Linux Feels Growing Pains

Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "As Linux enters the mainstream, adopters 'are demanding many features found on commercial software, including a large variety of add-on application programs and management tools that are easy to use,' the Wall Street Journal reports. 'How quickly open-source programs can narrow the gap with commercial software is a hotly debated topic in the computer industry. The transition may determine whether the technology will continue its momentum, or stall in the face of tougher competition at the heart of corporate computer networks.' Eric Singleton, chief information officer at retailer Tommy Hilfiger Corp., which recently switched its e-commerce site 'Tommy.com' from Linux to Microsoft software, calls Linux 'a great product,' but adds, 'it's got to get the final tier of reliability and predictability that I'm going to bet a multi-billion dollar corporation's future on.'"

Comments

Tommy Hilfiger Corp / Linux "product"

[bushboy]

Linux is NOT a product. Are these people born stupid ?

<i>it's got to get the final tier of reliability and predictability that I'm going to bet a multi-billion dollar corporation's future on.</i>

What a moron.

Interesting that Linux is good enough for the worlds biggest online retailer :-

http://www.google.co.za/search?q=amazon+linux&sour ceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=ut f-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:officia l

I guess Bill Gates buys Hilfiger brown loafers ...

Running on Linux

[tbedolla]

I may not help orchestrate the IT department of a billion dollar company, but I do for a 350 million dollar and growing company, and we are moving to Linux across the board, desktop, POS, and all servers, as we are looking for stability, minimum footprint, lower licensing costs for all software (i.e., OpenOffice, Firefox, help desk software etc) all while avoiding the constant bombardment of virus attacks against our architecture. Windows has not done this for us in a manner that is acceptable moving forward...and please don't respond about maintenance and patch management, because we've had to worry about far less patches and updates since the move.

Re:Lunchen budeget for CIOs.

[Monkelectric]

Google is not however using off the shelf distros. They have custimized thier own version of linux to do what they need. Not everyone wants to do that or has the resources to do so.

Cluestick: Individuals can customize their own version of linux. Its not a big deal.

Re:It's the Wall Street Journal, people

[DogDude]

And the people who the WSJ talks to are the decision makers. The ones who make rational decisions based on business needs, not some idealogical mumbo-jumbo about "information wants to be free". These ARE the people that Open Source advocates need to convince if they want to advance their agenda. Prosletyzing to sysadmins only goes so far. As both a business owner AND a techie, I understand the technical and moral repurcussions of using Open Source, but as a business person, I'm still not convinced that it's a good fit for our business, and we only use one or two open source applications that are not for mission critical functions.

If there's confusion, then these open source companies need to get off their ass and offer business reasons (ie: This will save you $xx on this and $yy on that). It's wrong to assume that every company has people that will go out of their way to investigate new products. Marketing is part of doing business, and if open source companies aren't willing to compete in the marketing arena, then Open Source will continue to be something used only by techo-geeks, hobbyists, and the occasional renegade sysadmin.

WSJ doesn't need a "smack with a cluestick", the open source companies do.