The gradual triumph of Linux, Aug 17, 2007

Open source moves at a different speed to commercial software. This has become apparent over the last decade as Linux and its Open Source fellow travelers (Apache, Open Office, MySQL, Firefox et al) gradually established their position in the software world.

Novell has introduced the SUSE Linux Enterprise Thin Client, a solution consisting of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and an image-creation tool kit that channel partners will be able to use to provide a finished thin-client solution to customers.

I chose SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop because of the general level of buzz plus the higher likelihood that businesses may try this (business-oriented) distro.

Have you heard of the media company Acacia? Probably not but actually quite a few web site owners have. Many of them have received FINAL NOTICES from Acacia Media Technologies Corporation (www.acaciaresearch.com). The leading light of Acacia (Newport Beach, California) is Robert A. Berman, who claims that his company owns a handful of U.S. Patents (Patents Nos. 5,132,992; 5,235,275; 5,550,863; 6,002,720; 6,144,702) and 17 International Patents covering the transmission and receipt of audio/video content via the Internet.

According to a survey of 200 small and medium businesses (SMBs) in the UK, conducted in September this year by Vanson Bourne on behalf of IBM, the use of Linux is growing in the UK SMB market. Indeed the survey indicates that 26 percent of small businesses already deploy Linux. Of those not yet using Linux, 15 percent said they are likely to use it in the future while a further 26 percent were undecided, and the remaining 59 percent had no current intention to adopt it.

"More than two dozen nations are considering proposals to promote or require the use of Linux in government offices" according to Erwin Gillich, deputy head of the city of Vienna's information technology unit, which is likely to choose Linux over Windows on 15,000 desktops. So, who are these nations?

Well, they include Japan, China and South Korea who are collaborating over a plan to "embrace alternative operating systems" to Microsoft - which means Linux. It includes India which sees Linux as aiding its fast growing software industry to become less dependent on US and European outsourcing and it includes Brazil where President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is finalizing a policy recommending that federal ministries, agencies and state enterprises install open-source software. (The goal is for 80% of government computers bought next year to feature open-source software). As well as Brazil you can add most of South America, including Peru where the government publicly dismissed a claim by Microsoft that governments that back open source were providing an unfair subsidy.

It qualifies because it spans so many platforms - from small devices up to IBM's zSeries mainframe. It also qualifies because, like TCP/IP, it doesn't actually belong to anyone. It runs on most chips and is rapidly becoming the developer platform of choice. So the idea is starting to emerge that you virtualise storage by the use of SANs and NAS and you virtualise server hardware by the use of Linux - thus making it feasible to switch applications from one server to another automatically, and quickly. Within this capability you can cater for failover and make highly efficient use of resources.

Sources close to the Redmond giant say the company is training 140 of its systems staff on Linux and Java - because it now realises Windows technologies will need to co-exist and interoperate with them in many enterprises.

The European arm of Banco do Brasil, the largest bank in South America, is switching from Windows to Linux to cut costs and centralise support.

Together, these developments indicate that Linux is still a headline grabbing system and is continuing to undergo rapid development. Clearly it is extremely unlikely that Windows' overwhelming dominance of the desktop is going to slump overnight or that Linux will take hold of a large slice of the end user market. However, with Linux evolving into a credible desktop platform and other desktop support architectures such as thin client offering reliable, manageable alternatives to Windows, Microsoft needs to watch its back. There are other options to desktop Windows.

IBM has chosen New York as the venue for its first ever Linux test centre. Situated in Big Blue's Madison Avenue offices, the new Linux Centre of Competence will be just a few miles from the heart of Wall Street, its principal target.

Marcelo Tosatti, the 18-year-old hacker commandeering the 2.4 kernel tree of Linux, reckons a cool head is what's needed to develop the open source operating system.

He maintained that infighting is one of the biggest problems with developing Linux. "I do not start ego fights. I set a target and I try to achieve it," he said. "You'll see people on the Linux Kernel List fighting for ego reasons: you know, 'I'm better than you'."

Is Microsoft worried? Apparently not, but it doesn’t think too much of the name. Many predicted last Autumn that the name might just get the legal eyes at Microsoft twitching and, sure enough, Lindows.com is now being sued for trademark infringement. Two products in the same line of business with very similar names – Lindows might just lose out on that one. Let’s hope its not all it loses out on.

Evolution as a product remains very firmly an open source tool but in January 2002 Ximian will start to sell software, Ximian Connector, to connect Evolution to Microsoft Exchange. This move by a stalwart open source supplier is further evidence that open source companies have to generate income and profits in order to survive. Connector will initially support Exchange 2000 with an Exchange v5.5 offering arriving later in the year.

Everybody knows there's no money to be had from a distribution business, the real money is in the services and integration and that means that we can all work together on the platform - that's what this is all about isn't it? There is an economic incentive for us all to work together on the kernel.

Talking about collaborative software, VA Linux has announced version 3.0 of SourceForge, which will be generally available from next week. VA Linux used to be a hardware vendor but as more and more of the 800lb gorillas started to offer Linux support on their hardware platforms, VA Linux quickly saw that hardware was not the route to fame and riches but more likely to famine and rags and it is no longer in that market.

Where there are clear economies to be gained, governments could and should lead the way in the use of open source. They also might like to consider trying to provoke open source developments for some of the software that they need, for example, in the local government area or for charities or for education. And the political wing of the open source movement should lobby governments to do so. It would do much more to advance their cause than posting derogatory remarks on the web every time someone makes a negative comment about Linux. Unfortunately, that is what they seem to spend much of their time doing

It's summer, it's humid, and it's the time of year when not very much happens. This year, in order to liven things up a little the boss of one of the major Linux companies has seen the light and mentioned the dreaded “C” word - consolidation. Caldera CEO, Ransom Love, has called for some consolidation of Linux distributors. He said, “There is no place for multiple Linux distributors. There's no business to be made from the bits and bytes of Linux.”

While Microsoft shuffles uneasily and talks down the advantages of open source, IBM has been embracing Linux with enthusiasm. Who would ever have thought that the old AS/400, one of the most proprietary systems ever sold, would one day run an open source operating system? Yet, support for Linux is serving IBM very well.

The announcement from Caldera came in a press release that covered the release of a whole bunch of new bits and pieces. The OpenLinux Workstation is the replacement for OpenLinux eDesktop and was announced along with new versions of the OpenLinux Server and Open UNIX products. The new workstation is aimed at developers of commercial Open Source applications based upon Java, C, C++ or the upcoming LSB standards. The list of features on offer suggests that considerable effort has been made to create a good quality product that will be useful to commercial Linux developers. The suggested price for a single license is $59 or $99 with support.