| Five desktop Linux highlights of 2007 |
Dec. 21, 2007
Opinion -- Sometimes putting together a best-of-the-year list is like pulling teeth. There simply isn't enough big news to fill the list out. That was not a problem for desktop Linux in 2007.
This year was one of the most eventful years in desktop Linux's short history. While Mac OS X remains the most successful of all the Unix/open-source-based operating systems, the Linux desktop made great strides forward in both the office and in homes.
As I look back over the year while making up my list, one thing strikes me: This was not a year where I can point at some substantial advancement in the Linux desktop itself. That's not to say there weren't significant desktop Linux releases; there were. To name but a few, this year saw the arrival of such significant distributions as Fedora 8, OpenSUSE 10.3, SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) 10 Service Pack 1, MEPIS 6.5 and last, but never least, Ubuntu 7.10.
However, while each was incrementally a better desktop than its predecessors, none of them were revolutionary. The Linux desktop has reached a point where its progress is evolutionary.
At the same time, Microsoft has trapped itself into trying and failing to create a revolutionary new system: Windows Vista. Today, no one aside from Microsoft and its fanboys claims that Vista is even really a move forward from XP. Instead, Vista is increasingly seen as, at best, a step to the side. At worst, Vista is seen as potentially the greatest failure Microsoft has ever brought to market. Never before in operating system history have so many thousands of years of programmer hours and so much money been put into such a flop. In the meantime, Linux kept inching along with an almost continual series of small steps forward.
Desktop Linux did see major leaps forward in 2007, but they happened in the hardware, software and business systems around it. So that's where I start my list, working my way from the least to the most important developments, beginning with the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project.
In the long run, the OLPC notebook, and its imitators like the Classmate, may prove to be the most important innovations of all. Through them, now thousands, but eventually millions, of users will have their first introduction to both computers and Linux. My compadre at PC Magazine, John Dvorak, doesn't think that the OLPC will change the world because it doesn't address the killing issues of absolute poverty: clean water and sufficient food.
He's right. It doesn't. There's an old saying, though, which I think is relevant to the OLPC and the issues Dvorak brings up: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." The OLPC will give third-world children the tools and knowledge they need to move their nations out of poverty's endless lock-step.
In the short run, though, the OLPC has led directly to another change, which is benefiting the Linux desktop today: the under-$500 Linux-capable PC. Before the OLPC, no one gave serious thought to really cheap PCs. Then, as the OLPC's push to bring the price of a PC down as low as possible continued, OEMs realized that not only was an under-$500 computer with reasonable performance possible, but there was a real market for it.
The results were such Linux-powered PCs as the Xandros Asus Eee PC 4G, which costs $400, and the under-$200 Everex TC2502 gPC, which uses Ubuntu. Both early PCs have had remarkable sales. Asus is now predicting that it will sell 5 million Eee PCs in 2008 and Everex will be introducing its Cloudmark laptop in mid-January. Numerous other smaller PC vendors are rushing to bring inexpensive Linux systems to customers.
Everex has done more, though, than just bring out a cheap Linux PC. The company has also brought together three previously existing sets of programs -- Ubuntu 7.10, the Enlightenment desktop interface and Google Apps -- to create a new Linux desktop experience: gOS.
This is the first desktop operating system to marry SAAS (software as a service) with Linux to create a Linux for the Internet generation. While you can run gOS as a stand-alone desktop, that's not the idea. While gOS is not an official Google desktop, for all practical purposes that's exactly what it is. As such, gOS has come out of nowhere to become hotter than hot.
For ages people have talked about how SAAS, thin clients, network computers, ASPs (application service providers) and so on would be the future of computing. They've been wrong. By whatever name you called it, desktop computing applications that depended on a server always remained a niche market. Google, with its numerous and popular applications, has proven to be popular, though, and gOS was the first operating system to pick up on this transformation and run with it.
Another change is that 2007 was the year that, slowly and grudgingly, proprietary software and formats were integrated into mainstream Linux distributions. Freespire and Linspire led the way, but those twin distributions were far from the only ones. Ubuntu-based Mint also wholeheartedly embraced proprietary software and drivers.
Others, such as OpenSUSE 10.3 and Ubuntu 7.10, while steering clear of incorporating closed-source programs, drivers and codices, made it easier for users to access proprietary programs. Hardware vendors, like Dell with its recent release of PCs with pre-installed Ubuntu 7.10, also included a few proprietary elements, specifically the ability to play commercial DVDs on Linux.
Which leads me to my No. 1 advance in desktop Linux: top-tier PC vendors, like Dell and Lenovo, shipping pre-installed Linux desktops to users. Today, you no longer need to know even the basics of installing Linux, much less driver tweaking and the like, to run Linux. Instead, you can go online and order a Linux-powered PC from a brand-name vendor that will work out of the box.
It is this fundamental shift, more than anything else, which marked 2007 as a year for Linux desktop users to remember. As other PC OEMs follow Asus and Everex on the low end and Dell and Lenovo in the traditional laptop and desktop markets, 2008 promises to be the year when finding a pre-installed Linux system will be even easier than buying a Mac.
Finally, I have one extra reason why 2007 was a good year for desktop Linux: It was a horrid year for Vista. Oh, Microsoft will tell you it was a wonderful year. But if it was so great, why do customers keep insisting on XP?
I'm not speaking now as someone who has found Linux to be the better choice. I'm speaking as someone who over the year has spoken to hundreds of IT staffers and ordinary PC users. Most of these people have been Windows users. I would say one in 10 of them like Vista.
That's a lot of disgruntled users, and some of them are now looking to Linux and Mac OS X for a replacement. So, I'll end this year's survey of the best of the Linux desktop with a salute to the worst of Microsoft's desktop. If it weren't for Vista, far fewer people would be giving Linux a chance. Thanks, Bill and Steve, we couldn't have done it without you.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Do you have comments on this story?
Talkback here
NOTE: Please post your comments regarding our articles using the above link. Be sure to use this article's title as the "Subject" in your posts. Before you create a new thread, please check to see if a discussion thread is already running on the article you plan to comment on. Thanks!
Related stories:
(Click here for further information)
|
|
|
Approaching the Linux Desktop
The purpose of this paper is to help organizations evaluate the Linux desktop against their own enterprise needs and discover what benefits the Linux desktop might bring to their organizations.
Migrating To Linux: Application Challenges and Solutions
Several solutions exist to help organizations migrate in an orderly fashion from Windows to Linux desktops. This paper establishes the characteristics of an ideal cross-platform solution and reviews these alternatives in light of this ideal standard. The paper takes a closer look at the pros and cons of various solutions and outlines the business benefits that can be achieved.
Linux Advantages: Publicly Available Information on Linux Software
This paper offers a brief summary of readily-available Linux information to help businesses sort out this widely misunderstood operating system.
Top 5 Strategies for Managing Linux
Despite continuous evolution in the manageability of Linux, a 2006 survey cited manageability concerns as a top reason why organizations are hesitating to adopt Linux. Levanta believes Linux can be as manageable, if not more so, than other operating systems by following key strategies. These strategic recommendations were developed from experiences in numerous customer environments, both large and small.
Why Choose Novell for Linux?
This paper outlines the benefits of switching to the Linux platform and choosing Novell as a high-performance, enterprise solution.
Enterprise Linux Selection Guide
Considering moving your enterprise to the Linux operating system? Since there are so many similar versions, choosing the right one can be tough. This paper offers a clear process to help you make an informed decision and get the features, support, and cost that are right for your business and technical needs.
Overcoming Challenges in Managing Linux
Levanta has created a new administration model with innovative technology that breaks down the barriers to making the most of Linux systems. This paper will provide an in-depth look at the workings of Levanta’s product, the first Linux appliance of its kind.
SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 for Retail Businesses
Discover why major retailers have switched to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop in the back office. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is a low-cost desktop that offers a complete set of productivity applications and interoperates seamlessly with the other Windows, Macintosh and UNIX desktops in your store.
Moving to a Linux Desktop
Migrating from Windows to Linux on the desktop can be a substantial undertaking because it has the potential for touching -- and perhaps disrupting -- every user in your organization. Unlike a data center (server and infrastructure) migration that is largely transparent to users, the cultural and administrative transitions and environment readiness required to support a Linux desktop migration are extensive.
Seven Good Reasons to Exchange Exchange
This paper describes seven compelling reasons why you should switch from Exchange to Scalix.
|
|
|
|
|
news feed