Linux: wait until next year

Gartner has warned against deploying Linux for core IT systems until at least 2001, as the support and applications simply aren't there yet.

George Weiss, Gartner research director of Unix and mid-range strategies, last week warned users that "businesses should not plan migrations or new application architectures requiring deep systems integration on Linux before independent software vendors and system vendors show firm support for Linux". Weiss says this won't happen until 2001.

Software houses are waiting for "more assurance of enterprise acceptance and are still looking at the implications of the open source model for their licensing activities and intellectual property", said Weiss.

A vacuum currently exists in Linux system management tools for backup and recovery, file systems, transaction recovery, high availability, cluster server solutions, and performance, volume and storage management, and storage area networks, warned Weiss.

Despite large system software vendors such as Oracle, SAP, IBM and Computer Associates saying they are committed to Linux, key vendors including Baan, PeopleSoft and SAS Institute are "mostly absent thus far", preventing Linux from issuing a stronger challenge to Windows NT, said Weiss.

"Beware proprietary extensions by hardware vendors or Linux distributors that may affect the portability of the application to other hardware and operating systems," he warned. Users should ask if upgrades will mirror the functionality and timeliness of other popular environments, such as top-tier Unix or NT, he added.