2004: Year of the Penguin? 427
houseofmore writes "The Toronto star suggests that things are looking good for the Linux desktop this year as more heavy weight commercial vendors get behind it, including HP, Novell, IBM, Sun and... Walmart. It also mentions Red Hat's plan to offer a new corporate desktop edition of their enterprise desktop sometime this year. The article states that more and more companies are considering (and) switching to Linux for their desktop due to expensive Windows licensing fees and high-profile security vulnerabilities."
Maybe when... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Maybe when... (Score:3, Insightful)
Laptops (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Maybe when... (Score:4, Informative)
Seriously... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Seriously... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Seriously... (Score:5, Insightful)
Kind of.
(1999)
Slashbot: "This is teh year of Linux!!!!"
Customer: "What's Linux?"
Microsoft: "What's Linux? *CHACHING*"
(2000)
Slashbot: "This is teh year of Linux!!!!"
Customer: "Linux? Geek toy."
Microsoft: "Linux? Pffft. *CHACHING*"
(2001)
Slashbot: "This is teh year of Linux!!!!"
Customer: "Gah, viruses - no time to look!!"
Microsoft: "Ya, sure. We heard some of our customers ask about it in passing. *chaching*"
(2002)
Slashbot: "This is teh year of Linux!!!!"
IBM: "Dude, learn how to spell..."
Customer: "IBM? Linux? Lemme see what this is all about, OK?"
Microsoft: "Hmmmm... You guys are getting irritating for our salesdroids. Cut it out or we'll FUD you to death. *CHACHING*"
(2003)
Slashbot: "This is the year of Linux!!!!"
Customer: "Nice, but not yet. This needs fixing here, and this over here could be..."
Microsoft: "Whoa now, this is getting serious. Send out the Marketing Dept. FUD riders!!! *chaching*"
(2004)
Slashbot: "This is the year of Linux."
Customer: "Hey, this Linux thingy is worth looking at now - still kinds rough in spots though. Can it do $FUNCTION1? Cool. And $FUNCTION2? What about $FUNCTIONn..."
Microsoft: "WTF??? The FUD Riders failed? Call in the Tactical Lawsuits - we're in trouble! *chaching?*"
Weaker? Probably not. However, Microsofts feet are being held to the fire by the interest Linux is creating - you can be sure of that.
Soko
Re:Seriously... (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps, but the flipside of that is that most linux advocates don't seem to recognize that other operating systems are improving as well (at least here, where people love to bash Windows or the Mac by pointing out things that were true of them five years ago and are completely untrue now). So Linux can improve and still not be "closer" to them.
Will it ever end? (Score:5, Funny)
4/2003: "2003: The Year of the Penguin?"
4/2002: "2002: The Year of the Penguin?"
4/2001: "2001: The Year of the Penguin?"
4/2000: "2000: The Year of the Penguin?"
4/1999: "1999: The Year of the Penguin?"
Re:Will it ever end? (Score:4, Funny)
New headline... (Score:2)
: )
Re:Will it ever end? (Score:3, Funny)
1/4/2004: "2004: The Year of the Penguin?"
1/4/2003: "2003: The Year of the Penguin?"
[..]
Re:Will it ever end? (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot posts it every month
Slashdot wins!
Come to Boston. (Score:2)
Re:Will it ever end? (Score:5, Funny)
2000 was also the Year Of The Penguin, but that turned out to be a bad thing [216.239.51.104]...
Google fun (Score:2)
It isn't just the Toronto Star. Fun with google [google.com]
It looks like CNN picked 2002, Linux.com(OSDN) picked 1999...2002 was particularly popular...
Sounds Familiar (Score:5, Funny)
I hope it does happen this year though.
Re:Sounds Familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
1. SuSE
2. Java Desktop System (SuSE based)
I haven't had a chance to try Xandros, so that may be a competitor as well. The biggest problem is that the Linux developers have to get off their high horse and make binary distribution as easy as source distribution. SuSE, RedHat, Mandrake, etc. are all Linux, but all need different RPM files. And then some RPMs may not match the version of libc/glibc you use.
What's the standard solution? "Just recompile it."
That is *not* acceptable for the average end user. Take a look at Mac OS X. They got it right. You download the DMG, it mounts as a folder, you copy the "program" (really a folder that the OS makes look like a file) to your Applications directory. Done.
Linux OTOH, goes like this: Find the RPM you want. Try to install and get a list of dependencies. Go track down every dependency you need (because you should already have libart_gpl and libtheora, right?!) and then install the dependencies. After spending and hour or two just to install one piece of software, log out and log back in so the menus update. Then try to run the software and hope that you didn't accidently install an incompatible binary. ARRRGGGHHH!!!
Re:Sounds Familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
But the average person doesn't tinker under the hood of their car much, or at all. (Heck, most people don't even change their own oil these days.) They just want a product that works with little to no detailed knowledge of what's actually going on, and rely on support (mechanics, JiffyLube, whatever) for keeping the thing working properly.
Same for operating systems -- most users aren't going to want to spend the time or energy learning how to maintain their own system. Linux "for the masses" will require a system that can be maintained with a minimum amount of effort from the end user. In a corporate setting, this is less important because those machines would be administered by IT specialists, but in a personal/home setting, self-maintaining systems are a must.
Re:Sounds Familiar (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Same difference (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm typing on a Mac right now, and I can assure you that most programs come in DMG files *without* installers. The only programs with installers are ones that need to insert system components of some sort. Even Office X is as simple as drag and drop.
However, this is beside the point. To install a typical Free/Open Source program on Mac OS X, you normall
I know how I feel about open source (Score:2, Insightful)
This guy couldn't have put it any better. It's the reason Linux will continue to grow and have deeper market pennetration over the next few years.
It's
Got it wrong, actually (Score:2)
a) They're allowed to
b) They wanted something to exist that didn't before, or they wanted the same function to be performed with a different interface, options, etc...
Quality is not an overriding goal, as witnessed by the fact that Linux has generally
Re:I know how I feel about open source (Score:2, Interesting)
In reality, I suppose it depends on how you define "innovation." Many things Microsoft has done aren't exactly 100% innovative, either. A lot of their big money makers were brain childs of another company that MS either bought and took over, or started their own and improved on what was laid before them.
I think that if one were to compare which has brought about more innovation (of MS and Linux), Linux would still be at the forefront.
Re:I know how I feel about open source (Score:4, Insightful)
Here's some I see in Linux but not in Windows...
Highlight text and middle-click to copy
Tabbed internet browsers (Comparing to IE)
Live bootable CDs that don't require installation (If there are MS equivalents, please point them out)
Truly separate user environments
I know I'm missing a bunch, but the only real 'catching up with Microsoft' I see with Linux is trying to keep interoperability working, which is a must in any business environment
Re:I know how I feel about open source (Score:3, Insightful)
Middle clicking is an innovation? Didn't Sun/really old graphical Unix have this years ago?
>Tabbed internet browsers (Comparing to IE)
Is a browser part of Linux (OS)? If you claim innovation there, do you also take the blame for the crappy stuff too? Or is this one sided?
>Live bootable CDs that don't require installation (If there are MS equivalents, please point them out)
Floppy disk formated with
>Truly separate user environments
Again, is th
Re:I know how I feel about open source (Score:3, Informative)
>Highlight text and middle-click to copy
Middle clicking is an innovation? Didn't Sun/really old graphical Unix have this years ago?
Yes, Sun had this first but Windows does not have this feature, period
>Tabbed internet browsers (Comparing to IE) Is a browser part of Linux (OS)? If you claim innovation there, do you also take the blame for the crappy stuff too? Or
Re:You're kidding, right? (Score:3, Informative)
I can pick it apart for days, but like you, I don't have that time
As you also mentioned, most of the points are ripped right from Apple. Apple are the ones that should get most of the desktop credit, for everything. Trashcan, taskbar, (do they have a start like button?), Minimize, Maximize, and Close buttons (often in the same places to keep them standard.)
I agree KDE and GNOME are awful and do not innovate much at all and slow things down a lot.
I use Fluxbox [fluxbox.org] which only use
linux at large conservative org - stop the press! (Score:2, Interesting)
That's a new one (Score:2, Funny)
We're On Board (Score:5, Insightful)
Other small companies can do this and do it now.
Re:We're On Board (Score:2)
Correction: Other small companies that don't have technophobes that need to be able to work seamlessly with other companies can do this and do it now. And if you're the administrator, be prepared to take full responsibility and be able to tackle every roadblock. There is no Linux Corp. with 4 hour response times for business down situations.
-Lucas
Re:We're On Board (Score:3, Insightful)
And I'm sure that you have that kind of service level agreement with the MSFT Channel Partner that you used to deploy your current desktop solution, right? Riiiiiiiiight.
gaaah. (Score:5, Insightful)
While Windows can be an insecure mess, it's nothing compared to just how messy Unix systems can become.
With Unix, the least efficient use of the hardware is to put a single instance of many different applications on to lots of different machines.
Say a Unix app consumes 20Mb of RAM, 80% -> 90% of that memory is shareable; shared libraries, program text and the like. So *conservatively* 2 people can run the application on a machine and it only takes 24Mb of RAM, not 40Mb of RAM, 3 people it uses 28Mb, not 60Mb and so on. On top of this, the application is already loaded, it doesn't have to be read from disk again each time it's started. The filesystem buffers are already pre-loaded, the CPU caches have a significantly better hit rate than if there are a dozen different apps running.
Unix(and Linux) is *not* Windows, there's an entirely different system architecture which should really be considered before just wiping Windows on each desktop and replacing it with Linux.
Of course there's a great opportunity for people who know.
Re:gaaah. (Score:3, Interesting)
LTSP (Score:4, Interesting)
We are just finishing off switching over our computer network to Linux - but we didn't need to wipe windows off anyone's hard drive. Here's how we did it:
Here are the specs on the server. I have a better one being delivered soon, but this is the 'proof of concept' version:
The network currently supports 10 users, with usually 6-7 people signed on at any given time. We use Evolution as an outlook replacement, Open Office instead of MS office, and Mozilla for web browsing.
We have a pretty login screen with our company logo, and the face browser so you can click your picture to log in. Redhat's bluecurve desktop is great, and is a snap for any windows user to learn. The terminals start up WAY faster than windows ever did, and all the apps pop right up even on a pokey Pentium II machine. IN fact, my thin clients only have 64mb of memory and they work great too.
There were a few minor glitches or complaints about the UI, but in almost every case I was able to show the sales reps and employees how to get what they needed to do done.
So switching to linux CAN be done. The only drawback is when you've got windows apps that you have to use when there's no linux alternative. In our case, the accounting department makes extensive use of Quickbooks to handle our finances. We tried to emulate, use wine, crossover office, etc. but none of these solutions were either stable or robust enough to meet our needs. So I had to leave three boxes running windows so accounting can continue to use Quickbooks.
We also use our linux box as a Quake 2 server for lan parties after our weekly sales meetings! My boss is an older guy but he loves FPS shooters. The employees enjoy getting a chance to frag the pointy-haired guy every week :P
Training Costs (Score:4, Insightful)
It is the chicken and the egg problem. The value in MS Software is certainly not any features of the packages, themselves; it is the network effect of being able to easily share data with all other users of the software.
Re:Training Costs (Score:5, Insightful)
Luser: Yeah...
Training guy: Your new word processor also has it...
Luser:
Training guy: You know how you used 'open' and 'save' and 'print' in that 'file' menu in the top of the window?
Luser: Yeah....
Training guy: Good, keep doing that.
Luser: Ok....
Training guy: Remember how above the white plane you could select the font and its size? And whit those funny buttons with italic and bold text you could make the text in the white plane turn to italic and bold?
Luser: Uhuh...
Training guy: Great! NEXT!
Re:Training Costs (Score:4, Insightful)
Luser: I want to embed my graphs in it now. And when Accounting change the graph, it should email me. Some of the graphs are generated from this old DLL. And when you click here, it should bring up foo.xls with sheet 3 selected.
Training guy:
Re:Training Costs (Score:3, Funny)
Luser: I want to suck your dick.
Sanctimony's in the way again, I see. (Score:3, Insightful)
You missed the original point.
Sure it's doable. Did you bother to look at the Subject to which you replied? Rewriting macros (they don't call them scripts in Office) is time-consuming, not to mention just plain different than what users are used to. That clearly has a cost associated with it in a real work environment.
Re:Training Costs (Score:2, Interesting)
My perception could be completely wrong, but most Microsoft Office users I know don't have a clue how to do anything but the most rudimentary document creation in Word, or the most basic spreadsheet creation in Excel. Couple that with the incompatibility problems we run into because we aren't willing to shell out $300/year/user to upgrade to
I think I speak for everyone when I say... (Score:2, Insightful)
Stop!
Re:I think I speak for everyone when I say... (Score:3, Insightful)
Just as soon as Linux works with my sound card. (Score:2, Troll)
Until the linux desktop has the ease of use windows, or OSX when things go wrong I don't think it will be ready for primetime on the desktop. I wish it was, because neither of the other two OS's are that appealing to
Re:Just as soon as Linux works with my sound card. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Just as soon as Linux works with my sound card. (Score:3, Informative)
In my 9 years of running Linux, I've never had a sound card not work. Of course, I only ever use Creative Labs branded equipment, or onboard sound because I'm too cheap to go buy a separate sound card.
The only Audigy I have that you can't run Linux on is an "Audigy LS", that isn't based on the EMU10K chipset (it's the third Audigy I
Re:Just as soon as Linux works with my sound card. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Just as soon as Linux works with my sound card. (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, I've had three different ones NOT pick up a soundcard. That doesn't make my post "flamebait". Did you ever think that just because it worked for you running on your hardware that it might not work for someone else on different hardware? Is this your line of thought - "It must be fla
Duck like penguin??? (Score:2, Funny)
so, logically... (Score:5, Funny)
Wait a moment (Score:4, Insightful)
And then all those ex-windows users, some how magically learn how to use linux (not that it is hard, but it still has to be learnt, just as they did learn (?) to use windows)., I don't see this happening. Same holds for all the corporate desktops
I am tired of people claiming "This is the year of linux", year after year after year. There is never going to be one single year of linux, It will have to slowly and steadly erode in to M$ territory. But it will take a much longer time than a mear year, or even a decade, unless ofcourse M$ decides to do something very stupid, like I don't know, Make the wallpaper with setve ballmer and make it unchangable.
Re:Wait a moment (Score:2)
Re:Wait a moment (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny that you never see articles about this, but it's the truth. I would go so far as to say that growing Linux marketshare is inevitable going down the line. Why? Because Linux is not subject to the same market forces that cause Microsoft to ignore bugs while building ridiculous and ill-advised features that simply look good in a power point. While Microsoft struggles to please shareholders, Linux is plodding along fixing bugs and steadily increasing the value of the platform.
Tech news is dominated by financials, and Linux has oodles of economic potential, but to look at Linux in those terms is so shortsighted. Linux is true progress in the sense that its advances can never be expunged as we have seen happen time and time again with proprietary software. Once Linux reaches a critical point, there will be no financial incentive to develop a separate OS. At most, companies will customize Linux, but in general commercial development will shift to the application layer where it belongs, and we can look forward to renewed competition in the software industry, only this time on a much more solid base.
Of course there's no telling how long all this could take...
You can always... (Score:5, Insightful)
Trust me, it's so wonderful to take an MS vendor to lunch, sing the praises of Linux the whole time, then take them to a room near your computer room and point out the two shiny new mailservers that are blank and say you're debating about the TCO of Linux versus Exchange.
Same old, same old. (Score:3, Insightful)
Linux womble 2.6.4 #1 Tue Mar 16 10:52:42 GMT 2004 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.80GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
Re:Same old, same old. (Score:2)
Plus slashdot looks sorta funny in firefox.
Re:Same old, same old. (Score:2)
*sigh* *mumbles something about insensitive clods*
Just loaded a walmart box yesterday (Score:2)
I've heard this since about 1997 or so. (Score:3, Funny)
Every year is the year of the pengiun (Score:3, Insightful)
File names in Linux (Score:2, Funny)
I_dont_want_to_change_them_all_to_them.
Re:File names in Linux (Score:2)
If you are just going to set up a Samba fileshare or something then no real issues are going to come up. Just chuck 'em in
Re:File names in Linux (Score:2)
The only thing is the " "(space), problem .
Most GUI applications I have used, have no problems with spaces, but with CLI, it gets tricky.
e.g. on most shells you need to escape the space with a \, e.g. This\ is\ a\ file.txt . Also for some shell or CL applications, you need to put the whole thing in quotes e.g. "like\ this" .
Further annoying is the fact that, commands which parse the inputs, often have space as a dilimeter , and even escaping with a \ and putting in quotes w
IBM + Laptops (Score:4, Insightful)
Every Year (Score:3, Insightful)
Walmart: "Low cost" alternative (Score:2)
IMHO, if the end user feels that Linux is only a toy OS to replaced by "something more professional", this may also hurt the ima
Say it often enough, you will be right (Score:4, Insightful)
No doubt this comment will be targetted by the increasing number of moderators who appear to be Windows admirers, but I have enough karma for a whole barbeque, so here goes with a list of the ten reasons why Linux is destined to overtake Windows in 2004 (or 2005, or 2006, etc.)
- Windows is expensive, Linux is free
- Distros like Xandros "just work"
- Linux is secure from worms, trojans, viruses
- Linux runs on modest hardware
- Linux is less complex and thus more stable
- Linux has a "cool" factor missing from Windows
- The IT world's view of Microsoft as "evil" is percolating down to the general public
- Linux now comes with a sufficient set of applications for most common purposes
- Linux applications are more stable and simpler than Windows' ones
And lastly: more and more institutions will choose Linux as they discover the advantages of it, leading to consumer uptake as people "stay compatible" with their work PCs.
From a 3% marketshare this seems unbelievable. And yet this is how markets work: the "tipping" often happens way before the 20% mark, but once it starts, it's unstoppable.
At the very least, 2004 was the year in which people seriously started to wonder "when" and not "whether" Linux would become the de-facto OS standard for all computing, including the desktop.
Re:Say it often enough, you will be right (Score:4, Insightful)
It's cheaper, yes, but not free as in warez.
Just cuz you keep repeating it doesnt make it so, otherwise, money would be growing on trees, too.
Re:Say it often enough, you will be right (Score:3, Insightful)
> - Distros like Xandros "just work"
But it is not well known yet.
> - Linux is secure from worms, trojans, viruses
True, but sadly the average Windows users seems unaware of the fact at all. Even sadder is that some of them can treat a system filled with spywares, viri, crashing and stop working as normal now.
It is as if they've been force fed 10 years of shit, and now they
Re:Say it often enough, you will be right (Score:3, Interesting)
- Cost to the enterprise
Yes, the OS cost is insignificant compared to the other costs. However, the key market for Microsoft is the home and small-business market, where professional assistance is minimal and where the OS cost is significant.
- "Just work"
Windows 2000 needs a series of drivers to be installed before it will work with any exotic hardware. This typically means 5 or more reboot cycles to install a PC. Modern Linux distributions detect and configure mos
Re:Say it often enough, you will be right (Score:5, Insightful)
> hardware without extraconfiguration.
That's not true for everybody. I had to turn ten kinds of hell to get my 5.1 audio card to work in Windows. In the end, I had to boot into Linux (which had detected it properly) to find out what the audio card's chipset was, which finally gave me enough clues to get drivers for the card.
Yes, though, Windows has ubiquitous driver support.
> Ummm rootkits?
I've never been rootkitted, and I'm very horrible with security.
> When more people switch over to
> linux you will see more viruses out there for
> linux because right now windows is an easy
> targetwith a ton of machines out there.
And how will these viruses spread? Unlike Windows, the dominant email apps for Linux do not run applications when you click on them. Unlike Windows, viruses on Linux can't take control of system files. Unlike Windows, Linux computers start up with unnecessary ports turned off.
> People much rather write a virus that will
> effect a much larger population.
I don't think you get it. Why do you think that there are multiple means of package management? Why do you think that different distributions handle things differently? Why do you think that Linux advocates and Open Source Software programmers make such great strides towards making sure that applications are available not only on Linux but on other operating systems such as FreeBSD, OS X and QNX? It's because having a monoculture is *BAD*. We don't *want* every computer in the world to run Linux. That would be *stupid*, even though Linux has a far safer security model than Windows. We want operating system usage to be distributed more or less evenly among different models, just like it was in the old days, when viruses *weren't* dangerous, and when a stupid move by one OS maker didn't negatively affect every single computer user on the planet!
> If linux was secure from viruss,why are there
> linux virus scanners?
They're to scan for *Windows* viruses. You know, like if you had a mail server on your Linux box? I do, and I filter mail through clamav in order to prevent infection on a Windows box if I chance to check my mail on one.
> with linux you need to figure out why your
> soundisnt working and then configure the driver
> and what not and edit configfiles.
You mean, "with linux you have at least one way of getting sound working if your sound card doesn't work". This is opposed to "with windows if your source card doesn't work you can only cry a lot and try to reboot or just buy a new sound card".
Linux isn't perfect, and I certainly hope that no single operating system ever captures more than a quarter of the desktop or business market, because that would lead to disaster. But Linux has saved me from a ton of frustration that Windows had caused me, and it's a lot easier to use (especially installing software, which Linux reduced to a simple, single step from the more popular many-step process.
--
-JC
Google says... (Score:2)
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,720 for "year of the penguin". (0.07 seconds)
The rest of the stories (Score:4, Informative)
Slashdot, What have you done? (Score:2, Interesting)
Windows server offers a savings of 11%-22% over Linux in 4 out of 5 workload scenarios.
How can this happen?
Why there will never be a "Year of the Penguin" (Score:5, Insightful)
GNU/Linux is in it for the long haul. MS Windows flashes on the media's screen with a new release and fades away. GNU/Linux is growing bigger and stronger everyday. As that happens more and more companies will port their wares, more hardware venders will supply GNU/Linux instead of MS Windows, more users will leave MS Windows (most likely because they're tired of the upgrade costs for both hard and software related to the upgrade), and someday MS Windows will be a "niche" OS.
Think about it like Apple. They make an excellent OS which includes some great apps, overall better than average desktop and small server hardware, is clearly better than MS Windows but still isn't "number one". Is this a bad thing: no. Apple will be around for a long time building their stuff reguardless of their marketshare. IMO this is the fate for MS Windows (except for the quality part of course).
Forget about this "Year of the Penguin" stuff because no one year will be it's "year". GNU/Linux is here to stay, grow and get better.
Corporate vs. Home (Score:3, Insightful)
In a corporate environment, where configuration is taken care of by IT, this is a completely different issue, and I can see that Linux is liable to make some important inroads here in the next few years. Perhaps once Linux becomes more widespread in corporate America (and has polished up some of the persistant usability issues), it will begin to make more of an impact on the home desktop market.
Re:Corporate vs. Home (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes Linux has issues. These issues are constantly being worked on and are improving. Installing a printer for example is as simple as starting the printer configuration tool and have your printer autodetected. I don't have a digital camera but I heard that on desktop distros like Mandrake, the camera is automounted and an icon will automatically appear on the desktop.
My parents for example don't install software or hardware. They just use the computer to get on the Internet, that's it. Linux is a perfectly fine option for them - they're already using it.
But there are also other *huge* issues which are something Linux can't really do something about: the chicken & egg issues. Hardware support for example - hardware manufacturers won't support Linux until there are lots of users, and users won't use Linux until hardware manufacturers support it. Same thing for games and commercial apps.
Not until Linux software gets there too. (Score:2, Insightful)
It's running great as a server, but as a desktop it's not there. I've downloaded plenty of software and getting any of it running has been a struggle. Documentation is terrible, if it's there at all it says high level things like "run the makefile", which doesn't work half t
Same could be applied to Apple (Score:3, Interesting)
Mac OS has the "obscurity factor" BUT (and it's a big but) - it is commercially available and known for a very high quality/zero virus/low maintenance - hardware and software - Linux doesn't yet have a SINGLE company that has a commercially successful hardware line AND software line.
+ Macs can run Linux too - even better in some cases - which means one could potentially have a QUASI QUAD BOOT system
Virtual PC = Windows Variants
Linux = Linux PPC or YellowDog
Mac OS X
Mac OS 9
Heck older Macs even boot BEOS well.
**TROLLS - please don't put Intego's FUD trojan alert
I wonder how much this has to do with XP licensing (Score:3, Insightful)
Similarly, the increasing cost of XP/Office XP with little or no percieved increase in value *cough*software assurance*cough* has got to be grating the nerves of even a few PHB's.
Either way, it's good to see Linux making some inroads into corporate desktops.
Games (Score:5, Interesting)
I use Linux full time as my desktop, except for the two/three times a week I decide to play a game with some friends. Then I have no choice (winex doesn't work) to boot into Windows.
As a work desktop, it more than satisfies my requirements. Honestly though, as much as I'd rather not have to, I have to keep the Windows partition to play those occasional games.
I think that the 'year of the penguin' will come around whenever game companies really start shipping titles for Linux. I think it's ironic though that if a couple of the larger PC manufacturers actually started shipping Linux, that games would be available in short order, I'm sure. Of course, neither industry wants to make the first leap.
Already happened (Score:5, Informative)
In India, where I live, 2003 was the year of linux on the desktop. Yup. Last year. Already happened.
Starting around last August, the avalanche started. Linux desktops crossed a threshold minimum level of usability, and the price of Windows became an unacceptable fraction of the price of the PC in this cost conscious market. I think it was IBM that ran the first ad for Linux PCs. Soon the taboo was broken. OEMs switched in droves. Today there is hardly anyone that only sells windows boxen. This year two companies have entered the market specializing in linux PCs.
I can feel the pulse at the grassroots level as well. While the percentage of linux users is surely nowhere near two figures, it has probably doubled since a year or two ago. Banks and other enterprises switching all employees to linux happens every day.
Billy Gates shot himself in the foot. Major anti-piracy ad campaigns and policing action by NASCOMM (BSA equivalent in India) contributed to awareness about alternatives and fueled linux growth. Today the ads directing the reader to microsoft.com/piracy/howtotell/ are conspicuous by their absence, but the damage has been done. What linux has won is mindshare. PC geek mags regularly carry linux distros and other linux software these days, and have as many articles about linux as windows. It looks like an exponential growth curve is assured.
If you're thinking of moving to Bangalore, there's at least one thing you can look forward to :-)
Laura Kiddio and Yankme release new study... (Score:3, Funny)
In a very serious study with no sillyness whatsoever, once factoring in the high cost of download and installing Debian Linux, the TCO is actually 327$, compared to Microsoft's low low $199 price tag.
One way desktop Linux might get desktop seats (Score:4, Informative)
What I'm saying here is that part of the logical niche for a free OS is as an alternative upgrade path for folks that are finding that Windows simply doesn't give them an economically viable upgrade path. Microsoft is ceasing support of Win98. Now, to put this in perspective, even among folks outside of the district that hit our web page, over 20% are using older versions of Windows(ME,98,95) compared to less than 1% for Linux-and 4-5% for Macintosh.
Its always seemed to me that folks pushing desktop Linux generally assume that folks will ditch many of their windows applications(I know Wine works, but last I checked it was still a bit limited in what applications it would support) or at least substantially retrain themselves to use Linux.
I tend to think that just being the viable upgrade path for older hardware is the type of thing that will take Linux clearly past Macintosh in terms of numbers.
Re:A Wine a day, keeps the apps in play. (Score:4, Insightful)
Improve Wine so that if you have a win98 license, they'll make more use of the Microsoft DLL's--and improve the installation and documentation to that installing into a situation in which Win98 already exists is _seemless_.
What I'd ideally want here:
Take _nothing_ away from folks that already have a Windows license on their machine(particularly if
this is an older license)
Add Linux functionality.
Here at the district, we have some fokls that know that Windows networking and security is rather lacking--but they are a bit intimidated by the Linux learning curve. The fact that Novell is moving towards Linux is a big draw here. The next biggest draw IMHO would be to make the win98 machines work better so that the life of these machines can be extended--and the software can be update at lower cost than the microsoft route.
When you are talking a cash-strapped customer with thousands of machines, those sort of things really do add up. I don't think it is just school districts-cost savings is going to be more of an issue for a lot of organizations over time--if the Linux community can simply make it clear that Linux is the logical, low cost upgrade path then in time Microsoft will feel the heat.
I thought the "Year of Linux" was 2003 (Score:4, Funny)
More like 2005 (Score:3, Insightful)
Back in the 80's,early 90's X was IBM. But even in early 90's, Windows was good enough to replace much of the character screens. The issue was CIO's were afraid so they would allow bean counters and others to slowly bring them in before they stuck their neck out.
We have been in the learning phase for the last year. Now, it is moving to testing for these folks. In early 2005 (one year before Windows big one), we will see mass replacements as part of the 2005 budget.
Words come easy - facts for Linux laptops (Score:3, Interesting)
But how is Linux better, exactly/ (Score:3, Insightful)
As I see it, there's no clear reason why anyone should bother switching to Linux. Seriously. It's open, yes, but that doesn't matter except to very small minority of people (remember, Windows software can also be Open Source, even though the kernel is closed). Other than that...not much. Both Linux and Windows are equally complex and confusing. People who argue that Linux is a beautiful gem either (a) don't really know what they're talking about, or (b) are talking about the raw kernel and not the 10x more stuff that needs to stack on top of it to make a Windows-equivalent system.
If an alternative operating system had some huge and obvious benefits to the user, then I'd be all over it. Linux and Windows are more similar than different.
DRM Counter Attack (Score:3, Insightful)
switching to Linux for their desktop due to expensive Windows licensing fees and high-profile security vulnerabilities.
It's a good question how much Linux desktop deployment will occur before the first pre-installed Microsoft OS's on PCs with built-in hardware-level DRM (TCPA, etc.) begin to appear.
That OS will be trumpeted as being "more secure" and "lets you watch videos, listen to music", which will help to sell it to the virus-weary public and to the content paranoid **AA members.
And it's questionable whether people will even care if their PC is not "free" as in freedom as long as they're getting enough perceived benefit for not too much perceived cost.
I'll try my "year of linux" joke again (Score:4, Funny)
This is a friendly note from the law office of Bezos & McBride (no relation, really) in representation of the SCO Corporation. SCO would like to inform you that it holds the trademark to the term "Year of Linux." Please cease and desist the use of the term without acknowledgement of the trademark. If you wish to continue using this term, please contact SCO to discuss licensing terms.
Thanks you,
Law Office of Bezos & McBride
D. McBride
J. Bezos
How to tell if it's "The Year of the Penguin" (Score:5, Funny)
If it is January through May: this year
If it is June through December: next year
Try it for yourself and you too may become an industry expert and visionary.
[warning: this post contains high degrees of sarcasm and may not be suitable for all readers]
Re:Check this out - very cool IBM Ad for Linux (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Check this out - very cool IBM Ad for Linux (Score:2, Funny)
Re:No mention of SCO... (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually what star sign is Linux?
Well, as can been seen here [externet.hu], Torvalds himself is not sure. Anyway, the problem also lies in selecting a specific birthday for Linux. Perhaps the most logical choice is the release of the first version, 0.10. Torvalds has this to say about that:
Judging from the post, 0.01 wasn't actually out yet, but it's close. I'd guess the first version went out in the middle of September -91. I got some responses to this (most by mail, which I haven't saved), and I even got a few mails asking to be beta-testers for linux.
Middle of September would indicate that Linux is probably a Virgo (August 24 to September 23), but it could also possibly be a Libra (September 23 to October 23). To decide between the two, I will need to do extensive analysis of Linux's character and disposition. Or I could just flip a coin ...
Re:No mention of SCO... (Score:2)
Yep - October 5th... (Score:3, Informative)
###
From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Free minix-like kernel sources for 386-AT
Message-ID:
Date: 5 Oct 91 05:41:06 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki
Do you pine for the nice days of minix-1.1, when men were men and wrote their own device drivers? Are you without a nice project and just dying to cut your teeth on a OS you can try to modify for your needs? Are you finding it frustrating when everythi
Re:No mention of SCO... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:running MS-Word on a Linux Machine (Score:3, Interesting)
1) OpenOffice.org [openoffice.org]
2) Crossover Office [codeweavers.com]
In order of preference