The Magic Cauldron

Some of the most well known Linux distributors are Red Hat, Suse, Slackware and Debian. More recently a number of large computer suppliers, such as Dell and IBM, have been looking at the possibilities of supplying computers, usually servers, with Linux pre-installed.

Much of the software for Linux is developed under the Free Software Foundation’s GNU General Public Licence. This essentially ensures three things:

* the software’s author(s) retains the copyright

* third parties are free to modify the software in any way they wish, and to distribute or even to sell it, but they must continue to distribute the source code with the software

* the GPL must continue to apply down the line to derived products.

The way Linux is distributed — through the GPL — is a very different approach to operating systems such as Windows where Microsoft only provides users with a CD containing binary code, in other words, no source code.

Source code

Giving away source code is essential to the open source development model, and has many practical benefits. Users can tailor the software to their precise requirements. Linux is an excellent development environment since it is possible to develop server-based systems on a PC rather than the more traditional mainframe. Also, the compilers and libraries, essential for writing Linux applications, are freely available under the GNU licence.

Many people gain their first impression of Linux through its text, command line interface which is a far cry from the rich graphical user interface (GUI) of Windows. But this should not deter the inexperienced. For a start, Linux distributions such as Red Hat provide a graphical interface to guide users through the installation process.

In addition, Linux supports the X-Windows system — a graphical windowing system for Unix machines. There are an increasing number of GUIs for X-Windows that are akin to Windows 95, or the Apple Macintosh interface. The best known examples are the K Desktop Environment and the GNU Network Object Model Environment (Gnome).

Productivity

Another common myth concerns the absence of Linux productivity applications. At the time of writing Star Office, Applixware, and Koffice all provided full “Office” type products.

Corel ships a version of Wordperfect for Linux (available for free download at http://linux.corel.com), and more applications are being written all the time.

Linux.org hosts a list of applications available specifically for Linux at (www.linux.org/apps/applications. html) and the list runs to many pages, with everything from computer-aided design software to crossword solvers.

With the trend towards applications running over the Internet, Linux is well equipped with versions of Netscape Navigator and Opera.

For users who are particularly tied to a Windows application, there are a number of ongoing projects to allow Windows applications to run on top of Linux. VMWare has released a beta version of software to allow Windows Virtual Machines to run on Linux, and is well worth a look.

Linux is available for almost any hardware specification (see www.linux.org.uk/Architecture.html) be it Intelbased systems, Sun Sparc, Digital Alpha. PowerPC or Motorola 68000. People are even working on a version for the Pilot.

The processing overheads are generally lower than Windows-based systems. Red Hat claims Linux will run on a 386 with a 40Mbyte hard disc (100Mbytes if you run a GUI) and 8Mbytes of Ram. So it will certainly fly on one of today’s Pentium systems.

The huge development effort possible through the open source model means device drivers and support for new hardware are being constantly written.

Drivers are available for all sorts of esoteric devices and, if there is a particular gap, the chances are that someone will write a driver to fill it soon. Alternatively, users can always write it themselves. Since the source code is freely available, a company can pay a programmer to enhance Linux for its IT systems in a way that is impossible for an operating system only distributed in a binary form.

The Net is the place to look for Linux support. There are numerous frequently asked questions listings, newsgroups and Web sites devoted to Linux support and development. Linux.org carries a list of sites at www.linux.org/ help/freesupport.html.

Increasingly, companies are being set up that offer paid-for support and many companies that sell Linux distributions also provide a paid-for support service.

Windows NT, it could be argued, is a much less mature operating system than Unix, and there are many technical reasons why Linux in particular is a better product than NT. This is not surprising in the light of the Open Source development model.

Man hours

In terms of man hours of development time, even a company with the resources of Microsoft would be hardpushed to compete. Linux certainly seems to attract more fervent evangelists than NT, and there are a large number of documents to be found on the Internet which discuss the issue in greater detail.

The bottom line is that Linux works very well. The point is often made that a large percentage of Web servers are running Apache, the free Web server on Linux. With this setup, IT administrators talk of “uptime” in months and years rather than the hours or days which might be more typical of certain other operating systems.

However, Linux is not only good as a server operating system. The desktop is rapidly catching up with new applications announced every month.

If you think Windows 98 with its integrated Web browser represents a big change in desktop user interfaces, just wait.

The way users interact with computers, which has changed little since Apple Computer Inc. rolled out the Macintosh and Microsoft Corp. stretched Windows over DOS, is about to undergo a face lift. The transformation, which is being led by big vendors such as Microsoft and Netscape Communications Corp. as well as an expanding cast of startups, promises to replace the classic Windows-style UI paradigm with Web-style interfaces, voice interaction, and new, associative ways of organizing documents and other content. As a result, corporate IT managers will soon be able to more easily customize UIs for specific groups of users.

That’s good news for IT managers, who are already seeing their users spend more and more time gliding through enterprisewide intranets, where they’re becoming accustomed to using intuitive browsers to retrieve data. “The PC is just too hard to deal with. That is a fact,” said Frank Hensen, director of IS operations at Dallas-based LTC Inc. “So anything that can be done to make that easier … I am in favor of.”

Not surprisingly, the Web is driving the first phase of the UI make-over. In Windows 98, Microsoft is merging the Windows UI with the Web browser. Windows 98 and its Active Desktop, due in two weeks, go well beyond simple browser integration. Active Desktop enables users to access Web sites and local applications from the same Web-like interface. With it, Web sites are no longer separate items. Rather, they are included in everything from saved folders to the computer file structure.

Likewise, Netscape, of Mountain View, Calif., is working to make Windows more Web-like by adding a more searchable, Internet-based UI to Windows. Code-named Aurora and currently part of the Mozilla source code development effort, the technology is much like Microsoft’s Active Desktop in that it enables users to display online content and local applications and documents together on a single UI (see PC Week, Jan. 5, Page 8).

But the “Webification” of Windows is just the beginning. Microsoft officials say Active Desktop is only the first example of how the software maker will continue to pluck the best features of the Web and, the federal government notwithstanding, “morph” them into future versions of Windows.

“This is a time of experimentation to find what works and what doesn’t and if there is anything out there that is better than what we have today,” said Joe Belifore, group program manager in charge of UI design at the Redmond, Wash., company.

Microsoft is also looking at new, Web-inspired ways to allow users to create active links between documents in Windows. Although Microsoft won’t commit new UI functions to a specific release, it wants to enable operating system users to hyperlink to documents or applications much like they do on the Web with HTML documents.

“Users don’t know on the Web that they went to a different Web site or different server when they click on a link. We are exploring how that might be possible on the PC as well,” said Steve Capps, a Microsoft UI architect.

Microsoft is investigating how it can use natural language processing to improve how the operating system and applications interact. The goal is to equip the operating system with natural language capabilities that would enable it to act as an intermediary between applications, launching, say, a personal information manager when an e-mail message requesting a meeting is received.

And, like IBM and other key vendors, Microsoft is investing in turning speech into a mainstream user interface medium.

As Microsoft evolves Windows, a handful of startups may well be leading the way in bringing the new UI into focus.

This week, a Seattle-based company called The Pixel Co. will debut technology that allows users to easily bypass Windows in favor of custom-built UIs. In the company’s product, called MySpace, the control bar uses, for the first time, the 25 pixels that make up the border between today’s Windows interface and the edge of a screen display. Unlike other shortcut navigation products, MySpace does not run on Windows. It is written directly to the video chip itself and is launched at the same time as Windows. An animated, rotating channel bar remains on the bottom of a user’s screen and has the ability to provide quick, direct access to applications, online content or other operating systems.

For example, if a user clicks on a button that says “JavaOS,” MySpace launches JavaOS and pushes Windows out of the way–dropping the user into a new operating system and a new UI. If a user were to launch a Web site, the user would be sent directly to that site, launching along the way whatever browser the user wanted.

The first release of MySpace will be tailored to Packard Bell NEC Inc. computers that will ship in the third quarter. This fall, Pixel will release a version that will be distributed by online content partners and can be downloaded by users, said Tim O’Rourke, the company’s president and CEO. O’Rourke said he has also signed distribution deals with several other PC makers.

Other startups, including Natrificial Software Technologies LLC and Digital Harbor, also have new products that sit on top of Windows and give corporate IT departments the flexibility to create their own customizable UIs, in some cases using speech as the input method for interacting with a PC.

Natrificial, of Santa Monica, Calif., has designed a UI called The Brain, which acts as a shell that sits on top of Windows and allows users to customize local and online content and applications and to organize everything in expandable organizational charts dubbed “brains.” While not without its kinks, The Brain represents a new way of organizing and presenting content to the desktop.

Digital Harbor, of Orem, Utah, on the other hand, has created a technology called WorkSpace NG that is designed to let corporate IT departments create their own customized desktop out of JavaBeans.

Capable of running on top of any Java Virtual Machine 1.1-compatible operating system or virtual machine, WorkSpace NG is a JavaBean container that requires 477KB of space with a 150KB interface file. Developers can create any combination of JavaBeans to build the UI and can also use the FolderBay GUI service that is provided by WorkSpace NG to create tool bars. The JavaBeans can be locally self-contained or connected to back-end systems that support the Enterprise JavaBean or other Java back-end applications. If driven by Enterprise JavaBeans, the server would launch the GUI. If the JavaBeans are stored locally, they enable the dynamic creation of the GUI.

Not all IT managers are ready to junk the Windows-style UI and assemble their own user interfaces just yet. Some, in fact, see a significant risk in doing so too soon.

“Yes, we want to see improvements. But they have to be done in a controlled fashion,” said Chuck Timpson, a desktop administrator for more than 3,000 desktops at a major Southern distribution company. “Otherwise, you will see a major training and support issue creep up inside the corporate world.”

Still, many managers say it’s high time for the monolithic Windows-style interface to take on a new, more flexible image. “Technology is simply there to help us do our jobs,” said John Peetz, chief knowledge officer at Ernst & Young, in New York. “Web technologies are good for some things … but not for others. We need it all, and we demand it all. And we expect that a lot of these technologies will merge.”

The marketing hype that’s sure to surround the release of Windows 98 next week, as well as features such as the new operating system’s Active Desktop, is bound to prove irresistible to some users. Employees at one Fox Television Stations Inc. affiliate who give in to temptation could be in for a big surprise, however: pink slips to go with their final paychecks.

The station, KDFW, like many enterprises, has decided that Windows 98 will not be supported on its corporate desktops. At the Dallas affiliate, violators are gambling with their jobs.

“At Fox we have a general policy. If anyone installs unauthorized software, it is [tantamount] to quitting,” said John Grayless, KDFW’s MIS manager. If a user were to load software that has not been approved by MIS, that individual could be “disciplined or terminated,” Grayless said.

As the Windows 98 release date draws near, about as many IT managers are planning how to keep the OS out of their organizations as are developing upgrade strategies. Some are concerned about the performance of Windows 98 and its integrated Internet Explorer 4.0 browser. Grayless, for example, after beta testing Windows 98, experienced a decline in performance and an increase in network activity due to the extra graphics of the IE interface. Grayless also isn’t ready to provide Web access to all users. Others believe Windows 98 lacks the new functionality needed to compel an expensive and time-consuming migration, particularly from Windows 95. Many plan to wait for Windows NT 5.0.

International Data Corp. estimates that, over the first 18 months, Windows 98 shipments will trail Windows 95 shipments over the same period by 17 percent, 55.32 million to 66.54 million.

“We’ve taken a cursory look at Windows 98, and we don’t believe there’s a significant added value that represents a business driver that would make us want to go through the expense of migrating,” said Jeff Winston, vice president of IS at Allergan Inc., in Irvine, Calif. Allergan will stick with Windows 95 until mid-2000, when it will migrate to NT 5.0.

Some organizations aren’t shutting the door entirely on Windows 98 but limiting its presence to notebooks, where its new features shine (see PC Week Labs’ evaluation, below).

But the question for IT managers planning to sit tight is, How do you keep users from making an end run and bringing Windows 98 into the organization on their own? That would certainly drive up support costs and undermine well-considered migration strategies.

Few IT managers are going so far as to threaten end users with termination for installing Windows 98 on their own. In fact, most IT managers seem to accept the fact that, like it or not, Windows 98 will eventually make its way in, at least in limited numbers. Their strategy is to limit the damage. In some cases, they’re planning to be proactive, removing Windows 98 when it’s discovered on a user’s desktop and restoring the previous OS. Others said they’ll support Windows 98 only when IT has the available resources. And some are making it clear to users they won’t support Windows 98 at all. Period.

That’s the case at Prudential Insurance Co. of America, in Roseland, N.J., where Jonathan Vaughan, vice president of IS, said the extensive support required to maintain multiple OS environments is fueling his resistance to Windows 98. The company has 80,000 employees using NT 4.0 at the desktop and Windows 95 on some laptops. Recently, Vaughan notified all users the company would not support Windows 98.

Both Vaughan and Grayless acknowledge there will be some individuals who will upgrade home systems on their own and then try to access a corporate server for e-mail or a business file. But unfortunately for those users, they will be denied LAN access if they are using Windows 98 in an unauthorized fashion.

To reinforce the “don’t load it yourself” policy, IS teams at these companies have been given clear orders. “Our help desk won’t support calls for nonstandard environments,” Vaughan said.

That strategy, say some industry observers, makes sense. If a company is running Windows 95 now as the standard operating system, there is no compelling reason to invest a good year and a half managing a mixed environment to upgrade to Windows 98, say analysts such as Steve Kleynhans of Meta Group Inc., in Toronto. Kleynhans is recommending instead that companies wait for NT 5.0, now expected in the second or third quarter of 1999.

David Smith, senior network systems analyst at Mitchell International, an automotive information publishing company in San Diego, agrees. Smith said Mitchell will stay the course with Windows 95 for the next few years.

“Changing operating systems on desktops across a company is a really expensive proposition in terms of time, so Windows 98 would have to offer us something considerably better than an integrated browser that is designed to shut down Netscape [Communications Corp.'s Navigator],” said Smith. Recalling that upgrading the company’s 1,200 to 1,400 desktops to Windows 95 a few years ago was time-consuming and expensive, Smith said at least that migration made sense. The reasons to move to Windows 98 aren’t as clear.

“Someday there might be [justification], because support begins to completely dry up,” he said.

Until then, Smith said Mitchell IT officials have no way to stop users from installing Windows 98 on their desktops, but they can fight back. In their more mission-critical production environment — where employees create new product CD-ROMs every month — the new operating system will be stripped from any machine it’s found on and replaced with Windows 95.

In noncritical areas of the company, IS will take an as-resources-are-available approach to supporting Windows 98, Smith said.

A primary carrier of unauthorized Windows 98 into corporations will be newly purchased PCs. Although they insist that bundled Windows 95 will continue to be available as long as users want it, PC vendors are planning to begin replacing Windows 95 software bundles with Windows 98 by the end of this year. Currently, Compaq prebundles Windows 95 on its Deskpro line of business PCs.

“We’ll continue to support Win 95 as long as we can,” said Michael Takemura, product manager at Compaq Computer Corp., in Houston. How long that is depends on when Microsoft discontinues the licensing of Windows 95. But that won’t be happening anytime soon. OEMs can continue to license and ship Windows 95 as long as customers request it, a Microsoft spokesperson said.

For the most part, however, PC vendors are playing up the new features of Windows 98, including enhanced support for Universal Serial Bus devices, improved dial-up networking and Advanced Configuration and Power Interface, which allows for plug and play and power management. And such features are proving attractive to some IT managers, particularly for notebook applications.

That’s the case at the U.S. Navy’s Space & Naval Warfare Systems Command, where, although Windows NT is the standard operating system for 1,300 desktop users, some 300 laptop users currently on Windows 95 will be upgraded to Windows 98. The desktop users will be upgraded to NT 5.0 “as soon as it’s available and we’re comfortable it’s reasonably debugged,” said Bob Hearn, director of corporate IT services for SPAWAR, in San Diego.

Hearn’s strategy with SPAWAR’s laptop users is to beat them to the punch by migrating laptops to Windows 98 by the end of the summer. In the meantime, he’s started training IT staff to support Windows 98 — a labor-intensive task since SPAWAR supports in excess of 10 different hardware configurations.

Analysts predict that organizations such as SPAWAR that are limiting or banning Windows 98 migrations today won’t be changing their strategies soon. That’s because more pressing issues — particularly year 2000 conversions — are intervening, said Meta Group’s Kleynhans. Thus, IT is even less likely to embrace Windows 98 anytime soon. And renegade users who try to sneak it in may be more likely to get pink slips.