| ELX Linux: Moving businesses to Linux |
(Jul. 28, 2003)
DesktopLinux.com recently contacted ELX Linux to learn about the company's desktop strategy, market conditions, and business activities. ELX Founder and Chief Software Architect, Abhi Datt offered us the following exclusive insight into market conditions and programs that are allowing ELX to convert 200-300 corporate/institutional desktops a month to Linux. Datt discusses Lufthansa India and others who have adapted to ELX Linux and are proving that the OS is a smart choice for deployment today . . .
DesktopLinux.com: Can you give us a little background on ELX? Where it is being used?
ELX was started in 2001. The first version 1.0 of Power Desktop was released in June 2002. ELX pioneered the concept of ease without compromising on power of Linux. Users enjoyed this approach and ELX became very popular.
Since the release of Power Desktop, we have debuted BizDesktop and ELX Insta HIPAA Server which is one of the most advanced Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) EDI Server and Application. This product is being used to process thousands of claims by several clearing houses and practices in the United States including Newprotocol Inc. in New Jersey and Infoneeds in North Carolina. Both organizations are using ELX to process 837 (Professional Claims) and 270 (Eligibility verification). Several other practices are using the 837 claims software as well.
DesktopLinux.com: How does open source factor into the ELX business model?
We follow a creative approach to Open Source. We take advantage of significant Open Source projects and make them more usable for normal users. There are many interesting Open Source projects that are in the pipeline now. These projects range from Server tools to desktop wizards. We shall be releasing these by January 2004.
DesktopLinux.com: You are now shipping Power Desktop 2.0 and Business Desktop 2.0. What is the target market? What are the benefits and key selling points for customers that select ELX?
Power Desktop is meant for users who want to use their systems to max. Choice is the foundation of this version and users can take advantage of the wide variety of applications in it. It has one of the most comprehensive selection of applications and has a detailed development environment. With 3 Office suites (Openoffice.org, Koffice and GNOME office), 3 browsers, Mozilla, Opera, Galeon, 2 e-mail clients kmail and evolution, numerous multimedia applications, XINE, Ogle, Mtv, realplayer ; PowerDesktop is all about Power of choice. QT Designer, Kdeveloper, Kylix Community Edition, GLADE complete the IDE list. Besides this it has a graphical front end for CVS, gdb and other miscellaneous tools. Server components included in this version are, Apache, squid, Iptables, MySQL, PostgreSQL, FTP and many other essential ones.
BizDesktop is for users who need basic functionality from their PCs and want to work on a single best application for each task. OpenOffice is used as the default office environment and Mozilla as the default browser. It also has XINE, xmms and realplayer for Multimedia support. There are no server components included to keep the OS light.
ELX is designed keeping in view the mind-map of a typical Windows user. We pride ourselves on our attention to detail and that is what Windows users seem to like about ELX when they move to Linux.
With the launch of ELX HIPAA Suite we have demonstrated that Linux is no more just an edge-server (mail server, proxy etc.) thrown somewhere in the organization – it is now right in the middle of it.
DesktopLinux.com: The standard approach to the bringing Desktop Linux into the office is through the server room. What is ELX's strategy? What market, and what sorts of users, represent ELX's market focus?
Traditionally, Linux has always been perceived to be inside the thick walls of a server, but over the last one year that wall has been removed. More and more business users are now opting for Linux in their desktops. Corporations are becoming very conscious of maintaining high uptime of their systems. Virus attacks and other vulnerabilities, which could cost organizations millions of dollars, are no longer seen as an “accepted” risk in computing.
We never position ELX as just another Linux for people looking for alternatives. We position ELX as the most suitable Windows alternative available today. Desktop Linux is ready now – today – for most corporations.
ELX looks for corporate markets which are looking for a desktop alternative for Windows that can be adopted with the least migration pain and resistance from existing users that are already habituated to Windows.
Often the driving factor for such organizations is not linked to immediate cost benefits but they pay more attention to the long term advantages, such as freedom from technology lock-ins, security enhancements, and an overall lower Total Cost of Ownership.
The number of such organizations is fortunately growing and so is our market. Typically we are converting 200-300 corporate/institutional desktops a month to ELX. And, these numbers are growing rapidly. Current market trends are favoring us.
DesktopLinux.com: What is the SINGLE greatest reason an enterprise should switch to Linux now?
With the current advancements in Linux -- and an almost zero learning curve involved -- enterprises need to find out any single reason for NOT migrating to Linux or at least nailing down migration plans now.
DesktopLinux.com: Are you working with any "big name" OEMs?
We have tied up with many international mid-sized OEMs, some of which ship exclusive ELX-based PC’s. However, we have not tied up with any big names as such.
DesktopLinux.com: Other countries have benefited from government initiatives, legislation, and programs that have been supportive of open source Linux. We hear of the Indian government initiating Linux pilot programs. Are you involved in this? What are you seeing in regards to Linux adoption in your region?
We are actively involved in many initiatives. The wave of Linux is catching up in India and many state governments have been searching for a way to utilize it to their maximum advantage. The President of India and world renowned scientist, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam has urged all institutions and government organizations to select Linux as much as possible.
We have been working on Indian language support. We are also receiving government support to start the “ELX Centers of Excellence” in several leading universities and colleges in India. We are also benefiting from an Indo-German student exchange program that allows 15 professionals from Germany to work full time on ELX to create a German version of ELX. The ELX German version will be available towards the end of the 2003. Though Financial contribution to ELX is not involved but the contribution in terms of human resources is overwhelming.
DesktopLinux.com: The evolution of Linux in the enterprise is happening very quickly. What is the demand for Linux today? How has that demand changed over the past 6 months? What do you see happing over the next 6 months?
Earlier, we faced difficulty in conveying messages that demonstrate the advantages Linux can offer end users and enterprises. There were many questions – now answered adequately. And as a result, things have changed and mostly organizations are coming to us with the clear mandate of a migration path to Linux. In the coming months, I believe, IT managers will have a clear cut strategy for Linux and anyone not doing it today will have to answer to management for not having a pathway tomorrow.
DesktopLinux.com: Can you tell me about the feedback so far from IT managers and CIOs on any evaluation sites or programs that are currently going on. What do they like? What do they seem to be struggling with?
At Lufthansa India, the backroom operations are currently undergoing a a migration process. ELX products have been accepted quite naturally by users. Also, we recently completed migration in a large steel manufacturing organization where the users requested that we cut our typical training program short -- demonstrating there is not terribly a lot to learn in this migration. They found it to be very much like their existing OS, only a little slower. This has kept IT managers and CIOs very satisfied with Linux and ELX. And we are pleased.
In other cases, we are facing challenges of making client’s Windows-based business applications work on ELX. The Indian Operations of a very large International shipping firm (that I cannot disclose yet) is planning to migrate all its Desktops to ELX and has been struggling to make Oracle’s “Windows-only” 'jinitiator' to run on ELX. We are working on Wine to make this happen and have achieved positive results from the project. And we have also suggested some work-arounds to them.
DesktopLinux.com: If I am an IT Manager, what do I need to know about maintaining Linux? What about certification? What kinds of costs should I prepare for during switch? After? How do I sell the changes to my boss?
Contrary to popular beliefs, maintaining Linux is easiest part of the process largely because of its inherent stability. However, we do recommend basic training or some amount of self-learning of key Linux concepts.
The cost involved in switching over to Linux is just a fraction of the huge savings you will realize long term by simply giving up the existing proprietary lock-in technologies.
Moreover, higher uptime and reduced administration costs will bring the TCO down even further.
An IT Manager perhaps can convince the boss by the COST mantra that has been coined by ELX, which stands for:
C— Cost Advantage
O- Ownership of your Data (No lock-in)
S- Security Benefits
T- Technology Superiority
DesktopLinux.com: How will you determine what programs are 'essential' for end users and make their way into the product? Is the goal to offer compatible core programs only? Will you offer packages tailored to different environments -- ie. accounting, lite office, email only?
We define an essential operating system as the system that should never draw a blank to the tasks that a typical computer user is likely to perform. And as the users' expectations grow , so, too does our scope of definition. We have coined this a dynamic process of understanding and delivering.
Moreover, As the business is becoming increasingly sophisticated, the one-size-fits-all approach of operating system companies will not suffice. ELX currently offers three products each suited for a different user profile. This range will grow as we target more and more industries and user profiles.
DesktopLinux.com: Are you finding bridge technologies, such as CrossOver Office or Win4Lin, necessary to companies using a combined Windows/Linux environment?
These technologies are surely marvelous. However it depends entirely on the requirements and the background of the company to decide which technology is most beneficial to employ.
An example -- The CEO decides to stick with Microsoft Office, IE, and Outlook. In such cases Crossover Office is the best technology. However if an organization is running a Visual Basic-based ERP, it is better to use it through a RDP client like rdesktop. And Win4Lin is more suitable for developers who are developing compatible applications for both Windows and Linux.
DesktopLinux.com: Can you share some details on the typical deployment you are currently seeing? Size? Is the enterprise seeking to move from UNIX or Microsoft? Looking to maintain some Linux, some MS?
The typical deployment size we are seeing is one of the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing Unit, or better known as offshore call center) organizations which has around 450 computers and the replacement platform for us here is overwhelmingly Microsoft. Almost all organizations that we have been dealing with have maintained a few systems with Windows partitions even after the migration is over for legacy data.
DesktopLinux.com: We are hearing about increased deployment of thin clients with Linux and in some countries, older model CPUs are being used successfully with Linux software for lower cost enterprise environments. Are these strategies on ELX's roadmap as well? Do you offer a HOWTO to help "recycle PCs" for single purpose or lower resource systems?
We are very active on this front and have successfully done this in many engineering colleges and a business process outsourcing facility in India. This is an exciting area and has huge potential. We are in the process of publishing more details about this initiative shortly.
DesktopLinux.com: We keep hearing the Linux desktop will "soon" be a reality and is "almost" there time and again. The reality is that the Linux desktop is there for most end users, so how can we best promote that message? At what market share does the "almost" go away?
The message can be best promoted by educating users about the clearcut benefits and dispelling their doubts about Linux. I believe that a very good start in this direction would be inviting case studies from actual organizations and business houses that have successfully migrated their businesses to Linux. The “almost” will go away when most of the significant application vendors and hardware vendors will start releasing Linux drivers and application versions for Linux as they now automatically do for Windows.
DesktopLinux.com: Thanks for your time!
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