[ebxml-dev] Re: Linux and ebXML (little offtopic)

[Peter Harrison <peterha@nothingbutnet.co.nz>]

On Thursday 25 April 2002 01:54 pm, you wrote:
> Them's fighting words, despite your disclaimer. I knew I would hook a linux
> bigot with my comments. ;-)

Okay you got me. I am actually involved in starting the New Zealand Open 
Source Society - so I suppose to some extent I am guilty as charged. But I am 
not and idealist. I've been writing commercial software for more than 12 
years, and only run Linux because it does the jobs I want it for at least as 
well if not better than Windows.

> Besides, most SME's don't (and shouldn't) care about operating systems and
> techno- geek-weenie stuff like that.  They care about paying invoices,
> collecting on receivables, getting new contracts and such.  Why
> would/should they care about Linux, Windows or technological chicanery that
> we technocrats like to argue about? It should be transparent to them.

Exactly. They shouldn't. They should choose the product to do the job at the 
best price. I would never suggest different. 

> > I'm writing this email on a HP machine running Red Hat, and my web server
> > has been running Linux for over two years - with exactly zero crashes due
> > to OS failure (two hardware failures). I hardly ever need to touch it.
>
> And how long did it take, how much IT knowledge did it require to get it to
> this state? The average SME would not be capable nor interesting in doing
> that.

Ummm... I installed it - thats it. It was about as difficult and sneezing. I 
didn't touch a command line. I honestly don't want to get into a flame war 
over Linux, I'm just trying to point out that it really is that easy to 
Install and use Linux now.

> Bundle Linux into a turnkey solution, and then you have a different story.

Red Hat 7.1 comes with everything a small business might need - except 
possibly an accounting system or cashbook. Word Processor, Spreadsheet, 
Publisher, Email, Browser, Networking, all work right of the box without 
touching the command line.

I would never suggest businesses use Linux based on ideological reasoning and 
put up with techo/geek interfaces rather than well designed GUI. The fact is 
that Linux is capable of doing many things directly off a standard install. 
And those installs are at least as easy as a Windows install.

Perhaps Linux doesn't have the depth of commercial software support yet - but 
with Java and Kylix more applications are arriving every day, and there is no 
reason to think that Linux would not be able to be an excellent platform for 
either ebXML based client applications or ebXML servers.

Anyway - argument over, I'm sure people don't want a Linux flamewar, and I 
agree with you that Linux shouldn't be implemented for ideological reasons 
anyway. 

Regards,

Peter