Case studies of the use of OSS in nonprofit orgs
In order to really understand how OSS can be useful in nonprofit environments, we have included here five case studies of actual nonprofit organizations that have implemented Linux on the server or on the desktop.
Linux on the server
Case Study #1: Springfield Neighborhood Housing Services
Springfield Neighborhood Housing Services (SNHS) is a seven-employee nonprofit in Springfield, Massachusetts whose mission is to help low income families purchase and rehabilitate houses. In the late 1990s SNHS decided to move from stand-alone computers to an office network. A key goal was to network several software packages they used to do mortgage tracking and related tasks. These programs were on stand-alone PCs and they wanted to make them available to everyone in the office.
SNHS went through a strategic technology planning process in 1999-2000 to plan the transition to a network. Based on the SNHS’s needs and transition plan, their consultant, Paul Wright, recommended looking at Linux for their network server operating system.
In comparing Linux to Windows NT, Wright noted that with Linux, there would be initial cost savings from not having to buy software licenses for the server, including user license costs. For SNHS, this would only add up to a few hundred dollars in savings. However, the long-term benefits from the stability and security provided by Linux seemed more important. Wright thought these would help reduce ongoing support costs for SNHS.
In addition, Wright and SNHS liked the philosophy behind Linux and open source. “There’s a lot of focus on cost savings,” says Wright, “but it really comes down to an issue of control.”
On the downside, the mortgage tracking programs would require Microsoft Access to work well over a Linux network. Microsoft does not support running their applications on Linux. For basic applications like Word and Excel, storing data files on a Linux server is not a problem. But running a Windows-based database from a server is a more complicated proposition, and potentially more problematic.
The Decision
Despite this potential complication, SNHS decided to use Linux for their network server. Wright chose a free distribution of Linux called Debian. The server would use Samba, a program that comes with Linux, to share data between the PCs running Windows on users’ desktops and the Linux server. For e-mail they used all open source software – a program called Sendmail as the mail server, and Eudora for the e-mail clients on users’ PCs.
The implementation took two to three months overall to migrate users, but only a day to set up the Linux server. As for the loan tracking programs, one of them did end up causing problems. It kept freezing when users tried to access the database. Wright contacted the small software company that sold the program, but when the technical support person heard they were running it on Linux, they immediately blamed the problem on that. Eventually Wright went back to running that program on a separate Windows computer, not connected to the network.
Business Impact
According to Wright, the biggest impact from using Linux has been in terms of support costs. “Once it’s installed and running, Linux is less work,” he says.
He spends about five hours per month providing support to SNHS, but only an hour or so of that is related to the network. The rest is spent solving problems with the Windows desktop computers. What little maintenance the server requires includes updating security patches, and adding and removing users.
At organizations Wright supports that use Windows for networking, he estimates spending about double the amount of time on server maintenance (3-5 hours per month as opposed to 1-2 hours with Linux). Typically this is due to more frequent virus problems and system crashes with Windows, according to Wright. Also, more of the Linux system problems can be handled remotely.
Other than spending less consulting time on server problems, SNHS’s support situation has not changed much. After the Linux implementation, SNHS staff received minimal one-on-one training so they could run backups and re-boot the server if necessary. For anything else, they call the consultant, as was also the case with Windows.
Learning basic Linux tasks was initially a challenge for the “accidental techie” at SNHS. In general, Wright finds that the difference in ease of administering Linux versus Windows changes as the administrator moves up the learning curve.
Future Plans
As was noted, most computer problems at SNHS that require consultant help are now Windows desktop problems, including problems caused by computer viruses. Wright has therefore suggested moving to Linux on the desktop as well as the server. He set up a Linux machine for SNHS staff to experiment with. SNHS management has been very receptive to the idea and is seriously considering the move to the desktop.
However, the problem remains that some of the programs users rely on run only on Windows. To address this, they are trying to run these programs using Win4Lin, a program that allows you to run Windows programs on a Linux machine. The idea is to use OpenOffice on Linux for most things, and only open a Win4Lin window when necessary. However, since users are more familiar with Windows, once they get into the Win4Lin window they tend to stay there and use MS Office. The Executive Director is “slowly breaking that habit, but until he does we’re reserving judgment on moving to Linux desktop.”
Case Study #2: Community Resource Exchange
Community Resource Exchange (CRE) is a nonprofit management and fundraising consulting group, with 45 staff located in their New York City office. There is only one office, but many staff work from home.
Media Jumpstart, a technology support provider for nonprofits, shares the same office with them. CRE receives IT consulting and in exchange provides space for Media Jumpstart’s five staff people. This creates a somewhat unique situation in that Media Jumpstart are their tech consultants, but always available on site.
Business Problem
CRE began to use the Linux operating system to host some of their network functions beginning in 1999. Within several years they had a mixed environment where they used Linux and other open-source software for their e-mail and web server needs, and Microsoft Windows NT for their network file server, to host their accounting system, and on end-users’ desktop computers.
The mixed environment was not itself a problem, but computing tasks were poorly distributed across the various network servers. Jamie McClelland, a Media Jumpstart consultant, wanted to re-configure the network to make it more cost effective and to make use of features of Linux that would help CRE’s staff who work remotely.
In doing so he had to consider two factors. First was the organization’s accounting system, a program called MIP, which only runs on Windows. Second, the organization relied on a FileMaker Pro database. Their FileMaker database had to stay on a Windows box. FileMaker had a demo version for RedHat’s version of Linux, but Jamie could not get it to work. And since MIP only works on Windows anyway, he felt it wasn’t a big deal to also keep FileMaker on Windows.
The second consideration was that many users working from home needed a cheap, easy way to access their files across the Web. They also wanted the ability to easily get backups of their data remotely. If they lost a file they did not want to have to wait for help from a network administrator in order to get it back.
Jamie didn’t feel comfortable opening up their Windows NT server over the Internet because of security issues. But the Linux e-mail/web server was already on the Internet. He recalls, “Our attitude was that the NT file server was behind the firewall and thank God it was!”
The Decision
Jamie and the CRE management decided on a major overhaul of CRE’s network. They moved the file server to Linux. Security, flexibility and long-term reliability were the main reasons. In addition, they made another Linux server into a dedicated backup server.
With this new setup, Jamie used Linux and Apache to set up a secure extranet for CRE. Remote users log in and get directed to their personal home page that includes links to webmail, a link to browse their files on the file server (a feature of Apache), and links to an online FAQ. Users are even able to restore their backed-up files over the web.
CRE kept one Windows server to use for hosting FileMaker and MIP. It also served as the authentication server to authenticate users logging in at their Windows desktop PCs. For the most part the transition went smoothly. However, they encountered several problems while setting up Samba, the open source program that comes with Linux and is used for sharing data between Linux and Windows machines. “The transition was surprisingly smooth,” said Jamie. “It was a typical experience -- there was only one tiny piece that was awful. People think that if they install Linux they’re going to spend hours and hours figuring out how it works. But we forget that we do that with proprietary software also.”
Business Impact
The move to Linux impacted CRE’s network reliability and maintenance more than any other aspect of their IT setup.
Software
Software license costs were not a big issue because as a nonprofit CRE could get discounted versions of Windows. However, Jamie points out that there is the long-term issue of depending on Windows discounts to continue. In addition to Windows itself, CRE would have had to buy licenses for software to perform file server backups, which Jamie estimates might have cost $500. With Windows they also might have had to purchase some sort of VPN software in order to allow secure remote access.
Reliability
Using Linux at CRE has decreased the number of network problems in several areas. First, the file server itself does not need to be re-started as often. With Windows NT, every month or so the entire system would slow down, requiring a Media Jumpstart consultant to reboot it.
Second, backups are more reliable. With NT, they used a proprietary program called Retrospect for backups and had experienced occasional problems. When they had to reboot NT, the timed backup would stop working and things wouldn’t get backed up. Jamie spent a lot of time trying to figure out these problems. With Linux he wrote a simple script that has been much more reliable.
Third, remote administration is another benefit of Linux being more secure than Windows. “It makes a world of difference in terms of troubleshooting. I’d be very nervous doing something similar with Microsoft.”
The only major incident they have had maintaining Linux came from RedHat’s update program, called Up To Date. When Up To Date updated their e-mail server, it overwrote some configuration they had done to the e-mail program. This took several hours to fix.
“Up To Date seems better for desktops than for servers,” says Jamie, “since servers have more custom configurations.”
Administrative Skill
Jamie observed that learning simple network administration is easier on Windows than on Linux: “If you took someone who knew nothing [about network administration], learning Windows would be quicker. …”
At the same time, Jamie says learning advanced troubleshooting is the same amount of work for either Windows or Linux. For this reason the key question for a small nonprofit like CRE, that does not have dedicated in-house IT staff, is whether their outside consultant has knowledge and experience with Linux.
Lessons Learned
Reflecting on his experience with CRE and other clients’ networks, Jamie offers several pieces of advice for an organization considering Linux:
“Plan ahead. Plan what each server’s going to do. Think through every step in the migration process beforehand.”
“Don’t get caught up in the fact that you’ll save money on licenses. Do get caught up in the long-term issues: if we go with Windows now, what will that mean two or four years from now? If we go with Linux, what will that mean two-to-four years from now?”
“Get a concrete idea of what you want. For us it was file sharing over the Internet. Then figure out how you would do that using each platform.”
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Case Study #3: The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation
The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (EMCF) is a private foundation located in New York City. With a staff of about 25 employees it makes approximately $25 million in grants per year, with a focus on funding youth development programs.
Business Problem
Up until the late 1990s, EMCF had an office network with about 30 computers connected to multiple Novell servers, including one to run Groupwise, Novell’s e-mail and collaboration program. But over time IT Director Ricardo La Matta and other members of the foundation’s management became increasingly dissatisfied with the costliness of the Novell solution. An upgrade to a Novell server could cost $15,000 for hardware and software alone. Consultants with Novell expertise were an even larger expense. At one point La Matta calculated that they were paying $30,000 per year for outside support for Novell.
Besides cost, La Matta was also looking for an environment where he could experiment with bringing the EMCF web server in-house. This would also require firewall protection.
The Decision
In 1998, EMCF replaced their Novell network file server with a Linux server. At the same time La Matta added five additional Linux servers. One was an in-house web server to host the foundation’s website, as well as receive e-mail. Another server acts as a firewall. The remaining three servers are backups. If one of the three Linux production servers were to break down (which has never happened – in fact they’ve been up for three and a half years) the backup would take over. The broken box could then be replaced with a new one.
E-mail was an issue because EMCF staff were used to using Groupwise and liked its features. But Groupwise did not have a version that runs on a Linux server. La Matta therefore decided to keep a server running the Novell operating system and Groupwise application. E-mail goes from the firewall to the web/e-mail server, and then is passed along to Groupwise on the Novell server. This way an e-mail archive exists on the web/e-mail server as a backup.
La Matta chose to use all open-source software for running the EMCF website – Apache as the web application server, PHP as the web scripting language, and MySQL for database requirements.
Business Impact
Since moving their network to Linux, EMCF has saved money on the ongoing cost of maintaining their network. The most obvious cost savings have been in software and hardware costs. But additional benefits include better reliability and fewer network problems that previously distracted IT staff from new EMCF mission-related projects.
Software
With Novell, software upgrades to the servers could add up to $8,000 per upgrade, which typically broke down as follows:
- Novell server operating system upgrade: $4,000
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- Groupwise application upgrade (Groupwise server only): $3,000
- Upgrades to ARCserverIT for backups and InnoculateIT for virus check: $1,000
For the servers now running Linux – the file server, web server and firewalls – there are no longer any software license upgrade costs.
Hardware
Besides software, another way that Linux lowers costs is by allowing the use of generic, industry standard hardware. Proprietary software companies like Novell sometimes require that their programs be run on specially “certified” -- and therefore more expensive -- servers. For example, La Matta notes that the last Dell power unit they bought cost $5,000-$6,000 (although this included extras like RAID control cards and SCSI cards).
When EMCF switched from Novell to Linux, they no longer had to buy hardware that was Novell certified in order to get Novell support. The new Linux servers only cost about $1,000 each because Ricardo and his staff put them together, not having to worry about them being “certified.”
On an ongoing basis, with Linux EMCF has not needed hardware upgrades the way they do with Novell. They are still using the original machines, which have 800MHz processors. As has been the experience in the corporate world, EMCF found that Linux and other Open Source network software does not tend to require machines that are as fast or have as much memory as proprietary network software.
Consultants
Because La Matta is familiar with Linux and the other open source software that EMCF uses, he can do any necessary upgrades himself. This eliminates the substantial costs for outside consultants, for the servers now running Linux.
Reliability
La Matta offers the following advice to someone considering Linux for their network servers: “Go Linux and you will forget what it means for a server to go down. You will be able to take uninterrupted vacations, and during working time you will be able to dedicate your efforts and energy on projects you could not do so otherwise.”
By comparison, the Novell server they have retained to run Groupwise tends to have more problems: “Our Novell server continues to go down every once in a while, but it affects only our GroupWise use. Unfortunately even the Novell engineers were not able to help us fix the problem, so they suggested another upgrade. We will do it because GroupWise is what our staff is used to, and it is indeed a very useful program. I just wish it would run on Linux.”
Case Study #4: Greenpeace, USA
Greenpeace is an international organization with a closely-knit network of national and regional offices located in over 25 countries spanning the globe. The organization’s US headquarters is located in Washington DC, with 100 staff and interns.
The organization's international headquarters is located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Greenpeace International has adopted a policy of encouraging its affiliate organizations to use OSS. Any custom-built software Greenpeace produces will be released under the open-source GPL software license.
Business Problem #1
The DC office also serves Greenpeace staff throughout the Americas, so they needed an affordable, easy-to-use system for remote access. For example, staff in Guatemala needed to be able to get their e-mail and access files stored at the DC office. A virtual private network (VPN) of some sort was the most likely solution.
Because Greenpeace is always adding new small offices, many in developing countries, they also needed the ability to add new sites to the VPN quickly and easily. In many cases this would have to be done by non-technical staff at the new location.
Approach to Problem #1
Greenpeace used Linux and cheap, off-the-shelf hardware components to create an innovative system for setting up remote offices. They use custom-designed Linux "green boxes," about the size of a pizza box, to connect local offices to the VPN. They ship a green box to the Greenpeace staff in the new office, none of whom are technical staff. One of the staff hooks up the green box to their Internet connection, turns it on, and then is talked through a very basic set-up procedure by a technical staff person on the phone. If they run into problems, the staff person in the new office hooks up a modem to the green box and the DC office solves the problem remotely.
Business Problem #2
The Greenpeace DC office then wanted to move to Linux for their own staff’s computing needs. This was partly in agreement and accordance with the parent organization’s pro-open-source policy, partly out of a desire to save money, and partly in order to create a more uniform IT environment instead of having a Novell or Windows network internally, and a VPN built out of Linux machines.
Approach to Problem #2
Laptop Experiment
To begin expanding the use of Linux at their DC headquarters, Greenpeace DC equipped six of their organizers with laptops running Linux as the operating system and OpenOffice for word processing and spreadsheets. There were a few file conversion issues between OpenOffice and Microsoft Office, but aside from that it went fairly smoothly for the organizers.
Server Change-Over
As a second step, they began changing the network servers to Linux from Novell. This came at a time when they would otherwise have had to upgrade their Novell server software. With 100 users, the license upgrades alone would have cost several thousand dollars.
At first they used Linux servers to host their database, inventory, and calendaring software, plus firewall and proxy servers. They use the open source databases called MYSQL and PostgreSQL, and proprietary software for inventory and calendaring.
They then began moving from NT to Linux for file serving and print sharing. At the time they were interviewed for this study, 10 of their 16 servers were running Linux. Out of 100 people, 60 used Linux for file sharing and printing, another 15 for just printing.
Tom Camerlinck, the IT manager, says that moving from Novell to Linux was “tedious.” Printing was particularly difficult, because at the time they started moving over there wasn't great software available for printing services. Camerlinck also found Samba to be tricky to set up: “If you don’t get it, hire a consultant,” he advises.
Once they move the entire network file and print servers to Linux, their e-mail system is all that will remain on a Novell server. They use Pegasus for e-mail. Its biggest advantage is that it is very easy to share e-mail folders with several people, which approximately 20 percent of their users do, mostly for organizing work. Pegasus doesn't run on Linux -- in fact, they're using a very old version of Novell (3.2) to run it, largely because the old version is extremely stable (when they moved, it had been running for 600 days) and doesn't cost them money anymore.
Business Impact
One of the issues they struggle with is difficulty finding good Linux support. Cameron says it is harder to find Linux experts, “but if for example they know Samba, they know what they're doing. In contrast, there are too many people who have taken Windows classes but don't really understand the system.” And he notes, "If you have somebody good, it [the total cost of using Linux] is really cheap."
Linux on the desktop
GRO, or Grass Roots Organizing (www.gromo.org), is a community based nonprofit organization of low-income families in Missouri. They have three full time staff members in two offices in Missouri and a board of about a dozen low-income activists spread across the state.
The Low Income Networking and Communications Project (LINC, www.lincproject.org), a project of the Welfare Law Center, works with welfare rights organizers around the country to improve their access to and strategic use of computer technology. LINC's Circuit Riders, Dirk Slater and Arif Mamdani, were interested in improving LINC's ability to provide stable desktop systems using donated computers for board members and leaders of low-income led organizations.
Background
LINC began to explore the idea of using GNU/Linux when they learned of Microsoft’s decision to discontinue support of older operating systems, including Windows 95. With or without manufacturer support, LINC was also troubled by frequent crashes, prevalence of viruses and other problems associated with Microsoft Windows. LINC was looking for a pilot organization where they could improve their ability to provide stable desktop systems using donated computers to leaders of the low-income led organizations that they serve.
GRO wanted to get its leadership on computers and online. A local university had donated 14 Pentium computers, and GRO's director, Robin Acree, turned to LINC for help getting the computers running in board member's homes.
LINC's work with GRO proceeded in two phases. First, Arif Mamdani and Dirk Slater went to Mexico, Missouri to install GNU/Linux on these donated computers for GRO's board. A few months later, Mamdani went back to Missouri to follow up with GRO's leadership and set up open source desktops and server in the GRO offices. The board members and staff organizers came from a range of backgrounds: some had almost no computer experience whatsoever, while others were used to using Windows and Microsoft Office.
The decision to use Linux was easy – Microsoft was phasing out support of Windows 95, the other obvious choice for older, slower computers. All the donated computers were 100 MHz Pentiums with 32 to 64 MB of RAM. The machines barely met the minimum requirements for Windows 98, for which Microsoft also expected to phase out support. The local Linux Users Group was prepared to work with GRO and support their computers, though GRO has called on them more for software training and installation than actual maintenance of their systems.
LINC decided to install RedHat Linux 7x on the GRO computers. LINC installed Open Office (an OSS suite that includes word processing and spreadsheet applications), Kmail (an e-mail client), Mozilla (web browser), Konqueror (a web and file browser) on the desktop machines. In the office Mamdani set up an internal web server running Apache, PHP and MySQL and a proprietary calendar program built in PHP. The GRO website (hosted offsite) uses an open source content management tool called Pagetool.
Problems Encountered
LINC was starting out with faulty hardware -- not all the CD drives worked, not all the network cards and modems worked, and the computers are still slow machines, no matter what the operating system. For GRO leaders and organizers who were used to working in Windows, adjusting to differences between operating systems was frustrating at times and Open Office can be buggy. Most basic tasks worked just fine, but accomplishing some tasks in Open Office took some adjustment.
The first time GRO tried to make mailing labels from their database, they discovered that Open Office could only make a single page of labels at a time. A Circuit Rider at the LINC office was able to find a workaround for the problem, but it wasn't something GRO staff would have stumbled on. Ultimately this allowed LINC and GRO to contribute to the development and usability of Open Office by identifying the bug and reporting it to the development team who have corrected the problem in the most recent release of Open Office.
Business Impact
When LINC followed up with GRO about how they were using their new computers, staff described saving documents and reusing language from previous letters. They talked about being able to check e-mail regularly, get messages out and assimilate responses quickly, keep presentation materials up to date and update their website. Regular access to e-mail has allowed them to network with organizations doing similar work, and coordinate their campaigns.
GNU/Linux and the open source software available to use on it allowed GRO to set up a computer for everyone on staff and for their active leadership. Without Linux they wouldn't have been able to use the computers that were donated to them reliably. With Linux, they all feel that they can work more efficiently and more effectively.
