Silicon.com Poll Result: Linux is ready for business

The Linux operating system is ready for corporate use, according to an overwhelming majority of Silicon viewers.

The survey, which marks the start of Silicon's week-long Linux Special, found that 71 per cent of viewers believe Linux is ready for business, while only 25 per cent disagreed.

However, respondents made a clear distinction between server and client-side Linux. More than half of those who backed Linux said the lack of support and applications mean that the open-source operating system is not ready for the desktop.

One viewer said: "On the desktop, it's got a long way to go. The applications aren't there yet, the skills are in short supply and many a corporate manager is concerned about the absence of a last-stop company finally responsible for sorting out a problem if it goes wrong."

But he added: "As a server solution, it is excellent: it scales well, will support with little effort many applications written for other flavours of Unix, it costs nothing to licence and has a great deal of connectivity built-in or easily available."

Several top industry observers agreed.

Rob Hailstone, research director at Bloor Research, said: "Most people use it as a specific server, as there is not enough desktop software around. For IT directors, the desktop is not convincing."

Mike Blake, data marketing consultant at IBM's Software Business Division, said the development of GUI (graphical user interface) projects such as Gnome could change Linux's poor reputation on the desktop.

He said: "There is a lot of investment in the desktop at the moment. There are whole ranges of software suites and applications that have been developing for some time. The religious war on the desktop is an interesting debate; it's not something we are leading, but never say never. If customers are happy to use it, we'll invest in it."