Re: [TCLUG:361] Re: Fwd: [TCLUG:352] Promoting Linux to businesses

["Joseph A. Heil" <heilja@dbsource.com>]

Quoting Anthony Beltran (beltran@skypoint.com):
> 
> My point is that the SPECIFIC apps my brother needs to use
> are not available under Linux.  He uses very large apps specific
> to the legal profession.  When I made the same suggestion you
> did, check out the Linux community to see what business apps
> were available, he did just that.  The result was that he found
> none of the SPECIFIC apps he needed for his law practice.  When
> he contacted each of the vendors of his apps, none of them had
> plans for porting to Linux.  If he can't run his West Law Library
> and other VERY SPECIFIC apps under Linux, the whole Linux story
> quickly becomes moot for him.  I have gone over this same
> territory with other people in other businesses.  Generically
> saying that business apps are available under Linux may be fine
> for a business that is in the process of selecting their software
> and does not have specific niche market needs, but for a business
> that has either has adopted specific apps and built their business
> practices around them or has specific niche market needs not met
> by apps in the Linux arena, Linux is not the solution except maybe
> as a server for their network.

  Another person who has been down that road.  IMHO, the only possible
applications that can be currently developed and run on Linux systems are
database server systems.  Currently there are at least 5 or more less known
vendors that have ported there RDBMS to linux.  Like all Linux 3rd party
applications, the cost is alot less then there standard Unix or MS versions.
Granted these systems are not Oracle/Sybase/DB2/etc in power and
functionality, but they hold their own.   Most of them support just as much
of the SQL92 standard as the above big boys.  Of course a database is only
useful as the client application attaching to it.  Here is where there is
some shortcomings.  But I have notice the main push for RDBMS on Linux system
is to have web sites driven by databases.  For this Linux and any of these
less known RDBMS works extreamly well.

> 
> If we try to convince business people otherwise, I think we lose
> credibility because we sound like Linux fanatics who are unaware
> of these people's day-to-day realities and worse, like people who 
> only see Linux and not the apps.  When I realized this, I backed
> off quickly.
> 

  Again, this is where Linux can gain credibility.  By developing and
running Linux database/web server, a client can get a stable and very cost
effective solution.  From there, only word of mouth and good performance,
can other areas of applications development be accept as possible solutions
to the MS environment, one of those being Java applications.   Remember,
MS has been around for 15+ years, as to Linux's 5 years, so baby steps first
before we as a Linux community try to go crazy to supplant MS as a leader in
the many areas where they have market domination.


j.heil
-- 
Joseph A. Heil, Jr.

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