L
linux.freak.detector@gmail.com
Looks like Linux is deader than dead.....
http://tinyurl.com/2cwv8s
How Far Behind Is Linux?
October 17, 2007 Page B1
"If some of Linus Torvalds's own family members back in Finland don't
use Linux, what hope is there for the rest of us?
Linux, the free operating system whose development is overseen by Mr.
Torvalds, has long been entrenched in the worlds of science and
commerce. When Google gives you a search result, a Linux machine is
doing the work. At tens of thousands of other companies, computer
managers take comfort in the fact that these days, no one ever gets
fired for "buying" open source.
But world domination? That's another story.
'CHOICE IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL'
[Interview icon]
I think Microsoft used to actually care about trying to help the
consumer. I may not think that they did wonderful technology, but I
think they really did try to serve their customers. But look at their
[digital rights management] and their "Genuine Windows Advantage" --
they're not trying to serve their customers any more in their
products they are adding features that are actively bad for users,
because they probably feel like they aren't even competing any more.
· Read the exchange between Linus Torvalds and Lee Gomes.
Even though Linux is easier than ever to use, the dream of many Linux
buffs of it replacing Windows as the desktop mainstay is, at best,
stalled, and at worst, fading. While exact numbers are hard to come
by, one survey has desktop Linux users barely scraping a single
percentage point of the market share. Among Microsoft's customers,
concedes Mr. Torvalds, are his father and sister, though Mom has
managed to resist the allure of the dark side.
So, with the top version of Windows Vista running at nearly $400, at
least for new users, why do people continue to open their wallets
wide
when there's a free alternative?
One reason is that for most consumers, Windows is "free," coming as
it
does with their new PCs. Computer companies hardly seem interested in
offering alternatives. H-P, for example, ships more PCs than anyone,
but won't sell a computer without Windows, at least in the U.S.
Dell is far more Linux friendly, and offers a line of consumer Linux
machines that run $50 less than their Windows counterparts. But Dell
doesn't exactly broadcast the option there's no mention of it on its
home page and you need to know to click on an "Open-Source Computers"
link on an inside page of its Web site before you know of the
alternative.
Dell started installing Linux earlier in the year after a suggestion
box on its Web site drew a deluge of requests for the system. Dell
doesn't say how many Linux PCs it ships, but one survey puts it at a
tiny fraction of total units.
And, tellingly, far more people requested that Dell sell Linux than
actually bought a machine once it went on sale. That suggests the
typical consumer user has none of the philosophical objections to
Windows of some members of the open-source community. Windows works
well enough that the difficulty involved in switching operating
systems outweighs any slings and arrows of using it.
Linux developers, though, remain determined to eliminate that
difficulty. The best example of their efforts is a Linux
"distribution" known as Ubuntu, a Zulu/Xhosa word for "human-ness."
More than anything else, Ubuntu has come closest in making Linux
ready
for prime time.
Ubuntu's most prominent backer is Mark Shuttleworth, a 34-year-old
South African who made a bundle in 1999 when he sold his security
firm
to VeriSign. He used some of those proceeds to become the first
African in space, as a for-pay tourist in 2002 on a Russian space
mission. He regards his work with Ubuntu as partly a philanthropic
endeavor, because of its use in developing countries, where loaded
computers are hard to come by.
Ubuntu's claim to fame is that its developers have bundled not just
Linux, but a shelf full of other important programs, such as Web
browsers and word processors, into a single easy-to-install package.
Once on your computer, it looks and acts much as Windows does. What's
more, Ubuntu updates itself every six months and notifies you if
security updates are needed in the interim.
That last feature, incidentally, should disabuse an actual Ubuntu
user
of the notion that a non-Windows operating systems is security
utopia,
where hackers are powerless and children are all above average. I
recently installed the April version of Ubuntu on my home machine and
promptly was informed that more than 50 security patches to problems
discovered in the interim awaited my downloading. Who does Ubuntu
think it is? Windows?
Everything about Ubuntu worked as billed, but don't take my word for
it. Test-drive it yourself at Ubuntu.com. Developers have created a
mode that lets you experiment with the software without permanently
installing it on your PC. You also can load Ubuntu into its own hard-
disk partition using a built-in, dual-boot program -- although if you
have to ask what that means, you probably shouldn't try it.
Mr. Shuttleworth says Linux-Ubuntu has become so easy that anyone,
anywhere can use it as a primary operating system, as long as they
have a technically savvy friend to help with rough patches. And that
gap, too, he's determined to close, he says.
Mr. Torvalds isn't involved with Ubuntu. That isn't the way Linux
works. He agrees that increasing the desktop presence of Linux is a
crucial long-term goal, largely because that's how new programmers
get
interested in the software, which keeps the wheel turning.
He still believes that ultimately the race for dominance will go to
the slow and steady. "Maybe the desktop isn't exactly getting
conquered, but it's getting a fair amount of development attention,"
he says. "I'm a technical guy, so I tend to believe in the 'if you
build it, they will come' motto, even if the inertia in the market
would make it a long road to travel."
· Email me at Lee.Go...@wsj.com.
http://tinyurl.com/2cwv8s
How Far Behind Is Linux?
October 17, 2007 Page B1
"If some of Linus Torvalds's own family members back in Finland don't
use Linux, what hope is there for the rest of us?
Linux, the free operating system whose development is overseen by Mr.
Torvalds, has long been entrenched in the worlds of science and
commerce. When Google gives you a search result, a Linux machine is
doing the work. At tens of thousands of other companies, computer
managers take comfort in the fact that these days, no one ever gets
fired for "buying" open source.
But world domination? That's another story.
'CHOICE IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL'
[Interview icon]
I think Microsoft used to actually care about trying to help the
consumer. I may not think that they did wonderful technology, but I
think they really did try to serve their customers. But look at their
[digital rights management] and their "Genuine Windows Advantage" --
they're not trying to serve their customers any more in their
products they are adding features that are actively bad for users,
because they probably feel like they aren't even competing any more.
· Read the exchange between Linus Torvalds and Lee Gomes.
Even though Linux is easier than ever to use, the dream of many Linux
buffs of it replacing Windows as the desktop mainstay is, at best,
stalled, and at worst, fading. While exact numbers are hard to come
by, one survey has desktop Linux users barely scraping a single
percentage point of the market share. Among Microsoft's customers,
concedes Mr. Torvalds, are his father and sister, though Mom has
managed to resist the allure of the dark side.
So, with the top version of Windows Vista running at nearly $400, at
least for new users, why do people continue to open their wallets
wide
when there's a free alternative?
One reason is that for most consumers, Windows is "free," coming as
it
does with their new PCs. Computer companies hardly seem interested in
offering alternatives. H-P, for example, ships more PCs than anyone,
but won't sell a computer without Windows, at least in the U.S.
Dell is far more Linux friendly, and offers a line of consumer Linux
machines that run $50 less than their Windows counterparts. But Dell
doesn't exactly broadcast the option there's no mention of it on its
home page and you need to know to click on an "Open-Source Computers"
link on an inside page of its Web site before you know of the
alternative.
Dell started installing Linux earlier in the year after a suggestion
box on its Web site drew a deluge of requests for the system. Dell
doesn't say how many Linux PCs it ships, but one survey puts it at a
tiny fraction of total units.
And, tellingly, far more people requested that Dell sell Linux than
actually bought a machine once it went on sale. That suggests the
typical consumer user has none of the philosophical objections to
Windows of some members of the open-source community. Windows works
well enough that the difficulty involved in switching operating
systems outweighs any slings and arrows of using it.
Linux developers, though, remain determined to eliminate that
difficulty. The best example of their efforts is a Linux
"distribution" known as Ubuntu, a Zulu/Xhosa word for "human-ness."
More than anything else, Ubuntu has come closest in making Linux
ready
for prime time.
Ubuntu's most prominent backer is Mark Shuttleworth, a 34-year-old
South African who made a bundle in 1999 when he sold his security
firm
to VeriSign. He used some of those proceeds to become the first
African in space, as a for-pay tourist in 2002 on a Russian space
mission. He regards his work with Ubuntu as partly a philanthropic
endeavor, because of its use in developing countries, where loaded
computers are hard to come by.
Ubuntu's claim to fame is that its developers have bundled not just
Linux, but a shelf full of other important programs, such as Web
browsers and word processors, into a single easy-to-install package.
Once on your computer, it looks and acts much as Windows does. What's
more, Ubuntu updates itself every six months and notifies you if
security updates are needed in the interim.
That last feature, incidentally, should disabuse an actual Ubuntu
user
of the notion that a non-Windows operating systems is security
utopia,
where hackers are powerless and children are all above average. I
recently installed the April version of Ubuntu on my home machine and
promptly was informed that more than 50 security patches to problems
discovered in the interim awaited my downloading. Who does Ubuntu
think it is? Windows?
Everything about Ubuntu worked as billed, but don't take my word for
it. Test-drive it yourself at Ubuntu.com. Developers have created a
mode that lets you experiment with the software without permanently
installing it on your PC. You also can load Ubuntu into its own hard-
disk partition using a built-in, dual-boot program -- although if you
have to ask what that means, you probably shouldn't try it.
Mr. Shuttleworth says Linux-Ubuntu has become so easy that anyone,
anywhere can use it as a primary operating system, as long as they
have a technically savvy friend to help with rough patches. And that
gap, too, he's determined to close, he says.
Mr. Torvalds isn't involved with Ubuntu. That isn't the way Linux
works. He agrees that increasing the desktop presence of Linux is a
crucial long-term goal, largely because that's how new programmers
get
interested in the software, which keeps the wheel turning.
He still believes that ultimately the race for dominance will go to
the slow and steady. "Maybe the desktop isn't exactly getting
conquered, but it's getting a fair amount of development attention,"
he says. "I'm a technical guy, so I tend to believe in the 'if you
build it, they will come' motto, even if the inertia in the market
would make it a long road to travel."
· Email me at Lee.Go...@wsj.com.
