Features and Benefits of Linux for a Business.

Feature

Open Source software means you have access to ths source code. Most Linux software is licensed under the [GNU Public License|http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html]? which says in part:

"The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. . ."

Benefit

If you would like a bug fixed or a feature added you are free to do so. You can either do it in house, if you have that capability, or hire an independent software developer, to provide that bugfix or feature.

Even more than that, people like myself and others have access to the source code and will oftentimes fix it for you. We do so because others (like yourself) have paid us to do so or we just got tired of tripping over the same problem or lack of feature. Oftentimes we do it just because we think it's fun (but sshhh that's a not-so-well-kept secret).

The end result of this is that the system is stable and constantly maturing. Lots of end user feedback and contribution goes into the design and feature additions. Further, the additions are created because they add value not because the marketing guys say they want it that way to drive seat sales.

There are lots of "bleeding edge" development options at your disposal too. In general though, the typical end user does not use the latest development version but rather a well tested and feature hardened version.

Feature

Linux runs on standard PC hardware and is true multi-tasking and multi-user.

Benefit

You may be able to start using Linux, on hardware you once considered obsolete. You might have thought it obsolete because it was not powerful enough to run the latest upgrade version of the proprietary Operating System you've been using.

Feature

No per seat licenses or periodic upgrade/maintenance fees.

Benefit

As your business grows, your software budget doesn't have to grow along with it. If you have a large number of computer systems, you won't require an infrastructure and personnel to monitor your software licenses, to maintain compliance.

No fear of visits from [SPA|http://www.siia.net/piracy/default.asp]?, because a disgruntled former employee reported your company for running unlicensed software on your computers.

You can choose whether the software is providing the features you need , not the software vendor. If budgets are tight you can decide whether the timing is right for an upgrade.

Feature

Remote adminstration through secure encrypted interface.

Benefit

If your company is small and you don't need an in house technology person to manage your day to day administration tasks, you can outsource your IT management to an independent contractor. This administrator can remotely adminster your systems, saving you payroll costs.

Feature

Hundreds of applications are supplied with most Linux distributions. There are databases, multimedia applications, graphics applications, office productivity software and many other types of software included with Linux.

Benefit

You may not have to purchase additional software, and associciated licenses, in order to have the computer service you need. The software most businesses need is included in Linux distributions. All the included applications are Open Source, so you don't have to buy or track licenses to use them.

Feature

You can upgrade/manage your system remotely.

Benefit

Your in house IT person or IT consultant doesn't have to be in front of the machine to upgrade software. Many Linux distributions include notifications of new software releases for bug-fixes and security-fixes, and automated software that can be run remotely to apply these fixes.

Feature

Samba is an Open Source/Free Software suite that provides seamless file and print services to SMB/CIFS clients. Samba is freely available under the GNU General Public License.

Benefit

Provides Open Source alternative to Microsoft Server products without the per seat license, virus vulnerabilities and reliability problems associated with those products. Requires less robust hardware than recent versions of Microsoft server software, to accomplish the same tasks. Samba is one of the first features a small- to medium-sized business will use when migrating to Linux, to provide Windows-compatible file and printer sharing.

Feature

Squid is a high-performance proxy caching server for web clients, supporting FTP, gopher, and HTTP data objects.

Benefit

Squid helps to minimize network bandwidth by cacheing frequently visited web and ftp sites locally. There are various other add-on programs for Squid that:

• Filters based on web page content (by a banned phrase list), PICS, MIME-type and file extension.
• Virus scan, disinfect or delete the download
• A redirector that allows Intranet (restricted) or Internet (full) access with URL deny and redirection for sites that are not deemed acceptable for a userbase
• Authenticate users for purposes like allowing or denying access to the web
• Provide real-time graphing of web-server usage as well as other useful real-time information