Merrill Lynch and Other: The Growth of Linux Business

1 ) Today Unix and Linux , as well as IBM 's z /OS , OS /390 , MVS , VM , and VSE are the most widely spread mainframes operating systems . Gartner Group estimates that 70 companies employ Linux on mainframes for real-world use , with several hundred more evaluating the operating system Financial services giant and Citigroup subsidiary Salomon Smith Barney is among those using Linux on IBM mainframes , IBM representatives declare

IBM , largely the last company still selling the mainframe servers , is leading the Linux charge with its wholehearted adoption of the OS and a

new Linux-only mainframe . Big Blue 's Linux mainframe project began by making sure Linux would run on the zSeries line . Then , part of the 1 billion that IBM spent on Linux in 2004 went toward moving over higher-level software such as the DB2 database package and the WebSphere e-business software

One of the reasons that impels IBM more and more often to use Linux on its own mainframes is that such mainframes are much cheaper and do not require additional costs for operational system development . Thus judging from this situation one can claim that Linux is much appropriate as an operational system on mainframes

What concerns web servers , Linux has an indisputable advantage in comparison to Windows , as it is highly flexible system in regards to setting up for particular demands and can noticeably save hardware resources . Besides that all new projects arise at first for Linux operating system and only after some time one can find similar projects for Windows . For instance , Apache server aroused at first for Linux and on several months elapse there was similar for Windows

2 ) While choosing operational system for business or consumer PC it is necessary to pay attention to several factors

Firstly , Linux is much more reliable , secure , and free of bugs if compare it to Windows . Linux is open-source software , meaning that anyone can see , modify and redistribute the underlying software . Tens of thousands programmers all over the world test and correct the bugs of this operational system

However Linux is rather complicated system to use . All chores that arise in the process of setting up the system , which Windows does automatically , Linux user must do manually . For average user this may appear too complicated task to cope with . It is in a sense a price for set up flexibility

Another factor is availability of high-end office package that is an indispensable feature of any platform claiming to bear the name of personal computer of general assignment . There are two office packages for Linux : StarOffice and Applix . The first one has been free of charge already for quite a long time . However , Microsoft Office for Windows is much of high capacity than StarOffice and Applix . Moreover , the general lack of software for Linux is quite perceptible

The appreciable absence of software together with usage complexity impedes professionals to recommend Linux as an operating system for business and consumer PC users

Linux best suites for use on higher-end computers such as...