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Why would I want to use Linux for my business? |
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Ultimately, cost savings is one key factor. The other primary factor is freedom from licensing dominance that occurs in any non-Opensource environment. Linux is enabling large and small corporations world wide to end one of their most significant overhead costs with relative ease. Although a Microsoft sponsored study suggested that Linux is still too immature to realize true cost savings, reality doesn't support this. More companies today are migrating to Linux from other Operating Systems than ever before in history.
Here are some of the key things Linux can do for your business.
Sometimes the freedom from licensing is dominating factor but more
often than not is the enhanced security and usability of the Open
Source software itself.
Below you have listed few of the technical definitions and their uses, but really in laymen's terms what
does this all mean to me the small business owner?
In non-technical terms this means you can get great
software for free to leaverage your small business budget for
other spending expenses. All you need is a technical ally like SOHO IT
Solutions to partner with.
You may also be thinking "this all sounds good but what if you go away?
How will I support this Linux stuff?"
Not to worry. Just Google Linux support and you will find many
companies to support you. We are not the only one.
We do feel strongly though you will never have to do this with our
level of technical support and customer service you will likely come to
know SOHO IT Solutions as your technical ally!
Here is a brief list of what we can help you do with Linux and below
are some more detailed protocols and their definitions.
- File and print sharing
- Mail server
- Web server Intranet/extranet
- Secure local and remote backups
- Graphic arts
- Common office applications
- Desktop publishing
- Common system admin tasks via cron
Please visit our Open Source Applications page to
preview some of the applications.
Linux based protocols and
their uses.
- Network based file sharing and file storage. NAS
- Samba
As the front page at samba.org
says, "Samba is an Open Source/Free Software suite that provides
seamless file and print services to SMB/CIFS clients." Samba is freely
available, unlike other SMB/CIFS implementations, and allows for
interoperability between Linux/Unix servers and Windows-based clients.
Samba file sharing allows one to use Linux as a network based file
sharing platform enabling you to share the Linux based file system on
your existing windows network. It provides enhanced security,
reliability and it is Open Source. This combined with SSH can
also allow secure remote access to files.
Reduced licensing costs.
- SSH
definition from Wikipedia.
In computing, Secure Shell
or SSH is a set of standards and an associated network protocol that
allows establishing a secure channel between a
local and a remote computer. It uses public-key cryptography
to authenticate
the remote computer and (optionally) to allow the remote computer to
authenticate the user. SSH provides confidentiality and integrity of
data exchanged between the two computers using encryption and message authentication
codes (MACs).
- Rsync definition
from Wikipedia.
rsync is a free software computer program for Unix
systems which synchronizes files and directories from
one location to another while minimizing data
transfer using delta encoding when
appropriate. An important feature of rsync not found in most similar
programs/protocols is that the mirroring
takes place with only one transmission in each direction. Rsync can
copy or display directory contents and copy files, optionally using compression and recursion.
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HTTP definition
from Wikipedia.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol
(HTTP) is a method used to transfer or convey
information on the World Wide Web. Its
original purpose was to provide a way to publish and retrieve HTML
pages.
Apache
The Apache HTTP Server Project is an effort to develop and
maintain
an open-source HTTP server for modern operating systems including UNIX
and Windows NT. The goal of this project is to provide a secure,
efficient and extensible server that provides HTTP services in sync
with the current HTTP standards.
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