Linux train late – but still coming

Fourteen years back, Cybersource did not sell much Linux at all. Today, about 80 percent of its business is Linux-related. "At no point has Linux adoption actually gone backwards," Zymaris says. "A lot of businesses are fed up with kowtowing to big vendors."

However, Anthony Rumble, managing director of reseller Everything Linux, has a somewhat different take on the open source sector. "It depends what areas you’re looking at. Certain areas are going well. But box-moving is not going well," Rumble says. "Sales of Linux software are not going well and I put that down to broadband."

Some hype around Linux has worn thin. People aren’t as excited about open source any more and are sticking with what they already have instead of investing further, Rumble says.

Most boxes that do still shift can now be sourced easily from mainstream dealers. And when users do want upgrades or a new application, buying directly online is easy if you’ve got broadband, he says. "Every man and his Chihuahua can sell it to you," Rumble says. "But is that going to backfire on major distributors eventually? I think it will."

Once more, services are where it is all starting to happen, he says, although the ubiquitous men and small Mexican dogs are all over that market too.

Rumble is philosophical, however. People eventually are going to start insisting on resellers who "know what they’re doing" again and the wheel will have turned full circle. "Services and technical people cost money," he says.

Only freeware, after all, is actually free to buy and even then there are likely to be support costs if you really want to keep things working. And being prepared to pay for it and factoring that in can actually work out for the best, Rumble adds.

Resellers that figure out how to successfully pitch consultancy and support to SMBs could mine the mother lode as far as Linux revenue is concerned. Support has to be done, either in-house or by an outsourcer. Choosing the latter means no payroll tax, no PAYG, and few human resources or occupational health hassles, Rumble points out. "And I think this is starting to happen," he says.

Thin client-style ways of delivering solutions are starting to multiply and Rumble believes that is one key towards successful delivery of open source-related services and applications to the SMB. "That’s where we see the biggest movement for us but you do need to have the experience," Rumble says.

He agrees a lot of people are still running Windows on their clients but using a more mixed environment overall that makes cost savings. Linux is a good partial answer for many users, and the increased interest from the public sector has emboldened many to dip their toes farther in.

Everything Linux has been helping out various greenfield projects that have decided to go open source or open source-derived in some areas, Rumble says.

"There’s a lot of work happening on the edge areas," Rumble says. "And I still think that the full desktop is within reach, although there’s still a lot of work to do there."

More software must be made available for the platform, for one thing. Also, users need to figure out whether the difficulties they have with Linux are due to the platform itself or are merely the result of trying to adapt to something different, he says.

"We try to get all the information [in such situations] and feed it to the developers," he adds. "But it’s not that hard to find people to do Linux stuff now."

Rumble does not put much stock in EDS’ public disparagement of Linux. "EDS has
always been a bit confused about what it was doing," he says. "If a big enough client comes along and says, 'We’ve got 5000 Linux boxes and we want you to support them', [EDS] is not going to say no."

Linux as a product is still good. "It’s really just a matter of doing all the same things as in the early days with Windows and DOS. It’s the same mistakes, just a little bit later," he adds. Any problems are with the people and the resources applied to the product, Rumble says.