Linux Sneaks into the Small Business Marketplace

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Since the server runs all the software, it is the only part of the system that requires an administrator's attention. A small business that now spends $2000 per desktop per year on software maintenance and security for 10 desktops -- a total of $100,000 over a five-year span -- can cut that amount to $10,000 over the same time period by running 10 diskless workstations from a single server.

During the purchasing process, Romm says, there are three questions that business owners ask: "Will it support the files I have? Will I continue to be productive? How different will the new system be?"

Once they are satisfied that that there will be little change in their overall operations, he says, the rest of the sale is easy.

"Small businesses are okay with going to whatever program that does what they need done," says Romm. "They don't need or care about all the bells and whistles of Outlook or Microsoft office. They're happy to go to (Linux-based email client) Evolution or (open source office suite) OpenOffice.org or some product like that."

The difference between Symbio and Ace is that while Ace is primarily a service company with an intensely local client base, Symbio has packaged an entire hardware and software system that can be installed easily by anyone who knows even a little about Linux.

Symbio reseller Ranbir Sandhu, who owns Systems Aligned, Inc. in Toronto, Canada, says one of his larger clients is a local investment firm that had all its records on paper before he installed a new Linux-based system for them.

"They didn't care what was running on the backend, but we're always, not pressing, but saying to them that it's open source," Sandhu says. "As long as it solves their business problems, they're happy with it."

Sandhu started his tiny company as a partnership with a friend when they both graduated from college two years ago.

"It was either get a job or try something on our own and see if it would be successful,"' says Sandhu. "We started out doing it all -- Windows, Linux, whatever -- but decided Linux was where we wanted to be at."

The friend has since moved on, but Sandhu has managed to make the business profitable, and has even gained a small bit of fame in Linux circles for winning a bid to supply a Symbio thin client system to the North West Catholic School Division 16 in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. He not only won the bid, but also beat out the Windows-based competition by a huge margin: his price, including software, was less than half of his competitor's quote.