My Thoughts on the Future of Linux

In 1991 Linus Torvalds, a Finnish software engineer, created a small operating system kernel he called “Linux”. Back then, there was only one user; him. That quickly changed. Now there are millions of users and numerous different flavors of the operating system that was once one man’s pet project.

But what’s the future of Linux? With many different people being able to contribute to the source code, you would think that eventually everything would fall apart and Linux would become a giant mess.

But that hasn’t happened. But why? There are many different reasons. The reasons are the care given to the project, it’s open source platform, and the love of the community.

One of the ideals that keeps the Linux project alive and well is care. Without care, the project would simply fall apart. While Microsoft, Apple, and other companies that make commercial operating systems care about their projects, they also care about making a profit. In order to make a profit, they have to meet deadlines. The Linux project is different in the aspect. Since it’s an open source and free they don’t have to worry about missing a deadline and loosing profit. The work they do on the project is one set goal: to make it better.

Unlike Windows or Mac OS X, anyone can download and change the source code. In that aspect, anyone can add their own ideas to help improve the project. Although not all ideas get into the final version, every idea matters. That’s what makes this project great; anyone can help and contribute.

With millions of users, it’s safe to say that Linux is loved by many people (including me). That’s off the things that keeps it moving forward. Without the love of the community Linux, and any project, would fail. The love of a community is not an easy thing to get. The project has to be special in order for people to love and care for it.

Do I think Linux is going to continue to improve in the future? Absolutely. In fact, I know it will continue to improve. How do I know this? The love and loyalty of the userbase and the dedication of the contributors will keep the project growing in the many years to come.

Chrome OS: Haven’t You Heard of Linux?

After reading dozens, and I mean dozens of articles about Chrome OS and how it is going to be a hit to Microsoft and Apple. When reading the articles, they usually run down the features of the operating system, and the announcements that Google made about it.

Here is an example list from ZDnet.

Timing.

Note the 12-18 month delivery: they’ve been watching how M$ freezes the market with “strategic” pre-annoucements.

Pricing.

Free, as in open-source. M$ will have to fight for every dollar from netbook makers. Google should be handing out “Chrome OS” coffee cups to every M$ OEM starting with HP and Dell.

Target.

Developers: “For application developers, the web is the platform. . . . [it will give] developers the largest user base of any platform.”

Goal.

“. . . computers need to get better.” More like a big smartphone and less like a server – a clear swipe at M$.

Market.

“. . . small netbooks to full-size desktop systems.” Google is generously ceding the server OS market to M$ and Linux – for now.

Hm. Sounds a lot like something we know already huh?

Let’s go back to pricing. Notice that it says that it will be free and open-source. Just about every Linux distro is open source and completely free, all you have to do is download the disk image and burn it to a disk (excluding SUSE).

Let’s take a look at the market as well. Is linux aimed at netbooks as well? Yes. Linux is so lightweight, just as Google says Chrome OS will be, that it needs very little memory and processing power to run and still be fast, sometimes as little as 256MB-512MB of RAM.

I’m surprised Google gave the OS a target. You shouldn’t be “targeting” any certain group, if you are making an operating system, it’s best that you advertise it to be the best for EVERYONE, not a certain group. Bad on Google’s part. Even if they are including developer tools to really make it “special” for developers, it seems very un-google-like to not target the entire user base.

What’s all the hype about?

JD

My Bite Into Apple

http://mybiteintoapple.com