Abstract
This chapter introduces the hybrid GLW information infrastructure as an alternative to proprietary-only information infrastructures with lower costs. The author argues that the use of FLOSS servers in a client- server infrastructure reduces the transaction costs relative to the data processing and the contract management that organizations have to support, preserving the investment already made with the installed base of clients in comparison to the use of proprietary managed servers. Transaction costs of two realworld proprietary infrastructures, Netware 5.0 and Windows NT 4.0, and of GLW, all with Windows 98 clients, are described and compared to give elements for the reader to analyze and decide.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Client Access Licenses (CALs): Licenses required by Microsoft to connect each Microsoft client software to a Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 server software.
License Manager: A Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 server embedded software that monitors the concurrent connections from Microsoft client software to the Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 server software to make sure that there will be no more concurrent connections than those that were lawfully acquired.
Contracts: Agreements signed by two parties in which it is described what they may, can, or have to do and what they may not or cannot do in order to accomplish their objectives. Contracts make laws between parties.
Infrastructure: As in an information infrastructure, which, in the words of Hanseth (2002) , is “a shared, evolving, open, standardized, and heterogeneous installed base.”
Connection Manager: A Novell Netware server embedded software that monitors the concurrent connections from Netware client software to the Netware server software to make sure that there will be no more concurrent connections than those that were lawfully acquired.
Transaction Costs: The costs of accomplishing a transaction. A transaction occurs “when a good or service is transferred across a technologically separable interface. One stage of processing or assembly activity terminates and another begins” (Williamson, 1981, p. 552 AU23: The in-text citation "Williamson, 1981" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
Samba: Software that connects Microsoft Windows and GNU/Linux infrastructures.
GLW: The initials of the expression GNU/Linux-Windows, meaning a mixing of them.
Rights: Prerogatives that can be exercised by persons under the observation of the laws.
Gateways: Elements that “link different infrastructures which provide the same kind of service based on different protocols/standards” ( Hanseth, 2002 ).