It is time for VARs to become familiar with the Linux world, espeically as the number of Windows exploits continues to increase. This is a very viable option for many small businesses that want security and features at a reasonable price but don’t want to pay to continually harden their Windows servers or be part of the monthly post-Patch Tuesday testing frenzy when Microsoft issues security updates. These prepackaged Linux servers try to bundle a variety of servers and also attempt to make the Linux portion invisible and easy to maintain so that VARs don’t have to do several package installs or command-line fumbling. There are four major prepackaged Linux server solutions: Net Integration Technologies’ Nitix, Xandros’ Xandros Server, Novell’s SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) and Red Hat’s RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) ES.

I talk more about these issues in my latest column for eWeek here.