Independence Air had hoped there would be a knowledge transfer from the Linux consultants to its Windows-focused IT staff so it could gain the skills to service the site and add functionality in Java. That didn't happen. "We went live, and we were still heavily reliant on the consultants to maintain the site," says Shaffer. "We ran into a whole bevy of problems that left us feeling kind of helpless."

Internal staffers struggled to configure Apache Web servers and BEA Systems Inc. WebLogic application servers to handle the load, and the site often went down as they did, says Shaffer. The network operations staffers had no Linux skills either, he adds.

Recognizing that the site would be generating 80 percent of the company's revenue and that trouble-shooting would be an ongoing problem, Independence Air made the decision "to go back to the Microsoft world," Shaffer says. It had taken six months and US$400,000 for consultants to build the initial site. One consultant and two full-time internal staffers built the Windows-based site in three months, he says.

"You have to stick to your core competencies," says Shaffer. "Right or wrong, we're a Microsoft shop, and that's where our talent lies right now. You really need to evaluate whether moving to another technology in as rapid a time frame as we did is the right thing to do."

Stacey Quandt, an analyst at Aberdeen Group Inc., says she sees users migrate from Linux to Windows only when support is lacking or when they decide to move back to their familiar Windows environments. But that isn't happening much, since so few companies did even limited switching from Windows to Linux.