| How Apple and Microsoft are advancing desktop Linux |
Jun. 23, 2006
Opinion -- Normally, we expect new Linux desktop users to come from the ranks of disgruntled Windows users. After all, they're the ones who have to deal with high-prices and endless security problems. Now, it seems that some Mac gurus are also making the switch to Linux.
Why? The answer appears in Daniel Drew Turner's eWEEK story, "Tech Gurus Say They'll Switch from Mac." It's all about openness.
Some Mac users want more openness in their operating system, their document formats, and, for that matter, in how the Mac's parent company, Apple, approaches users.
While some of Mac OS Xis open-source -- its Darwin core and QuickTime Streaming Server, for instance -- much of it isn't. In addition, Apple has been closing more of its operating system as time has gone on. In May, Apple closed off the source code you'd need to build your own OS X kernel on the x86 architecture.
Clearly, if you want an open system, Apple can no longer be on your short-list of acceptable solutions.
Interestingly enough, just as some Mac users are starting to come over to Linux, Bill Hilf, general manager of competitive strategy at Microsoft, told Paula Rooney of CRN, that "The loosely coupled model of development prevents Linux from being successful on the desktop."
It does? Gosh, don't tell Linspire, Xandros, Novell/SUSE, Ubuntu, etc., etc. Or, for that matter, the good developers of the Portland Project, who are standardizing the Linux desktop.
Excuse me if I smile. For years, Microsoft ignored Linux. Then, it demonized it. And then, it started its marketing campaign of lies: Get the Facts. Throughout all this, the focus was on the Linux server.
Somehow, though, despite all Microsoft's FUD throwing, Linux on the server continued to grow. I think that by forcing people to think about Linux, Microsoft has actually helped it.
People who might never look at a Linux Watch, or go to a LinuxWorld, were being told by Microsoft day in and day out that Windows was better than Linux. So, some of them decided to look at Linux to see what the fuss was about.
Many of them found, of course, that Linux was cheaper, faster, and a lot more secure than Microsoft's server offerings.
Now, with Microsoft's Get the Facts point man, Martin Taylor, fired, Microsoft seems to be targeting the Linux desktop.
Let me just say in advance: thanks!
Now, people who think Linspire is an obscure mountain in the Alps and Xandros is a branch of Xerox will start looking at the Linux desktop.
In fact, we owe a debt to both of the big desktop operating system companies. If Apple hadn't started closing its desktop to developers and Microsoft hadn't started hammering on the Linux desktop, we'd have had to work a lot harder to get people to notice that Linux desktops are getting a lot better in the last few months.
So, thanks again, Apple and Microsoft. If the Linux desktop does take off, we know we couldn't have done it without you.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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