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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."
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.
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.
Enterprise features like layered transactions, replication, stored procs, load balancing, etc. are available using Postgres...but you can't find developers and cheap hosters that run Postgres anymore. Was it just the name "MySQL" that made it popular?
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.
Until Linus is taken to court for maintaining an illegal monopoly and the judge threatens to cut him in half in order to foster more competition in the OS marker, I won't consider Linux a success.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
Ok, Windows vs. GNU/Linux on the desktop is no new discussion, but here goes...:
I think that GNU/Linux in many ways are equal to or better than MS Windows considering apps. A recent GNOME or KDE provides a great working environment with good browsers, email apps, etc. etc.
A problem for GNU/Linux _from a joe user standpoint_ is the inherent security and multi-user nature of UNIX-like OS's. Windows has a history of insecurity, but that also means no hassle with passwords and the like.
This "hassle" and inherent security are of course Right Things, but Joe User just thinks it's annoying.
It would be great to get a serious effort to send "old" (meaning 200MHz and up) computers to third world countries, loaded with open source operating systems. Macs, PCs, whatever. The problem is that to send them all there would cost more than to just buy new ones from a local manufacturing plant :P Maybe we could load up a few shipping containers, weld 'em shut, and just drop them in the ocean. The countries where they wash up get the computers.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Note: I like Linux, and I have a dual boot Linux/Windows machine at home. I've used UNIX, Linux, and Windows professionally (old school MacOS, too).
Windows has its share of troubles. The idealistic among us don't like Microsoft's market domination. The security-minded don't like the multitude of holes. But take both of those out of the picture, and you end up with a simple question: Is the Linux desktop experience, including applications, really significantly better than Windows in some quantifiable ways? In my personal experience, the OSS desktop environment developers have been playing a game of catch up with Microsoft. Sure, Microsoft didn't invent the GUI. We all know that. But it's not like Linux + KDE|GNOME is so much stunningly better than Windows that there's a reason to jump ship to it. At the same time, realize that there are many, many happy Windows users *and* developers. The anti-Microsoft angst is largely from a certain crowd. The end result is that this issue is largely a muddle. If you paint it to be a clear-cut battle, then it's not representative of reality.
Choice is good, yes, but realize that this choice already exists. Is beating Microsoft and getting everyone to use the Linux kernel a win for choice?
Is this boiled-frog syndrome?
Perversely, I think maybe we're getting so used to the gradual flow of success stories that we're losing sight of just how far Linux has come in the last few years. Five years ago, the notion that governments and corporations would be rolling out Linux desktop deployments numbering into five figures would have been comical to even the most rabid zealot. Now it's almost commonplace. The rate of acceptance has been phenomenal. Five years from now I'd certainly expect OSS OSes to make up more than 10% of worldwide installs, and at that point it's a done deal - the operating system will be a commodity, and the closed-source vendors will be either giving their OS away to support app or service revenue, or actually having to work for a living.
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.
.WMV for video, .PPT for presentations and .DOC for documents.
.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.
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
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
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
-K.
Because Windows has gotten worse (XP licensing bullshit) or because Linux has gotten better?
Honestly, I haven't seen the latter happen, and this is from someone who runs only Linux on his home computer and, when a new game comes out, waits a few months for a Native or Wine-based port.
From everything I've seen, XP is better than 2K if only it weren't for the licensing bullshit. A strategy to defeat Windows (and this assumes there is a think-tank working to defeat Windows, and I don't think this really exists) would have to involve licensing, and right now Microsoft is vulnerable. Linux is better because it's open, and free. Period. Don't make technical arguments, make licensing arguments.
Q: "Is Linux better than Windows?"
A: "Yes, but in ways that you'd have to be a sysadmin to really understand. In other ways, it's worse. There are defintely going to be tradeoffs, and you'll take some time getting on your feet again."
Q: "Then why should I switch?"
A: "Because technology freedom is more important than technology, in ways that matter to everyone, not just programmers and not just budget controllers. Everything in your computer should belong to you."
People are responsive to this kind of argument, but it has to be presented honestly.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
Regarding call centers, I've come to the same conclusion over the past few months. Desktop Linux is a great solution.
What Linux needs as a killer-app in this environment is good VoIP support. By good, I mean cheaper than Windows.
Specifically, I'm thinking it would be feasible to add software echo-cancellation to some of the sound card drivers or as a separate module. That would easily shave another $50 off the price of a typical call center desktop, and probably more than that with the way people tend to break their $100 headsets.
Does anyone know if this is possible?
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
My dad took me over to his friend's house yesterday, because his friend was unsatisfied with his website. I got hired to redo it from scratch. After discussing how he wanted it, I somehow segued into open source software. My dad was complaining about his old computer and need for more storage space. I mentioned he could get a new computer off walmart.com for only $199. They were both shocked. I looked it up at wamart.com for them, and then the german (my dad's friend) pulled out his credit card and insisted I order one with his card to solve my dad's computer problems. He also wanted me to help him install linux on one of his computers, since he was frustrated he couldn't install windows XP on both (the install CD wouldn't let him). If he likes it he might install it on the other one, too. He kept saying "You can be free from Microsoft Windows??!!"