Really enjoy the friendship on this thread..keep up the good work,people.....remember that Linux is here to stay........
Linux, Linux Everywhere
Is it really the year for Unix? Oh, we've waited so
long to say it.
by Rebecca Sykes, IDG News Service, Boston Bureau
November 18, 1999, 5:56 p.m. PT
LAS VEGAS--This is surely the year of Linux, judging
by Fall Comdex '99. The open-source operating system
is all over the show this week, including at a keynote
address, that great litmus test of buzz. Linux creator
Linus Torvalds spoke to a packed ballroom Monday,
and the head of application-maker Corel Corp., among
others, declared that Linux's time is now.
"DOS had 10 years, Windows has had the last 10
years and now it's time for Linux," said Michael
Cowpland, president and chief executive officer of
Corel.
Linux is an open OS that has made inroads in the
server market, but has lagged on the desktop. The
knock against Linux has long been that it is too difficult
to work with and that there are no applications for it.
"At this point, the perception is that Linux is viable
(only) for servers," said Dan Kusnetzky, a program
director at International Data Corp., a research firm in
Framingham, Massachusetts.
But at Comdex this week, announcements and
demonstrations from the show floor might change that
perception.
Toolmaker Inprise Corp. said it will ship JBuilder for
Linux, a Java development tool, in the first quarter of
next year, and Linux versions of Inprise's Delphi and
CBuilder will be available in mid-2000, according to
Michael Swindell, senior product manager for Linux
tools at Inprise. Linux company Red Hat Inc. this week
announced its purchase of another Linux company,
Cygnus Solutions, for $674 million, which Red Hat
officials said makes the company the biggest Linux
services company in the world.
On the software side, Corel Corp. is demonstrating six
applications for Linux at its booth here this week,
including WordPerfect 8, QuattroPro, Paradox, and
Presentations.
"Today, Linux is as easy to use as Windows," Corel's
Cowpland said.
The arrival of desktop applications is key to computer
systems administrator Paul Stoecker's interest in Corel
Linux. Stoecker works for Panasonic Technologies Inc.
and supports highly technical users as well as others
who simply need a word processor and spreadsheet.
"We have a lot of normal business users, in addition to
researchers," Stoecker said. Stoecker's users are
running Solaris, Windows NT, and Windows, but the
arrival of the Corel Linux OS and related applications
may change that equation, he said.
Many users echoed Stoecker's comments, including
Sam McCall, statewide technical support manager at
Pacific Bell in Pasadena, California. "I've got split
workgroups," McCall said. McCall's business users
work on desktops running Windows NT, Windows '98,
and Windows '95, and his technical users have Linux.
If Linux is increasingly seen as becoming easier to use
and the number of Linux apps increase, the operating
system could make real inroads into the corporate
market. The growth opportunity for Linux is quite
significant, according to IDC. The Linux operating
environment, both client and server, is expected to
achieve a 25-percent compound annual growth rate
through 2003, according to Kusnetzky. That will
include, on the server side, Linux's securing the
number-two spot, behind NT but ahead of NetWare and
Unix, Kusnetzky said.
Another potential accelerant of Linux's success, though
hard to measure, is user glee in the open-source,
"for-the-people" aspect of Linux. Many attendees
expressed delight that Linux has evolved to the point
where it can be positioned against Microsoft.
"It's great because [it offers] more than one choice,"
said Paul Nankivell, a software engineer in Simi Valley,
California. "Windows is like a Ford Edsel [and] it's not
the only car on the road anymore."
lwn.net
My Linux plays=RHAT,RSAS,COBT,AETH. |
