Commercial Linux

The success of business Linux will be determined by commercial vendors' skill in minimizing the system's many low-level knobs, buttons, and commands that open source enthusiasts prize. Those who revere Linux can't imaging why Microsoft doesn't just give Windows a proper burial. After all, Linux is open, it's free, it performs beautifully on a wide range of hardware, and there is a massive library of open and commercial Linux software. The debate about whether Linux is viable as a desktop OS has tapered off now that the KDE (kde.org) and Gnome (gnome.org) graphical environments are on par with Windows. In the minds of open source zealots, it's absurd to pay for an operating system.

I have no doubt that Linux has a brilliant future in business -- but not in the way some advocates expect. Those who want to understand Linux's potential role should recognize that, to business, Linux is a product. That it is open source software is of almost no consequence to IT.

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