You will notice a Linux theme in today’s post. It seems to me we are getting closer and closer to a major shift to open source in government and business. The gap between Windows and Linux from a user point of view is narrowing and the switch makes a lot of sense monetarily. You will see examples of this in the blog posts below and a little bit about the challenges Linux still faces. Enjoy!
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes on Computer World Blogs about Google and the Linux Desktop. Is Google the missing link Linux needs to compete with Microsoft?
So, when you look at the whole picture, I think both Google and the Linux desktop are more than ready to make the battle for the desktop a real fight. Since this can only work to Google’s advantage and Microsoft’s disadvantage, I’m still expecting to see the first Google Linux desktops to appear by the end of 2009.
Continuing with the Linux them today, Ryan Paul writes on Ars Technica about “French police: we saved millions of euros by adopting Ubuntu“.
A recent report has revealed that France’s national police force has saved an estimated 50 million euros since 2004 by adopting open source software and migrating a portion of the organization’s workstations to Ubuntu Linux. They plan to roll out the Linux distro to all 90,000 of their workstations by 2015.
Ron Schenone writes on Locker Gnome about “Linux – It’s That Time Again to Play With it“. I am actually considering replacing Vista with Ubuntu on my home PC. The only thing holding me back is my games. Maybe WINE can help with that.
I just finished reading an article from John Dvorak who appears to be a Linux convert, after trying Ubuntu. He states that he was surprised how well the OS operates and cites his dislike of Windows because of malware and other problems associated with the OS.
A post written on the Eee-PC Blog states that the Market Needs to Change For Linux Netbooks to Pick Up Faster.
According to Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, “the Linux netbook market is not realizing its full potential” because the manufacturers are “employing an outdated business model.” Overall, he noted, the only thing the sorry state of Linux on netbooks is doing is giving Microsoft a chance to gain even more market share in a new category besides laptops and desktops, while the open source alternatives are being overshadowed as usual.
A post written on DoctorMO’s Blog touches on Linux: The Hardware Testing Problem. There are some valid points about the uncertainty of hardware testing on the Linuc platform.
How can we possibly look at device support, when we’re not even sure what works and what doesn’t with each new version of the linux kernel?
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I like the concept, but we have a long way to go when convincing novice users to give up their Windows. Sometimes people won’t switch just because they don’t like change, and Windows is all they have ever known.
I also love when people trot out the standing argument that Windows sucks because of all of the malware and virus infections. Well guess what? If some other OS dominates the landscape like MS, it won’t take long for the hackers to swing their big guns in it’s direction. MS is not the problem, just the symptom.
Having said that, I have not, nor will I ever, pay for a MS OS…