Lora Bentley spoke with Amanda McPherson, marketing and developer programs VP at the Linux Foundation. She and two colleagues recently released a new paper, “Estimating the Total Development Cost of a Linux Distribution.”

Bentley: Your study found that it would cost $1.4 billion for a company to build the Linux kernel from scratch today, and $10.8 billion to build an entire Linux distribution similar to Fedora 9. Can you explain how you reached those figures?

McPherson: The conclusions were reached by using David Wheeler’s well-known SLOC tool, SLOCCount, which makes use of the industry standard COnstructive COst MOdel (COCOMO). This methodology takes into account lines of code written, the appropriate number of labor years, and salary adjustments for inflation. We wanted to come up with a real number based on the one thing you can quantify in open source — code. We used a well-regarded methodology and tool that had been used before. Instead of making random projects, we thought this was the best way to approach it.

Bentley: Why the Fedora community distribution and not another?

McPherson: Fedora is the basis for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which represents a large percentage of the Linux market. This provided us with a very relevant model to assess. Also, David A. Wheeler had used Red Hat for his study in 2002. OpenSuse and Debian/Ubuntu would, of course, also be great targets for this study. We may do that at a later date. We also would like to use an embedded distribution.

Bentley: What do or should these findings mean to proprietary software vendors?

McPherson: I think it means the future of software development is collaborative. These systems have grown so powerful and so important that for any one company to fund the development on its own would be a foolish and possibly financially untenable decision. Software development today actually requires collaboration in order to innovate at the pace the market demands. Consider devices like the Kindle and Gphone. They wouldn’t likely be available today were it not for the billions of dollars worth of R&D that they can use from the Linux kernel. You see companies like Intel using Linux and open source components in the Moblin project to expand the use of netbooks running its products. Intel could instead develop proprietary software in-house to meet this need, but why would they when they can make use of billions of dollars of free R&D? Things have changed since the desktop computer revolution.

Bentley: Don’t many proprietary software vendors recognize the value of open source now given that so many use open source in some way or another?

McPherson: Absolutely! You can also look at our “Who Writes Linux” report to see that hundreds of companies support Linux development directly. This study shows that those companies (such as IBM, Intel, Red Hat, Novell and HP) have made a very smart decision. They can fully participate in a large ecosystem and make use of free R&D without having to shoulder the burden all alone.

Bentley: So why is a study like this one helpful?

McPherson: Sometimes it’s easy to take a ubiquitous piece of technology for granted, especially one you can use for free. I think it’s not just Linux we take for granted: Just imagine the R&D value of the Internet itself and what that means for our economy. Compared to that, Linux seems small, yet when you think about all the innovation it’s powered or is powering, you start to get the idea. I honestly can’t imagine where we would be if Google had had to pay a company a per-server fee for its servers. I do not believe the economics would have been there to build out the powerful search network that we all use everyday. This study makes us appreciate the sometimes-unheralded piece of software and the license that has powered this innovation.

Bentley: Do the findings have added significance in light of the current economic climate?

McPherson: I think so. Linux has always been a lower-cost alternative to Windows, but this report illustrates its economic impact on technology innovation. It’s exciting to see how the collaborative development model is fueling a new category of devices and technologies that would be at least a decade into the future if it weren’t for Linux. Let’s remember that in software, time is money; oftentimes time is more important than money. For a company like Google or Intel to be able to make use of this code that has taken years to develop, drives innovation and keeps costs low for consumers.

By: Lora Bentley

What is Linux?

Linux is an operating system created by Linus Torvalds during his days as a student at the University of Helsinki. Linux was created and meant to be used as an option or substitute to the other operating systems being used by computer users, like MS-DOS, Windows, Mac OSX, etc. Linux is not a program or a set of programs like a word processor of an office suite.

A Brief History

While studying at the University of Helsinki, Linus used a version of the UNIX operating system called ‘Minix’. Several requests for modifications and improvements for the operating system were being sent by Linus and other users to Andrew Tanenbaum, Minix’s creator, but he felt that they weren’t necessary. Therefore, Linus decided to create his own operating system; one that would take into account the users’ comments and suggestions for improvements.

A “kernel” is the focal point of any operating system. Without going into great detail, the kernel tells the CPU to do what you want the program or application that you’re using to do. An operating system would not exist without a kernel. However, a kernel is also useless without any programs or applications.

In 1991, two critical situations evolved that would serve as the starting point for Linux. A kernel was already created by Linus, but he had no programs to use; some programs were available from GNU and Richard Stallman, but they had no working kernel. So Linux was born by combining the programs from Richard and GNU in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with the kernel provided by Linus in Helsinki, Finland. It was a lot of ground to cover and far to travel, so the Internet became the primary method of getting Linus’ kernel together with the GNU programs. It can almost be said that Linux is an operating system that came to life on the Internet.

Not For Everybody at First

Other software companies will sell you software contained in a CD or a set of floppies, together with a brief instruction booklet, and in half an hour or probably even less, you could install a fully functional operating system on your computer. You only needed to know how to read and follow instructions in order to install it. This was what those companies had in mind when they developed their operating systems. However, when Linux was developed by Linus, this factor wasn’t initially considered. Later on, Red Hat and other likeminded companies made it their purpose to develop Linux to the point where it could be easily installed just like any other operating system in the market, by anyone who can follow simple instructions, and today we can definitely say that they have succeeded in this particular purpose.

Linux Today

Nowadays, there is a great deal of favorable reactions from computer users regarding Linux. The fact that Linux has proven to be impressively stable and versatile, especially as a network server, surely has played a big part in this popularity. Down-time is minor or insignificant when Linux is installed and used as a web server or in corporate networks. Many cases have been reported wherein Linux-powered servers have been functioning smoothly for even more than a year without needing to re-boot, and when it had to be taken down, it was only for a brief period for maintenance purposes. Its cost effectiveness has become to be one of its strongest selling points. Linux can be installed and run on either a home PC or a network server, without having to spend as much as it would be for other software packages. More reliability and less cost – it’s ideal.

By: Syahrul Azlan Idris

What is Linux?

Linux is an operating system, like Microsoft Windows, MacOS, or Unix. It was created as a hobby by Linus Torvalds, a student at the University of Helsinki in Finland. What most people don’t know about Linux is that its source code is available to anyone. The Linux source code is called the kernel and it is the base of the Linux operating system. Because the source code or kernel is free, it has enabled hundreds of companies and individuals to release their own operating systems based on the Linux system. These operating systems or formats are often referred to as Linux distributions.

Each distribution has its own set of features and functionality that makes it unique. While Linux is generally considered free-ware and people associate that with no cost, that is not always the case. Some distributions are available for download for free and others are available on CD or floppy disk and have a small charge associated with them. You can find a list of distributions at http://www.linux.org/ and a list of applications at http://www.Linux.org/apps/

Because if the adaptability of Linux it has been embraced and supported by a number of operating systems and software programs. For example, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and other giants of the computing world have embraced Linux and support its ongoing development and openoffice.org and Mozilla run on Linux. US retailing giant Wal-Mart began selling Linux systems back in 2002 – if Wal-Mart isn’t mainstream, nothing is.

What are the benefits of Linux?

Many people fear that Linux is going to be difficult to work with or that it will be difficult to find software that will run on Linux however Linux is a very standard operating system, compatible with just about any software you need.

Beyond being a standard operating system, Linux supports open source software which makes it a very economical operating system, especially if you program your own software. It offers many free or low cost applications which include, basic desktop applications like web browsers, email programs, word processing programs, spreadsheets, graphics programs, and file managers.

Linux can easily operate as a central server for your business. With Linux, you can serve your own web pages up for public consumption and handle your own email.

Linux doesn’t require top of the line hardware though many recommend you have at least 256 MB of RAM and at least 4 GB of space in your hard drive.

Linux is considered to be extremely stable and doesn’t need to be rebooted periodically to maintain performance levels. Think about the last time you sat at your computer and it froze. Not fun, right? That doesn’t happen with Linux if it is configured correctly.

Linux isn’t going to be replaced anytime soon and when bugs are found in the system, a developer are quickly on the job and often times a solution is offered within a matter of hours, not months or years like many other operating systems.

Linux is also fast and can handle a number of tasks at the same time.

Linux also claims to be one of the most secure operating systems isn’t plagued with the viruses that other operating systems generally deal with.

Linux is free from having to upgrade it or deal with proprietary file formats and licensing fees. You don’t have to register it due to its open source format.

You can have both Linux and windows on your computer. (You’ll have to partition them on your hard drive and you can only boot them one at a time.)

Drawbacks of Linux

There is no 1800 customer service number to call. However, most distributions offer a support number or email to call if you find a bug. They also generally come with installation instructions.

You cannot run applications for MS windows on Linux. However, there are Linux emulators or applications that enable you to run some windows applications on your Linux system. They operate like a translator. Some of these ‘translation or emulator’ products are free and others are available for a price.

Linux is not able to run some advanced financial applications or reproduce some proprietary multimedia formats.

Tips and Advice:

Choose a popular distribution has a large developer community. A large developer community means that you’ll find the programs that you need easily and you will be able to install them with the same ease. The more well-known distributions have prepared programs in ‘packages’ that are easy to install. On top of this, there are tools designed especially for a particular distribution to manage these packages to make sure that programs run correctly right away. The website Distrowatch.com maintains a comprehensive list of the most popular distributions.

Get the latest version of your chosen distribution. The newer the Linux distribution version, the better the hardware support. The number of glitches you’ll get in the installation process decreases with the newness of the version of Linux you choose.

Consider paying for your Linux distribution. It is true that you can get a full-featured Linux operating system free of charge by downloading it from any number of sources. This is an excellent alternative to an operating system like Windows, which either comes pre-loaded with a newly purchased computer (which gets figured into the cost), is bought separately or copied ‘illegally’. In most people’s experience, the popular Linux distributions are easy to install. However, if you do run into some glitch (normally hardware related), you may have a frustrating experience. Although there are a number of excellent Linux support forums out there, personalized advice on your particular problem may be hard to find.

Use an appropriate computer. if you want to use Linux to do the same things that you would with Windows XP or Mac OS X, then you’ll need the newest computer you can get your hands on. Avoiding ‘elite’ video cards and new, exotic hardware will also work in your favor because you won’t have to deal with hardware support which may be inferior to hardware support from other operating systems.

Bottom Line:

Linux is a fantastic and powerful operating system that can handle most or all of your operating needs. It is secure, fast, reliable, and generally extremely cost effective. When purchased or obtained through a reliable distributor and installed and configured correctly there are virtually no drawbacks to running Linux. Additionally, you don’t have to give up your windows if you don’t want to.

MemberSpeed Content Management software can run on any Linux Any Linux based Hosting Platform (Preferably RHEL 3 or above).

By: Jeremy Gislason