A Tale of Two Operating Systems

Linmagau.org ^ | 7 July 2003 | Brent Wallis

[ShadowAce]

A Tale of 2 Operating Systems.

Change is inevitable in any system. My experiences the last few weeks have only served as reminders of this very fundamental “law for everything”. 2 long-term clients of the company I work for have decided to migrate their Enterprise Management System (EMS) software to a Linux platform.

The fundamental reason for this change was to keep ahead of any possible failures in our clients’ hardware. Their warranties had lapsed and they needed new servers for their EMS, a keystone of their business. They made their decision based on 2 options presented with their associated costs.

One option was to keep their existing operating system, SCO Open Server 5.05 and upgrade to the latest version. The other option was a move to RedHat Linux ES [1].

Our clients have signed purchase orders for RedHat Linux ES, but the SCO upgrade path was a cheaper cost option.

These Enterprises are not Cottage Industries.

Our 2 clients are SMEs in separate markets. One is Textiles, the other Home Appliances. Both warehouse their products in Melbourne and they have established distribution channels in all states. The sectors they participate in are tough for a small to medium enterprise in Australia. Margins are low, and their potential customer base is very small in number. Survival and growth for both requires adherence to the principles of good business. They constantly display their flexibility, prudent cost control, excellent customer relationships and controlled experimentation. Growth in revenue and profit needs an excellent grasp of these essentials and an uncanny sense of timing. They are not extravagant companies by any means; they take great pains to explore a “value for money” equation in everything they do. They are profitable, lean and poised for continued solid growth in the next few years.

These two clients invited us to quote for their change in hardware, and both recognized the need to revisit their operating systems platforms at the same time. Their EMS application installs and runs well on both SCO Open Server and RedHat Linux ES. Fundamentally, a new install of RedHat Linux ES is slightly cheaper than an upgrade of their existing SCO Open Server, the added cost of the RedHat Linux install was a rather dubious re-licensing required for third party database software. [2]

Normally we try to offer our clients as many options as possible. We are not tied with one operating system and I feel this is a key strength in our consultancy because we can offer choices based simply on performance and cost effectiveness. Marketing does not get in the road, and our clients end up with the best possible solution. My meetings with these clients to discuss the quotes were markedly similar. Both indicated that they were willing to stay with their current SCO operating system. It was reliable and they questioned why they should change to a relative newcomer.

“ Why take a risk with our performance to date?”
“ Why the damn hell would we want to pay more for the privilege?”

Risk What?

Before I had an opportunity to meet with them, SCO announced a lawsuit against IBM, claiming that the respondents were guilty of stealing code from their UNIX operating system, and including it in the Linux Kernel. The claim was $1billion dollars and SCO felt that Linux would not have been able to develop into an enterprise ready product without this so called act of “theft”. I say “was” because the claim amount seems to have increased, and the reasons for the suit seem to have changed considerably since their first announcement. If SCO win this, they will make a lot of money, and end users of Linux may be at a higher risk of having to pay license fees to them, but to date, no solid evidence has emerged. [3]

The absence of openly available, hard evidence adds weight to the argument in favor of Linux, but in my meetings with these clients, I made it clear that their risk was increased due to this outstanding SCO claim. There was no way that I could advise them on the future outcome, other than the fact that it was happening. Ultimately, they had to decide for themselves. Their risk was to pay more for the RedHat Linux ES solution in the first instance, and then suffer further costs should SCO win their case. Surprisingly, they seem to have considered the SCO lawsuit a minor issue, and their final decision does not seem to have been influenced by it at all.

Why RedHat Linux ES?

Being able to sell anything solely on its merits paves the way for a long term gain in my line of work. Not having to follow through with glossy advertising claims of being “bigger and better “makes it easier for us to deliver client value in the operating systems arena. It’s easy because we can tout the virtues through real life examples.

In all things Open Source, the idea of “truth in the hype” has special meaning. There are no marketing gurus out there selling Open Source Software. The rise in Open Source Software, specifically Linux adoption has been largely a word of mouth process, tempered by its use and promotion in big companies like IBM. Make no mistake though, if Linux did not live up to it’s perceived promise of ability and reliability as an operating system, I have no doubt that our clients would have chosen SCO. The same holds true for all Open Source Software. It becomes popular because of “real” benefits and function. Nothing is ever “taken on” because of an advertised “promise”.

Both of these clients use Linux in a variety of ways already. Web Servers, Firewalls, File and Printer Sharing and Virus Free Email are services already provided by RedHat Linux combined with Open Source Software installations on their networks. Highly available wide area networks driven by Linux VPN solutions, on top of a quality ADSL product are another example of their currently successful and trouble free functionality. Linux is already in their network’s “bloodstream”, it works and delivers without missing a beat, and has done so for over 2 years.

One client asked me who and what SCO was. I was rather disappointed (given my judgments about their business acumen)and explained it was the Operating System behind their EMS.

“Oh, that SCO…..aren’t our file shares, email, web server and firewall handled by RedHat Linux?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm, I have read a lot about Linux lately, what would you do?”

My answer as to what I would choose ended up being simple, and I used their current status as a guide:

There is no obvious disadvantage in sticking to SCO Open Server. Even if SCO goes out of business, the EMS application they use is stable, and they could safely continue without facing disastrous failure, at least until their next upgrade comes around. The same reasoning holds true for a move to RedHat Linux ES, nothing will really change in the short term.

But the future in both environments can be determined based on their performance since 1999.

SCO have been very slow with changes, and they do not seem to have had a plan to innovate for sometime. SCO has re-branded several times in the last couple of years, and seem more focused on protecting their Intellectual Property (IP), blithely ignoring the results of that IP and the real reasons for it’s value in the first place.

Linux distributors in general do not have to address these types of corporate diversion in order to leverage more cash for improving their product. Linux functionality, security and usability is and always will be, the core focus for Linux kernel developers [4]. The rapid improvement in these features has been astounding for Linux in all of its forms the last 3 years, whereas SCO Open Server development has seemed stagnant, focused on nothing in particular.

Forget the Hype and Stick with Reality.

My answer was to go for the RedHat Linux ES platform because it has the capacity to create potential for more options in the future without jeopardizing current stability. RedHat’s introduction of an extended support cycle in an “Enterprise Grade” Linux distribution re-enforces my belief that it is the right choice. In real life, RedHat Linux is already delivering cost benefits for these SMEs, and I have no doubt that the medium and long term future for any Linux distribution in their business is limited only by their capacity to work out what they want to do with it.

Our clients perceive RedHat Linux ES as being able to offer them a wider set of options compared to SCO Open Server. They value this flexibility and are willing to pay extra for the opportunity to leverage it.

The SCO group, and indeed the Information Technology Industry as a whole, would do well to observe these small realities a little more closely.

(My apologies to those who have revisited this column expecting a review of Open Source alternatives for Email and Groupware. I will present that subject next month.)

1. RedHat have recently released Enterprise versions of their Linux distributions. Based on RedHat 7.2, they offer long support cycles, a desirable feature for mission critical applications. You can find out more here: http://www.redhat.com/software/rhel/
2. I use the word dubious here because there is no change required for the database when moving from one operating system to the other. The added fee seems aimed at “riding” the rising tide of Linux adoption, rather than an acknowledgement of their intellectual property and it’s cost of development. It’s akin to having to re-pay for your Television when you move from one spot in a room to another. The company I work for is too small to influence this database supplier, but my own take on the matter is that they will suffer a backlash sooner or later, and like many before them, they will realize the error and change. In the meantime, all we can do is shrug and continue.
3. Read more about the SCO lawsuit against IBM here:

   http://opensource.org/sco-vs-ibm.html

4. Kernel Development for Linux is an Open process. Look at : http://kernel.org for more information.

[ShadowAce]

SCO ping

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[Mind-numbed Robot]

Like the company owner mentioned, I had not heard of SCO until they filled suit recently. Can you give me a brief explanation of the ownership path of Unix from AT&T to SCO.

I am suspicious, as they author seems to be, that they bought the IP simply to ride the royalties

[rdb3]

The Penguin Ping.

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Got root?

[TechJunkYard]

There's a Unix History page here. As for the ownership issue, apparently only SCO knows for sure. ;-)

[B Knotts]

The SCO that currently calls itself SCO isn't even the real SCO. It's really the remains of Caldera, which sold a relatively obscure Linux distribution.

[Salo]

The shame of it is: Caldera had a very good installer in their version of linux. I guess since we paid for the Caldera distro at work, we're covered when SCO shuts down IBM and linux (he said without a hint of sarcasm).

[TechJunkYard]

We ain't 'fraid of no SCO.

[Salo]

Interesting comments. If anything, we're going to use linux more just to spite SCO (pronounced "scum"). :-) I'm certainly not shutting down my RS/6000.

We were moving towards linux before any of this crap started and will continue to do so. Some lawsuit factory in Bumfock, Utah will not stop us.