Linux Spreads its Wings

securitas writes "Businessweek's 'Linux Spreads its Wings' Special Report discusses the growing use of Linux in a wide range of products that include mobile phones, cars, telecom gear and consumer electronics; Linux in China; an analysis of the SCO litigation; a look at how Novell's Linux strategy may bring the struggling, former technology high-flyer back from the dead, as well as other articles and interviews related to the growth and spread of Linux as a viable platform for both enterprise and consumer technology."

Comments

For women?

[Call Me Black Cloud]

It sounds too much like a maxi pad commercial. "New OS, with wings. For those heavier data flow days..."

Grrr

[JamesD_UK]

That's it! I'm fed up with the popular media misunderstanding linux and the free software movement. It is quite obvious if you've had the time to do any research that penguins swim and don't fly.

Re:Grrr

[Mateito]

They do if you hit them hard enough.

Re:Grrr

[JamesD_UK]

Indeed. So I guess the title of the story should be: Linux Spreads its... Fins?

No you're confused, Linux was spread by a Finn

This is extremely bad news

[gowen]

Penguins can't fly, you insensitive clod.

Re:This is extremely bad news

[paroneayea]

I disagree.

SCO taking a beating?

[Anonymous Coward]

SCO's stock seems to be taking a beating this morning. Any ideas as to why?

Re:SCO taking a beating?

[MyHair]

Probably because Baystar wants their $20mil back, RBC is expected to follow this week wanting their $30mil back, both with 20% penalties against SCO, nobody else will loan SCO money after major investors wanting their money back and SCO doesn't have enough to pay them back, much less continue the lawsuits afterward. Oh, and they don't seem to have many actual revenue-generating customers anymore.

Speculation considers that most of SCO's assets could be frozen pending settlement with Baystar/RBC assuming SCO fights the redemption claim.

But I wouldn't be surprised to see SCO spin an up story for a week or two and have the stock jump again before everything crumbles in two weeks to a few months.

Heh

[Pizentios]

Soon, i'll beable to put linux on my toaster.

Linux: Strong enough for a man

[Anonymous Coward]

PH balanced for a wind0ze luser

Why Linux will beat MS

[argoff]

Because MS is not competing with an operating system, they are competing with a paradigm. MS may have a market cap of half a trillion dollars, but the US economy puts out 12 trillion per year alone. If push comes to shove, it won't matter how big MS is - they will get squished like a bug. I renember when IBM spent billions back in the 80's to push the PS/2 (not playstation) on the market place to try and squeese out the x86's already out there. It didn't matter how big they were either, they got hammered.

Re:Why Linux will beat MS

[millahtime]

I don't know if I believe the Linux will be what takes down M$. Maybe open source will make a dent but Linux is not all of open source. You forget that there are a lot of projects that will impact that are not linux. And don't forget the BSDs (especially FreeBSD).

Think of it like a country with a 1 party political system. Then another one grows up from the grass roots. THe ordigional will never go away because there will always be die hards for it. M$ won't get squashed they will just have to compete in a market where they had no competition before.

Re:Why Linux will beat MS

[the_rev_matt]

You obviously are not an MBA or marketing type. I can tell, because you used the word "paradigm" properly.

Re:Why Linux will beat MS

[argoff]

FreeBSD allows forking pretty easially, Linux doesn't - so FreeBSD is less able to take exploit the fact that information is becomming commoditized. One of the consequences of being in the information age is that information is becomming commoditized, it has been for a long time, but now it's really taking off.

When a market becomes commoditized, that means that services tend to become more valuable than the item being traded. Translation - industries that rely on copyrights to restrict distribution and drive up profits are dead.

ARGH

[jmays]

This is the same old TYPE of article we have been reading for the past three years. A status article.

I now LOATHE Slashdot everytime I see an article about Linux either 'spreading it wings' or an article with the gist 'linux is dying'.

These STATUS articles are unbearable.

If I want to know the Linux, Windows or OS X market share I will look it up!

This is a random rant so feel free to mod mod mod.

Re:ARGH

[EisPick]

The content of the article may be "the same old," but it is important that this is running in Business Week, which is probably the most read magazine among corporate executives and wannabes.

It's articles like this that prod CEOs and CIOs to ask their staffs, "Why aren't we using Linux more?" Or they at least make executives more receptive to staff proposals that incorporate OSS.

If we're ever going to get to a tipping point where OSS is the first choice and MS "standards" are a second choice, more articles like this are needed in BW, Wall Street Journal, Fortune and Forbes.

Re:ARGH

[killjoe]

Come now. Yesterday Linux was dying because one sound card did not work WITH NINE DIFFERENT DISTROS.

Today Linux is alive and well and thriving.

You mean to tell me that this kind of dramatic turnaround is not news? Linux came back from the brink of death to picture of health in ONE DAY.

Now that's news!

Coders?

[NineNine]

What I'm wondering is if the Linux coders feel like real schmoes right about now because lots and lots of companies and people are making fortunes off of their work, and all they get is maybe one line in a hidden readme file that nobody will read? I know this'll get modded down, but I'm really curious. I know that if I did some work, then it was taken and used by lots of people to make lots of money, and I didn't even get a "thanks", I know I'd be pretty pissed off. Of course, they knew this going in, so why exactly do OSS people do this? It makes no sense.

Re:Coders?

[millahtime]

"so why exactly do OSS people do this?(he means work for little to no recognition or money) It makes no sense."

I would have to say there are several reasons. Some people work for a foundation like Linus. Others work for companies like IBM and get paid. Others may write it because it makes thier job easier. I worked with someone who contributed but the only things he wrote were things that made his job easier. Those who make little to no money for it though and do it on the side I will just never understand.

Re:Coders?

[ninjadroid]

Because we have massive balls.

Re:Coders?

[MyHair]

You think Linux and OSS coders feel like schmoes?

Let's see, they are independent coders who know the ins and outs of popular business software that's making money. If you're a company making money off of Linux/OSS and you need help debugging or customizing your implementation, who are you gonna hire?

Re:Coders?

[Just Some Guy]

I know that if I did some work, then it was taken and used by lots of people to make lots of money, and I didn't even get a "thanks", I know I'd be pretty pissed off.

I've already been thanked.

Now I'm saying "you're welcome."

There are other currency systems than "money", you know.

Re:Coders?

[_Sprocket_]

What I'm wondering is if the Linux coders feel like real schmoes right about now because lots and lots of companies and people are making fortunes off of their work, and all they get is maybe one line in a hidden readme file that nobody will read?

Just think of all the schmoes who got paid cut-rate wages to produce software for companies who then turn around and make fortunes off of their work. And they don't even have code to show for it. But hey - they knew that was the trade-off when they went in, right?

Re:Coders?

[imroy]

I know that if I did some work, then it was taken and used by lots of people...

There's your problem right there. You're using emotive language and I wouldn't be surprised to see you modded down because of it. A person can't really take something when it's already been given away, now can they?

Why do people write OSS? I just don't understand this question. I mean, is it that hard for people to understand someone wanting to contribute to a community project? It's not such an alien concept. Is it so different just because it involves writing software, instead of helping out at a local school or non-profit organization?

Re:Coders?

[jc42]

Well, getting a line of credit is more credit than I've gotten for most proprietary software that I've written. It's common practice in the corporate world to strip out all such credits from their software (especially the binaries), and replace them with a simple corporate claim.

Now, it may be true that I got paid to write those. But a lot of people are interested in more than just money. Fame, honor, and "Hey dummy, you should have done it this way ..." comments are worth a lot to some of us.

One of the widespread misunderstandings is that people are only motivated by money. The economists who believe this can't understand things like Open Source (and charitable organizations). But to those of us who understand that humans can have a lot of different motivations, including things like "honor", it's easy to explain such mysterious behavior.

Remember a couple of years back, when the OSS crowd got all upset with Sun including some Open Source software in their distributions? People weren't upset that Sun did this. They were mostly rather pleased, in fact. What was unacceptable was that Sun stripped out the credits from the code and documentation. That put Sun on our sh*t list, until they put the credits back in. Using something that is given away is fine; that's why it's given away. But refusing to give credit is unforgivable.

For an interesting example, look at the man pages on linux or BSD systems, and compare them with the man pages on commercial unix-like systems. With linux and *BSD, most of the man pages have an AUTHOR(S) section telling you who wrote it, though sometimes the person's name is in another section near the end. In commercial *nix systems, the man pages usually contain a corporate copyright notice but not the author name(s), though sometimes an actual human name does slip through.

Re:Coders?

[nathanh]

What I'm wondering is if the Linux coders feel like real schmoes right about now because lots and lots of companies and people are making fortunes off of their work, and all they get is maybe one line in a hidden readme file that nobody will read? I know this'll get modded down, but I'm really curious. I know that if I did some work, then it was taken and used by lots of people to make lots of money, and I didn't even get a "thanks", I know I'd be pretty pissed off. Of course, they knew this going in, so why exactly do OSS people do this? It makes no sense.

Ok, I'll attempt an answer. I'll be honest and admit that I'm an insignificant contributor. In the grand scheme of things I rate slightly lower than a slug's belly. But I've still put in a fair few hours. Why do I do it? Because in return I've received the equivalent of over $15,000 of s'ware on my desktop alone. Even better, my licenses for Linux (including BSD, GPL, ART) permit unlimited copies. I can install software whenever and where ever I feel like it, without going through the hassle of paying some obscure company and getting a silly number that makes the software work.

The incredible thing is that when you have a million developers all providing insignificant little contributions, you get a very significant end product. I'm not saying that all developers are insignificant - some Linux developers have contributed far more than anybody else - but the concept is true for the rest of us: I give a little and I receive a lot. I get back far more than I put in. So I'm willing to keep putting something back in. I don't need thanks (nor would I expect any considering my insignificance) because all this great software is even better.

Now if I worked on BSD code I'd probably feel differently. Those guys are exploited schmucks ;-D

Linux installs now easier than ever

[scumbucket]

The growth may be attributed to the ease of installing Linux from a CD-ROM based install script. I certainly have found it the easiest and fastest way to install a linux distro - and now with apt-get, installing applications onto Linux has been made easier as well.

Linux is becoming the standard interface

[RoLi]

...between hardware and software.

It runs on (almost) all hardware architectures and supports a huge open-source application library which can be recompiled for all hardware architectures.

Mindshare, application library and number of users will continue to increase in all computing, yes even on the desktop.

Re:Offended

[Mateito]

News at 11:

Most older women _are_ technically incompetant.

You, as a slashdot poster, are obviously not. Nor is my mother.

If you had to pseudocode the role of women in that generation, it would be something like:

do
cook
clean kitchen
breed
repeat until dead

There is nothing in there about gaining technical competency. Most older women are not technically competant because its never been a part of their lives.

Linux spreads it's wings, but not to the Desktop?

[MrNybbles]

Using Linux in embeded products is one of the strong points of Linux: no directly messing with the Kernel by the user (no compiling, no inserting modules, no figuring out what exact chipset your sound card is, etc.) This makes Linux easy to use by anyone. Of course being custom fit to the device by the manufacturer helps a lot.

However, I don't see any mention of any Desktop Linux breakthroughs. Why? As far as I can tell there are two general types of computer users: those who want the computer to set itself up as much as possible and those who want total control over their computer and don't mind learning more than they ever set out to know about their computer.

If a decent Desktop Linux Distro ever comes out that is loved by the first group I can see the second group griping about how much it takes control away from the user. But wouldn't taking control away from the user be the goal of such a distro?

But that's what I think. I could be wrong.

Couldn't resist...

[mastropiero]

This came to my head instantly...

Don't get me wrong, I like the penguins... it's just funny... Oh well, there goes my karma....

Novell Reborn

[Asprin]

I just want to throw in my 2 cents and say that the Linux deals Novell has made in the past year are real head-slappers.

You know, "Dang! why didn't I think of that?"

For years, Novell has been looking at the Windows as an internet application server platform and for a while, they wanted Netware to compete. Finally, they found a way to make it happen - big time. They also bring to Linux all their years of experience with Netware, Groupwise and file and user security and directory services, so I even expect other projects like Samba and Filesystem ACLs will benefit too.

Dust off the red markers, boys, the 'N' is back in town.