Corporate America still doesn't "get it" (Score 1)

I have worked for a few companies that are very Microsoft centric. Some simply don't know all the options Linux can provide today (firewall, workgroup server, even dare I say productive desktop). Those manager who are at least half-way technical and know about Linux don't seem to want to try it. They either don't want to put their ass on the line for their decision or still think that support is sketchy for it. I guess IBM endorsing it isn't enough of a support sledgehammer for them... Well, maybe not for my shop since we only use Sun for the backend servers. Also, others think that they don't want to spend the extra money in buying yet another support contract for yet another OS when they already have burned a pile of cash on their existing ones. I think they are a little short-sighted on that argument. They are missing the total cost of support for X Linux servers versus the same X servers from your favorite software company. You might also be able to argue that you would need less hardware to run your existing services. Ones like NIS, DNS and intranet web servers don't often need the horsepower that's typically thrown at them. My only personal beef with Linux is the hardware. The PC is the most common (and supported) platform but it's really showing its age. The BIOS still uses real 640K mode to run. The Linux BIOS project should address that hopefully. You need something like a Compaq Insight Manager board to see and modify the BIOS setup over a serial port. Sun, Compaq Alpha, IBM and HP Unix boxes have had serial console for years. It's time for a new PC hardware standard with real firmware, IMHO.