Linux For Small Businesses

I’ve had one of my software developer friends visiting for the last few days. As usual we’ve spent most of our time talking about either software development, or business (or both – the business of software development).

Despite being geeks we’ve both been long term users of Microsoft Windows, but now we’re finding ourselves drawn to Linux (or perhaps pushed away from Windows Vista). Perhaps it’s due to having spent more time using Linux powered Netbooks line the Asus EEE PC and Acer Aspire One. Or the use of Linux development environments (usually running on Virtual PCs). Either way we’ve now both realised that our future PCs will be brought specifically to run Linux.

What I found more surprising however was the fact that we both now felt that, if we were asked to specify a set of PCs/Network for a small business (and not just one run by geeks), we would both urge the business to consider running both linux desktop pcs and linux servers. Our reasoning being:

• Once configured Linux desktops / laptops are now easy enough for the average user to use.
• The software available on Linux (i.e Firefox, Thunderbird and Open Office) is easy to use and provides sufficient comparability to be able to cope with the demands of the business (i.e. Open Office will handle Microsoft Office documents).
• The average user is less likely to be able to break a properly configured Linux pc (i.e. by accidentally installing malware/viruses), reducing the lost productivity caused by these.
• It’s far cheaper – you can buy a good Linux PC for less than the equivalent Windows based PC and Linux based small business servers are even cheaper.

So where’s the business opportunity?

Well I think there’s several business opportunities here:

• If you already provide IT support for businesses (or if you are thinking of starting a business doing so) offer Linux support.
• Offering training in the use of Linux and Open Source productivity/office tools to (small) businesses.
• Selling PCs, Laptops and Servers with Linux pre-installed. I’ve taken a look this afternoon and there’s surprisingly few places to buy a good laptop of desktop with Linux pre-installed (if anyone knows of a business offering Ubuntu pre-installed please let me know via the comments below).
• As the popularity of Linux increases there will be opportunities to develop and sell software packages for Linux or to provide bespoke software development services targeting Linux.

No doubt there’s other business opportunities I’ve not even considered…

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• 1

  Linux is definitely the way forward. Open source offerings such as FireFox and OpenOffice are making people more receptive to the benefits, and when we factor in the price of an operating system on a new pc, Linux really becomes a serious contender. Go Ubuntu!

  G Web on June 21st, 2009
• 2

  A lot of the “boring” things that are required in a business (eg. accounting packages, payroll) simply don’t exist for Linux. Specialist applications tailored for a particular type of business are even more poorly represented – and developing these applications is the kind of thing that isn’t going to happen for free.

  James Cort on July 1st, 2009
• 3

  James,

  Is that really a barrier? A quick Google suggests that there is accounting software for Linux (though I’ve no idea how good it is). Even so a number of companies provide accounting and payroll software using the SaaS model over the Internet – therefore it would be available to Linux users.

  Finally as an alternate it’s always possible to use virtualisation/emulation to run Windows based software on a Linux box.

  John on July 1st, 2009
• 4

  John,

  Most of the business-type software for Linux tends to be appallingly bad quality. While I admit I haven’t looked at accounting software specifically, I am a Linux sysadmin by trade and spend rather too much of my life trying to deal with such things. Things have improved in the last few years but I’m not convinced there’s much to suit the small business like QuickBooks or Sage Line 50.

  Obviously you can virtualise, but then you have to go out and buy a Windows license separately – which will rapidly eat up all the money you’ve saved. And you won’t save much because I cannot build you a PC running Linux as cheaply as Dell can sell you a PC running Windows. The parts alone would cost me as much if not more, before I add on anything for my own time.

  IMO, there’s more scope producing full-blown solutions for companies that are large enough to need them, haven’t yet expanded from a couple of PCs to a full infrastructure and not large enough to be able to negotiate decent discounts with Microsoft. The prices for Microsoft for things like CALs really would shock you.

  James Cort on July 1st, 2009
• 5

  James,

  I’m not sure that being like Sage is a good thing anyway, I find their software appalling.

  Agreed it’s (depressingly) cheaper to buy a new PC with Windows pre-installed than to build from scratch. I’ve spent the last few days looking for a new laptop with the intention of using Ubuntu on it and the cheapest approach seems to be to buy one with Vista and format it. I don’t have a problem with that.

  Of course the alternate solution is to run a mixed network, but (as I’m sure you’re aware) it does increase the cost of administering the network.

  Over the years I’ve put together a number of systems and the price of Microsoft licenses never ceases to amaze me – probably why all our servers are Linux based.

  John on July 1st, 2009