[TriLUG] Can open source solutions be viable companies?

Sinner from the Prairy sinner at escomposlinux.org
Fri Jun 28 08:00:22 EDT 2002


Avui, Divendres 28 Juny 2002 12:48, no tenieu res mes que fer i me vareu 
enviar aquest e-mail
> One of our project directors, a Linux supporter, asked me to ask the group,
> specifically RedHat folks the following question. There is a big debate in
> the bioinformatics community, which has been using Linux as a solution
> because of cost more than anything. Now that bioinformatics are becoming
> more "mainstream", better monies are coming in. Now they are starting to
> look elsewhere. If we as a community can show how Linux is viable in this
> emerging field, then maybe it will help show that Linux is viable.

#Red Hat worker mode=off
#Informed Linux user = on

Linux is *now* mainstream. When Wall Street, banks, the army, foreing 
governments... are adopting Linux, I sy that this means that we are 
mainstream.

Maybe they approach to Linux is still "guru-style, in-house development, geeky 
sysadmin support". This works just fine. 

But, if they have more money, and they want to focus onresearch and just let 
somebody else to babysit their Linux machines, if they want "corporate class" 
support, if they want to sue Oracle clustering technology on Dell's servers 
with top-of-the-line OS, with all the bells and whistles, with 
legalese-filled contracts..., they can still use Linux. Just try Linux redhat 
Global Support services, advanced Server, partnerships with Oracle, 
IBM-support-n-lawyers muscle, a choice of vendors (Dell? IBM? HP-Compaq?) and 
whatever they want to pay for.

> Question to me:
> "Do you have pointers to info on how open-source solutions can still be
> viable companies.  There is a big debate in the bioinformatics community
> about this, and I thought you might have some info."

Maybe they want to keep with Linux to keep up with the current trend of 
genomics investigation around the country:

http://www.genomeweb.com/articles/view-article.asp?Article=200262511561

> Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Hope this helps.


Salut,
Sinner
-- 
RedHat QA Test Engineer  --  Running RedHat 7.3 on i386smp
http://www.ibiblio.org/sinner/



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