Apache is a free open-source webserver that runs on most operating systems. The following graph shows how it has been taking market share from Microsoft’s webserver (and others) since 1995.
It’s not like Microsoft hasn’t tried to take over this market. Users have found Apache to be easier to implement, more secure, and more reliable than its competitors in the marketplace. It is also more reparable when there are problems (after all, you have the source code) and, most of all, it is free.
Operating Systems—Linux and FreeBSD
The largest and most successful software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers have all chosen free open-source operating systems such as Linux or FreeBSD as their primary platforms for serving their high-performance websites.
Large, Successful SaaS Providers’ Choices of Operating Systems
| Salesforce.com | CRM - Sales | Linux and FreeBSD |
| Taleo.com | Recruiting | Linux |
| Journyx.com | Timesheets | Linux |
| Rightnow.com | CRM - Support | Linux |
| Netsuite.com | ERP | Linux |
These companies absolutely cannot afford downtime. They have plenty of money; they aren’t choosing Linux because it’s free.
Red Hat is a company that sells services and support for the Linux operating system. They have annual sales of $257 million and their five-year stock chart shows substantial growth.
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How does a company that gives away its products show this kind of revenue growth? Basically, they sell support and other services to large enterprises who are converting from Windows and Unix servers to Linux.
A few years ago, Apple Computer released OS X, which is essentially code added to the FreeBSD operating system. If you have a Mac, you have a free open-source operating system under the hood. Their five-year stock chart is even more impressive than Red Hat’s, although surely the iPod has something to do with that. Companies like Apple Computer and Red Hat that are embracing open source in one way or another are succeeding in the marketplace because of it.
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As for the future, Linux is looking strong.
Advisory services predict that Linux’s market share of the server market will grow from 19% to 26% by 2010. And Linux will have the strongest relative growth of any server operating system, including server operating systems from Microsoft. Shipments will increase from 1.4 million units in 2005 to 2.4 million in 2010. Revenue will grow to $11.5 billion by 2010.
A Free Database Server?
PostgreSQL is an open-source database server that had 1.2 million downloads in 2005 alone and has recently received commercial support from Pervasive Software (NasdaqNM:PVSW), the original makers of Btrieve. PostgreSQL is a free object-relational database. It offers an alternative to proprietary systems such as Oracle, Sybase, IBM’s DB2, and Microsoft SQL Server. Similar to other open-source projects such as Apache and Linux, PostgreSQL is not controlled by any single company but instead relies on a global community of developers and companies to develop it.
PostgreSQL is very stable and bug free. Case in point—thousands of Journyx Timesheet customers have used PostgreSQL for more than nine years with zero incidences of data corruption.
Why the Open Source Movement is So Powerful
Software is ultimately composed of congealed ideas, so ideas are very important in the minds of software developers. The key to market power in the software industry lies in the minds of developers. Fashion plays a role; some ideas are fashionable and some are not. The idea, or philosophy, of open source is powerful, frictionless, and seductive. And like the “little black dress” in the clothing world, open source may just stay fashionable forever.
Open-source software is software which permits the use and modification of its source code by anyone. By definition, it has certain characteristics:
- Free redistribution: The software can be freely given away or sold. This makes for frictionless idea transmission.
- Source code: The source code must either be included or freely obtainable.
- Derived works: Redistribution of modifications must be allowed.
Mistakenly released internal Microsoft emails provide obvious testimony of this concern: “OSS poses a direct, short-term revenue and platform threat to Microsoft, particularly in server space. Additionally, the intrinsic parallelism and free idea exchange in OSS has benefits that are not replicable with our current licensing model and therefore present a long-term developer mindshare threat.”
OSS developers benefit from a reduction in the friction-to-idea exchange that commercial enterprises engender through the use of lawyers, contracts, and payments. They experiment with new tools immediately instead of paying for legally licensed access to technologies.
OSS is winning the minds of developers—and that is precious real estate.
How Small Businesses Can Use Open Source Today
Rolling out Linux in your company can confer advantages. Namely, it’s cheap, fast, and is less prone to worms and viruses. The most common uses for Linux today in small businesses are server based. Linux machines make good file servers, print servers, database servers, and webservers. Open-source software has been more successful, so far, in infrastructure software than in applications software.
File and Print Servers
A file server differs from a desktop computer in that it is dedicated to storing files in a centralized location while permitting network access. By having a file server, users can save work and have access to files without having to carry around disks. Access privileges can be restricted by file or directory, while a centralized location means one place to back up all files.
This is the most common type of server in small businesses. Linux works great as a network file server. Linux includes software called Samba that allows files on the server to be viewed and edited on any Windows PC or Macintosh computer. Samba is faster and more secure than the native file-sharing services available on Microsoft Windows machines, and you can connect to shares on the Linux file server just as you would on your Windows file server. Everything will look the same and there are no per-user licenses required.
My experience has shown that Linux will perform better as a file server than Windows, even when Linux is on older, slower hardware. Hardware resources center on processing user requests instead of running the OS.
The same Samba technology that enables file service on Linux and FreeBSD also enables print service.
Database and Web Service
Database servers can be constructed using PostgreSQL or other free database engines. Connect them to Apache with Python, PHP, or other languages and you have your own web-application environment. This is how Journyx got started: as a web project-accounting application that was built on PostgreSQL, Apache, Python, and Linux.
What to Watch Out For
Many people have more skills in Windows than in Linux, and this is particularly true in small businesses. Therefore, investment in learning may be steeper initially in OSS than in Windows. If you are considering rolling out OSS technologies in your company, keep in mind the skill levels of the people in the company regarding this kind of technology.
If you are currently using any of the on-demand SaaS applications like Journyx or Salesforce.com, you are already using OSS technologies.
With the growth in the OSS marketplace led by Linux, more and more companies will be using OSS as portions of their IT infrastructures, particularly in the arena of servers. As more applications become web based, there will be less and less reason for people to use Windows or Macintosh desktop computers. Companies like Num Sum and Writely provide traditional applications akin to Excel and Word through a web-browser interface. Windows isn’t going away anytime soon, but its days are numbered. OSS is shrinking Windows’ lifetime for servers, and eventually, it may do so for desktop machines as well. And that should provide interesting developments for all of us to watch.
About the Author
Curt Finch is the CEO of Journyx(http://pr.journyx.com), a provider of Web-based software located in Austin, TX, that tracks time and project-accounting solutions to guide customers to per-person, per-project profitability. Journyx has thousands of customers worldwide and is the first and only company to establish per-person, per-project profitability (P5), a proprietary process that enables customers to gather and analyze information to discover profit opportunities. In 1997, Curt created the world’s first Internet-based timesheet application—the foundation for the current Journyx product offering. Curt is an avid speaker and author and recently published All Your Money Won’t Another Minute Buy: Valuing Time as a Business Resource.
