Linux has three advantages that appeal to a wide range of corporate priorities, users say: low cost, reliability and fast performance.
That wide range of benefits is earning Linux a chance in the corporate information technology world.
Price was the priority for Seattle-based retailer Jay Jacobs Inc., which plans to install Linux servers in all 120 of its stores this year. But Chief Financial Officer Bill Lawrence is also pleased by the prospect of getting fast, Unix-like performance for less than the cost of the slower Windows NT environment.
The Linux servers' tasks will include hosting in-store Informix Corp. databases that will track purchases by customer as well as by item.
Because Linux isn't burdened with a graphical interface, its performance is often faster than that of Windows NT on low-end hardware, said William Peterson, an analyst at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass. Linux, an open-source version of Unix that runs on PC hardware, has a graphical interface but doesn't require its use.
Jay Jacobs is spending $1.7 million this year -- about 2.5% of its revenue -- to replace the ancient DOS-based systems at its headquarters and in its 120 stores. The in-store parts of the project would have cost $980,000, but by using Linux instead of another operating system, the company is saving about $80,000, or $666 per store, Lawrence said.
But Lawrence is taking the savings gained by adopting a new operating system only so far. At headquarters, he's hedging his bets with the more established NT and Unix. Although Linux's costs are the prime motivator for companies like Jay Jacobs, Peterson said, many other companies use Linux for its performance and reliability. Linux's low cost was just one factor that appealed to IT manager Frank Clay at Gannett Co.'s Offset Telematch unit in Springfield, Va. The unit processes demographic and contact data for marketers and fund-raisers.
Linux cost the company $300 per server vs. $1,500 for a Data General Corp. Unix system, and it runs on cheaper PCs, Clay said. The unit will use Linux as the operating system for its data servers to run Informix database software.
But the decision to switch to Linux, as well as the unit's widespread use of Linux elsewhere, is also driven by its reliability, Clay said. "The only time I've ever seen a Linux box crash is with a hardware failure," he said.
Peterson said many users are now considering Linux because they have become frustrated with Windows NT's need for service packs to perform with adequate stability.
For example, Envision Utility Software Corp., a maker of billing software for utilities, has found a large performance increase when using Oracle Corp.'s Oracle8 database on Linux as opposed to on NT, said systems administrator Sam Cappello.
"What takes 10 seconds on Linux takes a minute or two on NT," he said.
But as at Jay Jacobs, Linux just has a foot in the door at Envision, which now uses it only as a test bed for applications under development.
