Gentlemen - I work for a large E&S Insurance Company(over $1.5B in Premium) in Scottsdale, Arizona. We are owned by a very large Insurance Enterprise. Having read your e-mail, I thought I would offer some information regarding Linux for corporate use. Our IT shop is primarily an AS400 and Sun based server environment. We use also use Windows for our smaller and less critical needs due to security and reliability concerns. We are currently participating in a joint Enterprise Project to evaluate Linux for our Enterprise. Some of the business drivers of this project include things like: Reduce total cost of ownership for distributed and mainframe computing platforms Improve reliability, scalability and performance Reduce dependence upon single-vendor hardware and software stack After some initial market research, the project team feels that over the next few years there will be a substantial migration to Linux on the Intel platform. They feel that there is a significant oppurtunity to leverage Linux within the Enterprise in a variety of roles. As far as programmers in the Phoenix area, consider this point: Most of the current development technolgies are platform-independent: C/C++, Java, PHP, Perl, Python, etc.. and can all run on a variety of hardware and software. Because of this, there is a substantial number of developers available using any of these technologies - and they all run on Linux. The only development I would not choose is Microsoft .Net - since it only runs on one platform and will lock you in to the Microsoft Upgrade and Pay Plan Good luck on your project Robert G. Cober Development Team Lead Advanced Technolgy Team Subject: Any linux programmers out there? From: Craig White To: plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us Cc: Ray Grey Organization: Date: 16 May 2003 11:03:05 -0700 Reply-To: plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us I have a rather interesting situation with a client of mine. They are a non-profit mental health provider - the Executive Director is Ray Grey I have included him in the distribution of this email. Anyway, I think he agrees with me that the best path for a non-profit corporation to go is open source/free software and he does have a die-hard Windows guy as president of the board of directors. Apparently the issue comes down to his belief that there aren't any Linux programmers around. Imagine that! They are in central Phoenix. I told him that there were many Linux programmers around and if I put the word out on just one mail list (PLUG), that he would likely be inundated with people, capable and willing and most likely resumes. I can't guarantee that anyone will get a programming assignment...it may ultimately end up at an over priced Windows integrator. The project involves collection of data into an SQL database and sending electronic compilations of the data as billing data in HCFA type blocks...multi-user and the user interface and the middleware is not determined. If you are interested, please send him an email - feel free to copy me or don't copy me and that's fine. If you are a programmer but are currently involved in other projects please drop him a short note just to let him know that there are Linux programmers as this is a sticking point. If you have questions, please feel free to send them to me. The big issue here, if I failed to make the point is that we have a non-profit agency with a lot of Macintosh computers and no real investment in Microsoft Windows hardware or software. It's obvious to me that this is the right time to move to open source / free software and the major obstacle to this is that they have a perception that Linux programmers, integrators, system administrators etc. are not readily identifiable...stand up and be counted and you will make a difference in the perception of decision makers. Thanks, Craig