[Am-info] NYTimes.com Article: I.B.M. Helps Promote Linux

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I.B.M. Helps Promote Linux

November 11, 2003
 By STEVE LOHR 



 

Linux is a rising star in the geeky back office of
computing. Its gains have come as an operating system for
the data-serving computers that run corporate networks and
serve up Web pages. On the desktop, Microsoft's Windows
still reigns supreme. 

But I.B.M. and the Open Source Development Lab, whose
membership includes Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Intel, are
beginning a drive to promote Linux as an alternative to
Windows on the desktop. 

One indication of their more aggressive approach came
yesterday when an I.B.M. executive, Samuel J. Docknevich,
delivered a speech at a technology conference outside
Boston titled "The Time Is Now for Linux on the Desktop." 

The Open Source Development Lab - a nonprofit organization
to advance the use of open source software like Linux - is
planning a program to encourage corporate adoption of
desktop Linux, set to begin in January. "We're going to
push a big desktop Linux initiative," Stuart F. Cohen,
chief executive of the Open Source Lab, said last week in
an interview. "It's clearly something our members want." 

Mr. Cohen and others at the organization gave few details,
except to say that the lab would try to broaden the base of
support for desktop Linux. That, for example, might include
helping with technology that could make it easier for Linux
users to exchange data and documents created with
Windows-based software. It might also include persuading
the makers of popular personal computer software, like
RealNetworks' media player or Adobe's desktop publishing
software, to create Linux versions. 

Any inroads Linux makes on the desktop will probably come
slowly. More than 300 million people worldwide use the
Windows desktop operating system and Microsoft's Office
suite, which includes the Word, Excel and PowerPoint
programs. 

But Linux advocates say that the full complement of
Microsoft desktop software has far more features, and is
far more costly, than most workers at many companies really
need. 

And corporate technology officers are concerned about the
cost of upgrading tens of thousands of PC's every couple of
years to new versions of Microsoft software and about the
security flaws in Microsoft products that have been
exploited regularly by digital vandals writing viruses and
worms. 

Linux has gained desktop converts for specialized uses like
software development, computer animation and in scientific
computing. Abroad, some governments and municipalities have
championed the use of Linux. Earlier this year, for
example, Munich announced that it would move from Windows
to Linux on 14,000 desktop machines used by city workers. 

Yet Linux on the desktop has not really made its way into
the mainstream corporate market, especially in the United
States. And I.B.M., whose entry into the personal computer
business in 1981 made the PC a respected business tool, has
the influence with corporate customers to give Linux on the
desktop real credibility, analysts say. 

"There is a lot of interest in Linux on the desktop from
customers; this is definitely a trend with traction," said
Scott Handy, vice president for Linux strategy and market
development at I.B.M. "But we're being very pragmatic." 

Long gone are the days of OS/2, I.B.M.'s desktop operating
system, when Big Blue tried to confront Windows head on and
wrest dominance of the operating system market from
Microsoft. 

The I.B.M. plan now is to use Linux as the desktop
operating system in a simplified computing environment that
relies on delivering, updating and maintaining desktop
applications over high-speed corporate networks. Faster,
low-cost telecommunications and improved Internet software
make the transition possible, Mr. Handy said. 

Studies have estimated the total cost of ownership of a PC
in a corporate setting at $5,000 to $7,000 a year. The
hardware and software costs are typically less than 30
percent of the total, with the expense of maintaining,
updating and debugging accounting for the rest. 

Deploying Linux and having applications centrally
distributed and managed on server computers, using Internet
technology, can cut the cost of owning a desktop machine in
half or more, Mr. Handy said. 

"The discussion with customers usually starts with Linux,"
he said. "But the huge gains come from using this
server-based architecture, which is made possible by these
Internet technologies. And Linux is one of them." 

I.B.M., Mr. Handy said, is conducting dozens of assessments
for corporate customers of Linux desktop use as part of a
program to reduce costs. The companies, he said, do not
want to be named because they have not decided to switch
desktop technologies. 

The Linux desktops tap into the applications on server
computers, using a browser. E-mail, calendar, customer
relationship management and word-processing applications
are included. Mr. Handy said this kind of computing could
be easily adopted by bank branch offices, sales people,
insurance agents, auto dealers and others. 

I.B.M. is trying it itself. About 15,000 workers use Linux
desktops, mostly software developers and researchers. By
the end of the first quarter of next year, I.B.M. plans to
increase the number of Linux desktops to 30,000 as sales,
marketing and administrative workers try it. 

Still, Linux on the desktop has a long way to go. Shipments
of Linux rose to 2.8 percent of desktop operating systems
in 2002, up steadily from 1.7 percent two years earlier,
according to IDC, a research firm. Windows accounted for
nearly 94 percent of shipments last year. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/11/technology/11blue.html?ex=1069633512&ei=1&en=5f2fa7aad673e0a5


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