[ Thanks to Paul
Eggert for this link. ]
“Bill Mount, who was attending LinuxWorld on behalf of
Caterpillar, said the maker of engines and construction equipment
started using Linux on a trial basis two years ago. Persuaded by
the security and reliability of the operating system, Caterpillar
now uses Linux to run computers that handle e-mail and
Internet-related tasks.Mount says the company is interested in expanding its use of
Linux, primarily for economic reasons. While Linux is free, a
license for Windows 2000 costs about $1,000. The savings quickly
adds up for a huge multinational like Caterpillar, which uses
thousands of computers, he said. `I’m amazed at how much Linux has
stepped up in popularity and how much development has been done”
in the past 12 months, Mount said.”