A dose of open source realism
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NEW YORK - It's easy to get overzealous about the potential of open source software these days, but even some of the technology's biggest proponents last week said they expect the software to make steady rather than sweeping gains in enterprise networks.
The Bazaar conference attracted a host of the industry's biggest names, including Red Hat CEO Bob Young, Corel CEO Michael Cowpland and open source advocates Richard Stallman and Eric Raymond. The conference attracted hoards of pony-tailed, T-shirt-wearing developers and engineers, as well as bearded elder statesmen of the open source community who stood in stark contrast to the nattily attired executives attending a snazzier e-commerce conference in another part of the Jacob Javits Center.
During his keynote presentation, Young noted that Linux, Apache and other open source software products have quietly made their way into corporate networks in recent years thanks to the many types of developers and engineers attending the conference. However, he said that open source software is still awaiting the approval of high-level IT executives.
"MIS directors, by their job description, are conservative, because their primary mission is not to screw up," Young said. "If they find a solution that saves their company some money, that's a small win. If they screw up, it's exponentially a much larger loss."
John Hall, another open source supporter, also put the adoption of Linux in enterprise networks into perspective.
"Some Linux people won't like that I'm saying this, but you won't find Linux running on a lot of larger enterprise networks, simply because of its limited processor scalability," said Hall, who is executive director of Linux International, a nonprofit vendor organization.
"Linux will not show up in some businesses where a system has to be up 24-7 - businesses that have traditionally used systems from companies like Tandem and Sequent," added Hall, who noted that Linux does not scale past 12 processors.
According to Hall, high-availability technology and administration features that many enterprise networks require just aren't there yet with Linux.
"Linux is very stable and can stay up for a long period of time, but it is also still very hard to administer," he said. "It still takes a long time to do some tasks, like expand the file system. That can involve a lot of downtime that many businesses would find unacceptable."
Others at the conference also acknowledged that open source technologies can be powerful, but they added that the technologies don't address all enterprise network needs.
"Open source software is just going to keep creeping in, but nobody's going to make a wholesale replacement of their systems with open source solutions," said Bazaar attendee Rudy Pawul, a systems administrator for ISO New England, the company that manages the electrical power grid for New England.
Still, Pawul said he couldn't do his job without open source software, noting that he uses Apache Web server and Linux systems as file servers and Domain Name System servers in his network.
"Open source software is just better and faster than lots of commercial software that's on the market," he says. "I don't know anyone in my position who doesn't use it somewhere in their job."
Related links
Open source software gets a safety net
Network World, 12/20/99.
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