More Linux Predictions for 2004

An anonymous reader writes "Experts, shmexperts - it's time for the Linux community's own predictions, felt the editors of LinuxWorld Magazine. Prognostications in their Jan 2004 round-up cover media players ('turning your phone into an iPod will be hot by the end of 2004'), IPOs ('Of course, LinuxCertified, Inc'), and MS ('Microsoft will start an intensive campaign to promote their Longhorn technology as Linux standards compliant') - that last is one from Samba's John Terpstra." The original story was back in November.

Comments

Re:I predict..

[RexHavoc]

Also add in that once IBM settles the SCO stuff, they will buy Novell to get SuSE Linux. Then we will see PC's with IBM SuSE Linux roll out soon after.

They already have 15,000 users internally (a drop in the bucket, but a start...) runing on SuSE desktops for daily work, but at the research division mind you.

Stuff to look out for in 2004.

[Anonymous Coward]

There is a lot of stuff coming out for Linux in 2004, here is a list of the most antisipated stuff. Distros

• Mandrake 10
• SuSE 10
• Slackware 10
• Fedora Core 2
• Lindows 5
• Gentoo 2004
• Knoppix 4
• Debian 3.1. Ooops, thats delayed until 2010 :)

Desktops

• Xfree86 4.4
• Xouvert
• KDE 3.2
• Gnome 2.6
• XFCE 4.1
• More Boxes

Applications

• Mozilla 1.6
• Mozilla bird collection
• OpenOffice 1.2 or 2.0
• Nvu
• Evoloution 2
• Gimp 2
• KDevelop 3
• Mplayer 1.0

Look forward to these, I know I am waiting for Mandrake 10, I am currently trying out the new snapshot :).

Re:Slackware is where it's at...

[ninjaz]

As of OpenBSD 3.4, Bind 9.2.2 (+ patches) is included.

It's set up like bind4 was, but you've got the bind9 named.conf file instead of named.boot

One odd thing I noticed, though, was that on my nameservers, I needed to set the debug level to 3 or higher for answer requests (and submitted a bug report about it, etc)

Re:Office monopoly will begin to crack

[rmull]

They will not use XP Home because it doesn't allow the machine to be added to a domain. Small business, maybe, but not corporate.

link

[morcheeba]

It looks normal now, but I assume you mean the 2004 new year's image that has now been archived with the other holiday logos.

Where's Mandrake?

[tickleboy2]

Which distributions will show the greatest growth in 2004?

I was surprised that Mandrake didn't make the list. Mandrake in my experience is one of the easiest distributions to install and use and has made some impressive contributions over the last year (9.2, MandrakeMove). Still I have to admit I haven't tried SUSE so maybe I'm missing out on something...

Re:Where's Mandrake?

[tickleboy2]

What kind of show stopper did you encounter? The only problem I've ever had was with Centrino notebooks but that's because there are no linux drivers. If you do decide to give Mandrake another chance, check out the Linux Questions forum dedicated to Mandrake.

OpenOffice.org

[pommiekiwifruit]

Perhaps it will be useful when it is capable of performing trivial tasks as assigned in IT intro courses (which my auntie is taking to improve her salary) such as:

1. Open a .doc file. The formatting should look correct.
2. Save a .doc file. Information should not be lost.
3. Copy and paste from an Internet Explorer window that contains selected check boxes and radio buttons. The data should look the same.

Unfortunately somehow the program got installed on her system and "stole" the .doc file extension association (hidden by default of course) causing days of lost time getting her assignments submitted.

Obscure file formats and clipboard formats pay dividends for MS lockout it seems. It's a pity monopolies are allowed to do whatever they want in the USA.

Re:My Prediction:

[Anonymous Coward]

"I've been reading the Linux predictions for every new year, and every year, time passes and nothing revolutionary happens."

Interesting. I too have been following the Linux industry for many years, and perhaps my eyes are more open. For instance, the world's largest computer company fully positioning itself behind Linux and allocating $1 billion was certainly a "revolutionary" development.

Sun Microsystems getting a contract to deploy Linux on 500,000 - 1 million desktops in China was definitely "revolutionary". But you don't think those are?

Or was your poorly-worded, vague and ambiguous comment directed at actual desktop apps? Because, you see, Linux developers can't win with such people. There are plenty of small projects out there attempting to make a "revolutionary" desktop, but the vast majority of people want something that works similar to Windows. If all distros went with something like TreeWM, you'd be blasting the community for making things too unapproachable and strange.

In short, you lose. And normally I don't reply to sad trolls who clearly have nothing better to do in their lives, but this is just in case someone else is reading who really believes that IBM and Sun's moves weren't massively revolutionary.

Re:my prediction

[Lumpy]

try mandrake 9.2

it's easier than windows XP.... even with the fisher price mode turned on in XP.

I had my grandmother install a game (icewalkers) and she said... "That's it? no parade of confusing installer boxes to click yes or ok on? Wonderful!"

mandrake is easier to install an app on than windows XP.

This is if the app is packaged right. most linux install problems can be linked to the package or app it's self being a mess.

Don't blame a poorly written or packaged app on linux... linux is ready now. what we have to wait for is all the app writers to pull their heads out of the sand and start making installable versions.. and yes this means statically linked in some situations.