“The last couple of years have been a heady time for us in
the Linux community. The fast-growing adoption of Linux in the
enterprise validates both the business of Linux vendors and the
Open Source philosophy. But we can’t afford to be smug about
this; we need to convince even more companies that Linux is
the ideal platform for the Internet and other mission-critical
applications.”
“It’s not that we haven’t done a good job so far. Growing
numbers of businesses are turning to Linux, impressed by the
operating system’s reliability and cost effectiveness.”
“But I think we can do even better. It’s time for us to widen
the focus of our evangelism a bit. We need to speak to enterprises’
CFOs as much as to the CTOs. And the first step is to recognize and
accept the perceptions these executives may have about Linux — as
well as the technical and nontechnical concerns that often make
them hesitate to switch to Linux.”
“This brings us to a challenging paradox: Linux simply doesn’t
fit the mold. Of course, technology-minded Linux fans rightly
regard this as a virtue. Linux is stable, scalable and costs
substantially less over time than competing platforms. These are
strong arguments for starting out with Linux or making a
switch.”