In early 1999, Salon.com, an Internet media company founded in November 1995, adopted Linux as its enterprise server OS and Apache as its enterprise Web server, then went public two months later. Not coincidentally, the rapid, successful, and ultimately scalable growth of the company closely followed its broad adoption of open source technologies. We'll explore how, in a media world dominated by mega-mergers like AOL/Time Warner, open source technology plays a critical role in helping a smaller media outlet like Salon.com produce and distribute news and information to a global audience at a reasonable cost. These concepts apply not just to media companies, but more generally to any business attempting to compete with larger, more entrenched companies.