Why Do I Recommend Open Source and Domino?
Category IBM/Lotus Domino Linux
This last week, I had a short conversation with an IT project manager, who didn't understand the "open source thing." This is a person who I know to be thoughtful and mentally sharp. I think, sometimes, it's too easy for me to be in my own bubble: checking my Bloglines, PlanetLotus, Slashdot, Groklaw, etc. Open Source is a phenomenon that still hasn't hit mainstream, even in IT. Maybe not nascent, it's in its adolescence with the typical growth spurt right before full maturity.
SAP Research has published an informative analysis on the "Total Growth of Open Source."
Typically, Open Source is brought into a company through the back-door, to quickly solve problems on the cheap. I think there may be an association of cheapness, and even frugality towards Open Source. I remember that's how many Windows servers were brought in as part of the client/server revolution--they were less expensive and simpler to setup. Now days, I know shops that have gone from Windows to the commercial Open Source offerings of RedHat and are starting to use Fedora or CentOS as free alternatives to RedHat. But, it's not just about the money.
How about spending $59 million for a CentOS system? That's the cost for the University of Texas super-computer, Ranger, which draws 2.4 megawatts to run, and requires 1 megawatt to cool it. It just seems weird that Open Source Linux is now powering super-computers, as well as the $350.00 Asus EEE PC (#4 on Amazon's Bestseller list for computer gear) Open Source has exposed all the wiring (well, the source code), making it very flexible for multiple applications.
Which brings me to why I prefer Open Source solutions, and why, specifically, I favor Linux for Domino. Uptime.
The Yankee Group has released their independent 2008 Server OS Reliability Survey. AIX and Linux rock.
Even Ubuntu was mentioned as "highly reliable, with 1.1 hour of per server, per annum downtime." Usually Ubuntu is mentioned as popular for the desktop, it's nice to see that it's picking up momentum for back-end services. However, it is the Linux distro that I use most often. It'll be certified for Lotus Notes 8.5, and if you are concerned that you'll never get your Uncle Joe, or the CFO onto Ubuntu, Canonical is offering training. For $100, it "provides simulations, practical exercises and information to make daily tasks easy."
Hm. "Practical" and making "daily tasks" easier are good enough reasons for me to keep working with Open Source.
Technorati Tags: IBM/Lotus Domino, Ubuntu
This last week, I had a short conversation with an IT project manager, who didn't understand the "open source thing." This is a person who I know to be thoughtful and mentally sharp. I think, sometimes, it's too easy for me to be in my own bubble: checking my Bloglines, PlanetLotus, Slashdot, Groklaw, etc. Open Source is a phenomenon that still hasn't hit mainstream, even in IT. Maybe not nascent, it's in its adolescence with the typical growth spurt right before full maturity.
SAP Research has published an informative analysis on the "Total Growth of Open Source."
Our work shows that the additions to open source projects, the total project size (measured in source lines of code), the number of new open source projects, and the total number of open source projects are growing at an exponential rate. The total amount of source code and the total number of projects double about every 14 months.
Typically, Open Source is brought into a company through the back-door, to quickly solve problems on the cheap. I think there may be an association of cheapness, and even frugality towards Open Source. I remember that's how many Windows servers were brought in as part of the client/server revolution--they were less expensive and simpler to setup. Now days, I know shops that have gone from Windows to the commercial Open Source offerings of RedHat and are starting to use Fedora or CentOS as free alternatives to RedHat. But, it's not just about the money.
How about spending $59 million for a CentOS system? That's the cost for the University of Texas super-computer, Ranger, which draws 2.4 megawatts to run, and requires 1 megawatt to cool it. It just seems weird that Open Source Linux is now powering super-computers, as well as the $350.00 Asus EEE PC (#4 on Amazon's Bestseller list for computer gear) Open Source has exposed all the wiring (well, the source code), making it very flexible for multiple applications.
Which brings me to why I prefer Open Source solutions, and why, specifically, I favor Linux for Domino. Uptime.
The Yankee Group has released their independent 2008 Server OS Reliability Survey. AIX and Linux rock.
The top Linux distributions Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and NovellSuSE Linux notched the biggest reliability improvements in the latest2007-2008 survey. Each decreased per server per annum downtime by anaverage of 75%. The biggest and most unwelcome surprise in the surveywas that Windows Server 2003 downtime increased by 25% to nearly 9hours of per server, per year downtime compared to the results itachieved in Yankee Group's 2006 Global Server Reliability Survey.Windows Server 2003's decreased reliability is attributable to a seriesof security alerts Microsoft issued in the summer and fall time framewhich caused network administrators to take their Windows Server 2003machines offline for significantly longer periods of time to applyremedial patches.
Even Ubuntu was mentioned as "highly reliable, with 1.1 hour of per server, per annum downtime." Usually Ubuntu is mentioned as popular for the desktop, it's nice to see that it's picking up momentum for back-end services. However, it is the Linux distro that I use most often. It'll be certified for Lotus Notes 8.5, and if you are concerned that you'll never get your Uncle Joe, or the CFO onto Ubuntu, Canonical is offering training. For $100, it "provides simulations, practical exercises and information to make daily tasks easy."
Hm. "Practical" and making "daily tasks" easier are good enough reasons for me to keep working with Open Source.
Technorati Tags: IBM/Lotus Domino, Ubuntu
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Comments
Posted by Guy Wakely At 04:19:51 AM On 04/22/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Sherwin Delfin At 11:16:28 AM On 04/21/2008 | - Website - |