The use of GNU-Linux for highly-visible systems such as web applications, graphics rendering and Beowulf clusters is well-known, but somehow its deployment for business systems is not often talked about. John's company Clockwork Software Systems has been configuring bespoke business systems for over 12 years, firstly on Unix platforms and now on Linux exclusively. These systems are mission-critical for their users and if they fail so do their businesses.

John is a long-time Unix/Linux bigot and will talk about why they use Linux, how they go about configuring the system hardware and software for reliability, the software tools they have used for bespoke applications and plans for the future.