[Am-info] Microsoft's hometown newspaper runs Linux

[Gene Gaines]

,
>From Datamation, see:
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/erp/article/0,,11981_942571,00.html


Case Study: In Redmond's Shadow, An Open (Source) Secret
By Cynthia Flash

Practically every day the Eastside Journal prints stories about
Microsoft - the main employer in the journal's circulation area that
includes Redmond, Wash.

While the daily news stories say "Microsoft, Microsoft, Microsoft," the
paper's Web site in a quiet, not-so-subtle way has thumbed its nose
at the huge software company. The Web site runs on Linux, the open
source operating system, and flaunts that fact proudly by displaying
Tux the Linux penguin at the bottom of each page.

The Web developers say they have nothing against Microsoft
personally, but that they chose Linux because it was cheaper and
easier to adapt than a Microsoft product. And for a group of eight
small and medium-sized newspapers that must run lean, money and
flexibility mean more than loyalty to the area's largest employer.

"Since our Web development team was only two people, and we ran
the mail server and the firewalls for the company, we needed a
flexible solution to deal with any weird system out there, and that's
why we chose Linux," said Mark Wagner, the Eastside Journal's
former Web specialist, who left in October.

... there is more, and the story makes good reading.

Gene Gaines
gene.gaines@gainesgroup.com
Sterling, Virginia