Gservo
2nd February 2003, 01:10 PM
Thought this was intresting
By JACK KAPICA
Globe and Mail Update
It's been a source of some embarrassment that it took me so long to jump into the penguin pool with the rest of the Linux crowd.
This all changed over the past few weeks, as the Linux penguin logo seemed to be everywhere. Three factors helped me along: the much-heralded arrival of version 8.0 of Red Hat's Linux, the near-frenzied noise leading up to this week's LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in New York, and the thrall of Kim Lux, an anointed Calgary-based Linux evangelist who patiently guided me in installing Red Hat — all by e-mail.
"The question is this: Is RH8 ready for the desktop?" asked Mr. Lux when we stopped to admire our success.
It's not an easy question to answer, and I'll have to play a little longer with Linux before it's safe to make a pronouncement.
But one thing is obvious: Linux is definitely making a serious run at the popular, non-nerdy imagination.
And its success is continuing in the corporate world, where Linux has been winning a lot of followers. It has even forced Microsoft to change its tune about the product whose open-source supporters hope will be the downfall of Bill Gates and company. In an interview with CNETnews.com this week, Microsoft honcho Peter Houston took a much humbler approach to Linux than his company had in the past, when it rejected Linux as a "cancer" and a threat to all intellectual property. In finally taking Linux seriously, Microsoft is offering the open-source operating system the ultimate compliment: respect.
Too many predictions that Linux will slay the dragon of Redmond have been tainted by neurotically wishful thinking. This is not to say Linux won't do damage to Microsoft; industrial barons throughout history have all eventually fallen (remember the tycoons Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould and J.P Morgan?), and given way to a more diversified field.
What's more, the open-sourced Linux, supported mainly by a rag-tag gaggle of inspired and gifted geeks, is fighting classic guerilla warfare, which has historically proved to be enormously successful against massively armed and regimented opponents.
But over the past couple of years some of the heaviest hitters outside of Redmond have entered the fray, and are pushing Linux as the basis for their large-scale business applications. IBM's Louis Gerstner embraced the penguin three years ago, and his successor, Sam Palmisano, has put the penguin at the centre of Big Blue's current strategy ("You cannot operate on proprietary controls," he said in October). Two other giants, Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems, have also joined IBM.
Observers who like to measure the world believe Linux is still far away from bringing Mr. Gates to his knees. IDC, the research group, says sales of Linux-powered servers stand at a mere $8-billion (U.S.) in the world's $200-billion server business. This is not really a fair comparison, because the figures mix prices for hardware and software; Linux is free (only its customizable add-ons are proprietary), and it's therefore difficult to do a cost comparison that way.
IDC is more persuasive when it notes that Linux has enjoyed an annual growth of 6 per cent last year, while systems based on Unix, the estranged parent of Linux, have dropped 2 per cent.
But if Unix is the main victim of Linux, it's more than likely Microsoft will also feel the pressure. A scant few months ago we saw the launch of Microsoft Business Solutions, created by the purchases of Great Plains and Navision, which runs on the expensive and still-teething .NET technology. This in turn requires ever-faster processors and is designed for roughly the same market that is now being chewed up between Unix and Linux.
Linux promoters are rubbing their hands with glee over this. They have several serious weapons to use against Microsoft, among them a much lower deployment cost, a better security track record and support from heavyweights at Hewlett-Packard, Sun and IBM (Dan Frye, head of Big Blue's Linux team, estimates that half the world's 1,000 or more full-time Linux developers work for big tech companies).
A bigger gun in the arsenal is the fact that Linux is free, or close to it. It's a weapon Microsoft itself used to devastating effect seven years ago, when it decided to give away Internet Explorer. At the time, IE's share of the browser market was negligible — "Call it zero," Mr. Gates said on Pearl Harbor Day, 1995, when he declared war on the mighty Netscape. His tactic closely resembles the one Linux supporters are using against him now.
The biggest threat, I think, is not software, but hardware: Linux requires much less processing power to run than Microsoft products. Some years ago, when Microsoft boss Bill Gates was asked why his newest software was always designed for the fastest and most expensive processors, he dismissed the question, saying that hardware is not his concern.
That attitude may have been excusable in the go-go years, but today it amounts to arrogance. It's compounded by the Microsoft Software Assurance program, by which the company seeks to tie its customers to long-term contracts. While critics of the program largely focus on the relative cost of Microsoft's software upgrades, they often ignore the hardware upgrades that will necessarily accompany them. If enough IT managers figure that they can save big bucks in hardware as well as software by going with Linux, then a revolution is inevitable.
Ultimately, a successful future for Linux should be based on acceptance by both the hobbyist and business communities. If history is any guide, the most exciting advancements in Linux should trickle up into the corporate world from the kids and tinkerers, helped along by companies nimble enough to follow them. Microsoft was nimble at one time, before it decided to be less obedient to the market and more dictatorial.
Which brings us back to Kim Lux, the Calgary evangelist. He's promoting the penguin his own way: He's planning to introduce people to the operating system by selling hard disks with Linux pre-installed, ready to run. That very idea gives an indication of the kind of threat the penguin poses.
I wish him luck.
By JACK KAPICA
Globe and Mail Update
It's been a source of some embarrassment that it took me so long to jump into the penguin pool with the rest of the Linux crowd.
This all changed over the past few weeks, as the Linux penguin logo seemed to be everywhere. Three factors helped me along: the much-heralded arrival of version 8.0 of Red Hat's Linux, the near-frenzied noise leading up to this week's LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in New York, and the thrall of Kim Lux, an anointed Calgary-based Linux evangelist who patiently guided me in installing Red Hat — all by e-mail.
"The question is this: Is RH8 ready for the desktop?" asked Mr. Lux when we stopped to admire our success.
It's not an easy question to answer, and I'll have to play a little longer with Linux before it's safe to make a pronouncement.
But one thing is obvious: Linux is definitely making a serious run at the popular, non-nerdy imagination.
And its success is continuing in the corporate world, where Linux has been winning a lot of followers. It has even forced Microsoft to change its tune about the product whose open-source supporters hope will be the downfall of Bill Gates and company. In an interview with CNETnews.com this week, Microsoft honcho Peter Houston took a much humbler approach to Linux than his company had in the past, when it rejected Linux as a "cancer" and a threat to all intellectual property. In finally taking Linux seriously, Microsoft is offering the open-source operating system the ultimate compliment: respect.
Too many predictions that Linux will slay the dragon of Redmond have been tainted by neurotically wishful thinking. This is not to say Linux won't do damage to Microsoft; industrial barons throughout history have all eventually fallen (remember the tycoons Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould and J.P Morgan?), and given way to a more diversified field.
What's more, the open-sourced Linux, supported mainly by a rag-tag gaggle of inspired and gifted geeks, is fighting classic guerilla warfare, which has historically proved to be enormously successful against massively armed and regimented opponents.
But over the past couple of years some of the heaviest hitters outside of Redmond have entered the fray, and are pushing Linux as the basis for their large-scale business applications. IBM's Louis Gerstner embraced the penguin three years ago, and his successor, Sam Palmisano, has put the penguin at the centre of Big Blue's current strategy ("You cannot operate on proprietary controls," he said in October). Two other giants, Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems, have also joined IBM.
Observers who like to measure the world believe Linux is still far away from bringing Mr. Gates to his knees. IDC, the research group, says sales of Linux-powered servers stand at a mere $8-billion (U.S.) in the world's $200-billion server business. This is not really a fair comparison, because the figures mix prices for hardware and software; Linux is free (only its customizable add-ons are proprietary), and it's therefore difficult to do a cost comparison that way.
IDC is more persuasive when it notes that Linux has enjoyed an annual growth of 6 per cent last year, while systems based on Unix, the estranged parent of Linux, have dropped 2 per cent.
But if Unix is the main victim of Linux, it's more than likely Microsoft will also feel the pressure. A scant few months ago we saw the launch of Microsoft Business Solutions, created by the purchases of Great Plains and Navision, which runs on the expensive and still-teething .NET technology. This in turn requires ever-faster processors and is designed for roughly the same market that is now being chewed up between Unix and Linux.
Linux promoters are rubbing their hands with glee over this. They have several serious weapons to use against Microsoft, among them a much lower deployment cost, a better security track record and support from heavyweights at Hewlett-Packard, Sun and IBM (Dan Frye, head of Big Blue's Linux team, estimates that half the world's 1,000 or more full-time Linux developers work for big tech companies).
A bigger gun in the arsenal is the fact that Linux is free, or close to it. It's a weapon Microsoft itself used to devastating effect seven years ago, when it decided to give away Internet Explorer. At the time, IE's share of the browser market was negligible — "Call it zero," Mr. Gates said on Pearl Harbor Day, 1995, when he declared war on the mighty Netscape. His tactic closely resembles the one Linux supporters are using against him now.
The biggest threat, I think, is not software, but hardware: Linux requires much less processing power to run than Microsoft products. Some years ago, when Microsoft boss Bill Gates was asked why his newest software was always designed for the fastest and most expensive processors, he dismissed the question, saying that hardware is not his concern.
That attitude may have been excusable in the go-go years, but today it amounts to arrogance. It's compounded by the Microsoft Software Assurance program, by which the company seeks to tie its customers to long-term contracts. While critics of the program largely focus on the relative cost of Microsoft's software upgrades, they often ignore the hardware upgrades that will necessarily accompany them. If enough IT managers figure that they can save big bucks in hardware as well as software by going with Linux, then a revolution is inevitable.
Ultimately, a successful future for Linux should be based on acceptance by both the hobbyist and business communities. If history is any guide, the most exciting advancements in Linux should trickle up into the corporate world from the kids and tinkerers, helped along by companies nimble enough to follow them. Microsoft was nimble at one time, before it decided to be less obedient to the market and more dictatorial.
Which brings us back to Kim Lux, the Calgary evangelist. He's promoting the penguin his own way: He's planning to introduce people to the operating system by selling hard disks with Linux pre-installed, ready to run. That very idea gives an indication of the kind of threat the penguin poses.
I wish him luck.