Re: Mid-sized companies not interested in Linux - report -- lack

["Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

On Wed, 2005-04-06 at 08:59 -0500, Aaron Kenney wrote:
> "Mid-sized companies not interested in Linux - report"
> http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20050405_184728.html
> Check out this short article from Tom's today.
> This is pretty much the boat that I am in with the company I work for. 
> There is a small IT staff, including myself. There is usually no time to 
> develop anything that would make the company more efficient, and even if 
> I am able to produce something positive overnight, the director of IT 
> shoots it down, fearing that the change could cost more of his time 
> (maybe he is even afraid of being shown up).

There is a good argument on "mitigating risk" in that regard.  It all
depends, but in _every_ case, you have to put it in terms of the
business case -- _not_ technology.

> I don't usually develop any ideas that involve Linux just because I know
> the director fears that the owner will grab the "free" concept and
> insist on running with it overnight, seeing as how the owner is a
> former bean-counter. I've wanted to though.

Again, put it in his terms then.  When I evaluate/propose solutions, I
give several and list the costs involved.  One is "supporting."  If you
have a staff that is 100% Windows knowledge, then that's a "cost."

In fact, one of the best Microsoft funded studies was the TCO one versus
Linux on 5 different applications.  Because even when you have a staff
with 0 Linux knowledge and 0 Linux infrastructure, the TCO is still
cheaper to replace both systems and knowledge with Linux for web
services (1 of the 5 apps).

> Being in a company like this is a dead end. There is no reason for the 
> company to grow any larger, since there is a steady flow of profits and 
> only high-risk beyond the current structure.

Don't change what works, I can understand that.  I've left NetWare 3.12
servers in place for the same reason.

> However, this produces 
> little to no opportunity for myself, and doesn't promote the betterment 
> of my professional skills one bit. The only reason I stay here is to 
> make money so that I can continue to experiment with various 
> technologies on my own time.

Sometimes the "technology for technology's sake" should be left.
If a company is working smoothly, then it's doing something right.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith                                  b.j.smith@ieee.org 
---------------------------------------------------------------- 
Community software is all about choice, choice of technology.
Unfortunately, too many Linux advocates port over the so-called
"choice" from the commercial software world, brand name marketing.
The result is false assumptions, failure to focus on the real
technical similarities, but loyalty to blind vendor alignments.



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