"It is fundamental to our business operations to create applications independent of all operating systems," explained Grant Straker, chief technology officer of developer tools vendor Straker Interactive. "More and more companies are using a combination of platforms and operating systems."
However, while Straker says he has seen a substantial increase in the diversification of operating systems, he believes the continued growth of open source offerings is being hampered by concerns regarding the level of support available.
"There are no issues with the technology, and the stability of the technology," Straker said. "The only thing the enterprise is worried about is the level of support they can access."
Having researched Linux adoption across the Asia-Pacific region, Gartner analyst Matthew Boon agrees with Straker, pointing out that although rates of Linux adoption continue to grow, enterprise is unlikely to adopt a company-wide Linux implementations until they are confident the support mechanisms are in place.
"We are seeing Linux adoption increase, especially as the low cost argument comes into play, however, research we (Gartner) conducted earlier in the years indicated there are still issues with services support and training," Boon said.
However, Chris Sharp, regional sales director for Linux distributor Red Hat approaches the problem from a slightly different angle, saying the problem is not one of a lack of support, but rather that companies are not aware where to obtain the support they require.
"We haven't done so well at jumping around and telling everyone that we are here and can offer them all the support they need," Sharp said, going on to say he believed the perception of a lack of support for Linux implementations was beginning to change.
"With companies like IBM and IBM GSA now walking around talking about Linux it is becoming a lot more mainstream," Sharp said. "People are starting to look for Linux solutions once they know the support is out there for the software."
Please don't tell me about support. I just finished three intensive weeks trying to get "support" from a well known commercial software vendor, and their support consisted primarily of passing the buck within their own company, and eventually onto me.
Their product is "LDAP V3 compliant".
But it doesn't support OpenLDAP, the defacto LDAP V3 server.
Oh, yeah, that's right, they only support IPlanet Directory server, MS AD, and one other LDAP server.
So, are they really LDAP V3 compliant? no. They're IPlanet directory compliant. Their support is a joke. It'll be at least 6 months before they can get me a beta version that MIGHT work with my LDAP server.
With Open Source software, I could hire someone to fix the issue in a week or less.
Let's make it clear here, the standard "support" channels are there so you have someone to blame so your boss doesn't blame you.
The blame game will soon be seen for what it is, a giant sink hole you toss money into. In the mean time, Open Source software will be supportable by ANYONE.
That's the dirty secret the commercial developers don't want you to know about. Open Source doesn't mean unsupported, it means you aren't restricted in your support to just one or two companies. You can hire out your support just the way you hire out your janitorial services or catering.