“Many small businesses have avoided Linux for a variety of
reasons: not enough applications, complexity of installation or
that it requires too much technical know-how to run. The technology
has matured over many years, which raises the question: How valid
are these considerations today?“At this point, this is more of a perception issue than a real
business issue,” says Chip Nickolett, a systems integrator with
Comprehensive Consulting Solutions, of Brookfield, Wisc., a company
that has installed Linux in businesses of all sizes. “While Linux
has become more accepted in the business environment, many still
view it as geekware. Those companies look at Microsoft the way
companies used to look at IBM — as the safe choice.”