Linux applications become mainstream

| SPECIAL TO GCNLinux has quickly distinguished itself in business computing. The operating system has taken up to a 20 percent share of the network server market and is the only operating system outside the Microsoft Windows family to have sustained growth over the last few years.It has had less impact at the desktop PC level, but it has its fans there. Improved graphical interfaces for Linux'including K Desktop Environment and GNU Object Modeling Environment, better known as KDE and Gnome, respectively'have made it easier to use than it had been. They give nontechnical computer users the features they expect from a desktop OS.Meanwhile, Linux's technical strengths are increasingly attractive to systems administrators who want to lower the costs of systems management and support.None of this would matter without software'the broad range of software and development tools for Linux is making possible the OS' advances on the server and desktop PC levels.A few years ago, there were relatively few commercial software products for Linux, which relied on a rapidly growing open-source, freeware and shareware community. The dot-com boom produced many new software companies built around open-source software projects, such as the Gnome desktop project and the PostgreSQL and MySQL databases. Meanwhile, established companies such as Corel Corp., IBM Corp., Informix Corp., Oracle Corp. and Sybase Inc. developed their own versions of products for Linux.IBM and other companies also invested heavily in open-source projects such as the Apache Web server and incorporated open-source technologies into their products.Recent efforts in Linux software have aimed to make the OS easier to use. Ximian Inc. supports the Gnome desktop environment and is in the process of creating office automation applications that mirror the capabilities of Microsoft Office.Some companies aren't Johnny-come-latelies at providing Linux versions of productivity applications. Corel, for example, has for a while had a Linux version of WordPerfect, and now it offers a Linux office suite.With the introduction of Java into the Linux OS in the last few years, the desktop PC application market has broadened slightly. There's ThinkFree Corp.'s ThinkFree Office, a Java application suite that is compatible with Microsoft Office files. ThinkFree's suite can be downloaded for offline use and takes up less than 10M of hard drive space. It also allows Web file storage.Although there has been a great deal of speculation about Microsoft Corp. producing a Linux version of Office, there is no sign of this happening anytime soon. But future versions of Office based on Microsoft's nascent .Net platform could run on any operating system that supports .Net's Common Language Runtime. Microsoft officials also have mentioned the possibility of porting CLR to Linux as part of a reference implementation of the company's C# programming language.Linux's greatest success has been as a server OS. Early in its rise, it benefited from open-source projects that allowed it to act in several capacities. It functioned as a file server for Windows networks using Samba, a freeware implementation of the Server Message Block protocol; as a Structured Query Language database server using PostgreSQL and MySQL, and as a Web server using Apache.It enjoyed widespread adoption by Internet service providers as a hosting server for user mail, Telnet shell and Web accounts. And Web application developers found Linux to be an ideal platform for development.That popularity led to support for the OS from a number of vendors hoping to grab a share of the Internet application market. Many companies even offer free or low-cost developer versions of their Linux products to encourage developers to deploy their products on Linux and other operating systems.IBM offers Linux versions of nearly all its enterprise applications: the DB2 database, WebSphere application server, Lotus Domino groupware and messaging server, and various development and deployment tools. When it acquired Informix, IBM gained another database and an array of database access and fourth-generation development tools for Linux.Java also is having an effect on enterprise application development and deployment for Linux. The Apache Group's Tomcat Java application server, which supports Java servlets and JavaServer Pages, is available on Linux'another reason Linux has become so attractive as a development platform.Commercial application server vendors also have shipped their Java application servers for the Linux OS, including IBM's WebSphere and WebLogic from BEA Systems Inc. of San Jose, Calif. Oracle, too, is shipping its high-end products for Linux, including its new Oracle9i Application Server.As Linux rapidly improves its functionality and support, the OS will continue to attract new applications. And its cost-effectiveness also will continue to make it the most rapidly emerging server operating system in the marketplace. XXXSPLITXXX-