Libraries--the brick-and-mortar institutions that amass book and periodical collections, not software modules, that is--get taken for granted in the Internet age.

Novell's geographically far-flung software engineers produce lots of types of Linux software the some 50,000 SMB and enterprise customers. Now, the major Linux distributor is using quality assurance (QA) testing tools from third-party vendor dynaTrace to help fight the economic downturn.

Since assuming day-to-day management of his family’s decades-old jewelry business, Christian Collins has found on-site Linux servers and terminals to be an inexpensive and largely hassle-free way of automating the office, retail store, and shop floor.

Both institutions deal with free materials, yet Linux and libraries haven’t always turned out to be an ideal match, according to Tom Curl, a consultant and entrepreneur with a couple of library implementations to his own credit.