| Linux on the desktop: An Asian surprise? [NewsForge] |
May 01, 2002
In this article at NewsForge.com, Jack Bryar examines the trend of Asian Linux distributions and the implications for the desktop market in general. Bryar writes . . .
"As commercial Linux vendors in the United States and Europe refocus their businesses on enterprise software and back-end systems, they are ignoring a potentially huge desktop marketplace starting to gather serious momentum in much of Asia and the Third World. Are these companies making a fundamental error? If so, Asian software developers may be poised to take a run at the desktop applications market in a few years . . ."
" . . . While all this activity generates a revenue stream for companies that badly need it, it may be a strategic mistake in the long term. This is because outside of Europe and North America, Linux is beginning to emerge as a serious desktop alternative. As I've noted in a number of previous columns, countries in Africa and Asia are adopting Open Source with a speed that could eventually have important consequences for domestic software and systems vendors . . ."
" . . . And, if it succeeds in Asia, both Linux-on-the-desktop, and the companies that have developed it, could show up in the West in a few years. Will European and American Linux vendors be ready to compete for the desktop? Or will they continue to be focused elsewhere?"
Related Stories:
(Click here for further information)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
