Stories by: Paul Venezia

It wasn't that long ago that Linux made for a decent server and a geek's workstation. Now, Linux makes for an enterprise-class server.

Following the acquisition by Novell, Suse has been undergoing some fundamental changes. Most of these changes are still waiting in the wings, but Suse released a significant refresh of its enterprise server product, and it looks to be a solid server platform indeed. I wouldn't throw over RHAS (Red Hat Advanced Server) for SLES (Suse Linux Enterprise Server) just yet, but ask me again after Suse's next release.

If there's one thing IT managers of small businesses or branch offices need, it's solid, uncomplicated technology. Net Integration Technologies thinks it has the answer. The company's Nitix server is essentially a custom Linux distribution focused on the small office. Driven entirely from a Web interface, the solution boasts an impressive array of features, using the most common Linux services such as Samba and Apache.

The licenses used by open source solutions are quite different than those associated with commercial software. Open source solutions are predominately licensed under the GPL (GNU Public License). This license dictates that the code may be used for any purpose, even sold for profit. But if any portion of the code is copied for inclusion in new software, the resulting software must acknowledge that it contains GPL-licensed code, and the code must be freely distributed.