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Linus's Baby Comes of Age
just_another_sean writes "Torvalds' Baby Comes of Age - BusinessWeek Online is running a story on how Linux has matured over the years. They have some positive things to say about it, and back up their statements with some examples and stats." From the article: "Hardware companies are selling more than $1 billion in servers to run Linux every quarter, while sales of servers running proprietary software continue to fall. And now, slowly but surely, Linux is making inroads on the desktop as well. According to IBM, 10 million desktops ran Linux in 2004 -- a 40% jump from a year ago. That progress has been an important foot in the door for all open-source companies. Marc Fleury, chief executive of open-source middleware company JBoss, describes the Linux operating system pioneered by Torvalds as the older brother who fought the tough battles and was able to get the curfew extended and the keys to the car, so that life was a lot easier for the rest of the open-source world. "
Comment removed based on user account deletion
So is the GPL really such a handicap?
It's time for the terrible TEENS! LOL! Now Linus will be called Linu$ and he'll run an evil corporation.
Click here or here.
He does.
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/torvalds/pat.gif
------ Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.
I doubt that, a kernel allone doesn't make a server. I'd say its thanks to apache group (apache, tomcat, ...), php, samba and all the other services that you can provide and that can replace properitary services. ...
Same for the desktop. It's thanks to KDE/Gnome that it gets more and more accepted on the desktop. The kernel is just one small part
But well, manager & business journalist. Lets keep it simple and add a pie graphic!
"Freiheit ist immer auch die Freiheit des Andersdenkenden" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1871 - 1919
As seen on Slashdot: the GPL hinders the development of Linux.
(Yes, this is funny. Laugh.)
So, on one hand we have ZDNet telling us the GPL is bad, bad, bad. On the other hand, we have BusinessWeek telling us Linux is going places. Oh, and Steve Ballmer says the GPL is for communist bearded hippies. Go figure. I guess somebody did not get the memo or something.
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
That would imply sexual intercourse, thus we can infer from the contrapositive, that it's not possible for geeks to have children.
Wanted: Clever sig, top $ paid, all offers considered.
this contradicts Paul Murphy's earlier article.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
For a second there, I thought Linus had a kid...
:-o
Actually, he's married and has three kids, all girls. Yes, fellow slashdotters, our favorite geek hero has trascended beyond the realms of our known universe: He COULD get a girlfriend!
\o/ \o/ All nerds bow to Linus the Great! \o/ \o/
Mox
For web servers, even j2ee application servers and open source stuff linux is fine and dandy, where i can't stand it is enterprise applications.
:(
I can't stand the horrible certification matrix that is a joke on RedHat AS. I can't stand the fact that vendors lock into specific redhat releases and NONE of those locks carry forward. I can't stand the fact that Redhat doesn't seem to care. "contact your software vendor".
Hence, i love solaris for enterprise applications - i'm talking about financial back end systems, i'm talking about heavy duty bpel, oracle sso, applicaitons 11i, oracle 10g grids and everything else. RedHat's TCO because of the lack of supported arch's is more than solaris or even HPUX which is downright scary.
I love my redhat boxen, i wish i could standardize on that platform. Why the hell hasn't the market caught up? i mean for christs sake oracle preaches linux day in and day out yet i have to run AS 2.1 or AS 3.0 and i can't run 64bit database back ends in certain mixes nad i have to have oracle kernel versions for this and that and yet all of this is supposed ot come together in some "proposed" future date.
They've only been saying that for 5 years now
For all those 10 million desktops, i'm not seeing it translate to Web site hits.
That tells me that most of those desktops are essentially dumb terminals, running turnkey applications, rather than real user desktops where the user is free to do whatever they wish.
I'm sure someone will argue that browser agent strings aren't reliable, and that they can be forged, but most of the browsers actually report themselves as Linux, even if they pretend to be IE.
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Actually when I first read that I thought they were talking about one of his kids. I was thinking to myself, why is this news? :)
Maybe a little off topic, but I've always wondered what Linus runs on his computer.
What about the retarded kid locked in the basement, Hurd?
Now THIS has GOT to mean next year is the year of Linux on the desktop!!! Right guys? ... Anyone?
Article?
It was a blog entry... a damned zdnet blog entry at that.
...Rob
The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
I see no pie graphic!
Actually, they do not. In fact, right now, my browser is set to appear to be firefox on windows and that is exactly what you or /. would read it as. Why, you ask? I prefer to keep it quiet as to the real number of Linux desktops. Every time, I set up a desktop, I change the konqi defaults to read like MSIE (and lately like firefox). The less info that companies like IDG, Gartner, and MS have, the lower the likelyhood that they can mess with things. In the mean time, the industry is moving back to standards and away from MS only.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Anyhow, last December I got a Linksys wireless ethernet adapter and put it in my main desktop, a Windows ME machine (I haven't bought a new machine since the market crashed in spring 2000). Except it didn't work - perhaps it only wanted to work on Windows XP or something. Anyhow, the drivers for the adapter fried all my networking. I kept working on it, and finally decided to reinstall my C drive. Except it's not like Windows 95 with its decent install disks, I have these crappy OEM Windows ME repair disks. OK, so I backup everything I need on C and go. Well, the crappy OEM CD not only blows away C (which I expected), but blows away the D drive as well to write just one file. So I stop everything, and ponder how I am going to get my stuff off D which I need. So I install Debian on drive C, and rescue the important stuff on D. I also pull my stuff off drives E and F. Then I blow everything away and reinstall Debian for my entire disk.
I have to say, I have missed Windows a lot less than I thought I would. My main concern was being able to read and send Microsoft Word documents, but I haven't had to send a Word document in months, and I haven't had a problem reading the few I need anyhow. So I haven't even had to use the Linux programs that say they can help compensate for this. My roommate has a Windows box anyhow, so I can always use his if I'm desperate (or make other arrangements). I've been using UNIX for a long time and love being able to run Apache, MySQL, PERL, PHP etc. on my computer. I have Mediawiki and osCommerce running locally just for testing, and I have my own MySQL tables and PHP/Apache and PERL scripts as well.
I haven't needed Microsoft like I thought I would. Also, I should point out, I switched because Microsoft has gotten worse (OEM repair CDs instead of the old, easy Microsoft vanilla install/reinstall CDs), and Linux has gotten better (which includes GNOME/KDE etc.) I switched due to necessity, not because I am a free software zealot, although I appreciate free software zealots and can be one myself sometimes. I should also add that my wireless adapter worked fine - Linux had the drivers for it. Windows had the drivers as well - but only for XP (ones that didn't blow away your machine). I would have had to shell out money to upgrade my OS to use my new device. You don't have this problem with Linux.
As far as me being a tech, and this not effecting the population, I disagree. I write software, as do many of us, and this is really what effects things. If all the techs begin writing lots of software for Linux, this changes the dynamics of things. There's an old saying "if you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow". Microsoft no longer has me by the balls, which means my mind no longer has to follow them.
Sorry, but Stallman of www.fsf.org was the one, and Linus made an important contribution (the kernel was only one of many pieces needed by the OS), but not as important as those made by the guy who failed to name anything after himself.
First we needed an editor (emacs), then a compiler (gcc), a bunch of utilities (things like cp got written by the fsf), a license (the GPL), and only after all that Stallman originated stuff was in place were we ready for a kernel.
Hans
What a lame attempt at flamebait.
Opensource is hardly Linus' baby, more like RMS. Not discounting Linus: it was of course smart of him to use the opensource concept, and he can surely code me into a corner.
Plus, don't forget: the kernel is not the (only) thing that makes linux great, it's all the tools Apache/Perl/gnome/kde etc that live on top of it.
Well, just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean everyone else is. What evidence do you have that any most people using Linux are changing their user agent strings from the defaults to masquerade strictly as a windows browser?
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According to the Computer Industry Almanac (may only include IBM-PCs, but close enough) and this article, Linux desktops are on about 1.2% of all desktops. Better than I could ever do with a little hobby OS I guess.
How many more years of Slashdot articles saying "Linux is dramatically gaining desktop share" are we going to see before that percentage even hits double digits?
Take off your "M$" hating blinders and smell my special blend of coffee: it's called "Linux as you know it is not destined for a large share of desktops and won't topple 'evil M$' period." Long name, but focus groups liked it over "OpenFolgers".
must ... read ... before posting
Someone else already started that flamewar.
curfew extended and the keys to the car,
that's the easy part. getting laid^H^H^H^Haccepted by PHBs as being suitable 'enterprise grade' computing is the hard part
vodka, straight up, thank you!
Think Different. Think Better. Think Apple.
Aaghh... Strong signs of Apple marketing brainwash!
Me, too. I do something very similar. There are six home desktop computers on which I have installed Linux (for myself and family members). Three of them never access the Internet. The other three do, but I have them set up to fake being MS/IE machines. Just makes life easier.
A lot of people change the default because of so many sites that freak out if the UA string is anything other than IE (though in recent years it has gotten a LOT better, there are stil some things that only check if its IE or an ancient version of Netscape). Generally its easy to change the default then do it on a site by site basis.
I think it just means he's 18. Imply what you will.
Do I think that all the Linux's konqi's and firefox's change their strings? No.
But I think that a good percentage of them do, just to avoid the inevitable hassle that comes from dealing with the IIS sites that try to block.
Can I offer you evidence of such? Other than a number of us here (and at distros, Gnome and KDE sites) who say that they do this, No. But then again you have no evidence and no logic that says otherwise.
Plain and simple, tracking the linux installs via the browsers is a wasted effort. About the only thing that it will tell you is the fake absolute maximum of Windows and the minimal minimums of Linux. Nothing more.
Now, as to the paranoid crap, you are starting to sound like you are from D.C.. Just because I elect to make life easier on those that I help as well as deny others information, does not make one paranoid. But it does make you judgemental and pretty much an idiot.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Proprietary software revenues aren't falling. Microsoft sets record profits every quarter, and Unix is seeing a resurgence. Business Week apparently has some fanbois on its staff.
I personally don't want Linux to become mainstream. I forsee two paths for Linux, it stays out of the lime light and semi-underground (I know that sounds funny, but go to a public place and shout "Linux is so cool!" and note all the blank stares you get) and stays a great OS or it goes mainstream and it turns into just another way to make money for some CEO who takes all the credit for an unkown developer's work. Stay right where you are Linux.
Why is Slashdot portscanning me????
Torvalds has a baby. She's almost 5 now. How about we say "Linus' Software Comes of Age" instead. You perverts.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
The point I was trying to make was that we had zdnet earlier telling us that linux growth had slowed because the gpl was holding it back and then here we have an ibm study showing 40% growth of linux on the desktop. Maybe I should have included a sarcasm tag...
"We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!" -- Kurt Vonnegut
So, this means his kid has started being interested in women. I've seen him checking out Mac OS X, but I don't think a there will be a serious relationship after.
Perhaps this year will be The Year Of Linux On The Desktop(TM).
RedHat is for suckers. Personaly I prefer Debian. Many buisnesses should be considered suckers in my book. Perhaps this is a reason for RedHat's success in the buisness world; Buisnesses feel safer and more secure about a product that is obscenely overpriced, this imo is also a good explination for why buisnesses continue to use m$ server products.
*834|^*
It's been a long day....sorry for the drained brain.
IBM spokesperson: There were 10 million desktops running Linux in 2004.
Business week: All at the same time?
IBM spokesperson: Well, no. We were going to take 5 million PCs out of stock and load Linux on them before installing Windows, but then we decided to load Linux on a single PC and move it from desktop to desktop. It was much cheaper.
You know how at concerts, chicks throw underwear at hot rock stars?
Well, ten years ago, I meant to email Linus some ASCII art underwear.
(Wow but that was a long time ago.)
That would mean, what? Kernel hacking? Yeah, that is pretty sick. But HOT.
Excellent, so now I can have sex with my Linux machine without risking arrest!
It is really astounding to me how few free thinkers there are in the world.
If you compare the behavior of businesses/investors to that of high school cliques, you'll find few differences. It's all about trends and fads and nothing about individual ambition or purpose. Indeed, even the language spoken at the highest echelons of these companies is decidedly more inane than the babbling of a bunch of valley girls.
Kudos to IBM for setting a new and good trend for all the sheep to follow.
I think it's because they are checking for proxy servers and whatnot. Not sure, I just think I've read that here somewhere.
For those who say that Windows is destined to own the desktop, 10 Million at 40% is one hell of a demographic/trend. 20% with a base of a 2 million would be enough to make any astute business student pee in their pants. In fact, I can't find the data, but from my memory that kind of uptake is stronger then Microsoft was. At this point, there must be serious market forces behind the wheel. And they are happening in spite of an entrenched well financed competitor??? I would say all hell is going to break loose in the next few years or so.
gigity gigity gigity ~ horney guy on the family guy show yeah im not sure about the spelling though...
It's really a money making scheme by Malda, he collects open proxies and sells the list to script kiddies.
It's NOT Linus' baby, for god's sakes.
You could use the GNU utils on FreeBSD and be just as fucking happy.
Linus contributed the kernel. Big Fucking Deal! Grow up already.
Linus gave birth to a penguin?
Is it a penguin-man hybrid?
Or is it a purebred penguin?
" Commie Bearded Hippies" That's cuz Ballmer was the model for the original cabbage patch doll.
Linus' baby is a GENTOO?
Sigh, can't stop myself from correction facts in a joke. I have to get this besserwisser tendency under control. :-(
Please, someone, post exact number of genes (according to alternative splicing, silencing, etc) lost so I can feel I'm not worse than the spelling nazis. :-(
Karma: Excellent (My Karma? I wish...:-( )
So he has a lesbian kid? Let the rumours fly! :-)
-- Cheers!
The figures for desktop Linux use are always a little vague. Are they just counting the States and Western Europe or the whole world? How do they account for Win/Linux dual boot systems which may well be the norm for a lot of early adopters?
Linux has great attractions for the developing world where folks either can't afford the Wintel upgrade crack or are leery of it for political reasons. Yesterday, for example, it was announced that Sun Wah Linux will be rolled out on 150,000 PCs in Chinese schools, arguably a more solid achievement for open sauce than yesterday's Google/Sun lovefest. It's possible that an increase in desktop Linux in the West will be prompted by its widespread use everywhere else first.
Las qué passoun
tournoun pas maï
I agree, but that's not what I said. Even if they've changed their UA string to say IE, it will still report as running on Linux, unless they completely override the entire string (Mozilla/Firefox provide both UA string override and UA string). Apart from the fact that most users don't even know how to change their UA (Opera provides a nice GUI to do it, but Opera's share is pretty small, even on Linux), most would just change the Browser name reported.
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"10 million desktops ran Linux in 2004 -- a 40% jump from a year ago."
Great Scott Marty!
What year IS it?
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
Ever since 1998, i've been waiting for this to happen, Most people are finally using Linux THANK GOD!!!!!!