rdsmith writes "This week's Info World has a short article on Linux and its growth over the past few years. It makes a couple of mentions of ESR and the Halloween document. Although the article bases Linux's growth on numbers provided by Redhat, it's still good press for Linux. "
14 comments
What about 1998 ?
by
Anonymous Coward
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"We named Red Hat Linux 4.0 the desktop operating system of the year for 1996 and Red Hat Linux 5.0 as network operating system of the year for 1997. (See "The Best of 1996," and "Top products of 1997.")"
What About 1998 ?
Every day is Halloween....
by
Anonymous Coward
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I've never had a doubt that MS intentionally leaked the Halloween docs - that much is obvious.
What I never realized was the extent to which MS has control over the IT press. (Sure, ZDNet, CNET, et al. are all fully and shamelessly co-opted, but Infoworld? Dammit!)
Notice how every (EVERY!) article that mentioned linux over the last 2.5 months has mentioned the Halloween document, by name, with the same boilerplate text about how MS considers Linux a threat?
I used to think that MS wielded its power over the IT press inderectly, through veiled threats re: ad revenue. Now I'm starting to think they're handing out goddamn press kits with instructions on exactly what to say. (And not just to IT mags, but Newsweek, NYTimes, etc. etc.)
Of course, free software is the future, and the results of the DOJ trial will just affect the dimensions and time-scale of OSS's conquest. (The Supreme Court's recent non-ruling on software patents probably will end up having a greater effect.)
That doesn't make me any less cynical and bitter about the commercial press. Journalism (as the search for truth, as opposed to ad revenue) is, appparently, dead and buried.
--The more time goes by, the more I realize Devo was right.
IDG's report
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Anonymous Coward
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Well, I think there was a link to it here and if I remember it right, it estimated a market share of 17% for all COMMERCIAL UNIXES and they didn't estimate any exact number for linux...
what's wrong with a Microsoft Linux distro?
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Anonymous Coward
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as long as Microsoft's Linux distro is completely Free Software, what's the harm in it?
Leaks are real and likely.
by
Anonymous Coward
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Lots of geeks love Linux. Lots of geeks work for Microsoft to get money.
Can't you realize that it is _highly_ likely that there would be huge leaks on a regular basis? This isn't leaking Corel info to Corel or leaking Borland info to Borland. Such companies aren't loved by geeks even 1% as much as Linux is loved.
Linux people get the inside info because there are plenty of Linux users working for Microsoft. What, you think Microsoft does a background check and throws out job applicants tainted by Linux?
good press is getting old
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Anonymous Coward
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what are you going to do when linux is mainstream? braindead linux worship is dreadfully banal and furthremore entirely useless and microsoft/apple like.
well, here's something
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
as long as Microsoft's Linux distro is completely Free Software, what's the harm in it?
as long as microsoft is legally in the clear on the monopoly thing (and they probably will be), they can flex their muscles a lot more than they have been recently.
as long as they're flexing their (considerable) muscles, they'll just violate the GPL. nobody who wants the source would buy from them anyway. and who'll sue? linus? okay, linus.
can linus torvalds afford to sue microsoft? well, yeah, he can. lawyers do this stuff on spec. what he can't afford to do is win. with their cash reserves, they can keep a suit going forever. ultimately, linus will either settle or give up. any settlement that MS will agree too will involve them a continuation of the status quo, and giving up is just what it sounds like: the status quo once again.
bear in mind that MS has no desire to turn a profit on linux; they want to kill it. (i can't imagine the state of mind of the developers on MS's "java" product; how do you go to work every day knowing that your project isn't meant to work at all, that in fact the whole point is that it's broken beyond repair . ..)
ah, shit, it's late and i'm getting paranoid . . . still, it's a realistic scenario.
i've been predicting Microsoft(tm) Visual(tm) Linux(tm)++(tm) for months now. it's inevitable.
It's good to be thinking about this, because it
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
will happen, and soon. It is the very near future. Microsoft will exploit the hell out of Linux and free software, will do it legally, and will make tons of money on it. There's no question of it. Microsoft's edge will be its packaging, its support, and its control of access to the Internet. The future - get used to it.
Yeah, and it's scary
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Think about it: some magazine/paper/show does a hack job on MS. Suddenly, they find it more difficult to get support (if there is such a thing from MS), good pricing, etc. They--like everybody else--run Win* on every stinking PC they've got, so what can they do? Microsoft literally is in position to have an information-based society by the jugular by controlling every OS, every browser, every database, every app. If power corrupts...
I can't believe people are _SO_ willing to submit to such utter domination. Did I miss out on the chip implant or something? Perhaps there is something more sinister than we can even imagine behind the Windows "DNA" initiative.
I'm going to go drink myself into a stupor tonight. People are stupid and the world sucks.
17% of the SERVER market, based entirely on SALES, i.e. according to them 17% of the people who actually decided to pay for an web/ftp/whatever server decided they would rather buy a Linux package than anything else.
Two important words here are SERVERS (i.e. we are not talking about win95/98) and SALES (i.e. we are not talking about the ftp-downloads either)
Someone mentions a figure more than 7 million, which seemed to hang in there with the tenaciousness of a nasty cold.
--
"shop smart:shop s-mart" ash
Yes, every day is Halloween at InfoWorld.
by
CRConrad
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· Score: 1
Their Editor-in-Chief, Sandy Reed, is on record claiming "NT clearly is the future of computing". Just check their "Web-based voting" forum from March/April 1997; especially "Take a look at this Sandy Reed post". For some reason, the post mr Joswig refers to gives a 404 error... But then, IWE's forum software has a habit of crashing now and then, mysteriously mangling posts which make good points againt M$ and IW's pro-M$ bias (I know, it's happened to me too). Anyway, when mr Joswig wrote that, it was still there to be checked, so I don't think he made it up. Another goodie is her post Why should I apologize? -- Her unsubstantiated allegation that "OS/2 Zealots stuffed the ballot" (on the front page of the print edition) has not yet been retracted; all she did was a lame, half-hearted "apology" for calling them "zealots", buried inside her column a few weeks later.
Christian R. Conrad
Opinions are MINE, not my employer's -- Hedengren, in Finland.
--
Christian R. Conrad
mail me at iki.fi ; same user ID as here
Slashdot Mirror
What About 1998 ?
I've never had a doubt that MS intentionally leaked the Halloween docs - that much is obvious.
What I never realized was the extent to which MS has control over the IT press. (Sure, ZDNet, CNET, et al. are all fully and shamelessly co-opted, but Infoworld? Dammit!)
Notice how every (EVERY!) article that mentioned linux over the last 2.5 months has mentioned the Halloween document, by name, with the same boilerplate text about how MS considers Linux a threat?
I used to think that MS wielded its power over the IT press inderectly, through veiled threats re: ad revenue. Now I'm starting to think they're handing out goddamn press kits with instructions on exactly what to say. (And not just to IT mags, but Newsweek, NYTimes, etc. etc.)
Of course, free software is the future, and the results of the DOJ trial will just affect the dimensions and time-scale of OSS's conquest. (The Supreme Court's recent non-ruling on software patents probably will end up having a greater effect.)
That doesn't make me any less cynical and bitter about the commercial press. Journalism (as the search for truth, as opposed to ad revenue) is, appparently, dead and buried.
--The more time goes by, the more I realize Devo was right.
Well, I think there was a link to it here and if I remember it right, it estimated a market share of 17% for all COMMERCIAL UNIXES and they didn't estimate any exact number for linux ...
as long as Microsoft's Linux distro is completely Free Software, what's the harm in it?
Lots of geeks love Linux.
Lots of geeks work for Microsoft to get money.
Can't you realize that it is _highly_ likely
that there would be huge leaks on a regular basis?
This isn't leaking Corel info to Corel or leaking
Borland info to Borland. Such companies aren't
loved by geeks even 1% as much as Linux is loved.
Linux people get the inside info because there
are plenty of Linux users working for Microsoft.
What, you think Microsoft does a background check
and throws out job applicants tainted by Linux?
what are you going to do when linux is mainstream?
braindead linux worship is dreadfully banal
and furthremore entirely useless and microsoft/apple like.
as long as Microsoft's Linux distro is completely Free Software, what's the harm in it?
.)
as long as microsoft is legally in the clear on the monopoly thing (and they probably will be), they can flex their muscles a lot more than they have been recently.
as long as they're flexing their (considerable) muscles, they'll just violate the GPL. nobody who wants the source would buy from them anyway. and who'll sue? linus? okay, linus.
can linus torvalds afford to sue microsoft? well, yeah, he can. lawyers do this stuff on spec. what he can't afford to do is win. with their cash reserves, they can keep a suit going forever. ultimately, linus will either settle or give up. any settlement that MS will agree too will involve them a continuation of the status quo, and giving up is just what it sounds like: the status quo once again.
bear in mind that MS has no desire to turn a profit on linux; they want to kill it. (i can't imagine the state of mind of the developers on MS's "java" product; how do you go to work every day knowing that your project isn't meant to work at all, that in fact the whole point is that it's broken beyond repair . .
ah, shit, it's late and i'm getting paranoid . . . still, it's a realistic scenario.
i've been predicting Microsoft(tm) Visual(tm) Linux(tm)++(tm) for months now. it's inevitable.
will happen, and soon. It is the very near future. Microsoft will exploit the hell out of Linux and free software, will do it legally, and will make tons of money on it. There's no question of it. Microsoft's edge will be its packaging, its support, and its control of access to the Internet. The future - get used to it.
Think about it: some magazine/paper/show does a hack job on MS. Suddenly, they find it more difficult to get support (if there is such a thing from MS), good pricing, etc. They--like everybody else--run Win* on every stinking PC they've got, so what can they do? Microsoft literally is in position to have an information-based society by the jugular by controlling every OS, every browser, every database, every app. If power corrupts...
I can't believe people are _SO_ willing to submit to such utter domination. Did I miss out on the chip implant or something? Perhaps there is something more sinister than we can even imagine behind the Windows "DNA" initiative.
I'm going to go drink myself into a stupor tonight. People are stupid and the world sucks.
Didn't IDG give Linux a 17% market share, and Unix about the same?
IIRC, Linux had a 17.4% market share, and all the commercial unices combined had 17.6%.
Two important words here are SERVERS (i.e. we are not talking about win95/98) and SALES (i.e. we are not talking about the ftp-downloads either)
Someone mentions a figure more than 7 million, which seemed to hang in there with the tenaciousness of a nasty cold.
"shop smart:shop s-mart" ash
Their Editor-in-Chief, Sandy Reed, is on record claiming "NT clearly is the future of computing". Just check their "Web-based voting" forum from March/April 1997; especially "Take a look at this Sandy Reed post". For some reason, the post mr Joswig refers to gives a 404 error... But then, IWE's forum software has a habit of crashing now and then, mysteriously mangling posts which make good points againt M$ and IW's pro-M$ bias (I know, it's happened to me too). Anyway, when mr Joswig wrote that, it was still there to be checked, so I don't think he made it up. Another goodie is her post Why should I apologize? -- Her unsubstantiated allegation that "OS/2 Zealots stuffed the ballot" (on the front page of the print edition) has not yet been retracted; all she did was a lame, half-hearted "apology" for calling them "zealots", buried inside her column a few weeks later.
Christian R. Conrad
Opinions are MINE, not my employer's -- Hedengren, in Finland.
Christian R. Conrad
mail me at iki.fi ; same user ID as here