Keeping software up to date on any computer is a difficult task and keeping multiple machines current is an almost impossible task for any individual. Ensuring Linux boxes are up to date is often even more difficult thanks to the incredible array of dependencies required for each and every piece of software installed.
It is encouraging to see so many applications becoming available, particularly ones that work across a range of platforms.
Alastair Otter, journalist, ITWeb
The reason is that Linux software development is typically a very dispersed activity with each enclave of development building applications in veritable isolation to one another. Console tools are typically built with one or two of the major Linux distributions in mind, while graphical applications are built with either KDE or Gnome in mind. The result is that no matter what tools you try to install, there is bound to be at least one other library, toolkit or application that will need to be installed.
Fortunately there is a rapidly growing market for software management tools and the choices are now quite varied. Obviously the high-end enterprise server vendors have had a range of management tools for quite a while now, but it is further down the pyramid that the management applications have been missing for some time.
Wide range
The situation is changing, however, and just the other day I got hold of a copy of a recent report by research organisation Aberdeen Group. The report is focused on software management solutions offered by Linux suppliers and makes for interesting reading. For a start, I wasn`t quite aware of the range of tools available. Some I have heard of, others not, but it is encouraging to see so many applications becoming available, particularly ones that work across a range of platforms, making the maintenance and software tracking of large sites a whole lot easier.
The report compared seven different management solutions: Aduva Director, BayMountain Managed Services, Caldera Volution Online, Caldera Volution Manager, Red Hat Network, TurboLinux PowerCockpit and Ximian Red Carpet.
The report bases its conclusions on a range of factors, including strength of business strategy, stability and growth potential of supplier, functionality, scalability and the ability to integrate with heterogeneous network and system management tools.
Using these criteria, the report concludes that the best solution for managing software is a combination of two applications: Caldera Volution Manager and Caldera Volution Online. The combination, says the report, makes for a powerful management tool, including the ability to use the Manager portion to alert users to new updates, while using the online portion to query the knowledge base for this information. Also the Caldera combination was noted for supporting a range of operating systems as well as having plans for further expansion to the Windows and Solaris operating systems, making the application easier to integrate into a multi-platform environment.
Red carpet treatment
The best standalone product was Ximian`s Red Carpet Corporate Connect. The Red Carpet package was initially intended for desktop users but with the release of Corporate Connect, Ximian has translated the ease of use of Red Carpet into the server market very well. The software package independence of the application is also noted because it has the potential to be used in environments other than Linux.
Caldera Volution Manager came in third overall because of its flexibility, variety of operating system packages supported and its ability to integrate into other environments. Red Hat Network took fourth place, primarily because it supports only the Red Hat distribution. But the report notes that Red Hat is one of the dominant players in the market so this may not be as big a hindrance as it may initially seem. Aduva Director and Caldera Volution Online took joint fifth place.
As more and more corporations are starting to consider Linux implementations, the array of software management tools available to them is going to make the decision a lot simpler, particularly because many of the applications are able to integrate into multi-platform environments.
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