Author: Jon Dart
Date: 12:32:12 10/03/02
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The latest revs of the 2.4 Linux kernel scale better than they used to, although they are still improving things. It is getting to be quite functional as a server OS. The big multiprocessor Sun or HP boxes, or mainframes, are still selling, but a lot of companies with serious processing needs are starting to look very hard at big clusters of cheap Linux boxes instead. It is dramatically less costly. Amazon does this now, and they're handling the load just fine. (See http://news.com.com/2100-1001-275155.html?legacy=cnet). Getting people to switch off Windows on the desktop is harder. Corporate America is pretty addicted to MS Office. However, even though desktops are cheaper than servers, cost is starting to be an issue there too. If you have 10,000 PCs, and Windows + Office is $300 a pop, you're spending $3 Millon dollars on software. Then you need to upgrade every so often. Lately there's been quite a bit of news about large-scale organizations switching to Linux, but I see that happening mostly outside the U.S. (a lot of countries still just pirate the software - ironically, as M$oft makes that harder, they have more incentive to find an alternative). For the home user, setting up and administering a Linux system is still too hard for most, IMO. And there's still not a lot of good home user oriented software for Linux. But that could change. AOL is apparently working on a client for Linux. --Jon
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