Can Linux Run Your systems?
by Andrew Bowser
If something’s free, it’s usually too good to be true—except maybe in the case of computer operating systems.A Unix-like freeware OS called Linux is spreading fast, and advocates say it’s more efficient and harder to crash than Windows NT or MacOS. Chances are your paper’s new-media staffers have a strong opinion about it and may even be using it as a World Wide Web server. But can Linux become a factor in pre-press, editorial or anywhere else in the newspaper?
According to an International Data Corp. poll conducted in August, about 25 percent of communications companies (which includes publishers) used Linux somewhere in their network infrastructure. That’s not news to Christopher F. Miller of MaineStreet Communications, which publishes Web sites for Maine newspapers. “Other than opening a few Quark files on Mac and previewing sites on various platforms, everything we do is on Linux,” he says.
Written in 1991 by Finnish computer-science undergraduate Linus Torvalds, Linux’s source code is open. Hundreds of independent programmers worldwide have taken advantage of that, collaborating via the Internet to help develop the OS for free.
Some Linux fanatics speak without irony of Linux virtually wiping out Windows, while more moderate observers predict it will offer a niche alternative to proprietary OSs on the desktop. Critics say either scenario is a pipe dream. Indeed, Linux is not a plug-and-play solution. With a lack of technical-support services from large, recognizable software vendors, the onus is on the tech staff to dig in and learn the system—requiring a time and training investment many companies might find hard to justify.
Some, however, appreciate the homegrown approach. Observes Gary Nielson, The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer’s charlotte.com development editor, “I do a lot of development work at home running Linux.” Using the OS, his development server, a low-end PC with a
"Until Linux can prove itself scalable, and support is 24-by-7, I don't think it will play a major role. Then again, who would have thought a free piece of software would make the inroads it has already?" —Gary Nielson, The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer |
Commercial shipments of Linux—versions packaged and sold by distributors—increased by 212 percent in 1998, according o IDC. Linux comprised an estimated 17.2 percent of server OS shipments, compared to just 6.8 percent the previous year. If the current rate of growth continues, shipments of Linux could outpace shipments of MacOS within three years, adds Dan Kusnetzky, IDC program director of operating environments.
For many papers, Linux has found a home in new-media operations. The Star Tribune in Minneapolis uses a Linux box to build the front page and a number of special-project pages for its startribune.com Web site. “We have scripts that took five minutes to develop and have saved us hundreds of hours of manual labor,” says editor Steve Yelvington.
Even in Bill Gates’ backyard, the Internet-development team for the Eastside Journal in Bellevue, Wash., is “100 percent Microsoft free,” according to Mark Citron, Webmaster and developer. “(Linux) really is the most universal of tools,” he says. “We use it to interface with all of our Unix boxes, as well as our Macs, Novell networks and everything else.”
The Detroit News, which uses Linux for the bulk of its “mission-critical” Web servers, provides an example of how the off-brand OS is often implemented.
“It was a ‘make-it-happen’ project,” says network administrator Brad Shelton. “Before anybody realized what I was doing, it was up and working.”
Such stealthy installations of Linux are common when limited budgets meet tight deadlines. With a shelved low-end Pentium and a $30 manual, a moderately-adept administrator can put up a Web site quicker than the ISP can plug it in. “Often the people doing this don’t want anyone to know, because they are afraid they’ll be criticized,” Kusnetzky says.
But Linux in pre-press? Don’t count on it, at least not yet. Quark Inc. currently has no plans to port its software, and Adobe Systems Inc.’s only Linux product is Acrobat. Even the Seattle-based Linux Journal (www.linuxjournal.com) keeps a Windows 95 PC on hand for QuarkXPress. Some, however, say that will change.
“We’ve just hit the tip of the critical mass necessary to force vendors into having Linux versions,” says Derek Simkowiak, a computer consultant in Seattle. “By next year, Quark may very well be available.”
Indeed, system vendors may be among the first to latch onto the Linux high-power, low-cost proposition, and demand is growing. When Corel Corp. ported WordPerfect to Linux, more than 80,000 people downloaded the software during the first 12 hours it was available.
Newspaper supplier Gannett Media Technologies International has already produced a PC-based Linux version of its Digital Collections archive that costs about a quarter of the full-fledged system price. “I would hesitate to put this in at a paper that has more than 25-to-30 people concurrently in the newsroom, but for the bulk of the newspaper market, this is a good solution that from price alone is definitely not going to scare anybody off,” says Bill Mahlock, GMTI’s installation director. At presstime, GMTI was ready to close its first Linux sale to a non-Gannett newspaper.
Linux is far from perfect. PC Week columnist John Taschek wrote in December that unlike Linux, Windows NT has a development model and “a ton” of applications. Moreover, he likened the Linux scheduler (which allocates processor time to tasks) to “dog meat.”
NT looks to be the big winner in the newspaper market in the next 24 months. One reason is that many new front-end systems depend on it, notes startribune. com’s Yelvington.
“Until Linux can prove itself scalable, and support is 24-by-7, I don’t think it will play a major role,” adds Charlotte.com’s Nielson. “Then again, who would have thought a free piece of software would make the inroads it has already?”
Andrew Bowser, a New Orleans technology free-lancer and regular contributor to TechNews, can be reached at andrew@bowser.com.