Opening Up for Open Source 101
jondaw writes "Businesses want to save money and boost IT efficiency. Can open-source software do the trick? Cnet attempts to answer this open ended question and provides a number of good case studies and examples."
Re:Open source (Score:1)
Re:Open source (Score:1)
I myself make a living of using open source, free tools because my manager thinks it's cheaper. In reality, I do the maintainance, and did we run other systems, I would not have as muc
Of course it can't. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Of course it can't. (Score:3, Interesting)
Most in IT today agree that Linux is great on a server in some circumstances but the Microsoft Salesmen come into the picture to our bosses with glossy brochures about TCO studies of costs being lower in Windows.
They also count in retraining costs and the fact that an MCSE is cheaper than a unix admin.
Many in IT are convinced that Windows is cheaper as well since its an integrated platform with VS and all the windows desktops.
Its a tough sell these days and now the MS salesmen are trained to scare
Re:Of course it can't. (Score:1, Insightful)
MySQL is free, unless you need to run tasks that shell scripts and crond cannot manage, or unless you want to bundle MySQL with a closed-source product, or unless you want to pay for a support contrac
Yes, but... (Score:2, Insightful)
Some OSS projects have excellent security, because the project leaders place sufficient emphasis on it, and the coders code with that emphasis in mind.
Other OSS projects do not have good security, sometimes not even as good as Microsoft and co.
Consider this: I have downloaded patches for more security flaws in Firefox than for IE in recent weeks. Mor
Re:Yes, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Yes, but... (Score:3, Informative)
And that's just the vulnerabilities THEY reported.
Re:Yes, but... (Score:3)
http://www.techweb.com/wire/26803909 [techweb.com]
"The vulnerability in question is one of two noted as "critical" by Microsoft on Tuesday, when it released February's monthly fixes. Hackers could exploit flaws in Windows's usage of Abstract Syntax Notation (ASN), a language for defining the syntax of data messages shared between applications and computers. If attackers successfully created exploits, they could clandestinely destroy data, steal informat
Re:Yes, but... (Score:4, Informative)
As an example, rather then just making an unsubstantiated allegation, the most recent patch, 1.0.5, fixed a critical vulnerability ("Code execution through shared function objects") that Mozilla had been sitting on for 2 months, and a high vulnerability ("Content-generated event vulnerabilities") that Mozilla had been sitting on for 3 months.
There where also additional vulnerabilities ranging from High to Low patched in that update that had been known to Mozilla for 2 or more months.
And this is only recent. Before FireFox 1.1, Mozilla was far less forth coming about vulnerabities, often patching them at their leisure and then silently introducing them into builds without any advisory to let people protect themselves; go look at the disclosure list - you'll find pages of dangerous vulnerabilities you where never told existed and for which you remained unprotected against unless you where downloading builds on a nightly basis (and reading the list wouldn't help you - Mozilla used to intentionally keep it 2 major versions behind).
Mozilla built its reputation for security (a reputation that is dimishing as each new FireFox vulnerability is announced) by hiding its flaws and promoting fanboys (like the parent). Now that it has broken into the mainstream, it has to play like everyone else, without the special treatment and fanboy reality distortion fields to protect it.
Re:Yes, but... (Score:2)
I Agree with the GP but not entirely (Score:2)
Real security is not a matter of patching vulnerabilities. It is a matter of getting design right so that those vulnerabilities are both confined and minimized. Sendmail, for example, is a textbook example of how not to design a secure program. BIND is somewhat better but historically it had many of the same sorts of
Re:Yes, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
You say that as if you wanted to imply that Firefox has more security holes, but that's not a certain conclusion! Couldn't it be the case that Firefox just gets more attention from its developers?
Signed,
Captain Obvious
Re:Yes, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
Uhm, that's WHY they call it "Windows Update".
Moron. Microsoft takes longer to patch, their patches break more things, and the vulnerabilities they patch are more serious than OSS ones in most cases. Just because Firefox, and indeed, other OSS products such as Apache or Sendmail, have had a number of security issues doesn't justify tarring the entire OSS field for bad security in comparison to Microsoft.
And comparing all of OSS to Windows in comparing security is just braindead. A more appropriate comparison would be either Linux/BSD vrs any version of Windows OS, or ALL Windows apps against ALL OS apps.
As quality of OSS code has been demonstrated to be better than commercial code in several studies, it is likely that security would be at least equal, if not better. As security-concious coding practices are relatively new, both OSS and commercial code obviously need more work.
And finally, nobody ever said OSS software is perfect.
They said it was as good and cheaper than commercial software in many cases. And it is.
Firefox patches (Score:2)
Your post is a blatent lie. The last Firefox update was the 25th of July. Its now the 22nd of August. There havent been ANY patches to download in the last MONTH
Just what are they asking? (Score:3, Funny)
> Can open-source software do the trick?
For money, or for candy?
Re:Just what are they asking? (Score:2)
Re:Just what are they asking? (Score:1)
Free software pays for better support (Score:5, Interesting)
In the few companies I consult that are currently switching or have switched in the past, the Total Cost of Ownership of their computer infrastructured has lowered significantly, even though the cost of the support staff is truly higher.
But, anyway, support here is somewhat cheap, as I am in a developing country that pays a lot more for software than for the people running then in a number of times.
Re:Free software pays for cheaper labour. (Score:2, Interesting)
No, Brazil.
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:5, Informative)
Honestly most of the time the cost of the actual package (database engine, operating system, office suite) is inconsequential when compared to the cost of the IT staff required to support it. The minute you need to hire a new guy (or worse yet, a $160 / hour consultant or contractor) to support the environment - you can throw the cost of the package ($100 - $1,000 - even $25,000) right out the window because compared to $100k ~ $300k per year for an additional single person to keep it all running, the cost of the warez is inconsequential.
In the long run you save the most money by standardizing on a single platform - not for cost savings at the software license level, but because a single IT staffer can support it and support even more of them (by himself) down the road. Same thing applies to hardware - shave $100 per machine by going with home-built hardware, a different configuration for every single machine, and the minute you need to add a $50k / year (fully burdened salary) to the payroll all of your savings are not only gone, but blown completely out of the water.
The only way OSS is going to save a company money is if it lets fewer people do the same stuff, or lets the same number of people do more stuff - regardless of licensing costs. Most companies spend more money each year on executive perks and bonuses than software licensing, so you are pretty much on the money when you say focus on TCO.
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:2)
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:2)
Right, so you hire a consultant and blow your wage saving out of the water. Or worse, double up on your IT staff to try to compensate for their incompetence. As a consultant, I can't tell youhow many companies I have gone to which had 5 IT people doing the job of 2 or 3 and th
Cost of the support people (Score:1)
Talking once more about me experience in Brazil...
One of the companies I consult for has just renewed their campus wide anti-virus licence (about 1200 desktops running Windows). The cost of the licence alone was comparable to the salaries paid to 5 avarage-to-senior full-time supporters for that same year (if you disconsider the almost 100% government taxes on labour).
And that was for the anti-virus alone. Think a
True cost of free software (Score:2)
Spoken like a true MSFT rep (Score:2)
A MSFT rep or a politically minded CIO. Looking at examples across my customer base the cost of support is not any higher for OSS applications, or applications built on open source products, exclusive of the licensing costs. I bill the same whether I'm supporting an application built with .NET and SQL Server or PHP and MySQL.
Provided you're not trying to support open source products with MCSE'
Re:Spoken like a true MSFT rep (Score:2)
For the record, I do Java and database development for deployment to an AIX environment, and for my purposes Linux (SuSE 9.1 Pro, or SuSE 9.0 Enterprise Server) gives me the most effective environment in which to do my developmen
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:5, Interesting)
Are you kidding? This is never overlooked, because the anti-F/OSS crowd keeps harping on it. "Sure, you'll save $x,000 on software," they wail, "but what about the cost of wages? That will go way up, because open source is haaaard!"
Which, of course, is bullshit. The fact is, F/OSS IT solutions cost no more to administer than comparable proprietary ones do, and often cost less, because Oracle DBA's and the like make businesses pay through the nose. I fought a long and mostly successful battle to move my employer away from proprietary to F/OSS for our IT needs, and I built the infrastructure mostly from scratch, myself. Wages for proprietary software: one employee. Wages for F/OSS: one employee, who was a hell of a lot happier working with his choice of tools than with whatever crap a "solutions vendor" wanted to foist on us.
The upshot? We have a stable, working IT infrastructure, and because of the money we saved, the department was able to grow in recent years from one employee (me) to four, keeping pace with the company's growth from a four-person shop in a single office to a $30 million / year multinational. Granted, this may not be all that impressive by MegaConglomerCo standards, but we make a good product and a lot of people, including me, are pretty damn happy about how things worked out.
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:2)
Read my reply to him here [slashdot.org]
I never said I was pro-MSFT, anti-F/OSS, or even pro-F/OSS. I didn't name any technologies, I just said 'pick the one that lets one guy get the most stuff done.'
To apply it to what you said, if there was a technology (I didn't say MSFT, I didn't say F/OSS - I just said 'a technology') that let the company grow to be as large as it is and you alone could still support it all by yourself (without adding three other IT techs at $60k to $80k / y
Re:blah de blah b;ah (Score:2)
The ones that said 'very wise, etc' are the ones that didn't
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:2)
And this is exactly why open source is beating commercial software.
Because open source is OPEN SOURCE - you can see the software and you can tweak it. Which saves money on contracting with a closed source company to do that, as you can likely find somebody to tweak it for less money.
Closed source companies won't even tweak it in many cases, for exactly the reasons you state - it then becomes a nightmare for them to support a hundred different versions of their software.
Also, a closed source company is going
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:1)
Huh? In which universe?
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:2)
This one, moron.
Did you expect it to happen overnight?
You can't read the percentage uptake of OSS products over commercial? The double-digit percentage growth of Linux and other OSS products year after year? The trade journal articles that cite double-digit percentages of companies implementing open source?
Can you read at all?
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:1)
So growth of linux and OSS products is now equal to "OSS is beating commercial software"?
Can you read at all?
Are you 12?
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:2)
Look, stupid, I don't have time to respond to juvenile taunts from idiots who have no clue what OSS is about or how well it's being taken up by corporate America.
Do everyone a favor - walk in front of a bus.
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:1)
I'm sorry if my questioning of your comment offends you as a person in some wa
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:2)
If you'd SAID that OSS software is doing well, but not "beating" commercial software, instead of mouthing off with "Huh? In what universe?", you'd have gotten a better reaction.
Particularly since I then could have explained to you that MY point was that OSS software was "beating" commercial software in the sense of being BETTER, not necessarily because of market share.
Which still includes the point that OSS is going to beat commercial software market-share wise EVENTUALLY, with Linux being taken up twice as
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:1)
OT: A stupid Linux question (Score:2)
I'm grew up in the Microsoft world of networking, and before that did lots of Netware - now I am dinking with Linux (SuSE 9.0 ES, and others) and one thing that I have yet to even see mentioned is how to configure 'network shares' or 'a shared file system' on Linux. How do I do the equivalent of the following in Linux:
a) set up a particular directory tree on my Linux box as shared,
b) configure rights for users that are not actu
Re:OT: A stupid Linux question (Score:1)
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:2)
As someone trying to get Sybase ASE 12.5.3, WSAD 5.1.2, and a few other packages all running on a current distro of SuSE (either 9.0 Enterprise server, which Sybase doesn't play well with, or 9.3 Professional, which doesn't play well with Sybase and isn't a 'certified' platform for WSAD 5.1.2, or
I assure you that this case will appear.
All the source code in the world isn't helping me get Sybase 12.5.3 working on SuSE 9.0 Enterprise Serve
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:1)
1) You need experienced people to run closed source solutions aswell, cause we're talking about enterprise solutions, not notepad.
2) The open source solution is usually harder to set up and implement. But this is due to its mayor flexibility (ergo, it can be twisted to match your needs).
3) Closed source solutions have a oh-so-better-support is a myth. You probably didn't read the licenses you purchased
4) Once you've set up an open source solution, you don't have to put someone there to watch the app runn
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:2)
Just finished a class that went through all the advanced stuff Oracle can do (most databases, come to think of it,) including pre/post triggers. If you want to throw even your most seasoned programmers for a loop, throw a few rude triggers (like stuff that just ignores an update, but only between 9:00am and 9:10am on every other Tuesday, and only if the updated field is at least twice the pre-update value) in there.
Just p
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:1)
Training is another matter, but tbh again, that's a monopoly backlash - you say that people can be expected to know the monopoly package, and to a certain extent that's true - but working for a company with almost entirely an MS monoculture, we got literal
Re:Free software pays for better support (Score:1)
Yes (Score:5, Interesting)
Absolutely. Two cases in point:
Case One: We were looking for a bug tracking solution and we had short-listed the contenders to a choice between Bugzilla, BugTracker and FogBugz. Although FogBugz was a superior product BugTracker won because we could modify it to suit our needs. We didn't like Bugzilla because of it's clumsy interface and the fact we'd need an extra machine to run it.
We saved money on the licenses and we got something we could modify and maintain ourselves. Free software at it's best.
Case Two: We were paying through the nose for anti-virus subscription and software. We all know that anti-virus software takes a lot of real estate. Most have *HORRIBLE* splash screens that no-one is interested in seeing and they tend to slow the machine considerably.
Our solution to the problem to the anti-virus problem was the Windows version of ClamAV. It has a nice outlook plugin that protects from e-mail based virus and we set a schedule to scan the disk every night. There is no "resident shield" in ClamAV but to be honest they rarely do any good anyway.
My former boss works at a much larger company (we're still good friends) and he's deployed the strategy across a company with around thirty machines and saved a fortune.
So yes, companies can save money using Open source. The hard part is convincing them that a not-for-profit organisation can deliver quality products. I find ten minutes with Firefox usually does the trick.
Simon
Re:Yes (Score:4, Insightful)
Not having to worry about CD keys, crazy EULAs, spy/adware, and vendor lock-in are big pluses of most FOSS.
Re:Yes (Score:2)
I also love the fact I don't have to type in those stupid keys when I install software. What use do they serve anyway?
Re:Have you given away your customizations? (Score:2)
At its best, the model involves a few coders at the top who develop features based on either community need, service for a fee, or their own itch, all of which are integrated in the core offering only if it makes sense to most people. Its the
Re:Yes (Score:1)
Oh, the number of times my AVG res shield has saved my computer from Skynet, MyDoom, other assorted Trojans... AVG's a joy to use. It's light, it's fast, it's free (for personal use). And you get free updates. Usu
Open Source and Money? Are you nuts? (Score:1)
That is why Novell and red Hat are making millions of Euros and Dollars even though they are OSS
.XD
Re:Open Source and Money? Are you nuts? (Score:5, Interesting)
Let us also not forget VA Software [yahoo.com], one of the original poster children for making money through Linux
Re:Open Source and Money? Are you nuts? (Score:1, Funny)
You should be ashamed!
Re:Open Source and Money? Are you nuts? (Score:4, Informative)
What you might want to look at are Novell [yahoo.com] and Red Hat [yahoo.com], and the statistics like "profit margin" and "gross profit". Are they raking in money hand over fist? No. Are they making a healthy profit, particularly for companies of their respective sizes? Certainly. Contrary to what you seem to want to imply, they are doing quite well.
VA Software [yahoo.com]? Yeah, well they're pretty fucked right now.
Jedidiah.
Re:Open Source and Money? Are you nuts? (Score:2, Insightful)
Tell you what. I'll pay for any property or computer equipment they have and assume any debts. (I'll need an equity loan, but there would be no shortage of people ponying up the money.) If what you're implying is true, the owners of Novell and RedHat would gladly accept my offer to get out of their sink hole companies and move onto something that would make them more money. *snicker*
If you want to make money hand over fist, you more than likely need a monopoly.
Re:Open Source and Money? Are you nuts? (Score:2, Insightful)
Companies want free software and outsourced labor for $6/hr developers.
So essentially the new American business plan is this:
1) Get free stuff
2) Get free labor
3) ???
4) PROFIT!!!
Re:Open Source and Money? Are you nuts? (Score:1)
Do we really even have to ask? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Do we really even have to ask? (Score:5, Interesting)
Like it or not, open source projects are constrained by the same factors of production that any other good is constrained by. They can't be avoided, be it an open source project or a commercial, closed-source project.
Re:Do we really even have to ask? (Score:4, Insightful)
While PostgreSQL hasn't had scores of millions of dollars poured into it, they also haven't had the "years upon years" - although they ARE one of the older OSS products around.
Nonetheless, their achievements are impressive.
Most of Oracle's "features" beyond PostgreSQL are stuff involving applications development, tuning, and other stuff that most smaller companies don't particularly need or which are so complicated to use that most DBA's probably don't even understand them. Oracle is one hellaciously complicated product.
Oracle has more "feature-itis" than even Microsoft.
A better comparison would be MySQL which is younger and doesn't have all the features a good database should have - but it's getting them over time.
Given that most open source is less than ten years old, and open source project methods vary across the board from one-man projects to corporate-sponsored projects with hundreds of people, I think this form of comparison to closed-source software as to end results is a bit premature.
Open source is division of labor at its best.
As the open source methodology matures, I think we'll see no real limits on what it can achieve - short of putting a man on the moon in ten years.
Re:Do we really even have to ask? (Score:2)
Re:Do we really even have to ask? (Score:3, Informative)
MySQL is still younger than PostgreSQL.
And being funded better by providing a double license is why MySQL is improving quickly. The more OSS programmers that can afford to work on a project, the better the project is, usually.
But PostgreSQL is older and had more time to develop, so it's still the more fully developed product.
If PostgreSQL had the kind of money MySQL has, let alone Oracle, it probably would be better than Oracle by now. But it's pointless to discuss it, because that doesn't happen in OSS.
It
Re:Do we really even have to ask? (Score:2)
Oddly enough oracle and sql server are the same price for the same feature set now.
Re:Why is this on slashdot? (Score:1, Interesting)
i was just kidding there.
the real reason why OSS and ant-NDA culture is bad as that they can't *enslave* indian developers into monkey-we're so grateful for the pittance wages. if they came to you with already existing
Re:Why is this on slashdot? (Score:5, Informative)
Not always - of course (Score:2, Insightful)
For a counter-example (Score:3, Interesting)
Case Study Available (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Case Study Available (Score:2)
http://www.linuxelectrons.com/article.php/20031110 073608244 [linuxelectrons.com]
Another good reason to use open source is that a company's infrastructure vendor can reduce its own development costs by using Linux, and pass the savings onto their customers in terms of better and lower costing products - which in turn affects their customer's TCO.
This seems to be happening in the retail POS industry.
What cost the crashing (Score:1)
Operating systems crash because of the sins of their users.
As a Pastafarian I believe that a Bistromath is the one true computer.
Quite predictable (Score:1)
Here's another couple of case studies (Score:5, Informative)
http://news.com.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html [com.com]
As a matter of fact, they can screw up your operations by merely conducting an audit during your busiest season:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-996210.html [zdnet.com]
Even if you don't use the big-buck CRM packages mentioned in the article, if you're running a business the logical choice is to avoid the risk of extortion and/or business disruption by choosing open source and telling the BSA to stick it where the moon don't shine.
Re:Here's another couple of case studies (Score:2)
only if you are redistributing the code. IF you are only using it in house then you are fine. Nobody will come down on you.
ERP systems (Score:2, Interesting)
I've got three questions about this, from my experience in a manufacturing environment.
1) Where is this open source software that so easily replaces the commercial software?
2) How can I convince a corporation that has been dealing with a vendor for a particular product for many years that it is worth the pai
Re:ERP systems (Score:2)
Well, if you buy a closed-source product, your competitors are buying it, too. Where's your competitive advantage?
Whereas if manufacturers support open source projects run by people either directly or not directly employed by themselves, but who are familiar with MRP needs, those people will write the basics - and then the manufacturers can hire those people as consultants to customize the
Re:ERP systems (Score:1)
Maybe you don't actually need erp as much as automating existing processes so that data is moved around automatically instead of being processed manually. Eg: take stuff from a database and make a spreadsheet out of it with perl dbi and perl ooolib, mailing it automatically to the right person. This is non-disruptive and frees up employee drudge time, and reduces errors.
Maybe hire a geek to figure it out for you.
Re:errrm (Score:1)
Open ended question? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes.
(Not an open ended question)
Oh god... don't yell 'bout it... (Score:1, Insightful)
The only reason for OSS unpopularity is the lack of common sense in the management... the management has been brainwashed to think this way : "A corporation is good if it earns lot of cash, if the corp. is good then they must have a good product." Now, let's try this on politics : "a political party is good if it has many members, if the party is good then the ideology also must be good"...
I just wonder why I'm not dressed in a brown uniform and sing "Wate
Corporate CTO == Medieval Alchemist (Score:1)
TANSTAASB (silver bullet)
But that won't stop Business looking for both... rather like Alchemists and the Philosopher's Stone. Maybe, one day, Corporate CTO's will go the same way as the Alchemists, hopefully by blowing themselves up... one can but hope.
Businesses aren't asking about the cost (Score:2)
1) VERY interested in F/OSS;
2) are NOT interested because of the potential cost savings, but rather because they believe that F/OSS can offer better technology with shorter delivery cycles;
3) are going slow because of the relative lack of enterprise-friendly support options.
If anyone is interested I can maybe write up a journal entry abo
Omaha is a Linux-friendly place (Score:2)