linux Group, a local organization formed in 1996 and made up of computer professionals and hobbyists who are learning and using Linux. Green is also the CEO and co-founder of Linuxlink, an Austin firm that provides Linux consultation, installation, training and support.
He says interest in Linux services has grown from consulting individual users to more sophisticated enterprise-wide applications that handle multiple users. Linuxlink currently consults with seven Austin-area companies.
Like other industry experts, Green says a major advantage of Linux is that it's open source, meaning that the code is not secret, but open for anyone to change, perfect, or tailor to their needs.
"As Microsoft adds things to their [system], they make it more proprietary and more difficult to work with," Green says. He believes Linux's popularity is "not so much anti-Microsoft as it is pro-computing. Microsoft is guilty of holding the whole field back, whereas this is moving it forward."
Austin's Pervasive Software Inc. recently announced two Linux-based products: the SQL database server and the Tango Web server.
"I see a very big market opportunity in the Linux community," says Nate Bruce, Pervasive's business development manager. "A lot of people are adopting it and running it."
Phil Carinhas is hoping to capitalize on the popularity of Linux with his new company, Fortuitous Technologies, which provides Linux training. The Austin-based company offers a basic two-day course for individual users and a more involved five-day course for systems administrators and managers.
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