Linux Devotees Find Acceptance Can Be Odd in Corporate World
By LISA M. BOWMAN
ZD Network News
Leonard Zubkoff's Linux habits used to be nocturnal.
After a long day at work as the principle member of the technical staff at Oracle Corp., Mr. Zubkoff would fire up his Linux machines and practice his passion while the corporate types slept: hacking away on Linux code, getting the alternative operating system to run better and faster on all kinds of hardware.
For four and a half years, the 41-year-old Mr. Zubkoff divided his life between Oracle by day and Linux by night, often spending as much as 20 hours each week on the code on his home computers.
Then last July, his hobby became his day job.
Mr. Zubkoff was wooed away from Oracle by VA Research Inc., a Mountain View, Calif., Linux reseller that tapped the hotshot Linux kernel developer as its new chief technology officer.
"We are doing leading-edge work," Mr. Zubkoff said. "I get to do things I never would have otherwise."
Developers in the Linux community -- who until recently spread their gospel through e-mails rather than face-to-face meetings -- are finding themselves increasingly in demand in the corporate world as companies augment their Linux forces.
The search for Linux developers has kicked into high gear during the past nine months, since industry heavyweights began jumping on the open-source bandwagon and more Linux corporate users started coming out of the closet. (Ironically, three weeks after Mr. Zubkoff defected, Oracle unveiled support for the alternative operating system.)
"There's a lot more acceptance inside mid- to large-sized companies of giving Linux a try," said Jeff Dickey-Chasins, a spokesman for the job site dice.com.
Since the operating system entered the mainstream in the past year, job listings seeking Linux experience have more than doubled on sites such as dice.com: A search on the word "Linux" there yields more than 500 results.
And it looks like the momentum will only grow. International Data Corp. has predicted that Linux will grow at a rate of 25% over the next five years, faster than all other operating systems combined.
Though that means whopping demand for Linux lovers, not all developers are enchanted with the idea of turning their hobby into something they're forced to do day after day. What's more, many of the companies jumping into the Linux game also sell "closed" software and hardware -- blasphemy in the free-wheeling world of open source, where anyone has access to the source code and can tinker with it as long as the changes are shared.
Mr. Zubkoff took months to make a decision, afraid his labor of love would become just labor if he began collecting a paycheck for Linux work. "Money and stock options are not the only motivating factors," he said; many Linux community developers value their reputations above all else, hanging their code out in cyberspace, where anyone is free to praise it -- or poke holes in it.
In the end, Mr. Zubkoff said VA Research presented him with a chance to work on hardware he simply couldn't afford on his own, allowing him to experiment with multiple processing and other heavy-duty projects.
Plus, being aligned with a company gives him earlier access to technology such as Intel Corp.'s hardware, though he insists he will always fight to keep the Linux software open and available.
Arthur Tyde saw the Linux revolution coming, but he didn't realize he'd be quite so swept up in it.
In his former life, Mr. Tyde was a "general IS guy" at the Gap Inc., hacking away on Windows NT at work and then turning to Linux at home.
Linux was just a hobby, and in his spare time Mr. Tyde would guide the Bay Area Linux Users Group, which he started a few years ago. But getting paid for Linux work was only a dream. "We thought, 'Maybe we'll do this someday -- maybe,' " he said.
Now his outlook has changed -- bolstered by increased interest in Linux, which during the past year has gained support from industry bigwigs such as Intel and Netscape Communication Corp.
Today Mr. Tyde is co-founder and CEO of Linuxcare Inc., a new San Francisco company that provides support for Linux users.
He steps over the bedlam in his south-of-Market offices, where his employees patiently await a move into new digs on the floor above. The eight-month old company already has outgrown its temporary space: Workers are crammed into rooms the size of large closets, sitting at folding tables pushed against the wall. Cords run every which way across the fake-wood paneled tops of the makeshift desks. File cabinets and space are at a premium, so employees keep personal effects in cardboard boxes underneath their desks.
The 45-person company has more work than it can handle, and needs more Linux experts than it has, Mr. Tyde says.
Still, Mr. Tyde is basking in it. "I dig what I do," he said, turning sideways as he walks to avoid employees who have set up shop in the hallway.
Now that Linux is no longer under cover, Linux lovers don't have to keep their activities secret, says Linuxcare employee Bryan Abshiere. Before the publicity onslaught, he used to conspire with fellow Linux lovers at user-group meetings. "We used to talk about how you sneak Linux into your company," Mr. Abshiere said. Now, they talk about Linux jobs.
Incorporating the Linux geeks into the corporate culture is a challenge for both employees and employers. For one thing, former hobbyists don't always keep typical corporate hours. "You can't expect them to be here from 8 until 5," said Mark Bolzern, founder of Aurora, Colorado-based WorkGroup Solutions Inc., which sells Linux products.
"A lot of them are night owls and will stay up all night working and find it hard to come in early the next day," said Mr. Bolzern, who notes that only one person on his development team consistently shows up in the early morning hours. "The others, they get their work done, but you can't always tell when they're going to be there."
Mr. Bolzern's 15-person company doubled in size in the past year, and he said he expects growth to "explode" this year.
At Silicon Graphics Inc., which recently jumped into the Linux ring, the number of engineers working on the operating system is on par with those working on Windows NT. Last year, the company didn't have anyone working on Linux publicly, said Dave McAllister, SGI's strategic technologist.
But keeping the open-source folks happy in a company that's based on closed systems isn't always easy, Mr. McAllister said.
"It's like herding cats," Mr. McAllister said -- but added that such a task needn't be as difficult as one might think. You just have to give them food, he said, "and make sure you're going where the cats want to go." |
