Advantages of Linux

Like most IT managers, you face a choice when it comes to operating systems. Not long ago, you might have turned to Windows, Solaris or UNIX, but now Linux has your undivided attention. Why is Linux—an open source operating system—seeing such rapid adoption and growth? More importantly, why should you consider it for your own growing business? Compared to other platforms, Linux offers:

• Maximum flexibility
• Lower costs
• Tight security
• Powerful performance
• Ongoing innovation

In organizations large and small, Linux is becoming the clear choice for enterprise computing.

Maximum Flexibility

Flexibility is a key element of every IT manager's decision-making process. You need options and choices so your growing businesscan remain agile in times of rapid change. Linux gives you many choices that other operating systems cannot provide. With Linux you can:

• Choose a commercial distribution or download a free one
• Choose your Linux vendor (if you opt for a commercial distribution)
• Choose your hardware vendor(s)
• Purchase support from a vendor or access free support via the Internet
• Modify source code to more closely suit your needs

Linux also plays well with other systems, which gives you added flexibility. You can deploy high-performance Linux servers with your existing systems. It's easy: you just run Linux on the back end and switch to low-cost commodity hardware. It's also completely flexible: you can continue using familiar desktops (so there's no learning curve for your users), and you can save money on both hardware and server licensing.

Lower Costs

Compared to proprietary software, Linux saves you money—lots of it. You can either download Linux free of charge from the Internet or purchase a supported Linux distribution from a vendor for a low subscription price. This price typically includes maintenance, meaning that you get patches, security updates and new releases of Linux as part of your subscription fee.

When you choose Linux, you do not have to pay exorbitant fees for a service like Microsoft Software Assurance, which promises its customers maintenance and new releases of Windows or other Microsoft software (that may not ship for years). In cost comparisons with Solaris and Windows operating systems (link to the competitive papers), Linux is the obvious winner. You can also defray application costs by choosing from thousands of open source applications that run on Linux.

For Linux support, you can contact your current Linux vendor, engage a third-party support provider, or search the Web for the specific patches and updates you need.

Tight Security

Linux is inherently more secure than Windows because of its modular design. This means that attackers cannot gain access to the operating system via user permissions or other application "back doors." Linux also has the support of the entire open source community. Any potential security problems are resolved swiftly and definitively.

Powerful Performance

When Linux is compared to other x86 and x86-64 based operating systems (such as Solaris on x86 and Windows) on industry standard benchmarks such as TPC-C, TPC-H, SPECweb2005, and SPeCjbb2005, it consistently comes out on top. In fact, many hardware vendors use Linux, when seeking leading benchmark results—and they often choose SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server from Novell.

Ongoing Innovation

Some of the largest and most reputable firms in the IT industry and the most talented individual software engineers contribute to Linux—that is the nature of open source. Innovation in the source code happens quickly, keeping pace with advancing technology more effectively than UNIX or Windows. In fact, the time between major releases of commercial Linux distributions is about 18 months—much shorter than that of other operating systems.

A Clear Choice

Why Linux? It's the clear choice for today's businesses because it provides:

• The best innovation of any commercial operating system
• Unparalleled flexibility
• Performance that is comparable to or better than that of UNIX
• Freedom from vendor lock-in
• Lower total cost of ownership via high-performance industry-standard hardware
• Top levels of security
• Enterprise-class scalability on more architectures than any other commercial operating system—x86, x86-64, PowerPC, Itanium 2 and z9 mainframes
• Compatibility with thousands of ISV applications

It's time to harness the flexibility, low cost and high performance of Linux for your organization.