A Year of Victory for Linux

A Year of Victory for Linux
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Opinion: No longer merely on its way up, the platform now boasts converts from governments to small and large businesses—and it's only getting bigger.Looking back at Linux in 2004, I see one thing as clearly as I see my hand in front of my face: Linux is the mainstream.

Which companies stand behind Linux today? I mean really stand behind it, and not just give it lip service? Its companies such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Novell and Oracle. Were talking the whos who of American technology vendors.

Whos using Linux? Everybody. Small companies, Fortune 50 enterprises, nonprofits, governments. Everybody.

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Why? Because, when you cut through all of the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt), all of the bought and paid-for ROI (return on investment) and TCO (total cost of ownership) studies, all of the intellectual property fears, the bottom line is that Linux simply works.

It does more than just work, though. All of the members of the Unix family—AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, etc.—can make that claim. Linux simply delivers more IT goodness on more platforms than all of the other Unix platforms combined.

And as for Microsoft and Windows, please. Linux delivers more reliable, faster Web and intranet services for less money.

Dont believe me or those Microsoft "Truth" campaign ads? Then look for yourself.

Thats one of Linuxs beauties. Anyone can get a copy, test it out, kick its tires and make up their own mind.

Heck, with todays CD-based Linux distributions such as Knoppix and Gnoppix, you dont even have to install Linux on a PC. You just boot it up from a CD-ROM and give it a test drive. What could be easier?

In the past year, hundreds of thousands of users and thousands of companies have done just that, and theyre now shifting over their infrastructure and edge servers to Linux.

Next Page: Whats in store for 2005?

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