The recent fine levied on Microsoft by the European anti-trust authorities has reminded people just how dominant Microsoft is in the industry.

We’re often being told to consider Linux and open-source applications as a viable alternative to what Microsoft and other Windows developers have to offer.

But just what’s involved if you do decide to go down the Linux route for some or all of your small-business IT?

Which Linux?
One of the first things to understand is that there’s no such thing as a standard implementation of Linux. There are lots, commonly referred to as distributions or distros, available from an equally large number of developers. Some are designed for use on desktop PCs and others for servers. Yet more can be used for both, so research is required.

Levels of support vary from community support, where you’re reliant on finding other users of the software to help with your problems, to full-blown commercial contracts with enforceable levels of service.

Choosing a suitable distro can be a difficult first step and for a complete list of what’s available, a site such as www.distrowatch.com is worth consulting. Be careful, as most Linux packages are aimed at home users and enthusiasts, with just a handful designed for business use.

Most small companies should go for the business-oriented distros, as they tend to be more stable and won’t need updating every few months, as is often the case with those aimed at the enthusiast. Application developers are more likely to develop for the branded business distros, and for those you can expect a higher level of support, both commercially and from the Linux community.

The market leader is Red Hat, which some years ago pulled out of the personal market to concentrate on its business-focused Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) product. It was also one of the first to charge for support and if you opt for RHEL you’ll have to take out an annual subscription, the fee entitling you to software updates and access to Red Hat’s online support service (Red Hat Network).

The biggest rival to Red Hat is Suse, now a part of Novell, which has consumer and business distros. Business users are served by Suse Linux Enterprise 10, which is available for servers and desktop PCs. Again you’ll be charged an annual fee covering updates and commercial support services. But even with the associated fees it will still be a lot cheaper to deploy one of these business Linux distros than a Windows OS, especially where servers are involved.

Other developers with small-business products include Ubuntu, which has server and desktop implementations as well as a range of commercial support services from lead developer Canonical. Unlike the Red Hat and Suse distros, however, you don’t have to subscribe to a support contract to use the Ubuntu software.

Mandriva (www.mandriva.com) is another developer with a business-oriented Linux distro. However it’s vital to understand that you could use just about any version of Linux to host business applications. There are no big technical reasons, but the business-oriented products do make life a lot easier with longer release cycles, better industry support and other services that business buyers require.

Likewise, it’s vital to stress that Linux by itself is of little use. It’s the application software that provides most of the functionality that small businesses require, such as the ability to host an internet or public web server or email and collaboration servers, SQL databases and so on. And one of the big advantages of Linux over Windows is that a lot of this application software will be bundled with the distro already.