The Standard: Is It Time for Linux?

“With so many contributors, Linux naturally has a lot of
boosters. But can it deliver for you? If you’re in the Web
business, the short answer is yes. Workstations and servers
that run Linux are cheap and scalable. The software is generally
inexpensive, if not free.”

“But Linux has a hidden expense, experts warn. ‘If you have to
hire even one additional person as your Linux expert, over five
years that person might cost more than an NT or Unix network,’ says
Dan Kuznetsky, an analyst at International Data Corp., in
Framingham, Mass. Of course, that assumes you would not need to
hire NT or Unix experts.”

“The people implementing Linux now tend to be technologically
savvy. Jad DeFanti, senior systems administrator at Alexa Internet
in San Francisco, used Red Hat Linux (and Linuxcare technical
support) to solve his company’s bulk-storage problems. … ‘We need
to buy hardware in large [quantities],” DeFanti says. “Every few
months we purchase eight computers that hold a terabyte of disk
space between them. Linux allows us to buy the cheapest computers
with the least amount of rack space and the largest amount of disk
space.’ “

“…as Ivan Kohler, a San Francisco consultant points out, the
Linux applications and tools you want today may be released
tomorrow. ‘There are many, many more programmers working on free
software than there are at Microsoft.’ “

Complete
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