So whatever happened to Linux?
At tech expo, open source software is hard to find
By John W. Schoen -- MSNBC
NEW YORK, June 26 — Just a few years ago, one of the hottest topics at this annual confluence of PC hardware and software makers was the so-called “open source” alternative to Microsoft’s industry-dominant Windows operating system. Soon, open source proponents argued, PC users would be liberated from the burden of paying for software. The Linux operating system, and other “open source” alternatives written by devoted bands of volunteer programmers, would be available to anyone for the cost of a download. But today, Windows is still running on the vast majority of PCs. So what happened?
LINUX HASN’T gone away. But after attracting widespread attention and generating several moonshot initial public offerings during the tech boom, purveyors of Linux software and support have fallen back to earth — along with their stocks. Earlier this month, Red Hat, which sells about half of all Linux software, reported a loss of $4.3 million on an 8 percent drop in revenues in the latest quarter as corporate customers continued to squeeze every penny of their computer budgets.
Ironically, those tight budgets have helped fuel adoption of Linux by managers of large corporate technology departments. Created by Finnish college student Linus Torvalds, and continually updated and improved by a loose confederation of programmers who aren’t paid for their work, Linux is available without the steep licensing fees that come with commercially produced software. (Companies like Red Hat sell upgraded versions and provide technical support, but don’t charge licensing fees.)
Those continuing upgrades have begun to generate increased interest from cost-conscious technology managers. A recent survey of 800 companies in North America and Western Europe found that some 40 percent said they were either using or testing Linux, according to the research firm IDC. With some 27 percent of the market, Linux is now the second most popular operating system for servers, supplanting the decades-old operating system UNIX; Microsoft holds the top spot. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)
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Numbers like those have caught the attention of computer hardware makers. Last year, as the personal computer slogged through the worst sales crash in its history, Linux server sales jumped by more than 50 percent to $400 million, with IBM leading the pack.
“Linux used to be just a bunch of geeks trying to change the industry,” said Elizabeth Phillips, a Hewlett-Packard spokesperson. “Now Linux is becoming more mainstream every day.”
Linux is also shining brightly on the radar screens of software makers like Oracle, which is heavily marketing the latest version of its high-end corporate enterprise software which generates mainframe-like horsepower using “clusters” of relatively cheap servers running Linux.
LINUX BOOT CAMP
But Linux has hardly made a dent in the desktop and home user markets. At PC conventions like this one, Microsoft’s Windows operating system still rules — with some 94 percent of the operating system market for desktops and laptop PCs, according to IDC. Despite its growing popularity among computer professionals, it’s still not completely “user friendly.”
“It’s for geeks,” said Faber Fedor, a New Jersey-based consultant who helps small businesses upgrade to Linux.
Near the end of a long hallway in the basement of the Jacob Javits Center, at a well-attended conference called Linux Boot Camp, Fedor walked a roomful of developers and IT managers through the basics — and not so basics — of converting to the Linux world. Until recently, interacting with Linux was almost entirely text-driven — much like Windows’ precursor, DOS. So converting meant learning an arcane vocabulary of computerese to give the PC even the simplest commands.
But Linux software is getting better — and now more closely mimics the Windows world that the vast majority of PC users are accustomed to. A Linux-based open-source e-mail program called Evolution looks pretty much like a standard Windows desktop. OpenOffices provide most key features offered by Microsoft Office, including a word processor, spreadsheet, and mail program. Fedor says these alternatives offer more than a familiar look and feel.
“We don’t get viruses,” he said. “Last year, viruses cost the business world billions, but every one of those was on Windows.”
WOOING THE HOME USER
But adopters of Linux still face hurdles living in a Microsoft world. High on the list of headaches is incompatibilities with files created with Microsoft products like Word. Small software makers like Lindows are trying to help desktop users bridge that divide.
Still, Linux evangelists like Fedor say that, as long as new PCs come pre-loaded with Windows, the open source community faces an uphill battle spreading Linux beyond corporate IT departments into the home. Linux partisans point to some small victories: WalMart recently began selling a house brand PC at rock bottom prices — available with Linux for the thriftiest PC buyers.
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That thrift among home PC buyers, though, has further hampered the spread of Linux to home desktops. It’s another reason software developers like Dave Potter, of Fountainville, Pa., prefer writing programs for corporate users. He says he doesn’t see much point writing Linux applications for individual PC buyers.
“Home users are cheap,” he said. “At $49.95, you’re going to have to sell a whole lot of (copies) to make it in the market.”
And as Linux proponents continue to try to enlist desktop PC users, Microsoft is busy reinventing that desktop. With sales of new PCs in their worst slump in decades, Microsoft is hoping to reboot Windows sales by leading the charge toward the Tablet PC — a sort of PDA on steroids. With new technology to recognize and manipulate handwriting and speech, Microsoft and its hardware and software partners are hoping to usher in a whole new platform by giving users “all the capabilities of ink,” according to Microsoft Group Vice President Jeff Raikes.
Microsoft and the rest of the PC industry are hedging their bets by designing several variations of the device — from a standalone tablet about the size of a standard piece of paper, to a laptop with a display that flips around and folds flat with the screen facing outward. The goal is to replace — rather than augment — existing PCs, according to Leland Rockoff, a director of Microsoft’s table PC project.
“We see this as a primary PC,” he said. “They’re not appliances, they’re not companions, they’re not secondary.”
But Rockoff says the company’s strategy with regard to open source software “will be the same as it is with Windows XP.”
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