techMonday, January 02, 2006
The Advancement of *nix
*nix refers to any Unix-like system - a UNIX derivative or clone. I am specifically referring to the state of open source Unices including GNU/Linux. I am mainly referring to GNU/Linux1, but these days, many open source Unices share a lot of code and so develop in parallel.
Anyhow, This rate of development is fairly rapid. It seems that the capabilities of the GNU/Linux Desktop are advancing much faster than their proprietary counterparts (You know, like the OS that nearly everyone uses). Linux has been usable as a Desktop system for more than a few years now, complete with Internet browsing, word processing, spreadsheeting, desktop publishing, photo editing, etc. And with many options for specific applications in any of these areas. You can even get MS Office (and a lot of other Windows apps) to run in linux with the help of CrossOver Office from Codeweavers. And most of the MS Office open source alternatives, like Open Office, are compatible with MS Office Documents.
I would not be surprised if, eventually, Linux were to become the dominant operating system. Windows would shrivel up and blow away. The bigger Linux gets, the more developers it wins over, the more support it gets from hardware manufacturers, the faster it develops - the faster it grows. Unix is a superior design from a security and stability point of view, Linux is an open source *nix, there's no reason not to use it and develop it.
Look at the Mozilla Firefox web browser. Firefox is gaining popularity fast - without Television ads, web pop-ups/banners/etc - with basically no advertising except word of mouth. Today it seems that 15%-20%2 of web surfers use Firefox as their primary browser. It used to be that I'd occationally run into a page that didn't display properly in Firefox, but these days it has not been a problem at all. Three or Four years ago, Firefox was nearly unheard of. I think that this same thing will happen with Open Office, the gimp, and many other open source applications. When people start to realize that they're using more open source than proprietary software, maybe they'll realize that this stuff runs just as well if not better in Linux.
Games seem to be a big reason for a lot of people to hang on to Windows. This is starting to change as well. Game developers are starting to include Linux ports/installers (Unreal Tournament 2004). They still don't run quite as well in Linux as in Windows, but this is because of a lack of, or poor support for accelerated graphics drivers in linux. As the developers turn to linux, the performance and compatability will get better.
My advice to hardware developers and 3rd party software developers would be to start supporting linux or get left behind.
Anyhow, This rate of development is fairly rapid. It seems that the capabilities of the GNU/Linux Desktop are advancing much faster than their proprietary counterparts (You know, like the OS that nearly everyone uses). Linux has been usable as a Desktop system for more than a few years now, complete with Internet browsing, word processing, spreadsheeting, desktop publishing, photo editing, etc. And with many options for specific applications in any of these areas. You can even get MS Office (and a lot of other Windows apps) to run in linux with the help of CrossOver Office from Codeweavers. And most of the MS Office open source alternatives, like Open Office, are compatible with MS Office Documents.
I would not be surprised if, eventually, Linux were to become the dominant operating system. Windows would shrivel up and blow away. The bigger Linux gets, the more developers it wins over, the more support it gets from hardware manufacturers, the faster it develops - the faster it grows. Unix is a superior design from a security and stability point of view, Linux is an open source *nix, there's no reason not to use it and develop it.
Look at the Mozilla Firefox web browser. Firefox is gaining popularity fast - without Television ads, web pop-ups/banners/etc - with basically no advertising except word of mouth. Today it seems that 15%-20%2 of web surfers use Firefox as their primary browser. It used to be that I'd occationally run into a page that didn't display properly in Firefox, but these days it has not been a problem at all. Three or Four years ago, Firefox was nearly unheard of. I think that this same thing will happen with Open Office, the gimp, and many other open source applications. When people start to realize that they're using more open source than proprietary software, maybe they'll realize that this stuff runs just as well if not better in Linux.
Games seem to be a big reason for a lot of people to hang on to Windows. This is starting to change as well. Game developers are starting to include Linux ports/installers (Unreal Tournament 2004). They still don't run quite as well in Linux as in Windows, but this is because of a lack of, or poor support for accelerated graphics drivers in linux. As the developers turn to linux, the performance and compatability will get better.
My advice to hardware developers and 3rd party software developers would be to start supporting linux or get left behind.
1. If you take a look at the *nix link on the first word of the post and look at the *nix history diagram, you'll notice that GNU/Linux is the only system that is not derived from an existing Unix codebase - it is written entirely from scratch
2. These statistics are not really reliable, but they are an approximation of what I found out after some quick research. It's really a pretty hard thing to track, web browser usage.
