As Linux moves into corporate mainstream, InfoWorld looks at the challenges it faces – calling it “Adolescent Angst”. Needed: more business applications running on Linux.
So where will Linux grow? Over the next year, most execs surveyed plan to continue using Linux as an operating system for database management, Web or intranet servers, application development, and network file-and-print services. Less than a third plan to run enterprise apps on Linux, about the same as a year ago. In the past, the Linux movement was driven by “the Linux faithful,” more than by technical capability, analyst Gillen says. As Linux matures, the ranks of believers are being diluted by people who think about Linux simply as a business tool. “The general business user doesn’t look at Linux as a religious statement,” he says.
And users don’t want their choice of operating system to require a leap of faith. So expect them to continue exhibiting more care and caution and doing more testing and cost-benefit calculations as they consider deploying Linux more extensively.
