Industry split by Linux claim

Network managers and industry experts have hotly debated Linus Torvalds' assertion that Linux will take over from 'monolithic' operating systems, such as Microsoft's Windows NT.

Speaking at last week's Internet World conference in New York, Linux creator Torvalds said: "Monolithic operating systems consisting of standard blocks are on the way out."

He said large shrink-wrapped products such as Windows will be replaced by Linux and open source software: "What will drive the software industry is special software for special needs."

However, Paul Slater, IT manager at financial services group Royal and Sun Alliance, was not convinced by Torvalds' claims that Linux was ready for the enterprise. He said he had no plans to axe NT: "I am not into dumping technology just for the sake of it. I want to see some tangible business benefits from Linux first."

He added: "There aren't enough applications running on Linux to make a complete transition from NT viable. Companies need elements of NT - it makes sense to standardise on one platform, rather than supporting multiple operating systems."

Gary Barnett, analyst at Ovum, agreed that Linux is not yet a practical replacement for Windows NT: "Linux is an alternative to other flavours of Unix, but certainly not for NT."

Although Linux is free, Barnett warned of extra training and support costs: "Anyone with any sense will realise that the costs associated with an OS are more than the initial price of the box."

But Peter Johnston, network manager at Linguaphone, is planning to migrate six of his seven NT servers to Linux. He said he has not been put off by the lack of service and support: "There are many organisations offering support."