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Linux Going Mainstream

Posted by michael on from the oh-joy dept.

Gossi writes "The BBC is carrying an excellent overview of the growing use of Linux, by many different fields. The article says it all, really, and is probably something you should show your Boss."

6 of 618 comments (clear)

  1. Government, yup by tcopeland · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Linux is also proving popular in the public sector. Governments like the idea of not paying a proprietary vendor huge licensing fees for years and years.

    So true. Running on Linux baby!
    --
    The Army reading list
    1. Re:Government, yup by The+Slashdotted · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's interesting to note the similarities between the desires of governments and small businesses. Right now, as a Linux newb, I've set up SmoothWall and Red Hat on old computers in a back room. The owner's only demands are that it be near free (as in beer), and it be customizable. With CUPS and OpenOffice out of the box, I can type basic memos. I can hardly wait for OSSuite to come out with the next release (I need product attributes), and he'll be ready for the future on some Pentium 2s

  2. Do your part! by chrispl · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I carry a variety of flavors of Linux CDs in my car and use live version to show friends and family what they are missing. Suse 9.0 live-eval works great for showing people what this "linux thing" they have read about is.

    --
    What post? The one you're carrying inside your rusty innards!
  3. Makes up for their recent writeup on SCO by Heggsy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This ons still makes me slightly cross:

    Earlier BBC story

    Still, I suppose that the latest story is written by someone who has Clue. I'm told that they exist, even at the BBC.

  4. how can it go mainstream? by queen+of+everything · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ok, I'm a software developer. I want to port my software, written for windows, to linux so that the average joe will be able to use it. Is it so simple? Well, which distro will I do first? Mandrake? Redhat? Suse? Debian? Then what about those who use *BSD? There are so many choices. I mean its a great kernel, I use different distrobutions for all of my servers. I have no desire to mess with Active Directory or IIS.. But how can it take over the mainstream market when each distro is different.

    --
    "Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the life-long attempt to acquire it." -Albert Einstein
  5. GNU/Linux, Windows, and refusing to support MS by ValourX · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As with most people in the IT field I get a lot of requests for help from friends and family. It's almost never a hardware problem that they have -- it's always some virus or spyware program or some Windows corruption someplace. I found that I was reinstalling Windows every time I worked on someone's computer. And I was using my copies of Windows because they never had their own.

    The first thing I want to know is, just how many people are using pirated copies of Windows? I don't even know one person who is now using a legitimate copy of Windows. Why pay when your pal can get it from work, or now from the net? How does this figure into the estimates of Windows domination and market share? Surely if you only counted legitimate, purchased and properly licensed copies of Windows, the home user market share would be drastically lower. Businesses are more or less forced by threat of litigation, fines, and raids, to be legitimate. That's why the first wave of GNU/Linux migration has been happening in the business sector. No matter how many bullshit Gartner studies "prove" that Windows has a lower TCO, it just doesn't. It costs more to buy, it costs more to maintain, and it costs more to upgrade.

    I think the best thing that could happen to GNU/Linux right now is for Microsoft to crack down on home user piracy. Activation schemes are a step in the right direction. With more hassle, increased costs and the apparent (or at least, apparent to those who don't know how to get an activation crack) inability to get a copy from a friend, GNU/Linux will look like a much better choice to home users.

    But back to my main point: service. I have continued to refuse to service a Windows machine unless it involves replacing the operating system with a Free alternative. Don't like it? Find someone else to do the work... but it'll cost more. I think if more people refused to work on Windows for friends and family, the death of Windows as a dominant desktop platform would be much more speedy.

    -Jem