Linux Special: A penguin on every desktop?

The penguin is ready for take-off, according to a survey of Silicon.com viewers. Over 70 per cent of you responded that Linux is suitable for corporate use right now - a resounding victory for the open source operating system (OS).

However, the comments of the respondents are just as significant as the pure statistics, and reveal a clear divide between front and back-end usage. The vast majority think it is highly suitable for server deployment (although doubts over support and security linger). An equally large majority think it's unsuitable on the desktop.

A typical response from the pro-Linux camp came from a trainee programmer analyst, Gareth O'Shea: "Linux is cheap, powerful, reliable, stable and non-Microsoft. And since Linux is constantly being improved upon, tested, and debugged, it is a safer alternative to Windows 95, 98 and NT."

It's hard to argue with him when it comes to server installations: Linux already runs more than a quarter of the world's Web servers, according to some estimates.

However, a quarter of respondents to our survey still think Linux is not ready to be rolled out across the enterprise, including Martin Mathieson, business systems manager at Sara Lee Household and Body Care UK. He emailed us, saying: "Our organisation has no plans at all to adopt Linux. It seems to me that Linux is being promoted by a group of techies who like the idea that they have access to the source code - a change control and security nightmare - and want an excuse to learn a new skill that they hope will be very marketable."

He added: "I get worried that companies like IBM are taking it seriously for commercial use."

Another Silicon.com reader, Carl Last, raised concerns about security. "I believe that while Linux maintains its open source strategy, it leaves itself open to security violations more than other protected flavours of Unix. The shareware approach of Linux will discourage commercial users no matter how unlikely the potential risk."

Respondents also addressed the crucial question of support. Many thought that using Linux to run mission-critical applications is risky: if things go wrong, who do you call? Others believe that the support offered by the likes of Red Hat and SuSE, or simply by the open source developer community itself, is more than adequate.

Some respondents were willing to testify to its readiness for the desktop. Webmaster, Scott MacKenzie explained that Linux GUIs (graphical user interfaces) have come a long way in the last few years. "There are many GUIs available, including KDE and Gnome. These are both very easy to use and configure to an individual's or a company's requirements."

Scott Kemp, director of information systems for Taylor County in Texas, USA, feels Linux is on the cusp of something great. "Linux is immature in the power tools available for systems administration. At the same time, it is an extremely capable OS and the price is right. In a few months or maybe a year, when some of the vendors have published, tested and polished some power tools, then Linux will be David to the Windows NT Goliath."

Kemp concluded that the desktop will not be far behind, and said: "If anybody with a bazillion dollars can possibly have any trouble sleeping, it is Bill Gates."

But even those who support Linux have doubts about its future. As Gareth O'Shea put it: "With large corporations such as Oracle now planning to supply Linux products, they may wish to tweak the OS to make it more efficient for running their software (a Microsoft tactic). Would they then want to release the source code for these modifications? All Linux code, at present, is freely available, so your average Joe can always make improvements, which can then be scrutinised and tested by others. Will this change?"

No one doubts that it's still early days for Linux, even as a server platform, and it certainly hasn't achieved significant desktop penetration. But the survey hints that corporates are willing to put their faith in open source and run Linux on the server. Many already are. If that's true, then can a penguin on every desktop be far behind?