John Koenig

As the adoption of Linux and other open source software within corporations grows, enterprise IT managers should, using reasonable oversight, establish policies that allow open source to benefit the company. Open source may be free and not ordinarily expose a company to piracy claims, but open source usaage should not be ignored. For most companies it makes sense to establish policies and procedures for an employee's use of open source in order to minimize any legal and intellectual property risks. In September 2003, Forrester Research delivered a report titled, "Your Open Source Strategy," with three general recommendations for companies deploying open source: Fund an open source advisory group to perform due diligence. Create policies to guide adoption and developer pa... (more)

Does Linux Make a Difference?

With an estimated 850 million PCs installed worldwide, it's not surprising the mantra continues for displacing Windows with a Linux desktop. But is this a commendable objective anymore? Microsoft undertook a lot of dismal software engineering and even legal run-ins with the antitrust police to establish 90% desktop penetration. Linux application developers have better things to do than b... (more)