Linux Gains Traction in Software Market
Posted by Daylene on 25 July 2006 - 15:14 · 14 comments & 7215 views
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(1 reply)
#1 Posted by machorro on 25 Jul 2006 - 15:44
- Quote -IDC's Gillen said there's another reason for business people to look at Linux as a Microsoft alternative. "Microsoft can be very aggressive about keeping its customers," he said. "If Microsoft thinks you're serious about jumping to Linux, they may start offering some really deep discounts to keep you."
I liked that line
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#1.1 Posted by markjensen on 25 Jul 2006 - 15:50
- A good example of how Linux can benefit even 100% Microsoft customers.
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#2 Posted by lbmouse on 25 Jul 2006 - 16:33
- Was trying to figure out why a Linux article in a tech journal wasn't oozing geekness out of each pore until I saw where this was originally published: Chicago Tribune Business section. It's refreshing to see an open source/Linux article in a mainstream news outlet that A) Gets the facts right, and B) Doesn't try to be highbrow/lowbrow.
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(1 reply)
#3 Posted by Krome on 25 Jul 2006 - 16:33
- Quote -No one expects Linux to make a big dent in Microsoft's dominance in desktop operating systems, but current trends suggest that Linux will enjoy "a gentle adoption curve," said Patrick Kerpan, a founder of the Chicago software start-up CohesiveFT.
That quote is not right at all. A few years back I made this prediction in Neowin "time capsule" thread. Patrick Kerpan should give me some credit for his article. :p lol just kidding Patrick. -
#3.1 Posted by Patrick Kerpan on 28 Jul 2006 - 00:46
Greetings Krome,
Sorry I am not the author - just one of the interviewees for the article. Kudos to you for earlier crystal gazing.
I encourage those on this thread to click back to the original source article written by Jon Van of the Chicago Tribune. The article covers more territory going into a bit of the social impetus for the gains on the desktop, and the economic drivers in the enterprise for gains in the server space. What didn't make the article for space reasons was the contrast between these two.
There are social inhibitions to adoption of any new technology - so by definition (I would argue) an OS transition on the consumer desktop can't be anything but a gentle adoption curve. I also made the point that the economic opportunities presented by virtualization technologies (VMWare, XenSource, MS Virtual Server, Parallels) are setting the stage for potentiually explosive growth of Linux use in the enterprise. FAIR WARNING: My company is in the business of manufacturing virtual appliances (many of which are based on Linu
for a variety of enteprise business purposes.
Cheers all,
pk
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(1 reply)
#4 Posted by Mathachew on 25 Jul 2006 - 21:46
- Quote -... a team of programmers from around the world developed the software that has its entire code open to programmers and developers, unlike proprietary software such as Windows.
Curious. Why is MS singled-out in this regard? Unless I'm mistaken, OSX is not open source either and Apple was mentioned earlier in the article, so why not mention them as well? -
#4.1 Posted by markjensen on 26 Jul 2006 - 00:25
- I would guess because not only are they "#1" in market share. They overwhelmingly dominate the market at around 95% or so of desktops. Seems like a great item to use for 'compare and contrast'.
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#5 Posted by Magallanes on 25 Jul 2006 - 21:52
- Quote -Linux will enjoy "a gentle adoption curve"
8 years hearing "linux will dominate the market in a near future", then 2 years with a "linux gradually taking a percent of the pc market" and now "a gentle adoption curve"... -
#5.1 Posted by markjensen on 26 Jul 2006 - 00:28
- Hmmm.. Yes. Some early reports talked about a Linux storm. Some talked about Linux dying. The truth? Not surprisingly, it is in the middle. Not sure what your point was in this.
Certainly Linux is enjoying 15 (from memory) consecutive quarters of double-digit growth in the server market. Pretty impressive for a little upstart that started as one college kid's pet project.
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#6 Posted by Shining Arcanine on 26 Jul 2006 - 02:40
- It has been gaining traction for 15 years now. Microsoft still have 97% of the OS market. It is not going to change...
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#7 Posted by kag9000 on 26 Jul 2006 - 12:38
- Okay I have a linux box, even have the nice GPU accelerated GUI - xgl and compiz. So now I have a superb looking desktop staring at me which only took me two days of editing config files etc to get it to run how I like. What next?
Oh I can listen to some mp3's (amarok is probably the greatest mp3 player ever programmed), maybe watch a movie (xine is awful), oh and surf the net. Yipdeedoo! That probably accounts for 10 percent of my computer life.
As a pc gamer, windows is just too convenient and simple to use to get a retail game up and running, contrary to Linux even with Cedega. I also like to make music, bad music. Linux to me just doesn't have that ease-of-use multimedia capabilities Windows has.
Until that changes I don't see Linux ever replacing Windows on the Home Desktop. No amount of wishfull thinking on my part is going to alter that fact, unfortunately. -
#7.1 Posted by Palin88 on 26 Jul 2006 - 20:18
- Wait, so you're saying that the problem is the availability of compatible software?
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#7.2 Posted by LaNcom on 26 Jul 2006 - 20:47
- It's quite easy, actually: Linux is ready for the desktop, but it's not for everyone. If you're a 3D artist, Linux is pretty much the best possible desktop OS. It's well suited for office stuff, image editing, coding, CAD, video editing, and even audio production to some extent. It has great software available for all that. But it's not exactly great for gamers for example.
Xine isn't all that awful BTW, the GUI is. Use KMPlayer or something like that with either the Xine or the MPlayer backend...
When IBM introduced a version of Lotus Notes that runs on the desktop computers using the Linux operating system this month, it was a sign of confidence that open-source software is gaining market traction. Lotus Notes, the popular collaboration and e-mail software, has operated on Windows machines for 16 years and Apple's Mac computers for more than a decade, said Ed Brill, IBM's Chicago-based Lotus strategy executive.
"A lot of enterprises, especially government and educational organizations, like the cost and flexibility of Linux," he said. "This is geographically driven. Linux has taken off in Germany, India and China."
Linux is what the industry calls open source software. Led by Linus Torvalds when he was a computer-science graduate student at the University of Helsinki, Finland, a team of programmers from around the world developed the software that has its entire code open to programmers and developers, unlike proprietary software such as Windows. Users continue to maintain and upgrade Linux and allow it to be downloaded and used for free.
Most enterprises that use Linux prefer to pay for commercial versions provided by Red Hat, Novell or other firms. These versions are more user-friendly, but they still cost about one-tenth of what Microsoft charges for Windows, the world's most pervasive computer operating system.
Rather than compete with Microsoft by offering its own proprietary operating system, IBM has opted to support open source software. Linux is perhaps the best-known example.
Linux software has become a mainstream product for computer network servers, said Al Gillen, president for International Data Corp., a market research firm. However, as a desktop computer operating system, it faces a huge challenge posed by the widespread embrace of Windows.