January 31st, 2005
Abandoning *ix
Two stories in today’s news, which seem quite different, are easy to connect with one sentence.
Unix vendors are abandoning proprietary versions for Linux. (The picture’s link to this will become clear in time. You might say I won him in a contest.)
Story one, from Builder.Au, is about how Linux use has dramatically increased over the last year in financial institutions. Over half now use it, according to Finextra, a financial industry research firm.
Story two, from ZDNet.Australia, reports on complaints from Novell customers that the company’s move toward Linux has them feeling abandoned.
The customers are right. No firm of limited resources can afford to invest heavily in dead-ends. Novell has been clear that its future lies in Linux, not NetWare.
And the reason so many banks and brokers are going to Linux is because their chief vendors, like IBM and Novell, are doing so. It’s not like bankers suddenly saw the light on open source — if IBM went to using pink elephants in its operating systems a lot of banks would start collecting pachyderms. (Told you I’d connect it.)
But how do you feel about the embrace of Linux by the Big Iron standard-bearers of traditionally proprietary operating systems? Let us know in TalkBack.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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