The Age of Aggressive Linux Advocacy Is Upon Us?

GonzoJohn writes "Jamie Harrison, founder of GBLUG in Glen Burnie, Maryland, has written an exclusive editorial for Linux Orbit about how he sees the state of Linux advocacy. "Whether we want to admit it or not, Linux has entered a critical period in its development - a period that may, in fact, determine in fate forever. Now that Linux is no longer a strange little niche Operating System, and has developed to the point where Microsoft actually feels threatened by its proliferation, the folks in Redmond are doing everything they can in the way of software design, legislation, regulation and control of the internet to snuff Linux out. The main reason that they have failed up to this point is that Linux has matured and grown in popularity, gaining public and private defenders in the consumer market and especially the corporate boardroom." Read the editorial here" I don't think that I agree with all the points here - but it's an informative read if nothing else.

Comments

Now we've got to be careful...

[darylp]

For all Linux's technical superiority to Windows, we as a community must not be seen as childishly attacking Microsoft. (A trivial example being spelling their name with a '$')

Most non-technical people perceive a community by their loudest members. If all the 'Linux' community can offer is "Mickey$oft SUXXX!" and "You're too stupid to write your own device drivers, you don't deserve a computer!" then Linux shall forever remain a niche Operating System.

Re:Now we've got to be careful...

[FortKnox]

I agree, and as I've mentioned OVER and OVER again, be polite and handhold those that wish to try it.

If you can't handle it, or have sudden urges to spout "RTFM!", then walk away and let someone who can be polite take over.

"Aggressive" can be misunderstood in this article title. Hemos doesn't mean to be "rudely aggressive", but to market the idea of Linux more often, but still politely.

Manifest Destiny-sounding fluff

[Marasmus]

I seemed to feel a tone of 'manifest destiny' in the article. Is it just me who believes that philosophy is completely irrelevant to Linux?

We don't NEED to gain market share. We don't NEED to singlehandedly supplant Windows in order to be successful. In fact, if Linux does supplant Windows, it's just going to become the next widely-hated major OS of the time, until someone else comes along and supplants Linux. Doesn't sound like fun to me.

What goals does the Linux community have, other than supplanting Windows? Hrm.... creating an autonymously stable and useful operating system. Showing the Windows world what it's like to build an OS that interoperates with the majority of standards out there. Tons of others.... Why do we feel this conquistador-like goal to take over the OS world? It seems bullish and idiotic to me. There are much better things we can accomplish, cooperatively, when we're not wasting our time trying to dominate. If we keep this up for too long, Linux really will be the next Windows, in all the worst ways.

Advocate to the right people

[Anonymous Coward]

We have to be realistic. Even if Linux usage on the desktop increases by 400% over the next several years, it isn't going to make any real difference. Why? Because Microsoft has the high ground. They make massive financial contributions to the right people - namely the campaign funding pots of the US government.
In 3 years time, Microsoft in conjunction with AMD and Intel are going to start setting up a hardware and internet infrastructure which Linux will not be able to run on. Want to install Linux on your new PC? Can't - the CPU won't let you because it doesn't support their properterial encryption. Want to run a DVD, a Direct X game, a TV tuner, a new 'security concious' hard drive or motherboard? Can't, for much the same reasons. Next it'll be email, then webpages, and so on.
Anti trust laws you say? Won't work. MS has more power over the US government than the oil barons. Think about that. There is also another dimension. There is a little thing called 'war on terrorism' on right now, and having every computer in the world capible of being easily monitored, controlled, observed and disabled by US inteligence agencies, because of the next version of Window's 'security', will greatly appeal to them... don't underestimate this factor.

If you want to stop Microsoft, extending the user numbers isn't going to help much. Microsoft can simply cut off the air supply. The only way to stop them now is to actually get politicians in power who aren't all incompetent or corrupt fatcats.

Re:The Age of Aggressive Microsoft Bashing is Upon

[eyegor]

I believe that Microsoft actually doesn't mind that Apple exists.

#1 Their OS only runs on propriatary hardware and the number of deployed systems is quite small compared to the number of Windows systems.

#2 Microsoft is able to make money from Apple users through application sales (Microsoft Office)

#3 Microsoft can point to Apple as being a worthy competitor thereby reducing the effect of Microsofts monopoly. (remember, Microsoft made a big contribution to Apple at a critical time not so long ago).

Basically, at this stage, Microsoft has nothing to fear from Apple. Once (if ever) Apple is able to take more than 10% or 20% of the market from Windows, watch out.

Microsoft fears Linux because they realize there is no easy way to make money from the Linux users other than porting (and maintaining various flavors for each version of Linux) Microsoft Office.

Linux runs on nearly every platform and is primarily used on cheap X86-based hardware rather than expensive propriatary systems.