searchEnterpriseLinux.com: Mount Linux: Management by subscription

"Linux distributors and Mount Linux, Calgary, Alberta, all aim to make it easy for businesses to adopt Linux. But instead of joining the crowd to create a Linux distribution, the five programmers who founded Mount Linux in 1999 decided to make Linux easy to adopt in another way, by making Linux easier to manage. There is another good reason for this single solutions strategy. Mount Linux chief executive officer Aaron J. Seigo said offering a targeted solution and subscription services will put his company on the fast track to profitability, a destination that seems far off for many Linux distributors today. On the road to black ink, Mount Linux's Olympus product will face very tough competition from Orem, Utah-based Caldera Systems' new Volution systems administration product and several open source solutions. The competition does not worry 25-year-old Seigo. In a question and answer interview, Seigo said Olympus, like Linux, will win over users with its innovative new technology, open source model, and services approach."

"What drove Mount Linux's decision to focus on systems administration?"

"Seigo:
Two things: profit and businesses' needs. When we started out, we looked at how do you make a profit in the new open source economy? The answer is to provide a service, not a product. We decided there was a need for a suite of automated services targeted at system administration. We chose system administration because it is an ongoing daily task for which businesses have a budget. It's also a task that often falls by the wayside in the crush of daily business."

"Why not create a Linux distribution and bundle it with management tools?"

"Seigo:
Rather than write another Linux distribution, we're writing software that accomplishes certain goals - security, ease and administration - but that's usable across all distributions. Obviously, the strategic benefit is that you then lever the entire Linux market. There's probably 50, 60, 70 different distributions out right now, of which a handful are successful."

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