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The Linux And Open Source Outlook: Making Linux A Strategic Fit Product Image

The Linux And Open Source Outlook: Making Linux A Strategic Fit

  • Published: May 2003
  • 154 pages
  • Scripp Business Insights

Opinions on the merits of Linux fall into two extreme camps: it's the way forward for software development, or it's an anarchic movement of bearded developers. What’s the truth?’ The Linux and Open Source Outlook: Making Linux a strategic fit analyses what’s going on in Linux and open source software at the moment and answers questions such as whether open source will ever be a viable alternative to proprietary software and if so, when? The report also investigates hot issues such as why the increased availability of development tools has made Linux a major development platform - but not yet an enterprise platform. Keep one step ahead of competition by distinguishing which Linux distribution is best for your company and discover the business benefits of using open source software - on the server, for the database and on the desktop.

<P>Table of Contents</P>

<P>The Linux & Open Source Outlook  - Making Linux a strategic fit</P>

<P>Executive Summary 10
Market position & overview 10
Technology directions 10
Market directions 11
Linux distributions & support 12
Assessing the open source case 12</P>

<P>Chapter 1 Market Position & Overview 16</P>

<P>Summary 16
Introduction 16
Self-assembly systems 18
Enterprise deployment 19
Linux price benefits 22
Back-door strategy 23</P>

<P>Chapter 2 Technology Directions 26</P>

<P>Summary 26
Introduction 26
Development on Linux 27
Borland Kylix 28
Open edition 28
Professional edition 29
Enterprise edition 30
Pricing 30
System requirements 31
Opinion 31
Strengths 31
Weaknesses 32
Sun Forte for Java 33
Community edition 33
Enterprise edition 34
NetBeans 35
Pricing 36
System requirements 36
Opinion 37
Strengths 37
Weaknesses 37
Metrowerks CodeWarrior for Linux 38
Pricing 39
System requirements 39
Intel requirements 39
PowerPC requirements 40
Opinion 40
Strengths 40
Weaknesses 41
Conclusion 41</P>

<P>Chapter 3 Market Directions 44</P>

<P>Summary 44
Introduction 44
Borland eclipsed on Linux 45
Back to the future 46
Things change 47
Eclipse: the strengths 49
Borland's strengths 49
Conclusion 51
Sun shines on Linux 52
Save money, use Linux 53
Microsoft's stance on open source 55
Unix still makes the money 57
Future of Unix 59
IBM AIX 60
Hewlett-Packard HP-UX 61
Sun Solaris 63
SGI Irix 66
Conclusion 67
Trends and indicators in desktop Linux 68</P>

<P>Chapter 4 Linux Distributions & Support 70</P>

<P>Summary 70
Introduction 70
Choosing the right Linux distribution 71
SCO 72
Products 73
Opinion 73
SuSE 74
Products 75
Opinion 76
Red Hat 76
Products 77
Opinion 78
Turbolinux 78
Products 79
Opinion 80
Hardware package bundles 80
IBM 80
Hewlett-Packard 80
Compaq 81
Dell 81
Sun Microsystems 81
Conclusion 81
Enterprise Linux support services 82
Support models 85
Looking ahead 90
Linux and Unix compatibility 91
Brief history of Linux 92
SCO offering the best of both worlds? 94
Strengths 96
Weaknesses 97
AIX affinity with Linux 97
Strengths 98
Weaknesses 99
Linux compatibility for HP-UX 99
Strengths 100
Weaknesses 100
lxrun 100
Strengths 101
Weaknesses 102
Conclusion 102</P>

<P>Chapter 5 Assessing the Open Source Case 106</P>

<P>Summary 106
Introduction 107
Alternatives to Microsoft Office 107
Current users 109
Alternatives 110
Sun StarOffice 110
OpenOffice 111
Corel 113
Ximian 115
K Office 117
Gnome Office 118
Conclusion 119
Open source database alternatives 121
PostgreSQL 123
Key features 124
Distributions 124
PostgreSQL Inc - the company 125
Red Hat 126
MySQL 127
Key features 128
Distributors 128
MySQL AB - the company 129
NuSphere 130
Abriasoft 132
Conclusion 133
Open source software licenses 134
Open source versus proprietary 135
Open source licenses 136
GPL 136
BSD and others 138
MPL et al 138
Open source definition 139
Concerns 140
Conclusion 141
Linux for the enterprise 143
Linux gains depth and breath 143
Market and business drivers 144
Cost considerations of Linux 146
Pilot experiences in the field 146
Moving ahead 152
Appendix 153
Index 153</P>

<P>List of Tables</P>

<P>Table 5.1: PostgreSQL key facts 123
Table 5.2: MySQL key facts 127</P>

<P>List of Figures</P>

<P>Figure 1.1: Brands of computers used for Linux development 18
Figure 3.2: Sun Microsystems summary financials, 2001-02 53</P>

Format Properties
Electronic The report will be emailed to you.
Hard Copy A printed copy of the report will be shipped to you.
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