Linux in 2004? 456
An anonymous reader writes "John Terpstra and Eric S. Raymond have started the ball rolling on LinuxWorld's poll of the community for what they think will happen in the world of Linux in 2004. Terpstra says 'I predict that during 2004 at least one significant USA government body will adopt Linux on the desktop.'" Depending on how you define "significant", this has already occurred.
My Bet Is On 2006 (Score:5, Informative)
I can't really put my finger on just why that year sticks out, but it does. I suspect that it will take a year+ for 2.6 to mature/be accepted to the point where most major distros are shipping it and most howtos are being written for it. I also suspect that both GNOME and KDE will reach another major version by 2006 (haven't checked their road maps... just hoping.) I also hope that device support will continue to grow as it has, configuration tools will mature more, and the "your mama" test will be more easily passed. I doubt all that will happen in the next twelve months.
As for what I think COULD happen? I think a major U.S. gov't agency could start putting GNU/Linux into major use. I think we will see a lot more adoption abroad. Maybe even a first world national government promoting it in some way. I understand GNU/Linux desktop usage will top Mac desktop usage (was a
Now I'm just rambling. This made very little sense. sorry. It is 2:30 AM EST... I'm going to bed.
Re:Howto's.. (Score:3, Informative)
Does Germany Count? (Score:5, Informative)
Like, say, Germany? [bbc.co.uk]
Gentoo, Portage, Python (Score:2, Informative)
- Portage gives a corporate IT the most fine-grained dependency control protecting the consistency of installations within upgrades;
- Gentoo makes possible to compile everything from sources on a reference hardware, adapting by that to the last bit of any available performance optimization, and then distribute the compiled binares to compatible hardware cross the enterprise (using GRP for fresh installations and just shared
/usr/portage/packages for already installed systems);
- Gentoo (mostly thanks to Portage) represents really the next generation design of Linux distro;
As a side affect of that, Gentoo with Portage will help corporations to recognize Python as the next-wave language after Java.The Future Fair... (Score:5, Informative)
Out of nowhere will come the killer office app that integrates word processing, spreadsheets and databases so they really interoperate nicely. (Think Improv, Access, and some quasi-wysiwyg word processor that works on xml schemas all bred together by a Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Brown and then make "easy" enough for the masses. Maybe even constraint propagation as the spreadsheet engine.)
A personal information manager will surface that enables us all to keep track of mail, favorite websites, IM buddylists, newsgroups and all that ephemeral, necessary information that clogs our bits and our neurons. (Ideally it will integrate with the above.)
Linux will finally have a sound system that works and without it being a pain to deal with.
A way to build and install kernels and modules that requires less than serious geekery to get to work.
Package management will mature enough that we wont have to chase dependencies manually, and so that packages will install cleanly.
A good dictation package.
A linux based PDA about the size of a paperback with handwriting recognition and (of course) all of the above.
Hey, I can dream, can't I?
Re:Nah, Education is the Future (Score:5, Informative)
XFce runs GREAT on older hardware without sacrificing a lot of nice bits of modern stuff (anti-aliased fonts, gtk2, etc). I just dropped Vector Linux on an old Celeron 366 with 64 megs (it's an old HP) and added XFce4 and it works like a charm.
Re:US Gov't on Linux (Score:3, Informative)
The NSA's version is called SE-Linux [nsa.gov], for Security Enhanced Linux. It has a "strong, flexible mandatory access control architecture incorporated into the major subsystems of the kernel. The system provides a mechanism to enforce the separation of information based on confidentiality and integrity requirements. This allows threats of tampering and bypassing of application security mechanisms to be addressed and enables the confinement of damage that can be caused by malicious or flawed applications." Or some such.
If you really need security and don't think running Bastille-linux [bastille-linux.org] is going to be enough, then ACLs a la SE-Linux might be the way to go. I suppose no OS is truly secure, but it's hard to imagine even talented crackers getting very far against it.
I predict...some of *you* will start using Linux (Score:4, Informative)
In 2004, that trend will increase. If you've got a laptop, why not put Linux on it all by itself?
OK, some of you have your reasons, though making the jump and dealing with the problems (if any) is one way to get the ball rolling. Here are two resources to help out;
Government Software for Linux (Score:3, Informative)
Relevent URLs:
http://www.disa.mil/coe/kpc/linuxpc.html [disa.mil]
http://gforge.freestandards.org/projects/qp-coe [freestandards.org]
http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/coe [opengroup.org]
http://opencoe.sourceforge.net [sourceforge.net]
Re:Apt (Score:3, Informative)
Well Debian has more no doubt about it, they've been at the apt game for years. But on fedora do yum list "*" |wc -l I had about 1,800 packages and as any fedora user knows about 10 new ones have been added each day since its release. So it _COULD_ catch up to debians 3,000 packages couldn't it? Its only been a few weeks, give it some time.
Eek. But thats the problem. Its not even how many damn packages there are. Its the fact that they all work.... together... Debian has a stable collection that plays well together thru time patience and paranoic adherence to process.
However if fedora can pull that off, then thats stunning and I aplaud red hat for it. RPM-Hell sucks.