MAilbag - News Briefs

ENT, Sept 8, 1999

Editor's Note - These Linux letters are a sample of the 100 that we received. The letters that disagreed with the columnists' outnumbered those that agreed by about a 10-to-1 margin. The majority of these letters, however, came from readers who found the columns online through hyperlinks posted on Linux sites.

A Second Look at Linux

[Bill] Laberis underestimates the potential of Linux [in his July 19 column]. He made some good points about Linux's weaknesses, but neglects to observe that these weaknesses are being addressed at an amazing pace.

His conclusion that users don't want Linux is misguided. Most users currently don't know anything about Linux, so naturally they are reluctant to switch. Nevertheless, most users I talk to are displeased with the quality of Microsoft products and wish something better would come along. The potential Linux desktop market is huge. The server market is not even worth arguing about. Linux will sweep it, end of story.

Thad Phetteplace

President, GLACI Inc.

tdphette@dexter.glaci.com

All of Laberis' points and comments would make perfect sense if Linux was a proprietary product whose upgrades came every two years. But Linux is constantly evolving. Whatever shortcomings it has today won't be there tomorrow. You can't say that about an OS that's had Blue Screen of Death for over five years.

Abel Sanchez

Network engineer

New Mexico State University

Laberis is pretty close to the mark. For Linux to gain major ground on corporate America's servers, [it] will require Microsoft to stumble with Windows 2000. If W2K isn't more robust than Windows NT 4.0 or if Microsoft goes through with annual per-user fees, Linux will have a reasonable chance.

Jim Booth

Senior consultant, SSI

Spectre@starmail.com

It is common knowledge that in real life situations Linux beats NT in performance and stability: Contrived tests will not alter that fact. There are countless instances of Linux gaining prominence in mission critical situations. Survey results are only a snapshot, and you can bet that they in no way represent a hard and fast position.

Sid Boyce

Sr. staff specialist, mainframes

szb50@amdahl.com

Regarding Chappell's

Linux Column ...

While I agree that Linux will not dominate the world anytime soon, [David] Chappell misses some key points [in his July 19 column].

First, he underestimates the power of the engineers and programmers around the world who are looking for a better solution than Windows NT. The fact that Linux is free is icing on the cake. He said that the technical superiority of Linux is debatable and irrelevant. I have seen [Unix] processes lock up but not the whole operating system. Windows NT on the other hand can be locked up almost at will.

Finally, don't worry about the financial well being of those who contribute to the Linux OS. Linux developers are capitalists, and their day will come. Microsoft will not be dethroned any time soon, but I do think the company stands to forfeit much of its server system growth to Linux.

Rex Petersen

Senior systems analyst

Jack Henry & Associates

rpetersen@jackhenry.com

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I was appalled to see Chappell's short sightedness. He just does not understand the phenomenon and power of open source software. According to IDC, total Linux commercial shipments will grow faster than those of all other client or server operating environments through 2003. Few network managers want their people spending the workday rebooting Windows NT servers.

Kamaljit S. Parmar

Senior software engineer

ksingh@prevuenet.com

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Right on - I've never seen it better stated! I, too, like Linux, but earn a damn good living supporting NT and will do so well into my retirement. The irony at our shop is that the Linux fanatics/Microsoft haters here also make a good living supporting NT. I doubt very seriously they would be making the salaries that they make here at IBM at some small Linux shop.

You are right on that Linux will ultimately harm the other commercial versions of Unix and not Microsoft. While I have a warm fuzzy [feeling] for Linux, the reality is this "freeware" OS is going to be no more than a speed bump obstacle to NT/Microsoft world OS dominance.

Edward Avila

NT administrator, IBM Corp.