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  the Software View: Linux, open sorcery. (Part V)

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Now, dear readers, on with this week's episode of the Software View!

TIME TO SWITCH

A look at Linux, up close and personal. Commercial Linux releases are ready for your server business. Eric Carr writes, "The bottom line, according to our hands-on analysis, is that commercial Linux releases can do much more with far less than Microsoft's Windows NT Server can.

Linux is a worthy contender - both in features and performance - for your customers' file and Internet server jobs. Linux is an open-source operating system environment that anyone can download from the Internet and then compile.

We tested Caldera Systems, Incorporated's OpenLinux; Red Hat Software, Incorporated's Red Hat Linux; S.u.S.E., Incorporated's S.u.S.E. Linux; and Microsoft's Windows NT 4. Those three Linux offerings are based upon the open-source Linux source code. So any given Linux program - along with Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), Incorporated Unix apps - will run on any version of Linux.

How we tested: our test platform was a pair of identically configured and outfitted 266 MHz personal computers. Each had 64 MB of memory and a four gigabyte IDE hard disk drive. An Intel Corporation EtherExpress Pro 100B network interface card connected the server to our client network, which is driven by a pair of Nortel Networks 28115 Fast Ethernet switches. All tests ran at a network speed of 100 Mbps. In each instance, we performed a fresh install of the operating system. We let the operating system decide the default disk configuration in each case. In other words, we didn't try to tweak any settings. Our guess is that the results would have been even more embarrassing for Microsoft if we had.

We measured the throughput of up to thirty clients for each server. The clients were a mix of 166 MHz, 200 MHz, and 233 MHz machines running Windows 95. Each of the clients ran the WebBench 2.0 static test workload to measure HTTP server performance and NetBench 5.01 for Server Message Block (SMB), or file service, testing.

We configured each of the Linux boxes to run Samba (the SMB server) and Apache (the Web server) - but that was it. We didn't run DNS or Sendmail. Since they were being evaluated as servers, the Linux boxes were not running the X-Windows display system. The NT box ran Internet Information Server 4.0 under NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4. Again, no additional services were running. According to our results, each of the commercial Linux releases ate NT's lunch. Moreover, Samba for Red Hat scales better than its counterparts.

Every commercial Linux distribution comes with a mind-boggling assortment of open-source programs. If you want files servers, you get your choice of Network File System- or Wintel-compliant Samba. If you want the Internet, you got it. Need a graphical user interface? Start with X-Windows and then add the window manager of your customers' choice.

Can't find the program you want on the provided compact discs? Download it from the Internet, compile it, and run it. A host of language tools and compilers are included in the commercial distributions. These include C, C++, Perl, Python, Tcl/Tk, and a Java development kit. For custom development right out of the box, you can't beat Linux.

Of course, open-source programs and development tools aren't the only things Linux has going for it. When your customers crave database-management systems, they can take their pick among offerings from Software AG, Informix Corporation, Oracle Corporation, and Sybase Incorporated. In short, you name a server application type, and it's in there.

With Linux, you get considerably more control over the application. The Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) has become a de facto standard for application installation. There's little functionality available in commercial software that's not available in a Linux program.

Just for kicks, we successfully loaded and ran all three commercial Linuxes on 33 MHz 486 and 66 MHz 486 DX2 systems with 500 MB hard disk drives and 16 MB of memory. For customers with limited hardware budgets, Linux is a godsend. The minimal hardware profile required for Linux is a 386 computer with 16 MB of memory and a 500 MB hard disk drive. The minimal hardware profile required for Microsoft Windows is a Pentium computer with 64 MB of memory and a one Gigabyte hard disk drive. The average price of Linux is fifty dollars. The price of Microsoft Windows NT is $809.

Red Hat took the honors for the smoothest install. Once installed, all the Linux platforms performed like champs. We never encountered a single crash over the course of several weeks of testing. Network operating system stability has a new name - Linux. Red Hat holds the lead in straightforward file serving.

Without question, Linux possesses technical superiority. With Linux, your path to profitability lies through consulting, installation, and support services. Support is job one for would-be Linux resellers. Linux is more stable than Windows and many of its most common open-source applications are in constant evolution. Customers that want to get the most from their networks will need hands-on system and application administrators.

Linux support is widely available from the Linux online community. Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.hardware. Where do you get that information? Ask your employees, who should be experienced Linux users. If you don't have a Linux guru on staff, comb the local university campuses for a potential hire. Linux is hot in academia. And don't forget to lean on the Linux vendors for support. Now, Red Hat offers per-incident and annual subscription support packages.

Red Hat has disclosed plans for co-marketing, co-branding, training, and vendor certification. Red Hat offers two reseller paths. The first, Authorized System Builders, is for white-box resellers interested in building Red Hat Linux boxes. The other, Authorized Value-Added Resellers, is for resellers focused on consulting and custom information technology solutions.

What is important is that there's finally enough of a channel infrastructure in place to make Linux a viable choice for any network reseller willing to make a commitment to the maverick operating system.

The best Windows file server is Linux! NetBench 5.01 shows how well a network operating system does at the mundane task of file serving, by measuring Wintel file input and output. Natively, Linux doesn't work with DOS or Windows files, but Samba, an open-source Server Message Block (SMB) client and server that ships will all commercial Linuxes, provides that capacity. And how!

You might think that Linux would operate at a disadvantage here, but Linux kicks NT's butt. Once the load moves to twelve clients, all of the Linux platforms took commanding leads over NT. At thirty-two clients, Red Hat extended its lead to almost two hundred fifty percent of NT's performance.

Linux is the Web server's choice. WebBench measures the performance of Web servers in responses per second. Since any server worth its salt serves the Web as well as local clients these days, we looked at how the Linux platforms, armed with slightly different versions of the open-source Apache Web server, would do against NT with Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0. The answer: Linux with Apache beats NT 4.0 with IIS hands down.

SUPPORTING CAST

There are plenty of places to find Linux support. Seasoned users go to Linux usenet newsgroups (comp.os.linux.* and alt.linux.*), other Linux users within their companies, and some companies rely upon their own in-house, Unix-trained staff. Still others opt for the increasingly broad array of Linux support contract services offered by application vendors and Linux distributors. While Linux is still free - there are many distributions you can download from the Internet - the largest distributors - Red Hat Software and Caldera Systems Incorporated (Orem, Utah) - both offer free downloads and CD-ROM's with the Linux kernel and accompanying utilities and programming tools. They also offer free installation support to users unfamiliar with installing the operating environment. Anyone can resell Linux under the GPL license, so both make their money selling technical support. You can thank these companies for betting upon a dark horse. Now, products from Red Hat and Caldera are well-accepted, offering customers, unfamiliar with Linux, an easy and affordable way to get acquainted.

Another important point is the industry's generally low expectations of commercial operating system support. How often have you called Microsoft or Novell for technical support and been dissatisfied? Network managers and administrators using Linux can get support from a dizzying number of avenues.

Tom Yager writes, alt.linux.*Through all its changes, the architecture of Linux has remained quite stable. At its base is the Linux kernel. Still able to fit on a single 3 1/2-inch floppy disk, the Red Hat and Caldera kernels are preconfigured with drivers for many common devices. In the testing I've conducted on a variety of machines, both Red Hat and Caldera have consistently recognized and adapted to my hardware.

Linux looks much better than it did in the old days. The XFree86 X-Window System server (version 11 release 6) puts a graphical face on Linux, which, like Unix, is still primarily about text consoles and command lines. Both Red Hat and Caldera bundle a large assortment of graphical utilities, games, and applications. You can make your graphical desktop look like Windows 95 (Red Hat's default setup); NextStep, a Unix-based, object-oriented development environment from Next Computer (Redwood City, California); or good old-fashioned Motif. Newer entries in the Linux window manager category set up gothic or futuristic looks that will have other users crowding around your workstation to get a glimpse.

Linux's networking is faithful to the Unix model: TCP/IP comes first, and all the other components can be added as needed. The operating system includes the Network File System (NFS) client and server software, which connects just fine to Sun Microsystems' Solaris and other companies' NFS implementations.

Nicholas Wells, director of marketing for Caldera, says that while Red Hat targets the development community, his company focuses on commercial users such as Frontier Communications. Caldera offers a boxed Linux set that includes Netscape's Fast Track Server, a Novell NetWare client, and a copy of the StarOffice personal productivity office suite. It also offers inexpensive support contracts, sys admin training, and Linux certification classes. Fortune 500 companies know that the Linux technology is great.

As Linux moves deeper into the enterprise, some predict that companies will hire more in-house support staff to mediate with the open-source software community and evaluate software downloaded off the Internet. Wittard of Cisco agrees that it helps to have an in-house staff of "nerds, the really geeky people."

MICROSOFT'S TWILIGHT

Linux is David challenging the Microsoft Goliath in the operating environment field. Microsoft's questionable business practices and a substantial installed base have made overtaking Windows a Herculean task. But a new player is rising up from the trenches to challenge the coveted Microsoft market share - Linux.

Microsoft's Windows will inevitably grow less important as more companies deploy systems on the Web once the client platform becomes the Web browser. Unix programmers know more about systems compared to what it takes to develop in a Windows environment. When a company uses Microsoft products, they are in lockstep with Microsoft's development agenda. Red Hat's Young says, "Most sophisticated corporations recognize that they simply can't rely upon Microsoft. It looks good on paper, but in reality they don't get all the tools and services they need from a single software supplier, no matter how big it is."

A UNIX ALLY

Linux is a virtual Unix work-a-like. You can get your favorite Unix code off the Internet and put it on your Linux systems with the same amount of effort as putting it on any other platform. Young of Red Hat argues that since Unix vendors make most of their money on servers, Linux will help ensure that Microsoft does not own the desktop so completely that users will buy a Microsoft enterprise server to integrate with their Microsoft desktops and departmental servers. Linux's success in departmental and Web servers will keep companies open to the idea of heterogeneous environments, he says. "They know they are getting their heads handed to them," says Young. "Linux is competing with them, but it is also an ally in the necessary battle to keep Microsoft from owning the whole world."

Mike Cowpland, Chief Executive Officer of Corel, points out that the balkanization of Unix meant that no one platform was worth developing for, with the result that most Unix applications are legacy programs. But the popularity of Linux at universities, where it is the dominant operating environment, means that a new generation of programmers will develop for Linux and Unix. "Linux is what Unix maybe should have been, but it just split into ten flavors," says Cowpland.

Linux and Unix sprang from the same POSIX standard. Since the operating environment is not proprietary, no one vendor can control it. According to Red Hat Chairman Young, this competitive environment will weed out the weaker versions. Nicholas Wells, director of marketing for Linux distributor Caldera Incorporated, notes that the major Linux distributors have joined the Linux Standards Base project sponsored by Linux International, which he says will create a definition of what a Linux operating environment should include and ensure compatibility. Wells adds that there is no commercial advantage to breaking the standard because Linux is available freely off the Internet.

THERE'S NO FACE LIKE GNOME

Wells says that the standards committee will also help settle any potential incompatibilities between the KDE desktop graphical user interface product that Caldera distributes, and the Gnome desktop graphical user interface that Red Hat is helping to develop. KDE offers a Windows-style interface, but it's built around a library that is not protected by the GPL license that is unacceptable to many in the open-source community. Red Hat refuses to ship KDE and instead is supporting the development of Gnome. Whether people are running KDE or Gnome for their desktop, or any application on top of them, programs simply need to be able to talk to X-Windows to be compatible.

Linux supporters say Unix never made it on the desktop because it was expensive and ran on proprietary hardware. Once the desktop is lost, they say, it's difficult to get enough mindshare to make the operating environment grow. Now that Linux is going after the desktop, observers say they see Unix vendors uniting around Linux. "We're seeing Linux become the standard Unix," says Larry Augustin, president of VA Research Incorporated, a Mountain View, California company that can barely keep up with the demand for their workstations with Linux pre-installed.

To be continued ...

Sincerely,
Mark Kuharich

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