Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #473186 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From the Back Cover

The manager's guide to using Linux and open source for competitive advantage.

Using Linux and open source technologies, thousands of enterprises are cutting costs, gaining flexibility, and discovering powerful new sources of business value. Now, there's an objective, realistic manager's guide to using Linux and open source technology for competitive advantage. Martin Fink helps you get past both the hypesters and the naysayers, so you can accurately assess the benefits, costs, and risks of open source in your organization. Writing strictly from the manager's viewpoint, Fink covers every step of the Linux and open source project lifecycle, and every crucial issue, from licensing to collaborating with the open source community of developers. Coverage includes:

• Assessing the costs, benefits, and risks of pursuing Linux and open source initiatives
• Open source licensing: avoiding the minefields
• Managing Linux and open source projects within your company
• Assessing the size, breadth, and capabilities of the open source community
• Building strong, positive, synergistic relationships with external open source communities
• The crucial role of Linux standards
• Integration, development, deployment, migration, coexistence, support, and training
• Understanding the difference between the Linux kernel and the Linux operating system
• Understanding and choosing Linux distributions
• How the open source paradigm impacts commercial software developers
• Open source business models: what it takes to make a profit from open source technology
• Applying the open source development methodology in a corporate setting

"A thought-provoking analysis of the role of open source software in the corporate environment. A must-read guide for managers considering how open source can help their organization."

—Tim O'Reilly, O'Reilly and Associates, Inc.

About the Author

MARTIN FINK is General Manager for Hewlett-Packard's Linux Systems Division, where he has been leading Linux development activities for more than three years. He is responsible for driving HP's overall Linux and open source strategy and managing the firm's open source business processes. He is also Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Open Source Development Lab, a global consortium of industry leaders dedicated to promoting Linux and Linux-based programming for enterprise and carrier-class environments.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface

The expression "necessity is the mother of all invention" is so true. I would not have taken on this project if there was another text out there that I could have referenced. Just like every other topic these days, there is an abundance of information on the Internet if you want to do some research. I found no manuscript that consolidates, for a business audience, topics related to Linux and open source in one place. I also believe that some of the paradigm shifts initiated by the open source movement have not been documented for corporate managers, until now.

The Linux and open source movement has instigated "religious wars" between different camps, each presenting extreme but often unrealistic positions. This book is not about any war and does not take on a cause; it is about simple business. This text acknowledges that the Linux and open source phenomenon is real and is rapidly becoming omnipresent within the high-technology industry. However, simple acknowledgment is not enough to deal with the fundamental new business issues created by Linux and open source.

Who This Book Is For

This book is directed primarily at business managers. Some of you will be information technology (IT) managers in any given industry and may be trying to understand what value Linux and open source can deliver to your business. In other words, what is different that would cause you to want to change? Others will be managers developing software for internal use, or for commercial resale. In these cases, you will likely be looking at the open source movement as a way to leverage a huge population of developers, but may struggle to understand the best way to integrate with this community and still return a profit for your investors. This book is from one manager to another and there are two levels of management that can benefit. If you are part of executive management, then this book will give you a guide to help drive your teams to find the right answers and help you ask the right questions when your teams make new proposals related to Linux and open source. If you are in the middle management ranks, this book should help you make sure that your plans and proposals to senior management are complete and address the new business paradigms of Linux and open source.

This book is not for developers. It does not navigate through any code modules for any software in Linux or any other open source project. There may be cases where uninitiated developers may be looking for a big-picture view of the Linux and open source communities. In these cases, this book will add value, at least in parts.

For the past few years, I have been working every day in this wonderful new way of doing business. It is always a challenge to take on a job where concepts are different and some of the fundamental rules change. It is natural for most people to reject these changes and do everything possible to maintain the status quo. I continue to deal with this resistance every day. While the business concepts associated with Linux and open source are still very new, corporate managers are rapidly discovering that they can no longer ignore what is happening. The wonderful thing about a market economy is that it requires new business concepts such as Linux and open source to prove themselves, and once proven, those who ignore them, invariably lose. Competitors who take notice and aggressively take advantage of new opportunities begin to take business from those who reject change. However, those who move too quickly to every fad that comes around waste resources and eventually either disappear or realign to an accepted business reality. There are those who believe that Linux and open source are still a passing fad, and some who even hope it will go away soon. The Linux operating system is now more than 10 years old. The open source movement, which started with the free software movement, is approaching 20 years of existence. It should be apparent that it is not going away, and that your business needs to deal with new realities.

How This Book Is Organized

Part 1 of the book is an initiation into the world of Linux and open source. Chapter 1 starts by examining the fundamental business reasons why this new movement is good for business and how it delivers value. It also establishes a core understanding of terminology and significant players so that you can follow the rest of the book. Chapter 2 digs deep into the Linux kernel. While the kernel may seem a deeply technical topic for business, in this new world, it is a core requirement to understand how the components fit together. The next chapter outlines the Open Source Definition. Since open source is at the core of what makes Linux work, understanding open source licenses is also a required component of basic training. Part 1 ends with a broad look at a number of communities and organizations you will need to be familiar with as you integrate your company with this movement.

Part 2 looks at the operational side of Linux. It starts with a look at Linux distributions to help you internalize how the Linux kernel integrates with all the pieces that constitute an operating system. Next, you will be taken through a detailed analysis of measuring IT costs with an open source mindset. We will also look at how key standards affect the cost picture and which ones will be important to the future success of Linux. Finally, we will take a look at operations from deployment, migration, and coexistence, to support and training.

The last part of this book explores in great detail the open source effect on the corporations and businesses developing commercial software. This is where the fundamental new business paradigms are examined. We will start by looking at how the open source community is structured, some of its cultural elements, and how it compares to a corporate structure. We will also examine the open source effect on the value delivered over time. This will prepare you for the following discussion, which is a detailed examination of open source business models and how to make money. The last two chapters examine in great detail the process of integrating open source within your company and the people management effects of working with this new community of developers.

Many of the concepts presented, especially in Part 3, will be very new to a business audience. Hopefully the information will give you enough guidance to manage open source projects within your company and help you build synergistic relationships with the great communities of developers out there.

As you being to understand how open source works and what it really is, I encourage you to look at this book as an open source project. I am but the maintainer, and I hope that any of you will become contributors. I present to you an imperfect project and hope you will share your genius, much as those who contributed to the review process, to evolve it into a great one.

—Martin Fink
Summer 2002

Customer Reviews

Serious Business of Linux and Open Source
Users love software that they don't have to pay for. But, some software professionals have to make a living creating and maintaining that software. Many companies today grapple with the question, "how to make money with Linux and Open Source?" Some software business leaders are worried about whether Linux and Open Source are impacting business viability of operating systems/environment business. Enterprise business and IT managers are quite happy to see the trend towards software they don't have to pay for. But, most often they do not understand what the implications are and what the fine prints way. Martin Fink has done an excellent job of compiling all the fundamental and essential information on the business aspects of Linux and Open Source software. He clarifies and removes many myths people carry in their minds. Probably this is a "one of its kind" book that brings together the various angles such as the overview of terms, understanding legal lingo, business model aspects, talent management aspects and so on. The book covers the essential technical aspects lucidly and adequately. If you are looking for a deep technical source for Linux and Open Source architectures, there are enough pointers in the book; but, this book is not meant for that purpose. I recommend this book for software engineers who have to understand the business aspects and Enterprise IT/Business Managers who are deploying/planning Linux and Open Source components in their business. The timing of the book is perfect. This book is a good candidate for bringing out update versions as the domain expands and matures. I don't know whether Martin Fink plans to upgrade the book year after year.

A book for Enterprise customers looking at Linux/Open source
I have just finished reading the book "The Business and Economics of Linux and Open Source" and wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed it. I am currently passing the book up my chain of command at work...

Linux and Open source is not "just" for geeks anymore. Business is embracing it and needs the guidance this book has to offer. It is the first book I have seen which addresses Linux and open source from a business perspective.

The background on Linux and Open source brings the reader up-to-speed on the key players and culture of the open source community and why it would be considered - staying focussed on facts and data. From this, Martin goes on to discuss the different issues one must address in considering the implementation of this technology in the Enterprise including the real costs and benefits.

Martin lends credibility to this topic as he is currently the VP & CTO at Hewlett-Packard heading its Linux Systems Division. He has to grapple with these issues everyday...

At a conference where Martin was speaking at recently, a senior executive at IBM mentioned that he was giving this book (an HP executive's book) to IBM's customers. Having read the book, I now understand why.

A must read if you consider open source in your business
The author is definitely speaking from experience, providing valuable insights and recommmendations. Coming from a person who's been heading the Linux Systems Division of HP for over three years, it's not surprising.

Part I brings the reader to a sufficient level of familiarity with Linux, open source, licensing, communities and celebrities. Unless you are fully in touch with the open source world, you will certainly learn useful information in this part.

Part II explains what it means to implement Linux in your operations. No attempt is made to review or benchmark available distributions, and no selection process is presented, only some guidance is provided. This is understandable: Linux can take many shapes and forms and you can even create your own distribution. Because of this diversity, a whole chapter is devoted to standards that make it possible to use multiple distributions. The subject of Total Cost of Ownership is also covered, not in terms of numbers, but in terms of items to consider for calculating a total cost. There is no magic formula here, only an indication of what you should consider and how open source can affect the bottom line. The author then discusses the activity of deploying Linux, considering the issues of migration, coexistence, hardware, support, and training. Here again the author provides essential guidance without covering all the details of such undertaking.

Part III is about how to integrate open source into your organization. This is probably where most of the added value of this book lies. It is really in this part that the author draws from his experience in managing open source in a large organization. He first attempts to provide a functional model for an organization developing software, focusing on enabling an open source process as opposed to a conventional development model. This model may assume a large set of developers and may come out of the blue (it is presented then discussed), but it clearly demonstrates how much of a cultural change it requires to fully reap the benefits from an open source process, and how much other corporate functions such as marketing and HR have to adapt accordingly. Most importantly, this model can boldly be used as a replacement for conventional closed-source development. The author then covers other valuable topics: gated communities, the time value of software and how open source changes the equation and can be used to your advantage, the business models around open source, when to participate or create open source software, and what should be considered when deciding to use open source.

A highly recommended reading for anybody who is considering leveraging the benefits of open source within their organization.