BusinessWeek Online: Linux Goes Mainstream

Giant Steps for a Software Upstart

“For Mindbridge Chief Operating Officer and founder Scott Testa,
the impetus for shifting to Linux came from a change in Microsoft’s
licensing policies. The new licenses, which push customers to pay
annual subscription fees, would have boosted software costs at
Mindbridge, a 300-employee intranet software company, by tens of
thousands of dollars annually. Testa figured that as long as
Mindbridge was switching from Microsoft server products, it might
as well also move away from the Solaris operating system, the
proprietary Unix software that runs only on expensive Sun
Microsystems’ hardware.

“Mindbridge didn’t make the decision lightly. Migration snafus
from switching server-operating systems can bring companies to a
halt. But Testa claims that Mindbridge experienced only a few minor
glitches, and now he couldn’t be happier. ‘I’m not a Microsoft
basher or a Solaris basher, but we’re saving hundreds of thousands
of dollars between support contracts, upgrade contracts, and
hardware,’ says Testa, who professes that even two years ago he
would have laughed off suggestions that he switch to Linux…”

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