Mandrakesoft announced last week that they have acquired Linux support and services vendor Edge IT. The acquisition is an indication of Mandrake's growing emphasis on supporting corporate customers migrating to Linux.

Edge-IT was founded in 2003 by key employees of Open Care, the first European Linux support company. They count among customers, OECD, the world economic organization, Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, an elite French Political Science School, and Prisma Presse, one of the top press groups in France.

Existing Edge IT customers will be supported under the new arrangement, Mandrake says. The deal, completed through a stock transfer of 70,000 Mandrakesoft shares is expected to close in a few months, and has an estimated valuation of half a million US dollars.

Since emerging from bankruptcy in March 2004, Mandrakesoft has put together a string of moves that indicate their push into corporations. Beginning with the May release of a new version of their Linux-based operating system, Mandrake also teamed with Codehost to extend printing for Linux in the enterprise, announced a migration strategy for corporations through a partnership with NeTraverse, and unveiled a strategy to deliver a Linux desktop with zero transition costs with French vendor, Nexedi.

Mandrake Linux is available preloaded on selected HP business PCs.

New Linux vendor Open Country has announced that a technical beta release of their software to cost effectively manage Linux systems in the enterprise is available for download.

The Belmont, CA-based company says their software management tool significantly lowers the TCO of running Linux systems and provides key system management functions including system provisioning, software deployment, asset management, backup and restore, remote administration and remote desktop takeover.

Priced from US $9 per system per month, the company's OC-Manager manages popular RPM-based Linux from SuSE, Sun JDS, Red Hat, Fedora, Mandrake and even legacy software from these same vendors, all running on the same network according to the company's product specifications. Open Country says their products adapt to an organization's existing infrastructure -- and they offer companies a strategy to manage Linux without having to worry about retraining or investing in new IT administrators.

When an Albany-based cardiology practice announced their move to Linux last year, headlines touted the move as an affirmation of the use of open source software. Having a large medical practice with locations in Massachusetts and New York entrust medical records to Linux was a resounding nod to the cost savings and security that has become increasingly associated with the Linux platform.

But the real story -- the one that is even more important to end users and IT managers -- is the ROI (return on investment) that CCA has realized in their move from proprietary Windows to open source Linux.

Dr. Martin Echt and Jordan Rosen reveal the details of CCA's Linux implementation in the full presentation, from their talk at April's Real World Linux trade show held in Canada.

Among their key findings, summarized in the article below, Echt and Rosen found that CCA's Linux thin client savings exceeded 37% in just 8 months. They provide a detailed cost analysis of their migration to Linux . . .

A report at IT Manager's Journal looks at the issue of Linux and TCO with a host of independent analysts. The answers seems to be mostly yes -- but is largely contingent on the Linux distribution used, the environment, whether you are transitioning from another OS and your IT staff's experience with Linux.

IBM's Dr. John Shedletsky, vice president of Competitive Technologies runs a lab at IBM and says in the article that there is "no doubt that utilizing Linux lowers the TCO of any system -- anywhere from 'somewhat' to 'substantially.'" Shedletsky points out that when implementing Linux, companies can migrate at their own pace and replace only functional areas that need to be upgraded. Savings can be substantial when forced upgrades are not placed on customers.

META Group vice president Corey Ferengul tells IT Manager's Journal that his firm has "historically have taken the position that Linux has the same TCO as Windows." But Ferengul says Linux TCO can be lower based on the choices a company makes with regard to distribution, support, management tools, software stack and use.

The article offers two additional analysts views about Linux and TCO -- concluding that "you can't help having a lower TCO using Linux" in an enterprise system.

[Updated 3 PM PST] -- Xandros has released an open circulation version of their Xandros desktop Linux OS today. The Xandros Open Circulation edition is freely available for download from the company's website.


"We wanted to give something back to the community -- not just to the kernel developers, KDE, OpenOffice.org and a myriad other projects, but also to the beta testers, reviewers, and thousands of users who have enthusiastically received and supported our products, said Stephen Harris, Xandros marketing director and community relations spokesman. He added that "Xandros developers, support and executive staff are extremely active and dedicated members of the community, so this comes from the heart and soul of the Xandros team."

This download includes an office suite, web browsing, e-mail, and multimedia capabilities. The open circulation release is similar to the company's Standard version but substitutes the Opera browser for Mozilla and CD burning speed is limited in the free version.

Xandros Open Circulation edition has a four-click install with automatic disk partitioning, dual-boot installation for supporting Windows XP and Linux, system hardware detection and configuration, drag-and-drop CD burning, as well as file and print sharing on Windows networks.

The Open Circulation license allows the use of Xandros desktop for non-commercial use. E-mail installation support is not included with the download.

Download it here for free using BitTorrent, a file sharing protocol for downloading files. There is a US $10 fee for http download to cover bandwidth and administration costs.