Well, there's a thread like this about Microsoft, and one about Apple, so tell me: what do you expect from Linux in 2005?

Linus will be opening up the 2.7 branch on the linux kernel
KDE 4.0 at end of 2005 or early 2006
Gnome 3.0?
ReiserFS 4.0 will be pushed more mainstream

Other open source projects:
QT 4.0
OpenOffice 2.0
MySQL 5.0

don't forget:
modular xorg
gtk will get hw accel through cairo (2.8+)
further work on hal
wine/cedega/codeweavers will have much improved support for win32
mono will have full .net 1.0 support and probably 1.1 support as well with partial 2.0 support


on terms of distros i expect to see that the gui utilities will become better and there will be more integration, composite (xorg) will be used by default for some nice eyecandy, alsa will have better dmix support and support hw mixing on more cards and more and more games being offered on mac, win32 and linux

WORLD DOMINATION

I think Linux is going to give MS a bigger run for their money... either in a big way or a small way. With the 10,000 + viruses released in 2004, you can bet lots of people are getting tired of endless patches and compromised systems. And with the release of really easy to use distros like Ubuntu, as well as newer Open Source browsers like Firefox, people will be more exposed to the Open Source community and be less scared to jump into the Linux pool.

Just my 2 cents.


Barney

I think we are going to see a continued accelleration of the current uptake trend on Linux. The server market has Linux gaining share at twice market rate, and I think that with Munich and other governments and organizations putting Linux on a significant portion of the desktops, that they will find and 'iron out' the wrinkles to Linux desktop adaptation (making other conversions even easier).

I don't predict any huge landslides this year, but watching Linux become more of a mainstream option than an outsider will be a great thing.

By the way, for the person above, the next version of Gnome will be 2.10 not 3. This is because version 3 will break compatablity with version 2 Gnome applications, as did version 2 with version 1 Gnome applications.

Anyway, I'm excited about X.Org, and a more modular approach to things and faster development. I'm also excited about where the kernel is going, and how it's showing its maturity.

whut i expect from linux is to take down M$.....

I don't think 2.7 will be out until late in the year, if at all, so I'd be looking at apps to drive much of the interest.

Codeweavers runs about 35 critical apps now, and in 2005 they are saying they will have Office 2003 ready to roll. That will be HUGE. That's the nail in the coffin for Windows, as far as I am concerned.

I think people are underestimating Open Office 2.0. The latest betas, despite some bugs, have me thinking "wow, that's really slick". Lots of features, and XML makes it more portable. Anyone ever use Gobe Productive? Open Office is starting to remind me of that: and integrated suite of tools to produce documents of all types. That's a very good thing.

I also think that this is the year that Open Source will have an identiy crisis this year. As more and more apps are ported to Windows (I just saw inkscape and Gnumeric for windows!), there will be some soul searching as to whether OSS should be platform agnostic or specific. Should be an interesting debate.

Doubt that will happen in 2005 or 2006, or 2007... maybe in 2020

I agree that Linux is better then Windows (i.e. stability, dependability, etc.), however, most home users would never want to switch to it.

I hope to have all my friend's and family, and even my school to be converted to linux. I expect to have much fun with GNOME 2.10.x, I can't wait for the new X.org, I wan't to figure out how to install linux on my refrigerator. I'm hoping to learn more and more each second. I wan't more game developers to at the very least have a version of their game available for the linux OS. I expect linux to be installed on the next version of the xbox in less time than it took to install it onto the first xbox. I expect to learn at least a bit of a programing language or two so I can start moding linux the right way.

I know it might sound like a lot to ask for, but it's really not.

linux has never really had it together.
to me it's always felt like a random grab bag of trinkets-
chances of this changing are slim, but who knows, '05.

I'd just liek to see a slightly smaller learning curve. I have tried to switch a few times but its learning curve combined with really no support for DreamweaverMX and Visual basic(not that i would expect it to support VB at all) make it just common sense for me to use Windows right now.

How ever I am looking forward to how it will change in 2005.

but it really took no time at all for xbx1- how can it really become any quicker?

LG3D

Call it strange, but id like to see Mono really accel and for .NET to become more mainstream on all *nix platforms not just Windows.

I expect Linux 2.7 to be released this year.
With some new features and even more bugfixes!

I'd be interested if the 2.7 kernel came out 2005.

I know I'm changing from Mandrake to SuSE tonight. Then screwin' around with the terminal. I'm gonna install KDE 3.3.2. Then watch my system boot up to a blank screen.

I want it to become more noob friendly, and have a new flashy interface.

Erm how can you expect linux to support a windows application like dreamweaver WTF? you on drugs man?

But hey why dont you just run wine?

Hey it says 100,000 on the frontpage of neowin

No, I think DarkMindsProject has a point. A typical user has his "comfort" apps. Some may even offer features that an Open Source app doesn't quite have. Sure, wine can do some pretty impressive things, but it is not a "real" solution. The real solution is to have these apps supported in Linux.

This is the chicken & the egg dilemma. Vendors are hesitant to support an OS that has such a small market share (and, therefore, profit potential). And users are hesitant to use an OS that doesn't run the apps that they perceive as 'needed'. Linux started as a tiny pebble shift on top of a computing mountain. It has started to pick up speed (and larger rocks!) and could soon gain enough momentum to become a rock slide, then an avalanche.

Linux is at the point where it can meet the needs of a much broader range of users than it ever has in the past. And there is little that can stop it (certainly not SCO's lawsuit, and even Microsoft seems to lack power over this). Things will improve, but there will not be a sudden "This is IT!". It will sneak in everywhere and just start to get more and more attention.

I'd like to see a more Consistant GUI, Maybe a blend of Gnome and Kde... a swifter move to GUI based Configs over CLI.

Among all things I'd like to see:

1. AOL for Linux - Not that I use AOL, but I think it has a great potential for expanding the Linux Desktop Market. AOL is currently offering Antivirus for customer, what if they offered a lower cost Linux computer with a 3 year AOL dial up comitment? like a linspire Desktop with AOL, no virus, all the chatty goodness Grandma needs... it could be huge

2. A move to a less Unix "looking" filesystem, while a longshot, for Desktop usuage var, bin, etc are fairly confusing... a Programs, Library, tools, Files, type of lable would be helpfull.

Other then that... continue making me happy

I think I'll see more GUI apps with no option for using the CLI with GUI apps, which pains me. We'll see even easier installing and more of a shift from compiling even more so. Probably a new windows manager will pop up in popularity. We'll also see more games with linux binaries I bet.

My biggest hope is that I see more people become at least educated about Linux and not have some big misconception about it being what its not (ie. you must compile everything, it has a desktop?, that the biggest problem with hardware isn't the OS, its the vendor).

Who knows? Maybe ReactOS will hit some sort of stable version.

honestly if it had batter support for wireless/laptops it would already be my main OS for my laptop. I really like Fedora, i just hate the time it takes to configure it.

My laptop's wireless pcmcia card was automatically configured on Ubuntu and damn small linux.

Nothing Its great as it tis

-More hardware developers supporting it.
-Same with software developers
-Xorg's composite to become stable and fully integrated in most WM.
-LG3D. It looks a bit weird right now, but might evolve into something interesting.
-New kernel versions with new features, less bugs, higher performance, etc... as usual

I would like to see one of the gnome cd/dvd authoring programs become mature and stable, so I can finally get rid of k3b and all those kde libs.

Not that k3b isn't a good program, it just looks ugly and out of place under metacity, and its a pain having all those kde libraries installed for just one program.

Some individuals seem to forget that Linux is just a kernel and not a complete operating system.

A title like "What do you expect from Open Source Software in 2005?" would be more appropriate.

I expect better hardware support

Unless they're has been a huge jump in HURD users that I am unaware of, it is safe to say that 95% of discussions about GNU, are about GNU/Linux.



Better than what? Linux already has the best hardware support of any OS that I am aware of, of course, it would be nice if there were more vendor support, but alas, that is not to be in the near future.

I think most everyone can safely use the term "Linux" to refer to a full GNU/Linux system. While Hurd may be nearly dead (or so inactive over the past year, one may wonder if there is still a pulse), there are still a lot of GNU/BSD systems out there, many of them running some long-running web servers. I try not to trip over the semantics when someone makes such a gaffe to say that they are running Linux 9.0.

It would be nice if all Windows-tested hardware worked just as easily in Linux, but (as of yet) that is not the case. However, I do agree that hardware support in current Linux is better than in current Windows. The variety of archetectures that Linux runs on helps ensure this. But, even for us x86 users, I am able to use my old SCSI scanner that Windows (and the hardware vendor) no longer support - and does NOT run in XP. Setting up a USB wireless in Linux can be a pain, and that underscores that there is always room for improvement.

And that, my friends, is what Linux is about. Improvement. That is the tangible benefit of what a truly "free" Operating System will bring.

Linux? What's Linux?

It's Microsoft's Codename for their upcoming Windows 2012!


After all, I'm waiting for these achievements:

- Reiser4 really stable (working in SMP/SMT environments)
- Composite really stable (working with GLX flawlessly)
- Most Software running with 4KB Kernel-Stacks
- All software using NPTL if available
- The Death of SCO

I am new to Linux, but i think that if Linux can make more software vendors to jump in like Adobe, Macromedia, Symantec, etc.. , then they can start to compute with MS windows OS.
But remember that as much as more users are joining the Linux community the more dangerous the platform will be, maybe Linux will reach a point similar to the 100,000 virus that are found under windows this year.
So happy new year Linux.

more live cds!

I hope for more government adoption. Schools should not force people to use proprietary software.

As for hardware support, Linux supports a lot, as long as some coders figure out how X hardware works. The problem is vendors who are not willing to free specifications or make drivers (either proprietary or free). In other words, we need vendors to contribute free drivers to the kernel.


IK .:. 47 : Remember, it is also free as in freedom, which is important for many (this is actually what started all this).

That will happen in 2005. Sales are way down, their opponents are unfazed by the slew of lawsuits, and Wall Street is wondering if their is a going concern there. Latest reviews of their version of UNIX have been derisive. Yep, goodbye SCO.

More built-in themes. Smooth ones. A smoother interface over all.

meh, installing software under linux is way different than windows. windows you just double click and voila. in linux you'd have to compile the virus and install it and make sure the file had root privileges.

i expect more commercial companies to open up to the OS itself and i expect other pieces of hardware (aside from computers) to have linux embeded in it. i also think that user/developer support for linux/gnu will expand more than ever.

More games
More support for 3d graphics

Sort of. I'm sure a virus that was hidden in an application or even RPM-type ran as root/baron then it could possibly do some damage. Although you may say "everyone knows not to always run as root" or "people will just use sudo to run things". Granted installing some stuff on windows with non-superuser can be a pain, the same isn't really true for linux, people will probably still run everything as root, its just the way people are.

Although SELinux is getting more attention everyday, and that would make viruses almost impossible to spread and do any sort of wide system damage.

I expect the same from all these previous years, an expansion in all the growing linux communities whether its fedora, gentoo, debian or whichever.

It gets too redundant to say "This is the year of Linux" and I always come across articles that say that very same line but really the best we can all hope for is a continuation of growth from all communities and that's what exactly it's gonna happend.

As for the kernel itself, I'm hoping that it would hit 2.7 maybe in late 2005. 2.6 came and progressed pretty fast if you ask me

More PPC installs. It's likely that IBM will completely dump it's PC business (so far it's been slowly but surely) and concentrate more of their efforts on the PPC. There was actually a rather nice article related to this at Groklaw.

Since I still have some principles left, I do not really care about the people creating proprietary software for Linux. It might be a killer app and all that, but that does not make it free as in freedom. Therefore, what I expect to some degree is proprietary vendors opening up some code or making use of Linux in a large scale (for their devices, like set top boxes, routers and so on). IBM has already opened up some of their applications, like cloudscape.

I expect that I will be switching to linux full time.

to stop wasting time and resources on so many distros and concentrate on one perfect one. The first thing that turns people away from linux is the decision between distros, IMO.

Roger that. I've got Ubuntu, Xandos, Mandrake, Vidalinux, and one or two others floating around. Which to install? RPM or Source? Too.... many.... options......

Sorry guys. I really like Linux, but its not going to be a real contender for the desktop crown 'till it stops relying so much in its command line.