The Near-Term Future Of Open Source Desktops

securitas writes "eWEEK has two related articles on the growth of open source software. The first article is about the growth of desktop Linux, featuring Lotus and the Open Source Applications Foundation (OSAF) founder Mitch Kapor, who says (among other things) that call centers will be where the next wave of growth for desktop Linux happens and that 10 percent of global desktops will be Linux in a few years. He bases his statements on a report by Eazel and GNOME Foundation co-founder Bart Decrem entitled 'Desktop Linux Technology and Market Overview' (PDF) mentioned last week. The second story is about open source software growth in the government sector where government agencies like the U.S. Census Bureau have embraced OS software for projects like the State and County QuickFacts site. Based on Perl, Apache, MySQL and Linux, the site gets 200,000 page views a day."

Comments

Linux is cheap

[Anonymous Coward]

Call centers just need something for their monkeys to use that works, and the cheaper, the better. Linux fits that nicely. Doesn't need to play the newest games, or run the newest Windows software, just deal with callers.

My two cents......

[56ker]

Once Linux is the main OS sold with new computers and Windows is the "optional extra" - then I'll regard it as a success. At the moment the market share of Microsoft means that most people know of one OS - Windows - and that is what they ask for with new computers....

yes

[lurgyman]

Another place that could use this might be places like public libraries, where pretty much all you need is a working browser. Plus, a place like that could give some nice exposure to Linux.

Re:yes

[56ker]

Here the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation donate computers (with yes Windows) to at least one local library. I think the Microsoft way is - get people used to Windows - in school, college & university - then people know of no other OS - let alone its benefits or how to use it. It's a shame really that the OS market has ended up in this mono-culture. I blame it partly on the computer illiteracy of managers. Often they're the ones who have to authorise IT purchases - and yet they often know next to nothing about what they're buying.

The corner of the revolution ...

[BillsPetMonkey]

and that 10 percent of global desktops will be Linux in a few years.

In a few years. We know the revolution is just round the corner. But how many corners do we have to revolve around?

LINUX, Windows, UNIX, OS/2 it Doesn't Matter.

[banal avenger]

Just as long as my internet works, I don't care. Where I work, we use LINUX, Windows, and Mac OS X (the latter being used only on my machine). There is no liberation of the masses for the masses. They don't care. Two of us are LINUX fans, and the other 10 use windows because they just want to check their email. They don't want to ever touch anything in the command line, and I can't wholly blame them.

LINUX makes sense for the corporate IT infrastructure. The UNIX of old is expensive, and Windows is buggy and (also) expensive. As long as people can get sub-$600 PCs running Windows ME, they will buy them because they simply don't care. And their job and their life has nothing to do with computers other than that everything happens to need computers today. The end all is "If ain't broke, don't fix it." My computer checks my email. And lets me read slashdot.

Depends

[papasui]

on what the call center does. I'm sure it would work fine for dealing with customer accounts. However, many call centers are software support. It wouldn't make a lot of sense to put linux on a machine when you are supporting Windows or a Windows application. Credit card, insurance, and similiar industries probably could move to linux easily with the exception of required office applications. OpenOffice might be able to fill in that role though, and it would significantly reduce overall cost.

Call Centers..

[mumblestheclown]

Why Call centers?

• In case you missed it, the call center market is past its prime. there is excess capacity from ireland to india to irkutsk.
• As a result, call centers are forced to compete on price. Linux desktops help this? Maybe, maybe not. Yes for the largest call center (2000+ppl) places where software licence compliance will actually be checked. Less likely for smaller places where the cost of software is effectively moot.
• While a few manufacturers of desktop "suite" applications for call centers exist, many places just cobble stuff together on their own. this is doable in linux or on windows or whatever. For that reason, call centers are a good place for linux/desktops - the primary application more or less exists in a vaccuum. but call centers are hardly indicative of wider linux desktop use. Home/general business use is far diferent.

Going about this in the wrong way I think....

[KevinJoubert]

Sometimes I think that everyone is going about this in the wrong way. Yes... the Linux desktop needs some work before my 70-year-old Aunt can use it... but the tools are all there. Its not like the desktop WON"T do what she wants, she just doesn't know how to make it work.

For Linux to succeed on the desktop, I think two things need to happen... somebody like HP, IBM, or Dell needs to step up and sell systems that are pre-configured so that people don't have to mess with them. Just turn them on and away they go.

Secondly, its the DOCUMENTS. The world needs to start using something other than .WMV for video, .PPT for presentations and .DOC for documents.
The only reason MS has a stranglehold on the desktop is because people have been convinced they need to use those formats. Everytime I turn around I see a website or some CD that is forcing people to use these documents.

The next time you are creating a document or file format.... even if its using Windows... force yourself to use .MPEG or .HTML. I create presentations in .PPT all the time (crossover office)... but I save them as .HTML. Same goes for just about any other office document.

If anyone sends me a proprietary document format, I ask them to please re-save it in a format that I can use and send it again. Nobody has ever refused yet.

Just a thought,

-Kevin