Linux: A New Kind of Service-Oriented Architecture

While the title may say differently, to me the bulk of the article below seems to encompass breaking through myths and hype to get the real benefits of OSS at the core.

Strip away the hype and hyperbole and there are two factors driving mainstream businesses to adopt
Linux and other open-source technologies: drastic reduction of hardware costs by swapping out expensive servers and fear of being locked into proprietary software.

Nobody doubts that open-source technologies offer comparable (and sometimes even superior) performance, reliability and economic advantages to rival proprietary offerings. And corporations definitely realize immediate and long-term reduction in hardware costs. For example, companies that deploy open-source operating systems on Intel- and AMD-based machines — instead of more expensive proprietary boxes — see their hardware costs decline 50 percent or more. [Read the rest]