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Red Hat CEO: Open Source Goes Mainstream In 2014

Posted by Unknown on from the year-of-the-linux-lightbulb dept.

ashshy (40594) writes Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst likes to post "state of the union" addresses at the end of every year. Last December, he said that open source innovation is going mainstream in 2014. In an interview with The Motley Fool, Whitehurst matches up his expectations against mid-year progress. Spoiler alert: It's mostly good news.

6 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Finally! by lxw56 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The year of Linux on the desktop has arrived!

    1. Re:Finally! by r_naked · · Score: 3, Informative

      The year of Linux on the desktop has arrived!

      I know this was meant to be sarcastic, but it may be more true that you think.

      I have been an avid Linux supporter for use on servers for a long time, however, I refused to use it as a desktop OS for a couple of reasons:

      * There was no distro that I didn't have to open a shell for SOME reason -- to get something to work. I do systems administration for a living. I don't want to have to fucking tweak my box when I get home.
      * It was butt ugly. That may seem like a poor reason to not use an OS, but it is my opinion and I am entitled to it. I refuse to use Windows 8.x primarily for this reason -- it is fucking hideous. Monochrome? Really Microsoft?

      Both of those issues have now been addressed, and I am now completely MS free. I will be converting my parents, and my brother, and I will be spreading the word to my friends that aren't technically inclined.

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    2. Re:Finally! by r_naked · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If I had to open a shell for *any* reason -- even something trivially stupid, then I would immediately give up. If you had said 2012 or 2013, maybe. The last time I tried was in 2011 -- but 2004 -- LMAO! Linux distributions were most certainly NOT "load and go" back in 2004.

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  2. 2014 is the year of the Linux Desktop! by wiredog · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just like 2013,...,1995 (when I first installed RedHat 2 from a CD)

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  3. RedHat did a lot with RH7 by mlts · · Score: 4, Informative

    I would say that RedHat did a lot with RHEL 7, which, though not without issues, has added a lot of functionality:

    1: systemd is a decent boot mechanism. On a SSD-based machine, RHEL 7 will boot to a graphical login screen in five seconds, due to firing off daemons asynchronously.

    2: firewallD is of some benefit, but it adds the concept of zones, similar to how Windows works, which does help integrate Linux machines in a MS environment (where one has public, private, and domain networks.)

    3: Docker and containers are going to be a big thing going forward. This is similar to BSD jails, Solaris containers, or AIX WPARs, and provide decent package isolation without the need for a hypervisor.

    4: It looks like with the latest version of the Linux kernel released this week, that btrfs is stable enough for prime time. RHEL7 allows for a btrfs install. It may not have the bells and whistles of ZFS, but it is a step in the right direction, and files can be checked (and possibly repaired) for bit rot with a find and a btrfs scrub.

    5: The ability to use SSD as a "landing zone" for writes, then move those to a lower tier of disk.

    None of these features are revolutionary... but they do bring RedHat and its downstreams (CentOS) on par with AIX, Windows, and Solaris for enterprise level features.

    So, I can see that RedHat's future looks rosy, especially when it comes to virtualization and having a competitor in the enterprise to VMWare. VMWare still is top dog, but competition is always good.

  4. Re:We're already post-FOSS by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'd rather say that we have arrived at the point where software is complicated enough that you will have to pay for a competent (!) admin if you want to get more than the basics done. The difference between CSS and OSS is in that respect that it's way easier to pose as a halfway credible so-so admin in a CSS world with its wizards and gadgets, its online help and example config files.

    Competent OSS admins are rather rare. Because learning almost invariably means spending money and not just time.

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