Desktop Linux's best day ever

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Apr. 05, 2006

Opinion: It's sad but true that until recently some of the Linux's desktop's best supporters were also its worst enemies. By constantly flaming each other and refusing to work together, the GNOME and KDE desktop developers were ensuring that no Linux desktop would ever get enough customer marketshare or ISV (independent software vendor) mind-share to become a major desktop player.

That's now old news.

On April 4th, the Portland Project, a working group of all the major Linux desktop players, announced the first set of common interfaces for the GNOME and KDE Linux desktops. For the first time, there's real, albeit alpha, code that will enable developers to write an application once for both of these extremely popular Linux desktop interfaces.

This really is a giant step forward for desktop Linux.

I remember all too well how the Unix companies tore each other into bits by refusing to co-operate with each other. And, while SCO, Interactive Systems, Consensys, and Univel were busy mauling each other, Microsoft was cheerfully picking up their business.

What's that you say? Except for SCO, you've never heard of these Unix companies? That's right, unless you're an old fogie like me, you've never heard of them because they're dead as doornails.

What killed them wasn't Microsoft, it was their refusal to see that if they didn't stick together, all of them would fail. Microsoft was the only winner.

The Linux developers, thank God and the OSDL (Open Source Development Labs), which brought them together, have realized that by working together on their common problems, they will all be better off. Perhaps it shouldn't be too surprising that this was the case. After all, open-source is all about everyone working together for a common good.

This is far from the end of the story. At a LinuxWorld panel about the Portland Project, which I had the pleasure of chairing, John Cherry, OSDL's Desktop Linux initiative manager, mentioned that special interest groups will soon be meeting to deal with issues of desktop graphics, device drivers, printers, and installing software. Each group of hardware vendors and software developers have the same goal: make it work.

I am really pleased about these developments. It's exactly this kind of attitude that will make it possible for Linux desktop users to install both the operating system and applications on any PC, as easily as Windows users do today.

In turn, all the Linux desktops -- KDE and GNOME; Red Hat, Ubuntu, SUSE,... -- will gain far more users.

Instead of fighting over who's getting the biggest piece of pie, the Linux desktop developers are now working on baking a bigger pie for everyone. On behalf of Linux desktop users everywhere, I thank you.

-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

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Use of this site is governed by our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Except where otherwise specified, the contents of this site are copyright © 1999-2009 Ziff Davis Enterprise Holdings Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ziff Davis Enterprise is prohibited. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.