Книга: Fedora™ Unleashed, 2008 edition

Fedora for Business

Fedora for Business

Linux has matured over the past 10 years, and features considered essential for use in enterprise-level environments, such as CPU architecture support, file systems, and memory handling, have been added and improved. The addition of virtual memory (the capability to swap portions of RAM to disk) was one of the first necessary ingredients, along with a copyright-free implementation of the TCP/IP stack (mainly due to BSD UNIX being tied up in legal entanglements at the time). Other features quickly followed, such as support for a variety of network protocols.

Fedora includes a Linux kernel that has the capability to use multiple processors. This allows you to use Fedora in more advanced computing environments with greater demands on CPU power. In reality, small business servers typically use only dual-CPU workstations or servers, but Fedora has the capability to run Linux on more powerful hardware.

Fedora automatically supports your multiple-CPU Intel-based motherboard, and you can take advantage of the benefits of symmetric multiprocessors (SMPs) for software development and other operations. The Linux kernels included with Fedora can use system RAM sizes up to 64GB, allow individual file sizes in excess of 2GB, and host the demands of — theoretically — billions of users.

Businesses that depend on large-scale, high-volume, and high-availability systems can now turn to Red Hat's Enterprise Linux products for stable, robust, scalable, and inexpensive solutions for various platform hosting. Storage requirements in the terabyte range, no lengthy file system checks, and no downtime are just a few of the minimum requirements in such environments.

However, Fedora can be used in many of these environments by customers with widely disparate computing needs. Some of the applications for Fedora include desktop support; small file, print, or mail servers; intranet web servers; and security firewalls deployed at strategic points inside and outside company LANs.

Commercial Red Hat customers will benefit from Red Hat's engineering and support teams because Red Hat works closely with many computer industry leaders, such as HP, Fujitsu Limited, and IBM. This enables Red Hat Enterprise Linux to work well on a wide range of computers such as laptops, mid-range Intel Xeon and Itanium platforms, and some of the most powerful enterprise-class servers in the world.

Red Hat also develops platform and development tools for other CPUs, such as the Xstormy16 CPU from Sanyo, NEC's VR5500 MIPS, Motorola's 128-bit AltiVec and Book E PowerPC e500, SuperH's SuperH SH-5, and Intel's XScale-based chips.

Small business owners can earn great rewards by stepping off the software licensing and upgrade treadmill and adopting a Linux-based solution. Using Fedora not only avoids the need for licensing accounting and the threat of software audits, but also provides viable alternatives to many types of commercial productivity software.

Using Fedora in a small business setting makes a lot of sense for other reasons, too, such as not having to invest in cutting-edge hardware to set up a productive shop. Fedora easily supports older, or legacy, hardware, and savings compound over time as unnecessary hardware upgrades are avoided. Additional savings will be realized because software and upgrades are free. New versions of applications can be downloaded and installed at little or no cost, and the office suite software is free.

Fedora is easy to install and network and plays well with others, meaning it works well in a mixed-computing situation with other operating systems such as Windows or Mac OS X. A simple Fedora server can be put to work as an initial partial solution or made to mimic file, mail, or print servers of other operating systems. Clerical help will quickly adapt to using familiar Internet and productivity tools, while your business gets the additional benefits of stability, security, and a virus-free computing platform.

When monies spent on server hardware are allocated carefully, a productive and efficient multiuser system can be built for much less than the cost of comparable commercial soft ware. Combine these benefits with support for laptops, PDAs, and remote access, and you will find that Fedora supports the creation and use of an inexpensive yet efficient work environment.

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