I live in Calgary and I agree with Ralph Piche: Linux is an excellent small business operating system, for both desktops and servers.

Two years ago, we converted all our computers from various versions of Windows (95, 98, 2000, XP) to Linux (RH8 at the time). The transition wasn't painless, but we have never regretted it.

I am ecstatic with how well Linux works these days, especially on the desktop: it is very stable, it has a wide range of excellent free applications, it is relatively immune to viruses and it runs on any hardware platform. The fact that it is free and we don't have to worry about adware and spyware is icing on the cake.

"Everyone" has been predicting that server-based applications would rule the small business desktop since 1998, but, in 2004, there are very few practical small business applications that run in a browser. Furthermore, I am not sure that running server-based software addresses the fundamental needs of small businesses. Would you care to run a word processor in Internet Explorer?

In this respect, I think your writer is out to lunch on some of this reporting.

Ironically, the best server-based application that I know of is an open source accounting package that runs on a Linux server (www.sql-ledger.com). It is written by a group of developers from Edmonton.

Unfortunately, I think that the opinion expressed by your writer is characteristic of many non-Linux users. Linux - and open source software in general - has many advantages over its proprietary counterparts and is worthy of a serious look by many small businesses, for a variety of reasons.

I think that people are starting to figure this out, as witnessed by the ever-increasing adoption of the Open Source Mozilla (Firefox) web browser, the Thunderbird e-mail client and the Open Office suite run on Windows machines.

Kim Lux

Calgary