The Business and Economics of Linux and Open Source

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

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