Linux is becoming an increasingly important part of the Progress strategy, according to Gus Bjorklund, Progress Software`s "wizard", who has been running workshops on the topic at the company`s annual world user conference in Chicago this week.
"We have a lot of companies with really small systems - sometimes just a couple of users - and when you look at the costs of these systems, Linux makes a lot of sense for them. For many of these users Windows is not cheap," he says.
He adds that more and more Progress ISVs (independent software vendors) are starting to implement Linux systems in far bigger environments, often running hundreds of users on affordable hardware with resulting larger cost savings.
Bjorklund says that officially Progress Software supports a number of Linux distributions, including Red Hat, Caldera and SuSE, but many of its users are already experimenting with Progress software on other free Unix platforms as well, which may in time become part of the Progress official offering.
Essentially Linux is just another Unix with a few differences, notes Bjorklund. As a result, he says, users with pre-existing Unix skills are easily able to transfer those across to Linux, unlike many other operating systems that require re-learning with each new version. "The skills across Unix and Linux are largely consistent," he says, adding that the majority of Progress implementations are already running on Unix platforms, making the optional transition to Linux a painless one.
Bjorklund cautions, however, that there are a number of traps with Linux that users must avoid. One of the most important of these is to avoid the constant upgrade phenomenon that is common within open source circles. "Don`t get the most recent patch of the day ... and if it isn`t broken, don`t fix it." Bjorklund says the rapid pace of change within the open source community lures users into trying to keep up to date with the most recent releases, which is often counter-productive.
The open source ethic is also becoming far more "mainstream" within Progress, according to Bjorklund, who points to the success of the year-old Posse (Progress Open Source Software Exchange Network) which allows developers to download, alter and re-submit Progress code. "We can`t do everything," notes Bjorklund, adding that the collaborative nature of Posse has been "good for users and for us".
Bjorklund acknowledges that for many years Linux and open source code struggled against an image as a hacker operating system that lacks support, coherence and business suitability. This is starting to change, he says, as Linux appears on more and more business servers. "Linux is absolutely proving itself ... and users really like it once they start using it."
He explains that the issue of support is becoming less of a stumbling block to the operating system`s success because big Linux vendors, such as Red Hat and SuSE, as well as hardware vendors such as IBM and HP, are now offering support for a wide range of Linux distributions.
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