Advantages of using Linux and OpenSource
Applied Technology Research Center (ATRC.NET.PK) would like to offer answers to any questions you may have regarding migration strategies related to shifting your organization from either partially or completely from proprietary technologies to opensource technologies.
The basic advantages of this technology are :
No dependence on a single supplier for any product.
Ability to read and write proprietary and opensource documents
Ability to easily move data between previously incompatible systems
No possibility for the commercial vendors to lock clients into their future products
Ability for customers to keep old features which they depend on and have new features built or modified to their requirements. All customers can modify any product features on their own or get them modified by any third party because the source code is available.
No viruses
Ability to protect data so that no agency in the world can access it without the data owner's permission.
Increased Competitiveness
Improved Reliability
Reduced Costs
Increased Security
Ability to keep the same software and file formats maintained for a century or more rather than having to change or upgrade annually.
Higher Stability
Better Performance
Better and more useful functionality
Better access protection among users
Centralized management and backups
Easier and effective Administration
Increased Interoperability and connectivity
Easier to conform to ISO standards for Quality
Use the same formats as the European Union to impress them with your compliance to their choice of technology before they request files in their preferred formats.
Lower cost to comply with the World Trade Organization requirements of Intellectual Property Rights regulations.
Now you may ask if this is so good how come we never say it ?
Actually there exist millions of free softwares which have been created by programmers and University students. The following events have contributed to the rise of open source.
Expansion of the Internet Worldwide.
Helps inform of availability of previously hard to find or unknown software.
CD Drives and CD Writers.
This facilitated mass copying and distribution of software. 400 Floppies per CD.
Stronger legislation on Intellectual Property and the onset of the WTO.
As far as the servers are concerned, almost all of the machines running the infrastructure known as the Internet are based on free and open source software.
What about commercial support and training ?
There are many companies like Sun, IBM, HP, Dell, RedHat, Mandrake, and thousands of other companies which provide commercial support for Linux.
Millions of users who contains developers also provide detailed and knowledgeable support for the softwares they create and use. They also fix any bugs in a matter of hours rather than months or years which is common for commercial softwares.
This detailed support is always available for free on the Internet and via web pages, mailing lists and chat channels. You can even email the developers of the softwares directly. However they prefer to be informed of new problems which require modifications to the program rather than how to learn to use it.
In Pakistan IT managers and ISP administrators have benefited through the free support provided for almost 10 years now by ATRC via email and phone.
So if you have any questions regarding these technologies and how they can be of some benefit to you and your organization, feel free to ask anytime.